Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

HEAD QUATERS, May 5th, 1778.

After Orders.

It having pleased the Almighty Ruler of the Universe propiciously to Defend the Cause of the United American States and finally by raising up a powerful friend among the princes of the Earth to establish our liberty and Independence upon lasting foundations, it becomes us to set apart a day for Gratefulness acknowledging Divine Goodness & celebrating the importent event, to benign Interposition. The several Brigades are to be assembled for this purpose at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning, when their Chaplains will communicate the inteligence contained in the POSTCRIPT of the PENNSA GAZETTE of the 2nd ins and offer up a thanksgiving & deliver a Discourse suitable to the occasion at after 10 o'clock a Cannon will be fired which is to be a signal for the Men to be under Arms the Brigade Inspectors will then inspect their dress and Arms from the Battalions according to the instructions given them and announce the Commd' Officers of Brigades the Battalions are formed. The Brigadiers and Commandants will then appoint the field Officers to comm" the Battalions, after which each Battalion will be ordered to Ground their Arms; at after 11 o'clock a second Cannon will be fired, a signal for the march, upon which the several Brigades will begin their march, by wheeling to the Right, by plattoons, & proceed by the nearest way to the left of their Guard, in the new position, this will be pointed out by the Brigade Inspectors; a third signal will be given upon which there will be discharged 13 Cannon; when the 13th has fired, a running fire of the Infantry will begin on the Right of Woodford's and continue through the whole front line. It will then be taken up on the left of the 2a line & continue to the Right. Upon a signal given, the whole Army will Huzza Long live the King of France; the Artillery then begin again, and fire 13 rounds; this will be succeeded by a 2a discharge of the Musquetry, in running

fire, Huzzas and Long live the friendly European powers, then the last discharge of 13 pieces of Artillery will be given, followed by a gen' running fire, and Huzzas to the American States; there will be no exercise in the morning, the Guards of the Day will not be relieved till after the Fuge of Joy, when the Brigade Majors will march them out to the Grand parade the Adj" then will tell off their Battalions, in eight platoons & the Command'g officers will reconduct them to their Camps marching by the left. Major Gen' Lord Stirling will command on the Right, the Marquis De la Fiatte on the Left, and Baron De Kalb, the 2 line; each Major Gen' will conduct the 1st Brigade of his command to its Ground, the other Brigades will be conducted by their Comms officers in separate columns; the post of each Brigade will be pointed out by the Baron Steuben's aids. Major Walker will attend Lord Stirling. Major De Pon Zonzo [Du Ponceau], the Marquis De la Fiatte; and Capt. Linfaieth the Baron De Kalb, the line is to be formed well with the interval of a foot between the files, each man is to have a gill of Rum; the Quatermasters of the several Brigades is to apply to the Adju' Gen' for an order on the Commissary of Military Stores for the number of Blank Cartridges that may be wanted.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

HEAD QUARTERS VALLEY FORGE, May 6th, 1778. Brigadier for tomorrow McIntosh. Field Officers Lt Col Mabayler & Major Ellison, Brigade Major

Inspector from Gen' Weeden's Brigade.

Brigade O.

Marshall.

Adj' of the Day tomorrow from the 7th Regt.

[blocks in formation]

COLONEL ROBERT LETTIS HOOPER

Deputy Quarter Master General in the Continental Army and

Vice President of New Jersey.

BY CHARLES HENRY HART.

THIS monograph is the result of a certain amount of inquisitiveness to learn who was "Mr. Hooper," mentioned in a letter written by Governor William Franklin, in 1771, that the writer was editing1 and of the fact that after identifying "Mr. Hooper" as Robert Lettis Hooper, Jr., no biographical notice of him could be found so that the only way to get one was by writing it. Hooper's career has been very difficult to trace, owing to there having been three, if not four, generations bearing the same name, and also from his having lived part of his life in New Jersey and part in Pennsylvania, with lightning changes from one to the other. Nevertheless, it seems odd that it has never been attempted before and that a man, who was so prominently before the people at such an important epoch in the country's history, should not sooner have had the events of his life preserved in a consecutive form, especially when there is ample material at hand. This apparent neglect may arise from the fact that, as we shall see, he left no descendants. In the Historical Society of Pennsylvania alone, there are at least sixty autograph letters from him covering his career between 1758 and 1793, the period of his business and public activities and his land speculations. Yet so little is accurately known of him that his middle name is almost uniformly printed "Lettice."

'Letters from William Franklin to William Strahan, PENNA. Mag. of HIST. AND BIOG., Vol. xxxv, p. 450.

[ocr errors]

The first of the family that we know was Major Daniel Hooper of the Parish of Christ Church and Island of Barbadoes," whose will dated October 1, "in the twelfth year of his Majesty's Reign," which was 1700, recites that the testator "being now suddenly designed off the Island," makes this his last Will and Testament etc. It seems that the precaution was a wise one, for a few months later, on February 12, 1700-01, his will was proved in Barbadoes, while ten days later, an "Inventory of the estate of Daniel Hooper of Barbadoes," was filed in New York by Captain Jeremiah Tottill as administrator. From the Will being proved in Barbadoes on Feby 12, and an Inventory, being filed in New York, as early as Feby. 22, it seems quite certain that Major Daniel Hooper died here on his visit, that his will was proved at his place of domicile and that Capt. Tottill was Administrator of the effects he left in this country.

In his Will he names four daughters: Mary, Elizabeth, Anne and Elinor and four sons: Daniel, the eldest; Robert Lettis, the second; and John and William, appoints Daniel and Robert Lettis, Executors, and adds "by way of caution and advice to my aforesaid four sons and it is my desire that so long as with convenience they may then do continue unanimous and united as well in heart as in Estate and interest, well knowing how great a strong thing and support they will be to each other when possibly separating may produce other efforts."

Daniel Hooper had evidently been in New Jersey at an earlier day, for we find that he was a member of the Governor's Council September 12, 1679, when he was commissioned one of the Justices of the Peace for the County Court at Elizabethtown and Newark, and he was again a member of the Governor's Council August 14, 1683.*

A certified copy of the will made April 19, 1722, is on record at Trenton, in Deed Book B B, p. 363.

Collection of New York Historical Society, Abstract of Wills, p. 377. New Jersey Archives Vol. xiii, p. 99 and Vol. xxi, p. 43.

Later he returned to Barbadoes, for on February 27, 1692-3, a Patent issued to "Daniel Hooper of the Island of Barbadoes, Merchant, for 648 acres in Somerset county, bounded Northeast by the Rareton river, South east by the commons, South west by the commons and the river and Northwest by the South branch of said river." He seems to have endeavored to evade the payment of "dutys" on a cargo of "Rumm," from Barbadoes by ordering it to Perth Amboy instead of to New York, in which he acted on Cartaret's declaration, that "all vessels shall be free that come and trade with East Jersey," which, however, clashed with the orders of Andros ", "putting a duty of 20/ per Hogshead on Rumm." Accordingly "the 'Ketch' was taken up to New York and made to enter there and pay the Dutys before she could carry her Rumm to New Jersey" and this case was one of the reasons given by the Attorney General, in an opinion to Earl of Bellomont, June 30, 1698, "why Perth Amboy should not be a Free Port.'

996

Whether Robert Lettis Hooper, the first of the name in this country, came with his father on his last voyage to America or was here previously I cannot tell, but on August 16, 1701, he took out a marriage license in New York to marry Mrs. Sarah Graham. Later he was the progenitor of the Sugar Trust, by having an Act passed by the Assembly of New York giving him the exclusive right to refine sugar, which was repealed in 1727, because he "neglected entirely the said manufacture." The cause of this neglect was doubtless his removal to Perth Amboy, New Jersey, whence he was nominated by the Governor, January 2, 1724-5, Chief Justice of the colony, taking his seat at Burlington, March 30, 1725, although his commission, in the New Jersey Historical Society, is not dated

'New Jersey Archives, Vol. xxi, p. 193.

Ibid. Vol. ii, p. 232.

7 New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. ii, p. 142. New York Colonial Documents, Vol. v, p. 847.

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »