George Washington Papers

From George Washington to Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer and Nicholas Thomas, 10 May 1777

To Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer and Nicholas Thomas

Head Quarters Morris Town 10th May 1777

Gentlemen

I am honored with yours of the 18th instant inclosing the Arrangement of the Officers of your Seven Battalions as settled by General Assembly 1st April 1777.1

I hope this arrangement will prove satisfactory to all the Gentlemen in nomination, but should any disputes or difficulties arise, I shall endeavour to have them settled upon the most impartial Scale.

The impediments to the recruiting Service, I hope are now removed, and I flatter myself that every Measure will be adopted by the Senate and House of Delagates that will contribute towards filling up the Quota of Men allotted to the State of Maryland. I have the honor to be Gentn Yr most obt Servt.

Df, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.

1The Varick transcript reads: “yours of the 18th Ulto.” On 18 April Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, president of the Maryland state senate, and Nicholas Thomas, speaker of the Maryland house of delegates, wrote GW a brief letter enclosing “several Resolutions of Convention relative to the Rank of Military Officers, the Instructions to Commissioners sent from this State to Camp, with their proceedings, and a Roster of Rank, and arrangement agreed to by this Assembly, with a Resolve vesting a power in your Excellency to make any alteration in the rank of Officers from this State which to you may appear proper” (DNA: RG 93, manuscript file no. 30148).

For the arrangement of officers for the state’s seven Continental regiments that the general assembly approved on 1 April, see Md. House of Delegates Votes and Proceedings description begins Votes and Proceedings of the House of Delegates of the State of Maryland. February Session, 1777. Being the First Session of this Assembly. [Annapolis, 1777]. description ends , 5 Feb.—20 April 1777 sess., 61–63. On 12 April the house of delegates resolved “that congress be requested to direct, that the rank between the officers of this state and any other of the United States be settled by his excellency general Washington, without any prejudice to the officers of this state from the date of their commissions” (ibid., 85; see also Md. Senate Votes and Proceedings description begins Votes and Proceedings of the Senate of the State of Maryland. February Session, 1777. Being the First Session of this Assembly. [Annapolis, 1777]. description ends , 5 Feb.—20 April 1777 sess., 33, 47).

Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer (1723–1790), who lived in Annapolis, served as senate president from 1777 to 1781, when illness obliged him to resign. He also was president of the state council of safety from 1775 to 1777 and a member of the Continental Congress from 1778 to 1781.

Nicholas Thomas (died c.1784), an attorney in Talbot County, Md., served as speaker of the house of delegates from March 1777 to March 1778, when he resigned to become judge of the general court. Thomas previously had been a member of the lower house of the proprietary assembly from 1768 to 1774, chairman of the Maryland conventions from 1774 to 1776, and a member of the state council of safety from 1776 to 1777.

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