From George Washington to John Hancock, 10 August 1777
To John Hancock
[Near Germantown, Pa.] Sunday Evening 9 OClock.
[10 August 1777]
Sir
I this Minute received your favor of this Afternoon transmitting intelligence that a Fleet was seen off Sinapuxon on the 7th Inst.—I was about three Miles Eastward of the Billet Tavern,1 on the Road leading to Coriels ferry when the Express arrived. The Troops are encamped near the Road, where they will remain till I have further Accounts respecting the Fleet, which you will be pleased to forward to me by the earliest conveyance after they come to hand. I have the Honor to be Sir Yr Most Obedt servant
Go: Washington
LS, in Robert Hanson Harrison’s writing, DNA:PCC, item 152; copy, DNA:PCC, item 169. The addressed cover of the LS, also signed by GW, contains an erroneously dated docket that reads in part: “Sunday Aug. 9. 1777.”
1. Billet Tavern, known also as the Crooked Billet, was at Hatboro in what is now Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. A bill signed by John Tomkins, who operated a store and inn at Hatboro during the Revolutionary War, indicates that GW and his entourage dined in the area on the evening of this date:
His Excellency General Washington, Dr.
| To 9 dinners @ 5/ | £2.5 |
| To 1 Bottle wine 20/ 2 lb Sugar | 3. |
| To 2 quarts Spirit & Brandy | 2.10 |
| To hay & Oats | 4.18 |
| To Light horse mans & Servants dinners | 4.10 |
| To two bouls of toddy & three quarts rum | 3. |
| £20.3 |
Recd ye above in full pr John Tomkins
(Vouchers and Receipted Accounts, 1776–1780, DLC:GW, ser. 5, vol. 29; see also GW’s warrant book no. 2, DLC:GW, ser. 5, vol. 18).