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Enclosure: Candidates for Army Appointments from New Hampshire, [21 August 1798]

[Enclosure]99
Candidates for Army Appointments from New Hampshire

Subalterns

1 Timothy Mountford
Philadelphia
5 Silvester G Whipple Livemore100 Education & good family
Hampton
23 years
Gordon101 collegiate education & has read law eleven mon respectable
Whipple102 Father—[sprightly & active]
6 William S Thorne
Londonderry
Now Philadelphia
Livemore } Inquire of McPherson104
Foster103
Strong105
 
8 William Fisher
Exeter resides in Boston
Gov Gilman106 & others } good talents & good Education
respectable
13 Daniel M Durell
Carson107
Foster
} young Gentlem good ability character & education
respectable
15 Moses Sweett Boscaven Foster   age talents & activity fit for Lt. or Ensg Ensign
17 Enoch Bayley
Hopkinton
Hilsborough
Gordon
Foster
} good character
[tolerable]
4 [Jacob Weeks
24 yrs old
[Greenland]
good school education—some intelligence & fair Character]
Livermore generally
[respectable]
25 [Daniel Connor
Exeter
24 yrs old
Educated in a counting House
unexceptionable Character—
good Constitution—respectable Lieutt.]
24 Samuel [Parker
[23 yrs old]
Exeter
Ingenious genteel young man]
Gilman
Livemore generally
26 Thomas Nesmith
Londonderry
G Read108
J McGregor109
} will discharge with faithfulness any trust—& do well in such offices as he may be judge capable of
Ensign perhaps
27 James Moore
Bow
35 years
Foster Two selectmen have recom~ to him Ensign Bow for Lt. was good soldier in the army Qr. Ensign
 
27 Stephen Merrill
Dover
Livemore   see Field Officers 29 by mistake Qr. Ensign
33 Andrew Simpson
Durham
Livemore generally
34 Arthur Rogers
Pembroke
ditto
35 Israel Bartlet
Nottingham
do
36 Wild Noble
Portsmouth
do   Qr. Master
Captains
2 George Turner Portsmouth Livemore has been recommended to him for capt of Fort Not strong
[Too infirm & old]
J. Sheaff110—bred to the sea
J Pickering111
7 Toppan Webster was appointed Lt. of Artillery but on the score of rank declined Inquire [wont do according to Mr. Gilman’s letters suspected of want of probity]
9 Robert Parker
Litchfield
Gordon—officer in horse Troop good understanding & true spirit—good respectability representative in Legislature strong
Foster—good age & character firm to Gv. &c.
10 Henry Tilton
Exeter
30 years
J. Smith112 well educated likely & genteel—suffered by rapacity of French very respectable
 
Major Militia Wingate113 good abilities & educatn
N. Rogers114 promising Officer good fœderalist &c. &c.
[Mr. Gilman will rank next to Thompson]
11 John Ripley Cap of Artillery
12 Abel Hutchins
Concord
Foster—has commanded a comp of Light infantry his talents & constitution qualify him for mil: life
16 Nathaniel Green
Boscavan
A Foster good talents & appear has comd. a troop of horse respectable
1 - 2
Lawyer Livemore generally
[19 J Dunham
Hanover
Collegiate education—good military Talents
adjutant of the Militia—Mr. Freeman115 recommends—writes well probably good Captain]
[20 Francis Gardner
Westmoreland
recommended by Lewis Morris116 as a Man of education, good Character—enterprizing & active, & of sound politics respectable]
30 Edward D Long
Portsmouth
Livemore generally
31 Samuel Wentworth Dover ditto
32 Moses Durell Dover ditto
 
Field Officers
3 Ebenezer Thompson Livemore—has been recomd. to him
Durham [fair character & good school education may do for Majr. according to Mr. Gilman]
23 Nathaniel White* James & Jacob Sheaff qualified & character very respectable
Martin117—staunch friend to the Govermt. [good information—great activity. Better calculated for the command of a regt. than Cilley or Adams]
* Judge Pickering recommends strongly important member of Legislature
Theop. Parsons118 Talents on any line will not disgrace recommendation—first democratic but since determined otherwise very strong
18 Rufus Graves
Hanover
[good mathematical, mechanical & military genius—Commission of the Peace & Military Inspector of the Western Division of the State—Mr. Freeman. M.C.—respectable as teacher of the Mathematics]
[21 Bradbury Cilley Marshall of N.H. Possesses more than hereditary talents119 for a field appointment—intrepidity of Spirit will accept a majority]
[Samuel Adams
38 years old
aid de Camp to Genl: Sullivan120 when governor—a Merchant—fair candidate for field appointment
* Adams & Cilley in talents before Thompson
Adams not preferable to Cilley in any thing else but in having war service]
[N Gilman will not relinquish his civil appointment—not decisive]
Gov Gilman—his father killed at Saratoga
was Lieutenant in the army—well qualified for command of a Regiment
28 Daniel Fisher
New Port
N H 55
Fisher Ames121—active & popular Militia officer—spirited on different occasions—farmer rather better instructed than common—very active still
29 Stephen Merrill Livemore of respectable family served in army last war as a sergeant desirous of being in Artillery recomd as subaltern Qr. Ensign

99D, partially in H’s handwriting, George Washington Papers, Library of Congress.

In this list of recommendations for Army appointments, those recommended have not been identified. Wherever possible, however, the individuals making the recommendations have been identified.

Material within brackets in this document is in the handwriting of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.

100Samuel Livermore, a resident of Holderness, New Hampshire, was a member of the Continental Congress from 1780 to 1782 and again in 1785. He was chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court from 1782 to 1789. He was elected to the House of Representatives, where he served from 1789 to 1793. From 1793 to 1801 he was a United States Senator.

101William Gordon, a resident of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, was a member of the state Senate in 1794 and 1795. From 1797 to 1800 he was a member of the House of Representatives.

102Joseph Whipple was collector of the state impost from 1785 to 1789 and United States collector of customs at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, from 1789 to 1798.

103Abiel Foster, a Federalist from Canterbury, New Hampshire, was a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1783 to 1785. From 1791 to 1793 he served in the New Hampshire Senate. Foster was a member of the House of Representatives from 1789 to 1791 and again from 1795 to 1803.

104A veteran of the American Revolution, William Macpherson had been an aide-de-camp to Benjamin Lincoln and at the end of the war had attained the rank of major. He had been appointed surveyor for the port of Philadelphia on September 11, 1789, inspector of the port on March 8, 1792, and naval officer for the District of Philadelphia on December 30, 1793 (Executive Journal, I description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate (Washington, 1828), I. description ends , 25, 111, 144).

105Caleb Strong, a Federalist from Northampton, Massachusetts, was a member of the state Senate from 1776 to 1778, the state Senate from 1780 to 1788, and the United States House of Representatives from 1789 to 1796.

106John Taylor Gilman, a Federalist from Exeter, New Hampshire, was a member of the Continental Congress in 1782 and 1783. He was elected governor of New Hampshire in 1794 and served until 1805.

107Either John or William Carson of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire.

108George Reid had been colonel of the Second New Hampshire Regiment in the American Revolution. In 1785 he was promoted to brigadier general of militia. In 1786 he was appointed justice of the peace for Rockingham County, and in 1791 he became sheriff of the county.

109James McGregore was a resident of Londonderry, New Hampshire.

110This is a reference to either James or Jacob Sheafe of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. James Sheafe, a Federalist, was a member of the state Assembly from 1788 to 1790 and the state Senate in 1791, 1793, and 1799. Jacob Sheafe became navel agent at Portsmouth in 1794. See Henry Knox to H, third letter of July 9, 1794: Tench Coxe to H, October 13, 1794.

111John Pickering of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was United States judge for the District of New Hampshire.

112Jeremiah Smith was a member of the New Hampshire Assembly from 1788 to 1791. From 1791 to 1797 he was a Federalist member of the House of Representatives. In 1797 he moved from Peterborough to Exeter, and from 1797 to 1800 he was United States attorney for the District of New Hampshire.

113Paine Wingate, a resident of Stratham, New Hampshire, and a brother-in-law of Timothy Pickering, was a Federalist member of the United States Senate from 1789 to 1793 and a member of the House of Representatives from 1793 to 1795.

114Nathaniel Rogers, a resident of Newmarket, Rockingham County, was a delegate to the New Hampshire convention which adopted the Constitution in 1788.

115Jonathan Freeman, a resident of Hanover, New Hampshire, served in the state Assembly from 1787 to 1789 and in the state Senate from 1789 to 1794. He was elected to the House of Representatives as a Federalist and served from 1797 to 1801.

116Lewis R. Morris, a resident of Springfield, Vermont, and a veteran of the American Revolution, was a member of the Vermont Assembly in 1795 and 1796. As a Federalist, he served in the House of Representatives from 1797 to 1803.

117Thomas Martin was appointed surveyor of the District and port of Portsmouth on August 3, 1789, inspector of the port of Portsmouth on March 8, 1792, and collector for the District of Portsmouth on July 2, 1798 (Executive Journal, I description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate (Washington, 1828), I. description ends , 9, 13, 103, 111, 283).

118Parsons, a lawyer, was a delegate to the Massachusetts Ratifying Convention in 1788. He served in the state legislature from 1787 to 1791 and again in 1802.

119This is a reference to Joseph Cilley of New Hampshire who was an officer in the Army during the American Revolution, retiring in 1781 as colonel in the First New Hampshire Regiment.

120After a distinguished and colorful career in the Army during the American Revolution, John Sullivan served as attorney general of New Hampshire from 1782 to 1786, speaker of the state Assembly in 1785, and governor of New Hampshire in 1786, 1787, and 1789. In 1789 he was appointed United States judge for the District of New Hampshire, a position he held until his death in 1795.

121Ames, a Federalist from Dedham, Massachusetts, was a member of the House of Representatives from 1789 to 1797.

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