Meshech Weare to George Washington, 2 April 1781
From Meshech Weare
Hampton falls [N.H.] Aprl 2d 1781
Sir
I am honord with the Receipt of Your Excellencys favor of the 12th Ulto, Respecting sending forward the Recruits, Raisd in this State.1 Our General Assembly being Siting, I immediately laid your Letter before them, whereupon they gave immediate Orders, to the Officers Appointed to Receive the new Recruits, at the Several places of Rendezvous in this State, to forward them to the Army as Speedily as possible.2 I am not Able to inform your Excellency, what number of Recruits are rais’d in the State, As the Mustermasters have not as yet made their Returns; One of the Officers Appointed to Receive And send forward the men, has informd me, that he had forty Ready to march, And expected a like number more would be Ready in a few Days. And I am in hopes, that the Orders now given by the General Court, will have their effect, that the whole may be Speedily sent forward, tho’ I cannot but Express to your Excellency, my fears that we shall fall short of the number Orderd to be Raisd, by Reason of a Defection of a great number of Towns in the Counties of Cheshire, & Grafton, in the western parts of the State, who have of late denied the Jurisdiction of this State, And Are negotiateing with Vermont (so Calld) to joyn with them.3 I take the liberty to inclose to your Excellency, the Act of this State, for Raising the Men, And no Exertions will be wanting On the part of the State, to Compleat Our Quota:4 And I will inform you, what number are Raisd As soon as the Mustermasters make their Returns.
with Respect to Cloathing it will be impossible to procure it before the Recruits must March But Our Board of war have express Orders to provide And forward it as Speedily As Possible.5 I have the honor to be with every Sentiment of Esteem And Respect Yr Excellencys Most Obt Humle Sert
Meshech Weare
ALS, DLC:GW; ADf, MHi: Weare Papers.
1. See GW to Weare, 12 March.
2. The New Hampshire legislature accepted a committee report on 29 March regarding GW’s letter. The report recommended that Weare “write to the officers appointed to receive the new recruits at the several places of Rendezvous in this State, to forward them to the army as fast as possible, agreeable to General Washington’s request, & that said recruits be informed that this State are taking measures for speedily procuring & sending forward to the army their necessary cloathing.” The report further advised that the state’s “Board of War be directed to procure” the clothing (, 893).
3. Delegates from several towns in Cheshire County, N.H., attended a convention at Walpole, N.H., on 15–16 Nov. 1780 and appointed a committee to “confer with gentlemen from any parts of the territory, called the New-Hampshire grants, concerning the jurisdiction of the said grants.” After consulting with representatives from Grafton and other New Hampshire counties, the committee concluded that “a union of the inhabitants of that territory” was “indispensably necessary” (, 2:278–79). During a convention held in Charlestown, N.H., in January 1781, representatives for a number of New Hampshire towns favored uniting with the government of Vermont. A committee attending the convention held at Cornish, N.H., on 5 April announced that towns located in Cheshire, Grafton, and other counties had agreed to the union with Vermont. On the same date, the Vermont legislature adopted a resolution to appoint a committee to “wait on the Convention and inform them that the Union is agreed on by a major part of the towns in this State … and that this Assembly will wait to receive the members returned to sit in this Assembly” (, 2:280–96, quote on 295). These actions were part of the longstanding jurisdiction disputes between New York and New Hampshire concerning Vermont (see Joseph Marsh to GW, 3 Nov. 1780; Thomas Chittenden to GW, 15 Jan. 1781; and Jacob Bayley to GW, 26 Feb.).
4. Weare enclosed a broadside that presented “An Act for the raising & compleating this State’s Quota of the Continental Army.” Adopted on 12 Jan., this measure was enacted to raise 1,354 “able-bodied effective Men, including Non-commissioned Officers and Privates, to serve in said Army during the War, or for three Years, including those already in said Service from this State.” It apportioned the number of soldiers to be raised across five counties: Rockingham, 536; Strafford, 213; Hillsborough, 277; Cheshire, 230, and Grafton, 98 (DLC:GW; see also , 884). The act met the requirement that Congress had fixed in the new arrangement of the army (see General Orders, 1 Nov. 1780).
5. GW replied to Weare on 15 April.