Captain Tobias Lear's Account for Superintending Construction of Continental Navy Ship Hampshire, May 23, 1778

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[Portsmouth, N.H., May 23, 1778]¹

The HAMPSHIRE, renamed The RANGER.²

Cor’ll John Langdon,³

				DR.
1777
Jan'y 11	To cash paid the Carpenters for work when building the continental ship Hampshire, James Roch Esq.⁴ Comdr. bldg. at Corr'll Langdon's Island	63	3	3
March 14	To Cash paid Do. . . . .	307	6	3
April 12	To Cash paid do. . . . .	288	14	11
" "	To Cash pd Sundry men when work'g on the Raleigh⁵ when she hall'd on shore . . . .	1	12	3
May 9-10	To Cash paid the Carpenters and caulkers . . . .	266	15	9
" 10	To my supertend'g the ship Hampshire from Dec. 23, 1776⁶ to May 10, 1777, 114 days, 8s. p day . . . .	45	4	0
" "	To 19 weeks Board @ 14s, . . . .	13	6	0
	To Cash pd Sundry Carpenters for Sunday night Board while in Town @ 12d p Sunday . . . .	8	2	0
		954	4	5
1778
May 23	To Cash to Ballance this Acc't . . . .	9	17	7
		964	2	0
Contra,			CR.
Jan'y 11	By Cash to pay the Carpenters when Building the Continental Ship Hampshire. James Roch, Comdr. at Cor'll Langdon's Island⁷ . . . .	40	2	0
" 13	By Cash for Do. . . . .	24	0	0
March 12	By Cash for Do., . . . .	300	0	0
April 11	By Cash for Do., . . . .	300	0	0
May 5	By Cash for Do., . . . .	300	0	0

Captain Tobias Lear’s Account Book (Dec. 23, 1776–May 12, 1781), taken from Pay Director Joseph Foster, Rear Admiral U.S.N. (Ret.), “Capt. Tobias Lear of Portsmouth, Builder of the Ranger,” The Granite Monthly: The New Hampshire Magazine of Biography, Literature, History and State Progress, vol. 39 (1907): 85–92. Captain Tobias Lear (1737–1781) was a shipwright and trader at Portsmouth, N.H. His son, also named Tobias Lear (1762–1816), later became George Washington’s private secretary.

1. This date is determined by the last entry in the account.

2. Continental Navy ship Hampshire was renamed Ranger by Resolve of the Continental Congress, 14 June 1777. In the same resolve Capt. John Paul Jones was appointed to command Ranger, superseding Capt. John Roach. See NDAR 9: 109–10.

3. Col. John Langdon was Continental Agent for New Hampshire and a colonel in the New Hampshire militia.

4. That is, Capt. John Roach [Roch, Roche], Continental Navy, of Concord, N.H.

5. Continental Navy frigate Raleigh, which was building at the same shipyard.

6. This is the date ship Hampshire was laid down. See NDAR 7: 58.

7. Langdon’s I., present-day Badger’s I., in the Piscataqua River opposite Portsmouth.

Document Information

Date

1778 May 23

Volume

Volume 12

Series

American Theatre from April 1, 1778 to May 31, 1778

Naval Documents of the American Revolution

Captain Tobias Lear's Account for Superintending Construction of Continental Navy Ship Hampshire, May 23, 1778

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