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[Read June 11, 1776. Referred to the Committee on Prisoners.]
Northampton Jail, May 11, 1776.
SIR: I am very sorry my situation is such as to oblige me to apply to you as a prisoner. I can remember a time when I could have esteemed you a friend and acquaintance; you no doubt will recollect it, in 1769, when I frequently had the pleasure of paying my respects to you in Boston; however, not to trespass too much on your time, I must beg to inform you that the purport of this letter is to seek a redress of grievances from you and the gentlemen of Congress, (though you in particular,) from whose kind desire of having lenity shown prisoners I have every reason to expect it.
My parole to Governour Cooke, of Rhode-Island, in whose Government I was taken, restricted me to the township of Northampton, without any clause whatever as to the time of my going out or coming in. My situation seemed by no means agreeable to the inhabitants, who, as I am induced to suppose, though have no positive proof, encouraged our common sailors to attack us; by which means I nearly lost my life, having been assaulted three times by people whom I had never before seen; and upon application to Major Hawley for redress by civil law, was informed that we were not entitled to the benefit of it, as prisoners. However, some time after the Committee published an advertisement,
It rests, then, with you, sir, to release me from my place of confinement; and as I have a very near relation and many friends in Hartford, I beg you will please to direct that town for my confinement. And should you be pleased to put me on the parole that the prisoners there are, I shall most strictly comply, and shall be happy in acknowledging my sincerest thanks for my enlargement to Mr˙ Hancock, and the honourable members of the Continental Congress.
In hopes of obtaining your consent to my request, I have the honour to subscribe myself your most obedient, humble
servant,
H˙ L˙ STANHOPE.
To the Honourable John Hancock, Esq.
It would not be doing justice to General Washington, were I to omit mentioning his friendship to me, instanced in part of two letters I received from his Excellency, Letter from Henry E. Stanhope to the President of Congress
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would not attend to it, as then the whole would be put in jail. These were encroachments, which, from the tenor of my parole, I by no means thought myself obliged to comply with; and well knowing if I refused I should be committed a close prisoner to jail, and fearing lest somebody should neglect to comply with this last resolve, and to avoid the miserable abode of felons, I absconded, and, unfortunately for me, was retaken, and committed close prisoner to jail, without even the liberty of a yard to walk in an instance of cruelty never before practised to any officers, prisoners of war, in any civilized nation, much less to the only son of the heir to one of the first earldoms in the British realm; add to this my cloak and utensils, which are seized from me.
which indicate to me the Committee' s encroachment on us.
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