Middlesex

At a Special Sessions held at the public Office in Ditchfield Street in the
Parish of St. Anns within the Liberty of Westminster in the said County of Middlesex
in the Hundred of Ossulston in the said County the Twenty Second day of December 1774
By John Barnfather< no role > and John Cox< no role > Esquires two of the Justices of Sovereign Lord the now
King Assigned to keep the peace in the said County and also to hear and determine dinner's
Felonies Trespasses and other misdimeanour committed in the same County.

Whereas by an Act of parliament passed in the thirteenth Year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the third King of
Great Britain, France and Ireland Etc. intitled an Act to explain amend and reduce into one Act of Parliament the Statutes
now in being for the amendment and preservation of the public Highways within that part of Great Britain called England and
for other purposes" It is enacted, That no Waggon having the Sole or Bottom of the Fellies of the Wheels of the breadth of nine
"Inches shall go or be drawn with more than eight horses; and that no cart, having the Sole or Bottom of the Fellies of the Wheels
"thereof of the breadth of nine Inches, shall go or be drawn with more than five Horses; and that no Waggon having the Sole
"or bottom of the Fellies, of the Wheels of the breadth of six Inches and rolling on each side a surface of nine Inches shall go or be
"drawn with more than Seen horses; and that no such Waggon, rolling a Surface of six Inches only, shall go or be drawn
"with more than six horses; and that no Cart having the Sole or Bottom of the Fellies of the Wheels of the breadth of six Inches
"shall go or be drawn with more than four Horses, and that no Waggon having the Sole or Bottom of the Fellies of the Wheels
"of less breadth than six Inches, shall go or be drawn with more than five Horses; and that no Cart having the Sole or Bottom
"of the Fellies of the Wheels of less Breadth than six Inches shall go or be drawn with more than three Horses upon such Highways
"under the pains penalties and forfeitures herein after mentioned" And whereas power is by the said Act of parliament given
to the Justices of the peace at their respective General Quarter Sessions of the peace holden in the Week after Michaelmas to
License in such Manner and for such time as they shall think fit an increase of the number of Horses to be drawn in carriages
up any Keep hill or on any Road not being Turnpike within their respective Jurisdictions over and above the number therein
before Limited if upon enquiry into the State and condition of such Roads they shall find any additional number of Horses
necessary and whereas by the said Act of parliament it is enacted that it shall and may be lawful for any two or more Justices
"of the peace within their respective Limits, and they are hereby impowered from time to time whenever they shall Judge
"proper, to hold any Special Sessions besides that which is herein before directed for executing the purposes of this Act" Now
it appearing to us upon the Testimony of two credible Witnesses on Oath and other evidence by us received that there are
several Wharfs in the Liberty of the Dutchy of Lancaster in the County aforesaid; that Great Quantities of Coals Corn
and other Articlas of Commerce are landed on the said Wharfs and drawn and driven thence to all parts of the County
in various kinds of Carriages with different Sorts of Wheels that from the situation of these Wharfs every carriage [..]
obliged to pass along or Cross some part of the publick Highway called the Strand in the County aforesaid; not being,
Turnpike that the access to the Strand is up very Sleep and narrow lanes; and that the Hill is so exceeding Sharp that
even a Chaldron of Coals cannot be drawn up to the Strand with any degree of convenience or safety without five or six
able Horses and further that unless an increase of Horses be allowed to the number prescribed by the act of Parliament
in drawing loaded carriages up the said Hills from the said Wharfs manifest prejudice must ensue to the owners and
holders of these Wharfs as well as to the public.