Chaillot 8 Janr. 1778
Thomas Morris esqr.—Nantes Sir,
I had ye. pleasure of writing to you the 4th. Instant by Mr. Stevenson1 a countryman of yours & a Gentleman that I trust you will find very deserving of yr. civilities & who I think you may safely trust any letters to, as he carries several dispatches to Congress wch. he is to deliver himself & consequently will go in Capt. Nicholson.2 I understand yt. Capts. Thompson & Hyndman refused to let you have any thing to do with the prizes they brot. into L'Orient—that they have accounted, or say they will account, with the Gentlemen at Passi for the Congress share of the prizes, & yt. to ym. only have they applied & been directed Since they came to L'Orient. Judge yn. what must be my Surprize to have ye. other day presented for payment bills to ye. amt. of near Seventy thousand Livres drawn by these capts., on you & me. I saw these capts. twice while they were up here, but they never communicated to me one Syllable of their affairs & I only know fm. Common report that they are in the Continental Service. There is something very odd in this transaction & I cd. wish you wd. find out by whose orders they drew so largely on us at ye. moment they were about to sail. As you are much in the way & will frequently have opportunities of recommending consignments fm. ys. country to yr. Brothers house in America, you will excuse me for hinting that I shd. think you ought not to neglect any opportunity of that Sort. I hear yt. Mr. Deane's Brother, Mr. Simeon Deane is just sent out to America to settle a House in Virginia, as Messrs. Simeon Deane & Co. and yt. he is promised most of the Consignments from ys. Country and Holland. Who compose ys. Comy. you know as well as I do, for I have not heard that. Mr. Williams will not I suppose hesitate to tell you who Signed the letter to him, directing him to undertake the sale of prizes made by Continental armed vessels, this letter I have repeatedly endeavor'd to get recalled, & was solemnly promised it shd. be done, but I am informed it never.3
LB, ViHi, William Lee Folders, Letter Book (August 1777-June 1778), 158-59.
1. William Stevenson was a merchant in Maryland before the mid-1760s, when he moved to Bristol, England. In early January 1778 the American Commissioners decided to send duplicate official dispatches to Congress by his hands but then decided to send them by William Carmichael instead. Stevenson ended up carrying only private letters. Benjamin Franklin Papers 25: 406-7.
2. Continental Navy frigate Deane.
3. For Morris's and Williams's accommodation of the question of authority over Continental prizes, see Jonathan Williams, Jr., to the American Commissioners in France, 6 Dec. 1777, NDAR 10: 1072. For the background of the dispute, see Benjamin Franklin Papers 24: lii-liii, 245-47, 248-49, 263-64, 305-7, 313, 328-29, 451-53; 25: 337-38.
