To the Honorable the Continental Congress
The Memorial of Benjamin Eyre of the Northern Liberties of the City of Philadelphia Shipwright

humbly sheweth

That in the month of May 1776 your Memorialist being called forth by General Washington & General Mifflin to go to New York and build Row Gallies he immediately quitted his own profitable Business at home and sat out for New York where he built & finished three Row Gallies and Moulded & timbered the fourth and did other Services for the Quarter Master General, For all which in the fall of last year he presented his Accot amounting to £436.10. ー to Congress who referred it to the Treasury Board where it was reduced into another Accot to the Sum of £160 . . 8. 11 as your Honors will be pleased to see by a State of both the Accots hereto subjoined ー That on or about the 18th of November last Your Memorialist by way of a humble remonstrance presented to Congress appealed from the Settlement or Reduction of his Accot made by the Treasury Board Which remonstrance or appeal has not hitherto been determined upon ー Your Memorialist humbly begs leave to recapitulate the Arguments in support of his Appeal, to wit ー

That Your Memorialist was engaged by the said Generals to serve the Public as a Master Ship builder upon the common Terms that is to say, to be paid for his work ー That these common and usual Terms of Contracts between Employers & Master Builders have hitherto been in Europe & America made by Measuration of the Work and not by counting the time or days which they have been at Work ー That a resolve made by the Honorable the Congress to fix the pay of Master Shipbuilders & Journeymen & their Rations is posterior to Your Memorialists Engagement upon the old & common Terms, and therefore could have no Retrospect or Efficacy to and upon the same ー That the price of 25 /. p Ton for the finished and 15 /. for the unfinished Boats is a reasonable & moderate Price which at that Time no Employer would have scrupled to allow to a Master Builder ー And that Your Memorialist fully confiding he would be paid at the usual Rate per Ton has lived in New York at a higher rate than Men who receive Wages and Rations could afford to live ー He has kept house with his Family there like he did at home ー so that the Allowance made him by the Board of Treasury would be hardly sufficient to pay for the Expences he actually had at New York —

And Your Memorialist humbly prayeth That Your Honorable House will be pleased to take the State of the said Accots in Your Consideration and thereupon to determine as to you in Your Wisdom & Justice shall seem meet —

And he as in duty bound &c

Philad May 21st 1777.

[Endorsed] May 22. 1777. No. 19/ Memorial Benjamin Eyre, Shipbuilder read 26 May 1777 on a motion made that a farther allowance be made carried in the negative 7 agst 2.

[Enclosure]

[Philadelphia, May 21, 1777]