To John Jay from Anne Conyngham, 17 July 1779
From Anne Conyngham
Philada. July 17. 1779
Hond. Sir
I beg leave to trouble your Excellency and the Honorable Congress, with the perusal of the inclosed letter from my Husband, Capt. Gustavus Conyngham, late Commador of the Cutter Revenge, now a Prisoner and in Irons on board a British Packet, bound to England.1
As these Extraordinary and in the present Stage of the War between Britain and America, Singular Cruelties exercised upon the Person of my Husband, have been inflicted, in consequence of his Zeal and Successfull exertions against the common Enemy, in the English Channell, where he first hoisted the American Flag. I take the liberty of calling the attention of Congress, to his distressed Situation and of requesting that thay would be pleased to take such Steps for his relief as have in Similar instances prevented the execution of the bloody and vindictive purposes of the enemy upon the Officers and Citizens of these States. I hope it is unnecessary to say any thing to the Honble Congress of my distress upon this Occasion. To have lost a worthy and beloved Husband in Battle fighting for the honour and liberties of his Country would have been a light Affliction: But to hear of a Person thus dearly connected being chained to the hold of a Ship in vain looking back towards the beloved Country for whom he had fought, wasting his Health and Spirits in hopeless grief and at last Compleating the measure of his Sufferings by an ignominious Death under a .2 Good God my heart Shudders at the thought; Forbid it Heaven, Forbidit it3 Honble Gentlemen the Guardians of the lives and Happiness of the good People of these States that a freeman and a Soldier of America should even fear or feel a moments distress or pain from the hands of Englishmen Unrevenged.
The Delay of a single Hour may fix my Husband’s fate for ever. Pardon me therefore whilst I once more intreate your immediate attention to his case, consider Sirs the safety of your numerous Officers and Soldiers by Sea and land is connected with that of my Husband. This I presume will be a sufficient motive with you to procure Justice for him and to afford some consolation to Honble Sirs and Gentleman.4 Your most obedient and most devoted
Anne Conyngham
ALS, DNA: PCC, item 78, 5: 371–72 (EJ: 10424). Endorsed by Charles Thomson: “. . . Read.”
1. Anne Hockly married Gustavus Conyngham (1747–1819), an Irish-born sea captain, in 1773. In 1777 and 1778 Conyngham, authorized by the American commissioners in Paris, commanded the Revenge, then a Continental frigate, in a series of daring raids on British shipping in the North and Irish seas, as well as the Azores and the Atlantic. Conyngham sailed in 1779 with the Revenge, at that time a privateer owned by a group of Philadelphia merchants. His ship was captured 27 Apr. by the British frigate man-of-war Galatea. Mrs. Conyngham’s petition was presented to Congress on 17 July, along with a memorial of “a number of the inhabitants of Philadelphia” in the captain’s behalf, and referred to a committee. Later that day Gouverneur Morris, John Dickinson, and William Whipple brought in a letter to be written by the secretary of Congress “to the admiral or other commanding officer of the fleets or ships of his Britannic Majesty” in New York harbor. It stated that Congress had received evidence that Conyngham, “a citizen of America,” had been mistreated by the British and, in the name of Congress, demanded “that good and sufficient reasons be given for this conduct” or that Conyngham be immediately released. Congress resolved to retaliate against equivalent British prisoners if no action were taken. A reply, 23 July, came from John Marr, secretary of the British commander in chief, and was read in Congress on 29 July. It denied the charges of mistreatment and, treating Conyngham as a criminal and a British subject rather than an American prisoner of war, informed the Congress that Conyngham was to be sent to England “to receive that punishment from his injured country which his crimes shall be found to deserve.” , 16: 844, 849–50, 895; , 259.
2. Space left blank in manuscript.
3. Thus in manuscript.
4. Captain Conyngham did not wait for congressional action to end his imprisonment. In November 1779 he tunneled his way out of Mill Prison, Plymouth, and escaped to the Texel, Holland. Unfortunately, the ship on which he returned to America was captured by the British, and Conyngham was returned to confinement until his exchange in 1781.