Enclosure I: Deposition, 20 April 1757
Enclosure I
Deposition
Copy.
Baltimore County ssOn the 20th Day of April 1757.
Came Richard Davis Serjeant in Captain Christopher Gist’s Company in the Virginia Regiment before Me the Subscriber One of His Lordship’s Justices of the Peace for the afd County of Baltimore Who being duly Sworn on the Holy Evangels of Almighty God deposeth & saith that on or about the fifth Day of February 1756 he was enlisted in Baltimore County1 by the afd Capt. Gist to serve His Majesty in the Virginia Troops during the Space of Six Months from the Day of Enlistment and no longer. That immediately after the said Capt. Gist made him this Deponent a Serjeant & gave him Orders to enlist any of his Comrades or other good Men for the same time. That in Obedience to such Orders He this Deponent did soon after enlist into the afd Regiment a certain William Stoxdale, Francis Brothers, Patrick Constantine & Edward Constantine,2 who then resided in the County afd, assuring all & Each of them that They would not be required to serve longer than Six Months. That soon afterwards the said Recruits were marched to Winchester & joined the Regiment & continued to serve therein as Soldiers for some time; but that they have now left the said Regiment & declare that they will not return thereto as they ought by their respective Agreements to have been regularly discharged at the End of Six Months.
Ruxton Gay
DS, DLC:GW. The document is in the hand of John Ridout, Sharpe’s secretary.
Nicholas Ruxton Gay, a surveyor living in Baltimore County, was a member of its court before 1762 and a commissioner of Baltimore Town by 1765.
1. The size roll of Christopher Gist’s company, 13 July 1756, confirms Sgt. Richard Davis’s testimony about his enlistment. In July 1756 he was 22 years old and 6 feet tall, “Fair, stout, lusty & fresh coloured” (DLC:GW).
2. Three of these men joined Gist’s company in Baltimore County on 10 Feb. 1756, and the fourth, William Stockstill (Stoxdale), joined on 14 February. Only Francis Brothers was as old as 20 when he joined. (He was 21 in July 1756.) All four were native Marylanders, and none of them could sign his name.