[The following is a excerpted transcript of the minutes of the North Carolina General Assembly, as found in the first series of the Colonial Records of North Carolina, Vol. 12, page 269-270. The original of this document has not been located.]

Monday, 17th November, 1777.

The House met according to adjournment.

On motion, resolved that the House will, tomorrow, resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole to take into consideration the propriety of opening a Land Office in this State.

The House, according to order, proceeded to take into consideration the proceedings of the Council of State when they came to the following resolutions on the reprieve granted by His Excellency the Governor to a certain John Lewelling who was convicted of high treason and sentenced to die for the same, ordered:

That the following Message be sent the Senate, to-wit:

"Mr. Speaker & Gentlemen of the Senate:

His excellency the Governor has sent for the consideration of this House several petitions praying that mercy be extended to John Lewelling, now under sentence of death in the gaol of Edenton for the crime of high treason, and having fully considered the same we now send all the papers we are possessed of relative to the subject for the examination of the Senate, and suggest to them that it will be necessary to obtain the sense of the House of Commons and Senate by a joint ballot of both Houses, lest by any possibility the two Houses should divide in sentiment upon the subject, which would produce a manifest inconvenience that is not provided for in the Constitution or any act of Assembly; and the House of Commons propose, if the Senate approve this mode, that the balloting shall begin at 2 o'clock this afternoon, and that every Member who is of opinion that the sentence should be carried into execution should; in his ballot, signify the same, as well as the day on which it should be had. This House beg leave to hint that, in case it should be the opinion of the majority of both Houses that Lewelling should suffer, that the state of Edenton gaol renders it necessary that it should be done without delay; and that Monday the 24th of this month; between the hours of ten and two o'clock, should be assigned for the execution.

A. Nash, S. C."