To the Right Honourable The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain.

The Representation of His Majesty's Justices
of the Peace for the county of Middlesex in
their General Session Assembled at Hicks Hall
on Thursday the 8th. of Septr. 1768.

Sheweth.

That in or about the beginning of the month of February
last, certain disputes having arisen between the Coalheavers and
employed in the unloading of coals in the river Thames , and their

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masters, on account of wages, the said coalheavers, upon the
refusal of the masters to comply with their demands, as being in
the opinion of the masters, exorbitant and what the trade would not
bear, unanimously determined to desist from their labour; whereby a
total Stop was put to the business of unloading coals in the port of
london .

That in order to compel the masters of ships & others their

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Employers to comply with their demands, the said coalheavers to the
number of eight hundred & upwards, chiefly irishmen, did on or about
the 20th day of the same February, assemble in a riotous & tumultuous
manner at Wapping, Shadwell & other places in the county of middx ,
and commit divers outrages on the persons & dwellings of many of the
inhabitants then & there resident.

That the said rioters continued such their unlawful assemblies &

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outrages for several Weeks, thereby spreading terror & consternation
through the whole eastern quarter of the said county: And on or about
the 20th. day of April last invested the house of one Green situate in
or near Wapping, with intent, as they the said rioters declared, to murder him.