To George Washington from Major General Philip Schuyler, 22 May 1777
From Major General Philip Schuyler
Philadelphia May 22d 1777
Dear Sir
Mrs Greaton, who has the Leave of Congress to go into New York, provided your Excellency approves, was to have been accompanied by a Colonel Muellevain1—I am just now informed that she has taken James Fisher of this City with her, a notorious Tory, and capable of giving more Intelligence to the Enemy than any Man in it2—I have informed Mr Hancock of this and he has advised me to communicate it to you, that if Fisher accompanies Mrs Greaton, he may be prevented from proceeding. I am very respectfully Dear Sir Your Excellency’s most obedient hble Servant
Ph: Schuyler
LS, DLC:GW. Schuyler wrote a similar letter to Gen. Israel Putnam on this date (NN: Schuyler Papers).
1. For Congress’s resolution of 19 May permitting Rachel Marks Graydon to go to New York City, see Hancock to GW, 20 May. William McIlvaine (1748–1787), who had become colonel of the 5th Regiment of Bucks County militia on 6 May, was “an old and particular friend, and indeed connexion of the [Graydon] family” (, 244).
2. James Fisher, a Philadelphia merchant whom Alexander Graydon describes as “a Scotchman, and relation of my grandmother,” escorted Mrs. Graydon as far as Princeton where he was arrested as a Loyalist by a detachment of cavalry. Mrs. Graydon, who had “been wholly ignorant of the political tenets of her companion,” was allowed to proceed to New York (ibid., 243–44). Fisher apparently was discharged from his arrest a short time later (see , 2:515).