Document: Petition of Peter Taelman for a writ of appeal from a judgment of the court of Flushing, in favor of William Pidgeon

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My humble petition to the honorable lord general Petrus Stuyvesant and to the highly esteemed lords councilors of New Netherland.

Your humble petitioner requests an appeal in a suit between him and William Pidgion, in which I find myself injured. I owe him one thousand pounds of tobacco, and he owes me eight hundred and twenty-seven pounds of tobacco. My petition to the council here was that the same might be deducted from my debt, but they refused to consent thereto, condemning me to pay, and giving him a delay until another court session.[1] Therefore your humble petitioner requests that it be considered by your honors, because they intend to take away my tobacco and afterward pay me in livestock; and my condition of payment is in tobacco as is his. Commending the matter to the discretion of their honors, I remain your lords humble servant. Done at Flissingen, 9 January 1656 in New Netherland.