To George Washington from Captain William Scott, 17 April 1777
From Captain William Scott
Boston April 17. 1777
Sir
I Was appointed by your Excellency to raise a company of rangers1 & according to a provision made by the honourable the continental congress, I was impower’d to offer each man so to be inlisted six pounds bounty, a suit of cloaths annually, & 100 acres land should they serve the term of three years, but upon coming to new England where I purposd to raise my company, I find a much larger bounty offer’d to soldiers, some towns giving £56 & some £60 L[awful] m[oney] bounty, your Excellency must immediately see the great disadvantage I labour under, so great that altho I have used the utmost vigilance and taken the greatest pains I see no possibility of compleating my company—I should have waited on your Excellency in person but my being unwell at present prevents it—a good opportunity now by Colo. Lee I thought it my duty to imbrace, I hope your Excellency will contrive some method by which I may stand upon an equal chance with the others of your recruiting officers.2 I am with the greatest respect Your Excellen[c]y’s most Obt & most hble St
William Scott
ALS, DLC:GW. Tench Tilghman docketed this letter: “Boston 17. Apl 1777 from Capt Scott and 26th with orders to return the recruiting Money to Genl Heath or the Paymaster Genl if he cannot raise a Company.” That letter has not been found.
2. Scott on 10 June 1777 petitioned the New Hampshire general assembly to “grant an additional bounty for the encouragement of those who shall ’list in [his] sd Company.” A committee reported on 14 June that having considered Scott’s petition, it could not “think of any probable method of raising his Company, but what will be attended with insuperable Difficulties.” The assembly then “Voted, Not to give any State Bounty to the said Capt. Scott’s Company” (, 8:586). Scott eventually succeeded in raising his company and joined Col. David Henley’s Additional Continental Regiment.