HORATIO SHARPE TO WILLIAM SHIRLEY1 SIR, Annapolis Febry. 2d, 1756. Within these three or four Days I have receiv'd several Letters from the Magistrates in different parts of this Province informing me that those of his Majesty's Officers, who have been order'd hither to recruit have lately receiv'd your positive Instructions to inlist without Exception or Distinction all Apprentices and Servants that they can perswade to enter into the Service; that the Inhabitants having a great part of their Property vested in Servants oppose the Execution of such Instructions; that on such Opposition Violences have been committed, and that unless their Cause of Complaint be remov'd an Insurrection of the People is likely to ensue: The Magistrates as well as myself have and shall endeavour to prevent Mischief, but as the Officers are determin'd2 to persist, I cannot promise that the People will be restrain'd from expressing their Resentment by Actions; I think it my Duty to make this Representation to your Excellency, and hope you will not be averse to countermanding such Orders, otherwise I shall find myself under a Necessity of exerting the Power, with which I am invested to preserve the Peace of the Province. With great Regard, I am, Your Excellency's most Humble and Obedient Servant, HORO. SHARPE 3 1 P. R. O., C. O. 5, 46. Inclosed in Shirley to Fox, Mar. 8 (first letter). 2 The copy of this letter in Arch. of Md. 6, 342, reads from this point: "to persevere unless they are countermanded I think it my Duty to acquaint your Excellency with this Affair and to intimate to you my Fears and that I shall find myself under a necessity, (if a Stop be not put to such Proceedings) of making a Representation home on this subject." In response to this letter, the following was issued: "To all Officers employed in raising of Recruits for any of his Majesty's Regiments in North America. "It is his Excellency General Shirley's Orders if amongst the His Excellency General Shirley. a true Copy WM. ALEXANDER Secy. Endorsed: Copy Letter from Govr. Sharpe to General Shirley dated Febry. 2d, 1756. in Majr. Genl. Shirley's Letter of March 8th, 1756. WILLIAM SHIRLEY TO THE GENERAL COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS 1 GENTLEMEN OF THE COUNCIL AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: I am obliged to put you in Mind of the State and Circumstances of the Garrisons at Fort William Henry and Fort Edward, left there when the rest of the Forces raised for the Expedition against Crown Point were disbanded. At a Meeting of the Governors, then at Albany, with the Commissioners from the Governments of the Massachusetts and Connecticut, held there the 20th of November last, it is determined that Six Hundred Men (or such further Number as should be afterwards agreed on) should be left to defend those Forts, to be detained no longer than their respective Enlistments: The Proportion of the Massachusetts Troops to 750 Men (the Number afterwards stated,) was Two indented Servants you may have enlisted any of them are willing to return to their Masters; that you are to destroy their Attestations, provided the Masters to whom such Servants belong do furnish an able Bodied Man fit for the Kings Service, in lieu of every Servant they get back: See Arch. of Md. 31, 106. ROGER MORRIS 1 In manuscript of Josiah Willard, French Collection, Massachusetts Historical Society. hundred and thirty Six; which Number was accordingly left there and now continue in Garrison. Gentlemen, As the Time for which our Soldiers were enlisted is near expiring, I apprehend it to be of great Importance that those Men should be relieved and that the like Number of Soldiers should be raised in this Provin[ce] and sent to the said Forts without Delay; In which Affair I can do Nothing without your Assistance, I must therefore desire you would take this Matter under your immediate Consideration and make proper Provision for raising these Soldiers, that so his Majesty's Service and the Reputation and Influence of this Government may suffer no Damage by Delay. Province House Feby 4, 1756. W. SHIRLEY. ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS TO WILLIAM SHIRLEY 1 Feby. 9th, 1756. SIR, I am at last returned to this Town from a fatiguing Journey upon the frontiers, where I have been putting things into as good a posture of defence as the nature of our government will admit, and find that without some Law for the establishment of Military Discipline among the troops in the pay of the Province, a great deal of money will be expended without doing the good it otherwise would. For the Defence of our western frontiers, I have caused four forts to Be built beyond the Kitticktiny Hills, The one stands upon the new Road opend by this Province towards the Ohio, and about twenty miles from the settlements, and I have calld it Fort Lytellton, in Honour of my friend Sr George. This fort will not only Protect the inhabitants in that part of the Province, but being upon a road that within a few miles Joyns Genl Braddocks rout, it will prevent the march of any regulars that way into the Province, and at the same time serve as an advanced post or magazine, in case 1 P. R. O., C. O. 5, 46. Extract inclosed in Shirley to Fox, Mar. 8 (second letter). See 1 Penna. Arch. 2, 569. of an attempt to the westward. For these reasons I have Caused it to be built in a regular form, so that it may in little time and at a small expence be so strengthened as to hold out against cannon. About twenty miles northward of Fort Lytellton, at a place calld Aughwick, another fort is Erected something larger than Fort Lytellton, which I have taken the Liberty to Honour with the name of Fort Shirley. This stands near the great Path used by the Indians and Indian Traders, to and from the Ohio, and consequently the easiest way of access for the Indians into the settlements of this Province. Fifteen miles northeast of Fort Shirley, near the mouth of a Branch of the Juniata called Kishequokilis, a third fort is erected, which I have called Fort Granville. This Fort commands a narrow pass where the Juniata falls through the mountains which is so circumstanced that a few men can maintain it against a much greater number, as the rocks are very High on each side, not above a gun shot assunder, and thus extended for six miles, and leads to a considerable settlement upon the Juniata, between Fort Granville and where that River falls into the Susquehana. From fort Granville towards Susquehana, at the distance of fifteen miles, and about twelve from the River, another Fort is Erected that commands that country, and is intended to prevent the Indians from penetrating into the Settlements from that quarter. This I have called Pomfret Castle, and in each of these forts I have posted a Company in the pay of the Province, consisting of seventy-five men, exclusive of officers who are from time to time to detach partys to Range and scour the woods Each way, from the several forts, by which means the Indians will be prevented from falling upon the inhabitants, and these Soldiers by the next summer will become expert woodsmen, and proper rangers, to attend an army in case it should be thought necessary to march one to the westward. On the East side of the Susquehanna, between that and the Delaware, are three forts at three of the most important passes through the mountains, the Principal and only Regu lar one is at a pass calld Tolihiao, which I named Fort Henry, the others are called Fort Allen and Fort Lebanon, and between these and in the same Range, there are small Staccados erected at the distance of about ten miles from each other, and the whole are garrisond with companys and detachments from fifty to twenty men each, according as the places are situated, and are of more or less importance. The troops stationed here are to employ themselves in ranging the woods, in the same manner as those on the west side the Susquehana. Were these troops under military Discipline, I should think our frontiers well guarded, but I have it not in my Power, tho' they are regularly inlisted, to Punish an of them for want of an order from the Crown to hold Court Martials, which I believe you can supply and I propose to write to you upon that head, in case my assembly now sitting Do not pass an act to put those troops under a proper Discipline. Inclosed I send you what I have said to my assembly upon the plan of operations, which I laid before them, but am quite unable to form a Judgment of what they will do in it. If the more Northern government could undertake to Carry on the Crown Point Expedition, I have some reason to think this Province would in that case enter willingly into one against Fort Duquesne. The Regulars you favoured me with are in very good order, and are posted at the two towns of Reading and Easton, where Both the officers and men are taken good Care of to their own satisfaction, and prove a great protection not only to the towns where they are placed but to the whole Country about them. Some days ago I had a letter from Govr. Dinwiddie, informing me that in a treaty he had held with the Cherokee and Catawba nations of Indians, he had prevailed on them to take up the Hatchet against the French and their allies the Shawanese. That one hundred and thirty of them had Joynd some of the Virginia Troops, and were gone against one of the Shawanese towns upon the Ohio, and he had reason to believe they would Joyn him with a thousand |