RC (DLC); undated; in a clerk’s hand; address clipped: “Preside[…]”; endorsed by TJ as received from the Navy Department on 23 Mch. and “Humphreys to go to recieve ship timber” and so recorded in SJL.

In 1800, the United States Navy appointed Samuel HUMPHREYS of Philadelphia inspector to examine the timber procured in Georgia and South Carolina for the frames of six 74-gun ships. Robert Smith sought to rehire Humphreys in October 1801, but postponed dispatching him to Georgia when it was found that too little timber had been gathered to justify sending an inspector at that time. Smith again directed him to proceed to Georgia in March 1802, but the two men disagreed over the terms of Humphreys’s service, especially his date of hire. In June 1802, Smith approved Humphreys’s claim of $809.29 for services rendered from 25 Oct. 1801 to 1 Apr. 1802. Later in that same month, Humphreys was again appointed inspector, with a salary of $166.66 per month from the time of his departure from Philadelphia as well as all reasonable expenses (NDQW description begins Dudley W. Knox, ed., Naval Documents Related to the Quasi-War between the United States and France, Naval Operations, Washington, D.C., 1935–38, 7 vols. (cited by years) description ends , Jan.-May 1800, 140–2; Smith to Humphreys, 21 Oct. 1801, 23, 30 Mch., 23 Apr., and 10, 17 June 1802, all FCs in Lb in DNA: RG 45, MLS).