To George Washington from Brigadier General William Thompson, 5 October 1776
From Brigadier General William Thompson
Phila. Oc. 5th 1776
Sir.
The wants of the Prisoners being many, I procured them Credit with Mr Freeman at Quebec for £630.9.8½ Halifax; equal to £945.14.6¾ Pennsylvania Currency, For which I have reced the following Bills and Cash viz.
| Col. Greens’s Bill for | £335. 2. 6¾ | Halifax |
| Capn Morgan’s do for | 105. 6. 9¼ | |
| Cap. Lam[b]’s do for | 57. 6. ½ | |
| Messrs Nichol’s1 & Steel’s do for | 40. 0. 1 | |
| Dr McKenzie Cash | 12. 3. 4 | |
| Mr Duncan Cash2 | 8.13. 9 | |
| Col. Green for the Sick (still Dr.) | 63. 3.10½ | |
| Captn McClean Cash3 | 8.13. 3 | |
| £630. 9. 8 | Halifax |
Col. Green took up for the use of the Sick Soldiers belonging to the New-England Colonies, sundry Articles amounting to £63.3.10½ Halifax which he has not Included in his Bill—Your Excellency will please to direct whether It is to be charged to the poor Soldiers or the Publick.
I have also drawn five months Pay, for the Officers & three Months Pay for the Soldiers, belonging to the Pennsylvania & Jersey Regiments, who have return’d with me from Canada. I enlcose the account that Stoppages may be made in the Regimts to which they belong.
I have made myself liable for the Goods supply’d by Mr Freeman, to Messrs Meredith4 & Clymer of this City, and must request that you will order the Bills to be Paid, that I may be released From that obligation. I have the Honor to be Yr Excellency’s Most obt Hble Servant
Wm Thompson
ALS, DLC:GW. The cover of this letter is addressed: “To His Excellency General Washington King’s-Bridge.” The docket in Robert Hanson Harrison’s writing reads: “Genl Thompson’s Letter 5 Octo. 1776 received not before 8 July 1777. Ansd 17.” For GW’s reply, see his letter to Thompson of 17 July 1777 (DLC:GW).
1. Francis Nichols (1737–1812) of Pottstown, Pa., was a second lieutenant in Capt. William Hendricks’s company of Thompson’s Pennsylvania rifle regiment when he was captured at Quebec on 31 Dec. 1775. Named a captain in the 9th Pennsylvania Regiment in December 1776, Nichols became major of that regiment the following February and served until he resigned in May 1779. Nichols later became brigadier general of the Montgomery County militia.
2. Matthew Duncan of Philadelphia went to Cambridge, Mass., in the summer of 1775 as a gentleman volunteer with the Pennsylvania riflemen, and that fall he served as a volunteer on Arnold’s expedition to Quebec, where he was captured on 31 December. Soon after his return from Canada, Duncan joined the 5th Pennsylvania Regiment, in which he had been commissioned a captain on 5 Jan. 1776, and he was taken prisoner with that regiment at Fort Washington on 16 November.
3. Moses McClean (1737–1810) of York County, Pa., who was commissioned a captain in the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment on 9 Jan. 1776, was captured while fishing with several members of his regiment near Île aux Noix in June 1776. McClean was exchanged in March 1777 and subsequently became lieutenant colonel of the second battalion of the York County militia.
4. Samuel Meredith (1741–1817), a Philadelphia merchant, was appointed major of the 3d Battalion of the Philadelphia associators in 1775, and in April 1777 he became a brigadier general of the state militia. Meredith served in the Pennsylvania legislature from 1778 to 1779 and from 1781 to 1783, and during 1787 and 1788 he was a member of the Continental Congress. He served as United States treasurer from 1789 to 1801.