The Pennsylvania Committee of Safety to the Lancaster County Committee, 17 November 1775
The Pennsylvania Committee of Safety to the Lancaster County Committee
LS: Library of Congress
In Committee of Safety, Philadelphia November 17th 1775
Gentlemen
We have considered your respectful answer to our application for the public Arms in the County of Lancaster,2 and are fully satisfied with the reasons you assign for retaining them for the use of the poor Associators in said County, and have only to acknowledge your Zeal in the Public Cause and to desire you will send to us, the names of the persons in whose hands the Arms are left, that it may be known where to apply for them on any Emergency, and that the public property may be taken care of. We also acknowledge your care in carrying our Resolves, respecting Kearsley and Brooks into execution,3 and we are, Gentlemen Your most obedient humble Servants
Signed by Order of the Board B. Franklin Presidt.
To the Committee of Lancaster County
Addressed: To / Jaspar Yeates Esq’r4 / chairman of the Committee / Lancaster
Endorsed: 17th. Novr. 1775
2. In early October the committee of safety had requested that the county send at once to Philadelphia all the arms belonging to the province. On Nov. 9 the county committee replied that the weapons, left over from the previous war, had proved to be in bad condition. Many of them had been repaired by poor associators, nevertheless, who would lose their martial spirit if deprived of their arms. Pa. Col. Recs., X, 356; 2 Pa. Arch., XIII, 296–8.
3. For Kearsley’s conspiracy, in which James Brooks was involved, see the note on BF to RB above, Oct. 19. On Oct. 23 the committee of safety resolved to move the two prisoners to jails outside the city; both were sent to Lancaster, where Brooks remained while Kearsley was taken to York. 2 Pa. Arch., XIII, 298, 503–4; Pa. Col. Recs., X, 373, 378, 380–1, 385, 773.
4. For Yeates (1745–1817), already a prominent lawyer-politician in Lancaster, see the DAB. He had been elected chairman on Nov. 8: 2 Pa. Arch., XIII, 294.