"Extract of a Letter From Philadelphia, August 3.", August 3, 1776

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Since my last, we have arrived, a sloop from North-Carolina with naval stores, and a sloop of 8 four pounders; she belonged to the Goodrich's of Virginia, and was commanded by one of them; was out 3 days from Bermuda, when he discovered and gave chace to the brig Lexington, Captain Barry, but finding his mistake, put about too late; for in about an hour and a half, Barry ran along side, when she struck. She has 8 Negroes on board; all, or most of the men, to the amout of 25, entered on board of Barry ー²

This morning we have an express from a schooner taken by Captain Weekes, in the Continental ship Reprisal; she was bound from St. Vincents for Liverpool, with upwards of 100 hogsheads of rum, and is safe at Absecomb Inlet. They bring an account of his having taken a ship of 4 or 500 tons burthen, from Grenada for London; she was quite full, and by the captors said to be worth 35,000 l. A ship was seen last Wednesday to the southward off our Cape, by the North-Carolina man, which we hope is the prize.³

Captain Fowler, in a sloop belonging to your city, is arrived safe in port with 4,000 l. worth of indigo, in 12 or 13 days from Charlestown; she passed the [British] fleet in a thunder storm. ー By him we learn, that two deserters from the fleet confirm the accounts which General [Charles] Lee received from the five deserters, already published here, and further add, That the brig that had the Captain of the Commodore on board for London, had returned off Spencer's Inlet: the said Captain died soon after he got on board, and was buried on Long-Island the 3d of July: That the men began to grow sickly, and they are dissatisfied with General Clinton's conduct; they suspect he keeps a private correspondence with General Lee: That there was some talk of his being under an arrest: That the last rumour among them was, of their embarkation for Long-Island in New-York government. The Commodore's ship is so much shattered, it will take them some time to refit. The 4th of July he hoisted his pendant on board the Experiment. One shot from the fort, took off three midshipmen's heads, who happened to stand in a range, one of whom is a Nobleman's son.

A few days before Captain Fowler sailed, the whole fleet was in mourning, supposed for the death of Sir Peter Parker, who was wounded, and lost a part of his breeches in the late engagement. ー⁴ Captain Fowler thinks the two large ships will not be able to go over the Bar, so as to get out.

1. Constitutional Gazette, August 7, 1776.

2. The Lady Susan, Captain William Goodrich. Among those who entered on board the Lexington was Richard Dale, whose Memoir in The Port Folio (June, 1814), reads in part: "upon his return from Bermuda ー whither he had gone with William Gutteridge [sic] ー he was captured by captain John Barry, commander of the United States' brig Lexington, and on the same day entered as a midshipman on board said brig. This occurred in July, 1776." The owner of Lady Susan, Joseph Hinckson of Bermuda, challenged the capture on the grounds that his sloop had been illegally taken over by Lord Dunmore. On August 22, 1776, the Admiralty Court in Philadelphia ruled that the owner receive one half the money arising from the sale of Lady Susan. The remainder to go one third to Barry and his crew, and "two-thirds for the Use of the thirteen united States." Records of the Admiralty Court of Pennsylvania, April 13 ー December 3, 1776, LC Photocopy.

3. The schooner Peter was the vessel arrived at Absecon, and the prize ship Friendship was the one sighted by the-North Carolina sloop.

4. Sir Peter Parker remained very much alive after the engagement, but the nature of his wound brought forth a satirical verse in the Constitutional Gazette, July 27, 1776:

If "honor in the breech is lodg'd,"

As Hudibras has shewn;

It may from thence be fairly judg'd

Sir Peter's honor's gone.

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Date

1776 August 3

Volume

Volume 6

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