ALS, DLC:GW.

For the background to this letter, see John Carlile to GW, 23 Dec. 1790, n.1. John Kilby Smith (1753–1842) was born in Boston and served as an officer of Massachusetts troops throughout the Revolution, enlisting as an ensign in May 1775 and rising to the rank of captain before leaving the army in November 1783. After the war he established himself as a merchant in Falmouth, Maine, and later in New Gloucester, Maine (Whittemore, Massachusetts Cincinnati Memorials, description begins Bradford Adams Whittemore. Memorials of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati. Boston, 1964. description ends 562–63).

GW also received an indirect application for the office of militia inspector for Maine from John Hobby (1749–1802), a native of Reading, Mass., who served as an officer in the Continental army from 1777 to 1784, rising to the rank of captain. After the war Hobby settled in Portland, Maine. Hobby was apparently acquainted with Tobias Lear and met him while Lear was in Portsmouth, N. H., on his honeymoon in the spring of 1790. On 12 Jan. 1790 he wrote to Lear, reminding him of their meeting and soliciting “your influence with the President, so far, as may be perfectly agreeable to your feelings, for the appointment of Inspector to the Militia for the district of Maine, or to such other office, as he shall think best calculated to carry into effect in this quarter, the intentions of Congress when their Military system shall be compleated.” Hobby noted that he had also applied to the secretary of war. With his letter Hobby enclosed a brief memorandum describing his military service, noting that he served as a brigade inspector after Yorktown (DLC:GW). Hobby was appointed U.S. marshal for the District of Maine in 1793 and served until 1798 (Whittemore, Massachusetts Cincinnati Memorials, description begins Bradford Adams Whittemore. Memorials of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati. Boston, 1964. description ends 261–63).