Board of Admiralty to John M. Nesbitt and John Nixon, 12 April 1780
Board of Admiralty to
John M. Nesbitt and John Nixon
FC (NA: PCC, Marine Committee Letter Book, fol. 278).
April 12th 1780
Gentlemen1
Congress having impowered and directed this Board to call upon the Several Agents for A settlement of their respective Accounts relative to the Continental Prizes you are therefore requested to furnish the Board with an Account of the disposition of all such Prizes under your Agency.2
I am Gentlemen Your Obedt Hble sert By Order
John Brown Sec:
1. Continental agents, Philadelphia. John Maxwell Nesbitt (ca. 1730–1802) was the senior member of a firm of merchants. John Nixon (1733–1808) served not only as a continental agent but also from 1776 to 1778 as a commissioner of the Navy Board, Middle Department.
2. On 14 August 1780 the Board of Admiralty recommended to Congress that Nesbitt and Nixon be discharged as continental agents, since the Board “have not been able to induce them to exhibit their accounts” (Journals of the Continental Congress, XVII, 743–44; NA: PCC, No. 13, fol. 80).