Undated
Petiton against bill by Messuage owners.
To the Honorable the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament assembled
The Humble Petition of several Persons whose Names are hereunto subscribed being Owners and Occupiers of Messuages Lands Tenements and Hereditaments near or adjoining to the River Stroud water between Framiland and Wllbridge in teh County of Gloucester.
Sheweth
That a Bill is depending in this Honorable House to amend an Act passed in the third Year of his late Majesty's Reign intitled "An Act for making navigable the River Stroud water in the County of Gloucester from the River Severn at or near Framiload to Wallbridge near the Town of Stroug in the same County and for giving other Powers for the purpose or making a Navigation from Framiload to Wallbridge aforesaid".
That your Petitioners beg Leave to represent to this Honorable House that the Object of the said Act and of the present Bill are totally different the former being to make the said River navigable and the latter to make a Navigation by Collateral Cuts or Canals to be supplied with Water from the said River but to communicated with the same in only three places and that but for a very short space by the making of which Cuts near One Hundred and Twenty Acres of very valuable Land will be destroyed a great part of which is worth from thirty Shillings to three Pounds per Acre by the Year.
That the Soie of the best of the above mentioned Lands after the first bed of Earth is cut through being a strong Gravel great quantities of other Lands adjacent to the said Navigation will be materially injured by a constant Leakage from the said Canal where the same is carried above the Level of such Lands.
{This Mr Yeoman can fully ?}
That there is a great Reason to believe that the Money to arise from the Carriage of Goods upon the said Navigation will be insufficient to answer the Expences of making and maintaining the same and therefore your Petitioners are apprehensive that the undertaking may probably be abandoned after a great Damage done to the Lands through which the said Navigation is intended to be carried and the proprietors of such Lands left without Remedy for recovering Satisfaction for such damage.
{Mr Yeoman can clear up this}
That supposing the said Navigation should ever be completed your Petitioners apprehend that the price of Carriage would be very little reduced thereby and that the damage done to the public and to private property by making the same will be greater than any advantage that can be reasonably expected to arise from such undertaking.
Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray this Honorable House that they may be heard by their Counsel against the said Bill and that the same may not pass into a Law.
Owners: Nat Stephend, Robt Stephens, Ellis James, Halliday Phillipps, Richd Martin, Geo Harris, M Ball, Merty Stephens, Saml Chance, Richd Stephens, John Andrews, John James, John Ford, Saml Beard, Revd John Pettat, Jno Purnell. Jno Hugh Smythe, Ambrose Reddall, Ingram Ball, Geo: Aug: Selwyn.
Occupiers: Saml Apperly, Ben Harris, John Carefield, Thos Evans, Thos Ridge, Hannah White, John Ford, Saml Board, Thos Hitch, Jno Purnell, Joseph Faithorne. Wm Purnell, Nathl Davis, The Mark of Wm Coly, Revd Wm Davies, Thos Turner, Thos Chambers, John Arkell Junr, John Arkell for his Father.
