It having been judged expedient that Mr John McKinley a Rebel Prisoner now at Wilmington, should be removed from thence to one of His Majestys Ships for the more certain Security of his Person; You are there fore hereby required and directed to receive him onboard the Ship you Command; where he is to be accomodated with an Officers birth, allowed the liberty of being upon deck (at proper times) during the day time, under the Charge of a Centinel; and in all respects treated with Civility: but is to be strictly forbid and prevented from having any intercourse with any Person from the Shore except in the presence of an Officer, and kept as much as possible from Conversing with the Ships Company.2
Given onboard the Roebuck off of Wilmington 20th Septemr 1777 — A.S. Hamond
1. Hamond Papers, Orders issued, 1776-1777, UVL.
2. John McKinley, President of the Delaware Assembly, was captured at Wilmington after the Battle of the Brandywine. He was transferred from the Solebay to Philadelphia and then to New York before being paroled. Ryden, ed., Letters To and From Caesar Rodney, 282n.
