1. Worried that his son William Walter Parsons would be sought as a parole violator, Parsons wrote to his old friend William Walter, former rector of Trinity Church in Boston and a Loyalist then residing in New York. That letter, written at Redding on 29 April, reads in part: “Since my last to you I have seen General Silliman and am happy to hear from him that the representation my son made me of his escape, and the motives of it were just, and that neither he nor his friends were under any honorary engagements for his continuing a prisoner, that I suppose there will be no question on the subject of his coming out, as those facts undoubtedly give him the same right to escape as any other prisoner who never had been paroled” (Hall, Life and Letters of General Parsons description begins Charles S. Hall. Life and Letters of Samuel Holden Parsons: Major General in the Continental Army and Chief Judge of the Northwestern Territory, 1737-1789. Binghamton, N.Y., 1905. description ends , 285–86).

A letter of the same date from Parsons to Maj. Gen. Robert Howe reads in part: “My son fortunately made his escape from New York the 18th inst., where he had been a prisoner about a month. He brings me a particular state of the works in and about the city, the number of regiments in the city and the general state of their army, navy &c, in and about New York, which does not so materially differ from the number and condition before known to you as to need repetition; another embarkation was taking place which he says he heard Mr. Chamier (Genl. Burgoyne’s Commissary) say was designed for Canada. In the course of his imprisonment, though he received many civilities from some gentlemen there and from the British officers in the city yet the Refugees had address and influence enough to procure an order for his close confinement and other rigorous treatment which I think is not to be suffered from the hands of any man. Those persons who were immediately instrumental in procuring those orders will probably soon be on the coast of Long Island where they may be taken. I should be particularly obliged to you to give him an order to take the command of the small guard at Stamford and Horseneck when the boats are not wanted for the purpose of procuring intelligence, and to make incursions on to the Island for the sole purpose of taking off their small guards and seizing the persons of those refugees if they fall in his power” (Hall, Life and Letters of General Parsons description begins Charles S. Hall. Life and Letters of Samuel Holden Parsons: Major General in the Continental Army and Chief Judge of the Northwestern Territory, 1737-1789. Binghamton, N.Y., 1905. description ends , 286; see also Parsons to David Sproat, 30 April, in Hall, Life and Letters of General Parsons description begins Charles S. Hall. Life and Letters of Samuel Holden Parsons: Major General in the Continental Army and Chief Judge of the Northwestern Territory, 1737-1789. Binghamton, N.Y., 1905. description ends , 288–89, and notes 3 and 4 below).

2. In his journal entry for 12 April, New York City printer Hugh Gaine wrote that a privateer “came in from Tybee and brings an account that the Royal Army had invested Charlestown, but no further particulars worth Notice” (Ford, Journals of Hugh Gaine description begins Paul Leicester Ford, ed. The Journals of Hugh Gaine, Printer. 1902. Reprint. [New York] 1970. description ends , 2:84).

3. This intelligence was erroneous.

4. William Walter Parsons spoke with Peter Paumier (d. 1801), a British commissary who remained on duty in North America at least until 1783. For a notice to Paumier’s creditors following his death, see The London Gazette, 24–28 Nov. 1801.