Proceedings of the Committee for the County of Balitmore

v4:1711

At a meeting extraordinary of the Committee, May 5, 1775:

Present: Samuel Purviance, Chairman, John Smith, William Smith, William Buchanan, Andrew Buchanan, William Spear, James Sterrett, James Calhoun, Robert Alexander, Thomas Harrison, William Neill, John Boyd, Clerk.

The Committee received a Letter from the Committee of Correspondence at Philadelphia, by Mr˙ Thomas Henderson, a Member of the Committee of Monmouth, in New-Jersey, requesting us to supply Mr˙ Henderson with a quantity of Gunpowder for the use of the Monmouth Committee.

Mr˙ Henderson represents, that they are altogether destitute of Powder, and cannot procure any from New-York or Philadelphia; that they expect to be called out to the assistance of New-York immediately, having been applied to for that purpose by the Committee of that city; and from some recent transactions of a Man-of-War and Tenders, who have been observed to be carefully sounding their coasts to discover, as it is believed, a proper place of landing, it is apprehended an army will be landed in their country; that, therefore, they are in a peculiar, dangerous, and critical situation, and stand in need of the speediest supply of Powder.

From this representation, the Committee were of opinion that, for the safety of the common cause, it is necessary and right to supply the Committee of Monmouth with five hundred weight of Gunpowder, for the present, and as they have a prospect of receiving one thousand or one thousand five hundred weight of that article from the Committee of Georgetown, they are encouraged to promise Mr˙ Henderson five hundred weight more, if they shall succeed in their application to Georgetown.