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Timothy Parker and others (prisoners) to Governour Trumbull

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TIMOTHY PARKER AND OTHERS (PRISONERS) TO GOVERNOUR TRUMBULL.

Whitby Prison-Ship, New York, 9th December, 1776.

SIR: I make no doubt but your Honour long before this hath been apprised of our being prisoners in New-York. That our present situation is most wretched, your Honour need not doubt, which I likewise hope you will soon be assured of from men of undoubted veracity. There are more than two hundred and fifty prisoners of us on board this ship, (some of which are sick, and without the least assistance from physician, drug, or medicine,) all fed on two-thirds allowance of salt provisions, and all crowded promiscuously together, without distinction or respect to person, office, or colour, in the small room of a ship' s between-decks; allowed only to walk the main deck from about sunrising till sunset, at which time we are ordered below deck, and suffered only two at once to come on deck

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to do what nature requires, and sometimes we have been even denied that, and been obliged to make use of tubs and buckets below deck, to the great offence of every delicate, cleanly person, as well as to great prejudice of all our healths.

These, sir, with many other miserable circumstances too lengthy and tedious to enumerate, are the just portrait of our present situation. In short, sir, we have no prospect before our eyes but a kind of lingering inevitable death, unless we obtain a timely and seasonable release.

From your Honour' s well-known character of humanity and justice, we humbly hope that your authority will be exercised in procuring us an exchange. As Lord Howe hath set at liberty all his prisoners taken in the merchant service, but refuseth (as we hear) to exchange those taken under arms but by a like number taken in arms also; therefore, from your Honour' s clemency, candour, and benevolence, we cannot but hope and expect (as we were in the service of our country, and cannot be deemed as from a common privateer) that such an exchange will be put forward, and in due time accomplished, if possible. In the mean time we rest in confidence that your authority and influence will be exerted in our behalf; and beg leave, with the utmost respect, to subscribe ourselves your Honour' s most obedient, humble servants,

TIM' Y PARKER,
WILLIAM DAVALL, Jun˙,
JOHN TUCKER,
WILLIAM SWAN,
THOMAS COFFIN,
JOSEPH HOLLY,

To the Honourable Jonathan Trumbull, Esq.

These belong to the schooner Spy, and were taken in the ship Hope. They are now prisoners with me; the others I suppose to be on board some of the men-of-war, but what ships or where I cannot tell.