Orders to Captain Francis Wade, 11 January 1777
Orders to Captain Francis Wade
Morris Town Jany 11th 1777
You are hereby authorized and empower’d to collect all the Beef, Pork, Flour, Spirrituous Liquors &c. &c. not necessary for the subsistance of the Inhabitants, in all the parts of East Jersey lying below the Road leading from Brunswick to Trentown and as fast as the Stores are collected to be remov’d to Newton, Buck County in Pensilvania, and there stored, and formd into proper Magazines.
You are further authorized and Impower’d to press such Waggons, Carriages, &c. as may be necessary to transport the Provisions & Stores in the most expeditious manner to the place affoursaid. You are also to apply to the Council of Safety at Philadelphia to furnish you with such quantitys of Salt as may be wanted to cure the provisions you take in,1 You are first to notify the Inhabitants & request them, to bring in all the above inumerated Articles not necessary for their own subsistance, at such places as you shall appoint, for which they shall be paid a generous price. But if any refuse to comply with the request, you are directed to take such Articles as they withold by force giving proper Certifycates for the Articles so taken, payable when demanded. The Commanding Officers at the different Posts in East Jerseys are hereby Directed to furnish you with such Assistance as you may require to execute, the above Business.
The Qr Mr Genl Thos Mifflin Esqr. & the Commissy Genl Thos Lowry Esqr. are desired to furnish you with such sums of Money for their respective departments as you may require, for which you are to give your receipts and account to them for the Disbursments.
Df, in William Palfrey’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. Palfrey inadvertently addressed the orders to “Thomas Wade.”
Francis Wade (d. 1810) of Philadelphia, who received a three-month contract as victualing agent for the Pennsylvania navy in December 1775 (see , 10:423–24), apparently was serving at this time in the commissary department at Allentown, New Jersey. He was appointed deputy quartermaster general for Delaware and part of Maryland in the spring of 1778 (see GW to Wade, 1 May 1778, in DLC:GW), and later in the war the difficulty of settling public debts forced him into insolvency and finally led to his prosecution as a public defaulter in 1786 (see Robert Morris to Wade, 28 Dec. 1781, 9 Aug. 1782, and Morris’s diary entries for 23 Mar. and 10 April 1782, in , 3:458–59, 6:159–61, 4:443–44, 552–53, and , 14:631, 633, 640, 15:374, 482, 524).
1. GW wrote the Pennsylvania council of safety on 10 Jan.: “I have Appointed Capt. Francis Wade to collect a quantity of Provisions—(particularly Pork) in and about the Towns of Allentown, Crossex &c. &c. and Store the same at New town—Bucks County in Pensylvania. A quantity of Salt will be necessary to cure the Pork—which I must desire you to furnish from time to time as the demand may arise—Your compliance will greatly benefit the service—as it will enable us to remove the Provisions out of the Enemies way—and form a necessary Magizine for our selves” (Df, DLC:GW).