That the County of Tyrrell aforesaid from the line which divides the same from Martin County to Stumpy Point is at least one hundred & twenty miles in length & intersected by several large Rivers Creeks & Deep Swamps which renders the attendance of your petitioners on Jurys & at General Musters & Elections intolerably burthensome & expensive as well as extreemly precarious from the uncertainty of being able to pass the above mentioned Rivers & Creeks by which your Petitioners are not only greatly oppressed & injured but the Business & publick Affairs of the County frequently impeded & delayed to the manifest prejudice of the State in General ------

Your Petitioners further shew that the Court House of the said County is situate about Seventy miles or more from the Eastern extremety of the said County & at least forty miles from the Western Boundary ------

Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that in consideration of the premises you will be pleased by Act of the General Assembly to cause the said County of Tyrrell to be divided into two distinct & separate Countys by a line run across the said County at Cypress Swamp about five miles above the present Courthouse of the said County, or as such other Manner as you in your wisdom shall think neet & convenient -----

Your Petitioners further pray that in case the said County be divided that you will be graciously pleased to order the Court House & Publick Buildings to be erected on the Eastern Part, that is to say that part of the County from Cypress Swamp to Stumpy Point, at the place call^d & known by the name of the Fort Landing & that the Commissioners for the same may be John William Liverman, Mathew Driver Greeves, Joseph Pledger & Thomas Hopkins ------

And that the Western Part of said County so divided beginning at Cypress Swamp & extending to the Western Boundary be called & known by the name of Buncombe County & your Petitioners as in Duty bound will pray

[endorsement]

Petition Tyrrell County

Oct 1779

[The following names appear on this petition. The original five signature pages were divided into three columns per page. The transcriber began transcribing each signature page at the top left and worked down the column, then started at the top of the middle column, and finally moved to the top of the right column. The process was repeated for each page. In this sense the transcriber hoped to keep groups of people together on the transcribed document. The transcribed document is a single column. This was the only way to allow the entered names to be sorted and thus arranged alphabetically for ease of use. Some areas of the signature pages were very faint resulting in "estimated" transcriptions. Those names are denoted by a (?) next to the entry. The second table is an alphabetical listing of the petitioner's names.]