To George Washington from the Continental Congress Secret Committee, 2 May 1777
From the Continental Congress Secret Committee
In Secret Committee Philada May 2d 1777
Sir
We are obliged to trouble your Excellency with the enclosed letter for Mr Boudinot containing a remittance of Six hundred pounds Sterlg for the use of the Continental Prisoners in New York as we do not know Mr Boudinots address & we have left the letter unsealed for your perusal,1 We preferred Mr Franks’s bills as they are drawn on the Contractors in England, & may probably be the more readily negotiated in New York.2 With the greatest respect & esteem We are Your Excellencys Obt hble serts
Robt Morris
Richard Henry Lee
Wm Whipple
Phil. Livingston
LS, in Robert Morris’s writing, DLC:GW.
1. The committee on this date wrote Elias Boudinot: “By order of Congress in consequence of a recommendation from His Excy. Genl. Washington we enclose herein to your care a sett of Exchange . . . on Arnold Nesbitt, Adam Drummond and Moses Franks Esqr. London, No. 12, at 30 days sight for Six Hundred pounds sterling . . . This remittance is for the use of Continental Prisoners in New York . . . we refer you to such instructions as His Excellency Genl. Washington has given or may give you” ( , 7:20, n.1).
2. Moses Franks (1718–1789), a brother of Philadelphia merchant David Franks, was a partner in the London firm of Nesbitt, Drummond, & Moses Franks, which held a lucrative contract for supplying the British army in America.