Displaying 1 - 20 of 22
Mr Moylan received your letter of this day with the money he had received at Portsmouth 260 dolls the evening of the day he last wrote you, this serves to acquaint his Excellency that Capt Broughton, & Capt Sillman will both be ready to sail tomorrow, the latter is in want of a Surgeon, which you will be pleased to have dispatched, as we believe it will be difficult to prevail on the Capt...
Date: 19 October 1775
Volume: Volume 2
Yours P Capt Martindale I recd Last Evening, & have consulted with him about the Guns & Conclude that they are Large enough for the Schooner, Shall get them on Board tomorrow morning. ー you mentioned nothing about the Swivels to make up the Complement of Ten, as I wrote you there was Seven here, Should be glad to know your Pleasure concerning the Remainder nor whether it would be...
Date: 19 October 1775
Volume: Volume 2
The Schooners Commanded by Captains Broughton & Sillman [John Selman] Saild this morning, as they had none but their old Colours, we appointed them a signal, that they may Know each other by, & be known to their friends ー the ensign up to the Main topping Lift, ー
you will please to order the Crew of the Schooner to be mannd out of General sullivans Brigade, to hold themselves in readiness...
Date: 22 October 1775
Volume: Volume 2
When I wrote you last, I omitted the Match Rope, (which is not to be had here, as I expected) Which I would have you Send P the first Opportunity as the Schooner will be obligd to wait for it. ー
This will be handed you P. Capt Wormswell who complys with the Terms the other Vessells are hired on; he goes to Sollicit a First or Second Lieuts Birth which if you would please to give him will greatly...
Date: 22 October 1775
Volume: Volume 2
I am much obliged to you that you take notice of my Letter p Wilson, & doubt not he will answer yours & my expectation, I wish with all my soul that these, two vessells were dispatchd chiefly for the publick Service, & allso that I may have the pleasure of seeing my friends Mr Lynch & Col. Harrison, I want much to be introduced to Doctor Franklin, for whom I have many years a vast...
Date: 24 October 1775
Volume: Volume 2
I received your favor to me of the 25th & Communicated that part of it which regarded Col. [John] Glover unto him ー when I last wrote to you, I gave the true reasons, for the delay attending the fitting out of these two vessells
I observe you had given orders to young Glover for all the things write to you for, & he is returned without the most Material Article, which is the 300 Swivel...
Date: 27 October 1775
Volume: Volume 2
We received your favor of the 25th Instant incloseing instructions for the Agents, one of which we will deliver to the person appointed for this place & transmit the others to Portsmouth Newbury &ca &ca
the first article mentions the laying in provisions Conformable to an inclosed paper, which inclosure was omitted, you will therefore please to send us five of them, & one more...
Date: 28 October 1775
Volume: Volume 2
I left Plimouth on tuesday evening [October 24] & arrived here the next evening, I presented the Letter to the Committee, who told me that what guns there was in town belonged to Capt Simn Potter & that he might dispose of them if he Pleased. ー I Waited on Capt Potter, but could not agree with him for them I went next morning on Rhode Island to Genl Hopkins's Quarters where I found guns...
Date: 29 October 1775
Volume: Volume 2
this will be handed you by Lieutt [Moses] Turner Informing you that I have Receivd the Cariages & swivels &c for the Brigg and am Making all Possiable Dispatch to Get to sea, but as the Schooner is not yet Sail'd and the want of Men for the Brigg I Cant make the Proficency Should be Glad to, but Immagine I Shall be Ready to sail this day week at Fartherest, if I am supply'd With Men &...
Date: 2 November 1775
Volume: Volume 2
When I wrote you last, I expected that Capt Coit would have Sailed Yesterday morning with Capt Manley [of the Lee], but the Wind coming a head has detaind him, he will however Sail the First Wind that he can get out of the Harbour. ー Capt Martindales Vessell will Sail as Soon as Possible, as he is fiting with all Speed, I Beg you would Send down 500 Pump Nails as Soon As possible as there is none...
Date: 3 November 1775
Volume: Volume 2
Dear Sir,ー The shipwreck of a vessel, said to be from Philadelphia to Boston, near Plymouth, with 120 pipes of wine; 118 of which are saved ー another from Boston to Halifax, near Beverly, with about £240 worth of dry goods ー the taking of a wood vessel, bound to Boston, by Captain Adams ー and the sudden departure of Mr. [Edmund] Randolph (occasioned by the death of his uncle [Peyton Randolph]),...
Date: 8 November 1775
Volume: Volume 2
I expected long before this, to have had Capt Martindale Out on his Cruise,2 but the Weather so extremely bad, for a Fortnight past that we have not been able to do any thing of consequence, have at Length got him almost compleat & Expect he will Sail tomorrow evening if the Weather is Suitable
I Shall proceed to Cambridge as Soon as this Vessell is Ready to Sail ー in the mean time...
Date: 16 November 1775
Volume: Volume 2
Our rascally privateersmen go on at the old rate, mutinying if they cannot do as they please. Those at Plymouth, Beverly, and Portsmouth, have done nothing worth mentioning in the prize way, and no accounts are yet received from those farther eastward.
Date: 20 November 1775
Volume: Volume 2
A Ship well fraught with Ordnance, Ordnance Stores, &c., is missing and gives great uneasiness in Boston, her Convoy has been in a fortnight ー I have order'd our Armed Vessels to keep a good look out for her.2
Date: 27 November 1775
Volume: Volume 2
I have a very singular pleasure in informing you that by express last night from Cape Ann, I received the glad tidings of the capture of the Nancy storeship from London, by Capt. Manley, contents as per the enclosed copy, (taken by Mr. Pierce, to save me, you must know, the trouble of enumeration.) He unluckily miss'd the greatest prize in the world; their whole ordinance, the ship containing it...
Date: 30 November 1775
Volume: Volume 2
I wrote you last Thursday and would have given a good deal that you was here last Saturday [December 2] when the stores arrived at camp; such universal joy ran through the whole as if each grasped victory in his hand: to crown the glorious scene there intervened one truly ludicrous, which was old PUT.2 mounted on the large mortar which was fixed in its bed for the occasion, with a...
Date: 5 December 1775
Volume: Volume 2
I fear the destination of the vessels from your port is so generally known, as to defeat the end. Two men-of-war (forty guns), it is said, put into New York the other day, and were instantly ordered out, supposed to be for Virginia.
Date: 25 December 1775
Volume: Volume 3
Manly is truly our hero of the sea; ー poor ———— [Sion Martindale] is gone to England ー his vessel was not at all calculated for the service; she was fitted out at an enormous expense, did nothing, and struck without firing agun. 2 [William] Coit I look upon to be a mere blubber, ———— and ———— [Broughton and Selman] are indolent and inactive souls. Their time was out yesterday, and from...
Date: 2 January 1776
Volume: Volume 3
We are at length favored with a sight of his Majesty's most gracious speech, breathing sentiments of tenderness and compassion for his deluded American subjects; the echo is not yet come to hand; but we know what it must be, and as Lord North said, and we ought to have believed (and acted accordingly), we now know the ultimatum of British justice. The speech I send you. 2 A volume of...
Date: 4 January 1776
Volume: Volume 3
I am exceeding sorry to hear, that your little fleet has been shut in by the frost. I hope it has sailed ere this, and given you some proof of the utility of it, and enabled the Congress to bestow a little more attention to the affairs of this army, which suffers exceedingly by their overmuch business, or too little attention to it.
Date: 14 January 1776
Volume: Volume 3