To James Madison from Joseph Howell, 24 January 1791
From Joseph Howell
Office of late Army Account⟨s⟩
Philada. Jany 24 1791.
Sir
The Certificate alluded to in the letters herewith returned is not to be found in this Office. It either never was lodged by Mr Dunscomb or in the late movement from New York has been misplaced. The Certificate, I conceive, cannot be of material use to Capt Spotswood1 in his application for Commutation for with or without it must prove fruitless on a[ccoun]t of his receiving a pension from the U. S.
J Howell
FC (DNA: RG 93, War Department, Revolutionary War Records). Enclosures not found.
1. John Spotswood (d. 1800) of Orange County attended Eton during the 1760s and married Sally Rowzee in 1771. A captain of the Virginia Continental line, he was wounded and captured at Germantown in 1777. He later served as a justice of the peace (, 1st ser., II [1893–94], 113–20; VIII [1899–1900], 190; , XXV [1917], 180–89; , p. 512; , IV, 122).