To George Washington from Beverley Robinson, 16 April 1758
From Beverley Robinson
New York 16th Apr. 1758
Dear Sir
Your favour of the 5th Instant came to hand last Night by the post. Inclosing a Letter for Mr Richd Washington in London, which shall be taken care of & forwarded by the Earl of Halifax Packet, Capt. Rand who it is imagined will sail soon.1
The york Bill you Inclosed will over pay the postage of your Letter there being no Charge paid on Letters sent from this by the Packets to England, so that all the Expence Attending your Letter is the postage from Fort Loudoun here. Sr Charles Hardy is off Louisburgh with 8 or 9 Sail of the Line, & hope he will be able to prevent any Succors geting into that place.2
Mrs Robinson & family are very well & Desire their Compts to you as does Mr & Mrs Morris and your Most Obligd Humble Sert3
Bev: Robinson
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. GW’s letter to Robinson of 5 April has not been found, but there is a letter of that date to Richard Washington. Robinson forwarded Richard Washington’s letter on 3 May by the British ship Hampshire, which sailed about a month earlier than the packet ship Earl of Halifax, Capt. Robert Rand (d. 1758) (see Robinson to GW, 21 May; see also New York Mercury, 8 May 1758; and Boston-Gazette, and Country Journal, 12 June and 25 Dec. 1758). GW visited Beverley Robinson (1723–1792) in New York during his trip to Boston to see William Shirley in the late winter of 1756. GW and Beverley Robinson had conducted a regular correspondence since that time.
2. Rear Admiral Sir Charles Hardy, governor of New York, sailed from New York for Halifax, Nova Scotia, in late January and arrived in Nova Scotia on 19 Mar. aboard the Royal William. This was the beginning of the naval campaign that culminated in the fall of the French stronghold at Louisburg on 26 July 1758.
3. Before her marriage Mrs. Robinson was Susannah Philipse of Philipsburgh Manor in New York. Her sister Mary Eliza Philipse was recently married to Lt. Col. Roger Morris (1727–1794) of the 40th Regiment. Morris served on Braddock’s staff with GW in the summer of 1755.