Teresa, I assume that you are talking about public petitions to the legislature, governor or king. Sometimes the body of the petition will tell you, e.g., it may something like we, the taxpayers or freeholders. I haven't read anything about petitions at the time you mention. However, they is some information on the practices at a later time in VA. I have seen contradictory statements on the age question. One source said that anyone could sign a petition to the VA legislature. The Library of Congress site said only those over 21. However, it is clear that minors did sign the the Baptist petitions (such as The Ten-thousand Name Petition) in the 1780s. This is documented by an Episcopalian's complaint that the Baptists were letting "infants" (i.e., minors) sign their petitions. I interpreted that to mean that it was not the previous custom, but that it was allowed. It cannot assume that the signatures on public petitions are actually those of the persons named. Anyone could sign a petition for another if he received permission. However, the public petitions were generally statements of opinion on public matters. There were often opposing petitions. If someone included minors, it might discredit the petition in the eyes of the recipients. Since the recipients were the ones who made the laws, I assume they could accept or reject any petition they wanted to, depending on the political circumstances. The petitions were somewhat equivalent to polls today. Legislation might be put off to test public opinion with them.