To John Jay from Robert Troup, 15 May 1777
From Robert Troup
Albany. May 15. 1777.—
My dear Sir,
The Day after I arrived your Letter, to the General, came safe to Hand. He is pleased with the Contents, and doubts not you will do every Thing in your Power to promote the Good of the service.—1
Our Remoteness from Continental Congress will frequently oblige us to ask the Assistance of your Legislature. This, I am confident, will be readily granted if they possess that Spirit which marked the Proceedings of your Late Convention.
The General has read your Constitution with Care and Attention— He really venerates it—and thinks it preserves a proper Line between Aristocracy on the one Hand, and Democracy on the other—
Since I saw you we have recd. an Account that Cap. Whitcomb, who commands three Companies of Rangers, and who last Year killed BGen. Gordon, has brought to Ticonderoga one Captain and thirteen British Soldiers & Tories. The Officer is expected here every Hour— After he is examined I shall communicate the Particulars.—2
Matters in this Quarter, I think, wear a favorable aspect. We have near 8000 Men at Ticonderoga, and a Surgeon of the Hospital there, who came to Town a few Days ago, says there are only 14 sick— There is no Prospect of the Enemys attacking us very soon, for it appears they are as much, if not more embarrassed than the Army under Genl Howe.
I congratulate you on the Intelligence a French officer brings, who lately passed thro Fish-Kill on his way to Congress.— We are led to place some Confidence in it from the Declaration of a Number of Gentlemen who conversed with him.— They say he left a Fleet with 12000 Men on Board, near the Mouth of the River StLawrence, which was to proceed to Quebec with all Expedition—and that another was to sail from Brest, shortly after he left it, with 8000, but its Destination was not known. Should this be the Case GBritain must & will fall like Lucifer—never to rise again—
Yesterday I went to Dr Livingstons3 to beg the Favor of his dining with the General; but he excused himself because Mrs Livingston had been riding—was somewhat fatigued, and had a slight Fever. She, I understand, is in a fair Way of recovering her Health, tho at present she is rather weak and low.—
I cannot conclude without returning you my sincerest Thanks for the great & many Favors you have from Time to Time conferred upon me— Be assured I shall always retain the most grateful Sense of them, and never shall lose an Opportunity of making every Return in My Power.
Be so kind as to present my best Respects to Mrs. Jay & Miss Katy. Tell the former to kiss her little son for me the first Time she sees him, and the latter, I shall mention in my next the Success I have met with in getting her the striped Cambrick she desired.— I am, my dear Sir, your much obliged, and huble Sert—
Rob Troup
ALS, NNC (EJ: 7172). Addressed: “The Honorable / John Jay Esq / Kingston.” Endorsed.
1. Shortly after resigning his commission in the 4th New York Regiment in March 1777, Troup was named an aide-de-camp to Horatio Gates, newly appointed commander at Ticonderoga. In April Troup joined Gates at Albany, and in the first week of May 1777, he was sent to Fishkill to seek supplies for the northern army. Frustrated by the destruction of stores at Peekskill by British raiders, Troup then journeyed to Washington’s headquarters at Morristown, N.J., on the same mission. He returned to Albany on the evening of 12 May. , 31–33; Gates to Washington, 13 May 1777, DLC: Washington Papers, series 4. Gates’s letter to the New York Convention of 9 May 1777 was referred to JJ and Gouverneur Morris the following day. Their draft reply was approved by the convention on 12 May and dispatched the same day. , 1: 921, 927.
2. Capt. Benjamin Whitcomb of Bedel’s New Hampshire Rangers was at Gates’s headquarters as late as 24 May 1777, but Gates’s dispatches contain no further details of Whitcomb’s capture of the British troops and Tories. Patrick Gordon, a lieutenant colonel of the British 108th Foot, held the rank of brigadier general in America. Gordon was fatally wounded in an ambush near St. Johns by an American party from Ticonderoga in the summer of 1776. , 5: 466n.
3. John Henry Livingston (1746–1825), who held a divinity degree from the University of Utrecht. His wife, Sarah Livingston (1752–1814), daughter of Philip Livingston, was Sarah Jay’s cousin.