From George Washington to Abraham Bosomworth, 8 December 1756
To Abraham Bosomworth
[Fort Loudoun, 8 December 1756]
To Captain Bosumwith, of the Royal American Regiments at York.
Sir,
I am informed you have enlisted one Patrick Murphy a Deserter from my Regiment who was confined in the Goal at York, tho’ you had previous knowledge of his being so.1 You must be sensible such proceedings are repugnant to the public interest, and contrary to established articles of war; to say nothing of the ill effects that follow precedents of this nature. The suspicion of a Soldiers disloyalty, I shou’d have thought sufficient to suspend your desire of recruiting him, until confirmed of the truth: and as you then refused to give him up to a Sergeant sent on purpose to receive him: and now assured of his belonging to my Regiment; I hope you will take the first opportunity of returning him to his company at maidstone (under command of Capt. Robert Stewart:) It being impracticable to send so far as Philadelphia for him. Your compliance will oblige Sir Yours &c.
G:W.
LB, DLC:GW.
Abraham Bosomworth’s commission in the Royal American Regiment was dated 20 Jan. 1756. He had “been 12 years in S. Carolina & employed amongst the Indians” (Henry Bouquet to Loudoun, 28 April 1757, in , 1:102–3). GW was to have frequent dealings with Bosomworth in the summer of 1758 when Bosomworth was handling a detachment of southern Indians brought to Pennsylvania for John Forbes’s expedition. He was the brother of Thomas Bosomworth who with his Creek wife Consaponakieso, better known as Mary Musgrove Bosomworth, set the young colony of Georgia on its ear with their land claims.
1. Patrick Murphy was probably the 21–year-old Pennsylvanian whom Robert Stewart recruited in his troop of light horse of the Virginia Regiment late in December 1755. Another Patrick Murphy, a soldier drafted from King George County, was in Stewart’s company in 1757.