Folios 492-494. Letter to Samuel Franklin of Temple, London, from George Sheppard,...

Folios 492-494. Letter to Samuel Franklin of Temple, London, from George Sheppard, Samuel Norman and Samuel Sheppard of Taunton [Somerset], fearful of riots in the town, asking Franklin to apply to Government for 2 or 3 companies of soldiers to ensure the safety of property there, and casting doubt on the plausibility of the enclosed handbill. Enclosed is a note of 11 June from Matthew Lewis of the War Office stating that Lord Amherst [commander-in-chief] had promised to attend to the request. Also enclosed is a printed handbill dated 8 May stating the resolution of a meeting of wool-combers at Bradninch [Devon] on 24 April that, as the invention of wool-combing machines would reduce 70,000 combers throughout the kingdom to poverty, the gentlemen and landholders on whom they would become a burden should be asked to support a petition to Parliament for abolishing such machinery. [Folio 495 not used.]