1. JM’s letter has not been found. While in Philadelphia, Lieutenant Colonel John Jameson had evidently borrowed money from JM (Jameson to JM, 23 March 1782, and n. 7). In his missing letter to Jameson, probably written on 9 April, JM apparently mentioned the amount of the loan and included the news he had sent to Pendleton on that date (q.v.).

2. The death of George Brooke, the treasurer, would naturally have delayed Foster Webb, Jr.’s, departure. Webb was on the staff of the treasurer’s office and aspired to be Brooke’s successor (Calendar of Virginia State Papers description begins William P. Palmer et al., eds., Calendar of Virginia State Papers and Other Manuscripts (11 vols.; Richmond, 1875–93). description ends , II, 408; Pendleton to JM, 22 April 1782, and n. 12). After Ambler became ad interim treasurer on 12 April, he very likely required Webb to assist in preparing the accounts to be presented to the General Assembly in May (Randolph to JM, 11–13 April, 1782, n. 8).

3. See JM to Pendleton, 9 April 1782, and n. 4.

4. Although flag-of-truce ships, carrying supplies for the support or comfort of prisoners of war, served a necessary humanitarian purpose, they required close supervision lest they engage in illicit trade with the enemy or with patriots unable to forego an opportunity to profit. Acting under the ninth article of the Articles of Capitulation, concluded with the British at Yorktown on 19 October 1781, Timothy Pickering, quartermaster general of the continental army, agreed to purchase for military use many of the wares of “the British Merchants and Traders, that are within the Garrisons of York and Gloucester,” and pay in tobacco made available in Virginia for shipment to New York or Charleston in British flag-of-truce ships. Washington and Robert Morris endorsed this contract (Benjamin Franklin Stevens, ed., The Campaign in Virginia, 1781: An exact Reprint of Six rare Pamphlets on the Clinton-Cornwallis Controversy … [2 vols.; London, 1888], II, 202; Octavius Pickering and Charles W. Upham, The Life of Timothy Pickering [4 vols.; Boston, 1867–73], I, 310–11; Calendar of Virginia State Papers description begins William P. Palmer et al., eds., Calendar of Virginia State Papers and Other Manuscripts (11 vols.; Richmond, 1875–93). description ends , II, 567–68, 572–73, 652, 668–69; III, 118). By providing a market for tobacco and thus serving to lessen the outflow of Virginia’s meager supply of specie, the arrangement appeared to be advantageous to the Commonwealth. Yet even before the flag-of-truce ships arrived early in May, Governor Harrison deemed “indispensably necessary” to “the honor” and “security” of the state that the “great Irregularities,” of which these vessels often had been guilty, be prevented by a strict limitation upon where they could dock and what cargo they could discharge or load (Journals of the Council of State description begins H. R. McIlwaine et al., eds., Journals of the Council of the State of Virginia (3 vols. to date; Richmond, 1931——). description ends , III, 34, 41, 85; McIlwaine, Official Letters description begins H. R. McIlwaine, ed., Official Letters of the Governors of the State of Virginia (3 vols.; Richmond, 1926–29). description ends , III, 223). The constitutional issues complicating the general problem soon elicited comment from JM. See JM to Randolph, 28 May, and 29 May 1782.