To George Washington from Anna Welsh, 29 December 1796
From Anna Welsh
New London [Conn.] December 29th 1796
Sir
I once had the Honor to Address you when in Private Life, you was pleas’d to Say as a Private Citizen you could not do anything for me without the appearance of assuming too much1—as this is the last Sessions your Excellency Sees fit to Set as President, permit me once more to Address your Excely—pardon me Sir for this intrusion troubling you on a matter in which I am deeply Interested, the high Character you bear would have for ever clos’d my mouth in Silence had not necessity forc’d me to make this Application.
You was pleased to Honor me with an answer and Certificate,2 that Certificate and a Petition I have Applied to Congress for the recovery of the Commutation Notes or a Pension of fifty or Sixty pounds a year that I may Spend the Evening of my days in peace and Quietness—they refuse me tho’ so Small a recompenc for the Loss of a Husband and Brother in whose service both there Lives were Sacrificed3—to you alone Sir I look for Justice as the Savor of our Country.
Your Exce’lly may possibly have forgot my Story among the many Scenes in which you have been engaged—my Husband Capt Jno. Welsh who Commanded the marines in the unfortunate Attack upon Penobscott in which he lost his life bravely fighting at the head of them—my Brother Capt. Geo. Hurlbut who commanded a Company of light Horse in Coll Sheldons Regt4 till in defending a Vessel with Stores in the N[orth] River he receiv’d a wound under which he languished till the 8th day of May 1783, when he expired having Sufferd the most excruciatg pain beyond the power of Language to express.5
I leave it with you Sir to take Such measures as your Heart may dictate to relieve a Widow, whose thanks will be all in her power to return—may the Supreme Disposer of all events render the Journey of life both happy and prosperous, and when you retire from Government may your years be many and Happy, that our Legislature may Appeal to you in Cases of Difficulty as the Children of Israel did unto Moses, is the Ardent prayers of your Ex’y Oblig’d and very Humble Servant
Ann Welsh
ALS, DLC:GW. No reply from GW to Welsh has been found.
1. Anna (Ann) Welsh (c.1752–1832) last wrote GW on 12 Nov. 1788 about the deaths, during the Revolutionary War, of her husband, marine captain John Welsh, and her brother Capt. George Hurlbut. In that letter, Anna had asked for GW’s help in receiving pay and land warrants owed her as an officer’s widow and heir of her brother.
2. In his letter to Welsh of 8 Dec. 1788, GW enclosed a certificate of Hurlbut’s service (see Welsh to GW, 12 Nov. 1788, n.4).
3. Welsh had petitioned Congress for assistance in the early 1790s, but no action appears to have been taken (see , 5:31). On 28 Dec. 1796, she again submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives “a memorial … praying relief, in consideration of the loss of her said husband.” The memorial was referred to a committee of claims (, 9:58). On 7 Feb. 1797, the claims committee denied Anna’s request for seven years’ “half pay promised to” officers’ widows, arguing that earlier resolutions pertaining to half pay “did not extend” to naval officers. Her claims for commutation of pay as an heir of her brother were not settled until 1834, two years after Welsh’s death (, 156–58; see also 589).
4. Elisha Sheldon (1740–1805) of Connecticut, served as colonel of the 2d Continental Dragoons from December 1776 until the end of the war.
5. For John Welsh’s death during the Penobscot campaign of July and August 1779, and for the wounds that Hurlbut sustained in July 1781 at Tarrytown, N.Y., see Welsh to GW, 12 Nov. 1788.