To the Right Worshipfull his Majesty's Justices of the
Peace for the County of Middlesex in their General
Quarter Sessions of the Peace for the said County Assembled.

The Petition and Appeal of
Humphry Maurice< no role > Esqr . of the Parish of
Chiswick in the said County of Middlesex

Sheweth

That about ten Years ago, your Petitioner purchased
a Freehold Messuage or Tenement called Grove House, in the
said Parish of Chiswick , together with about Eighty Acres of Land
thereunto belonging, and a small Messuage or Dwelling house
thereunto also belonging of the yearly Value of about Forty pounds.

That the said small Messuage or Dwelling house, and
the Stables and Out buildings belonging to the Premises, so
purchased by your Petitioner being in a very Ruinous State and
Condition your Petitioner caused the same to be pulled down
and rebuilt the Stables and Out Offices upon the old Foundations,
but did not rebuild the said small House, nor any other Buildings
on the Scite thereof.

That the Mode of rating the Inhabitants of
Chiswick for the Relief of the Poor is at two Thirds of the
yearly Value.

That at the time your Petitioner purchased the two Houses
and other Premises, and for many Years before, they had always
been rated at Three hundred pounds a Year, but in the Year
1778, (your Petitioner having then pulled down and removed
the small House) his Rate was reduced to £266 a Year on
account of the Diminution of the yearly Value and so continued
to Michaelmas 1782, and (your Petitioner being than Abroad)
his Rate was then raised to £466 a Year, which his Servant
paid in his Masters Absence for the Year ending at Michaelmas
1783, the Officers threatning to Distrain for the same, no Appeal