From George Washington to Brigadier General William Maxwell, 28 May 1780
To Brigadier General William Maxwell
Head Quarters Morris Town 28th May 1780
Sir
I have recd your favs. of the 26th and 27th and this day the inclosed representation from a number of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood of Elizabeth Town was handed to me.1 Their account of the nature of the Ground which you have pitched upon for your encampment and for the Works agrees with what you mentioned in yours of the 26th and I would for that reason wish the commencement of the Works at that place suspended for the present. And as I do not imagine the position which you have just taken with your Brigade is a very safe one, I would recommend your removing a little back to some place which looks equally to Newark and Elizabeth town2—leaving Colo. Dayton with his Regt at the latter, and sending a stronger party than before to Newark to prevent a jealousy which I find arising on acct of the superior protection afforded to Elizabeth town.
In the mean time be pleased to keep parties busily employed in making Fascines, we shall have occasion for a great number of them.3
If there is a law of the state competent to the punishment of Jones and the Negro, you had best turn them over at once to the Civil Authority4—letting them know that if they are caught in similar practices, they will be executed without any delay.
I am informed that one Swan who lives near Moss’s Mills5 has lately been upon Staten Island, and that upon his return he immediately went up to Sussex County where he bought some Cattle, which he has brought down to his farm. This has so suspicious an appearance, that if the Cattle are fit for Beef, I should make no scruple of taking them and giving him a Certificate to the County Commissioner or purchaser.
Colo. Hamilton laid some letters before me from Colo. Baylor to you, on the subject of permitting Mr Norton and his family to come out of New York.6 As Colo: Baylor informs that an act of the Legislature of Virginia has passed in favr of this Gentleman, he may be permitted to come out7—You had best detain the letters which are directed to him, untill he arrives at Eliza. Town. I am &c.
G.W.
Df, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. GW’s aide-de-camp Richard Kidder Meade wrote the closing and GW’s initials on the draft.
Maxwell replied to GW from near Elizabeth, N.J., on 29 May: “Your Excellencys Favour of Yesterday I recd last night a little past 11 oclock with other inclosures all of which I shall carefully note. At the time I received Your papers I was sending off a Horseman to Brunswick to give them notice that a number of Boats and Troops was prepared at the wattering place to go and plunder Brunswick last night; this I had by two different channels, which makes me think there may be some truth in it, and should they not have proceeded last night, I make no doubt they will do it shortly. I thought it proper to give this intiligence to Your Excellency least you might have some Stores there. I am in company with the Field Officers seting out to look [for] a new encampment … N.B. my Horseman is Just returned from Brunswic and Informs me the Enemy did not come there last night. 9 oclock” (ALS, DLC:GW).
1. The enclosure has not been found.
2. Maxwell had sought suitable sites to encamp his New Jersey Brigade and erect fortifications (see Maxwell to GW, 15 and 17 May). He ultimately placed two regiments at “The West farms” and two regiments (Col. Oliver Spencer’s and Col. Elias Dayton’s) at Elizabeth (see GW to Robert Howe, 1 June, n.2, and , 149–50).
West Farms, also referred to as Camp’s Town (later Camptown), was located about six miles northwest of Elizabeth and three miles west of Newark at what is now Irvington, New Jersey.
3. After this sentence, Tilghman struck out: “should the expected operation, in conjunction with our Ally, be carried into execution.” For directives concerning the preparation of siege materials for allied offensive operations, see GW to Christopher Greene, 15 May, and to Udny Hay, 17 May; see also GW to Robert Howe, 25 May (first letter), and n.5 to that document.
4. GW is referring to Samuel Jones and a “Negro” caught assisting deserters. The current New Jersey law ordered fines for such acts (see Maxwell to GW, 27 May, and n.2 to that document; see also GW to Maxwell, 19 May).
5. “Moss’s Mills” probably refers to the gristmill in Rahway, N.J., owned by the Morss (Morse) family (see Moses Hazen to GW, 29 Jan., and n.1 to that document). The New-Jersey Journal (Elizabeth) for 12 May 1801 reported a fire that apparently destroyed the mill.
6. The letters to Maxwell from Col. George Baylor have not been identified. “Mr Norton” likely is one of the brothers of John Hatley Norton, a partner in the firm of Norton and Beall in Williamsburg, Va., whose sister Frances had married Baylor’s brother, John. In two letters of 6 May, both penned at Williamsburg, Silas Deane wrote New Jersey governor William Livingston and Philemon Dickinson to inform them that “Mr. Norton of this city” had received word that his brother in London, as well as the latter’s family, would “arrive in New York … on their way to Virginia” in May (, 22:142).
7. This act of the Virginia legislature has not been identified.