Notes on John Jay’s Mission to Connecticut for the Secret Committee, 22–24 July 1776
Notes on John Jay’s Mission to Connecticut for the Secret Committee
[Salisbury, Connecticut, 22–24 July 1776]
22 July. Set off from Pogkeepsie this afternoon & lodged at John Carpenters
23d. Reachd. Salisbury this afternoon—Saw Messrs. Fitch & Norton the Superintendants of the Iron Works, inform’d ’em of my Business & requested them to meet me at Doctr Wheelers tomorrow Morng.1 The weather being too bad to inspect the State of the Works &c.
24. Those Gent[lemen], met me acc[ordin]g to Appointmt. we visited the works—They furnishd me with a Ret[urn]. of the Cannon Shot &c. there & told me that they could not deliver me any without Orders from Govr. Trumbul or Gen. Washington—I determaned therefore as the former was nearer than the other to set out for Lebanon—
Wrote to Gilb. Livingston advg him of the above, mentg the getting Trux & Shot cast at Mr. Livingstons, & tht Benson’s Ferry here wd. expedite getting the Cannon down, & tht he meet me here next Saturday or Sunday &c.2
AD, NNC (EJ: 12777). Tr attached to transcript of JJ’s report of 7 Aug. 1776, NN: Bancroft (EJ: 2821).
1. Lot Norton and Dr. Lemuel Wheeler were prominent Salisbury Patriots. Both served with Hezekiah Fitch and Joshua Porter on the town committee appointed to enforce the Continental Association in December 1774. Historical Collections Relating to the Town of Salisbury (2 vols.; Salisbury, 1913), 1: 141, 143.
2. In his letter to Gilbert Livingston, misdated 24 “June,” JJ reported: “The Superintendants . . . cannot part with them [the twelve-pound cannon] without orders from Govr Trumbul—I shall set out for Lebanon immediately. There are no Trux at the Works. They advise me to get them made at Mr. Livingstons, but say if directed by Govr. Trumbull they will set about it write to him on the Subject—I shall most certainly I think get some of these Cannon—[his] being here would expedite getting them down—tell him so, & if convenient let him meet me here next Saturday or Sunday by which Time I expect to return. . . . There is a few Ton of Shot here—it would be proper to get a Quantity made by Mr. Livingston—They will not have Time here—The Ships in Connecticut ready are yet to be supplied.” Colonel Robert Livingston, proprietor of Livingston Manor and a first cousin of Gilbert Livingston’s father, operated ironworks and a foundry on his estate. JJ to Gilbert Livingston, 24 [July] 1776, ALS, NNgWHM (EJ: 4043); see also Gilbert Livingston to Robert Livingston, 25 July 1776, NHpR: Livingston-Redmond Papers.