VII. Naval Committee to Dudley Saltonstall, 27 November 1775

VII. Naval Committee to Dudley Saltonstall

Philadelphia Nov. 27th. 1775

Sir1

The Congress are now preparing two Ships and two Brigantines to be fitted out as soon as possible to cruise against our common enemy. They have thought of you as a proper person to take the command of one of those ships as Captain. If you enter into this service, which we take to be the service of your country, you will give us the earliest information and repair to Philadelphia as soon as your affairs will possibly admit, and bring with you as many officers and seamen as you can procure at New London and between that place and Philadelphia. Those who may not be able to come with you, leave proper persons to encourage and conduct along after you.

If money should be necessary for the performance of this service you may draw on Mr. Eleazur Miller Merchant in New York who has money in his hands for that purpose.

In a day or two after you receive this, you will receive by the Messrs. Mumfords2 the Conditions and encouragement offered to the Seamen. We are, Sir, Your humble servant

Signed by Order of Comme.

Step. Hopkins

Christ. Gadsden

John Adams

Joseph Hewes

Silas Deane

Facsim. of MS in unidentified hand ((Magazine of History, 29 [1926]: 242 [Extra No. 116]).)

1. Dudley Saltonstall (1738–1796) commanded the ship Alfred under Como. Esek Hopkins, with John Paul Jones as his first lieutenant (DAB description begins Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, New York, 1928–1936; 20 vols. plus index and supplements. description ends ).

2. One of these Mumfords was probably Thomas, of Groton and New London, an active whig (Charles R. Stark, Groton, Conn., 1705–1905, Stonington, Conn., 1922, passim).

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Source Project: Adams Papers
Title: VII. Naval Committee to Dudley Saltonstall, 27 November 1775
Authors: Adams, John
Hopkins, Stephen
Gadsden, Christopher
Deane, Silas
Hewes, Joseph
Continental Congress, Naval Committee
Recipient: Saltonstall, Dudley
Date: 27 November 1775

Reference

Cite as: “VII. Naval Committee to Dudley Saltonstall, 27 November 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-03-02-0076-0008. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 3, May 1775 – January 1776, ed. Robert J. Taylor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979, pp. 145–147.]