[Williamsburg] Tuesday May 19th 1778.
The Governor having informed the Board that Mr John King was not willing that his Vessel1 should wait any longer for the Despatches which are expected from Congress to go by her to France;2 but was very desirous that she should make use of the present opportunity of getting out of the Bay the Enemy’s Ships being all gone— the Board do advise his Excellency to write by her to William Lee Esquire our Agent, to procure the proper Cannon, Mortars, Howitzers with all the Implements and Apparatus necessary for the fortifying of York Town for the protection of the Ships of War & Merchantmen belonging to our Allies that may have occasion to come to this State3 And his Excellency having prepared a Letter accordingly the same was read approved of & ordered to be recorded.4
H.R. McIlwaine, ed., Journals of the Council of the State of Virginia (Richmond: The Virginia State Library, 1932), 2: 135.
1. Possibly, schooner Fly.
2. On 27 June, President of the Continental Congress Henry Laurens sent Gov. Patrick Henry “several packets for the Ambassadors of the united States at Paris.” Henry acknowledged receipt of the packets, adding: “Altho’ I have not any particular Conveyance in view at present, I make no Doubt, but in the course of a Week I may find some Vessell going to France; and they shall go by the first opportunity that appears a good one.” Patrick Henry to Henry Laurens, 4 July 1778, Official Letters of the Governors of the State of Virginia, vol. 1, Letters of Patrick Henry, July 1, 1776—June 1, 1779, edited by H.R. McIlwaine (Rich- mond: Virginia State Library, 1926), p. 294.
3. For more on the proposed fortifications at Yorktown and Gloucester, see Journal of the Council of State of Virginia, 25 May, below.
4. The letter to Lee sent via King has not been found, however, Lee had already been sent orders to procure arms and ammunition via Capt. Jacques Le Maire de Gimel, who had sailed for France from Virginia in March, 1778. On Le Maire’s mission, see Benjamin Franklin Papers, 27: 361–63n. Upon receipt of these orders, both Le Maire and Lee had begun working independently on obtaining armaments and ammunition for Virginia, including, in Lee’s case, an unsuccessful request for the loan of artillery from France. In a letter to Benjamin Franklin of 27 June 1779, Lee wrote: “The most important part of the supplies that the French ministry are requested to furnish for the State of Virginia are the cannon, howitzers, mortars, ball and shells, none of which have ever been contracted for with any one, and if they should be sent to Boston or Charlestown for Congress, they cannot be of any more use to Virginia while the War continues and the enemy have the superiority in the American seas, than if they were in France.” Lee decided to instead focus his efforts on forwarding a supply of “good fusils,” which were light flintlock muskets. Letters of William Lee . . . 1766-1783, collected and edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford, 3 vols. (Brooklyn, N.Y.: Historical Printing Club, 1891), 3: 696.
