The American Commissioners to All Whom It May Concern, 18 December 1778
The American Commissioners to All Whom It May Concern
AL (draft):8 Massachusetts Historical Society; two copies: National Archives
Passy Decr 18 1778.
To all whom it may concern.
These are to certify that the Bearer of this, Mr Gillam Tailor, is a Native and an Inhabitant of Boston in the State of Massachusetts Bay, that he is of a respectable Family, and unexceptionable Character.9 That he has acted for Some Years, in the public Service of the united States of America, in the Capacity of Secretary to Mr Hancock, while he was President of Congress and in that Character, and in all others, as far as We know, he behaved well and to general approbation.
We are &c
8. In JA’s hand.
9. Born in 1754, Gillam Tailer was the son of a Boston physician of the same name: Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, IX, 584. On July 1, 1775, he was appointed a deputy commissary in the Mass. army: The Journals of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts in 1774 and 1775 . . . (Boston, 1838), p. 432. By February, 1777, he was serving as Hancock’s secretary: Smith, Letters, VI, 313, 339, 383, 431. In June, 1778, he volunteered to carry dispatches to the commissioners and personal correspondence to JA: Smith, Letters, X, 171, 178; Butterfield, Adams Correspondence, III, 59, 62. He sailed for France on July 26: Taylor, Adams Papers, VII, 340n.