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French and Indian War

Maryland Governor Horatio Sharpe to Frederick Calvert, September 2, 1754

extracted from

Correspondence of Governor Horatio Sharpe, Volume I, 1753-1757, edited by William Hand Browne
(Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1888).


[Sharpe to Calvert.]
2d of Septr 1754. transmitted by Capt. Creagh.

Dr

Herewith you will be pleased to receive Duplicates of all the Laws which were passed in the two Sessions of Assembly that were held at Annapolis in Feby & May last & I have also by this same Conveyance transmitted Copies of all the Laws being twelve in number which were enacted in the last Session at Annapolis concluded the 25th of July as every one of them are only reviving & continuing Acts except that for his Majestys Service of which I before transmitted a Copy with some Observations in a Letter thereon; there does not seem to be any farther room for noticing or remarking upon those that are now inclosed. The short time that has intervened since I writ last, has not afforded new matter for another Lettr but lest there should seem to be any Contrariety between a Clause in my last & a Paragraph in my Lettr of Feby I beg leave to observe that when I intimated in that first Lettr that the Sum of Money ordered to be sunk by the Law concerning Ordinaries passed in 1746 might in a year or two be expected to be discharged by the said Law, I had received such information from the Gentn whom I consulted thereon, but in reality found by the Scrutiny & Examination which the Lower House have since made & Submitted to me, that the Gentn had been out three or four years in the Calculation. I have not yet heard any thing of Mr Copp mentioned in His Ldps Instructions of January, nor of the Revd Mr Rosse of whom you spake in your favour of April the 17th. Affairs with respect to the Disturbances on the back of these Provinces are in the same Situation they were in at the time of my last writing, the French are strengthening themselves & building several Forts on Monongahela & Ohio, & we learn they have begun one on Green Brier river which is actually within Augusta County in Virginia & is pretty well inhabited by English Settlers. The French it seems claim to the very Fountain Heads of Monongahela, Youghyoghgyina & all the Streams flowing into Ohio or Mississippi, so that their Pretensions extend to a great number of Acres within this Province which I am afraid no Person will be prevailed on to take up till the French be obliged to relinquish the Forts they have already built on those Rivers. Pensilvania will lose a vast quantity of Land if their incroachments are not suppressed & prevented, yet nothing have they contributed toward supporting the Cause; but New York Govt has voted for the Govr of Virginia's use five thousand Pounds, & it is expected the Assembly of Virginia which is now sitting will pass an Act for 20,000 or 30000 at least; in that Case I hope with our Assistance Govr Dinwiddie will be able to make a vigorous Effort before Winter & repulse these Troops, whose Progress has already strangely terrified our back Inhabitants, many of whom conceive themselves in immediate Danger. Our Company is near half completed & I purpose soon to order them out to the Frontiers of Frederick County, where Colo Cressap has contracted to supply them with Provisions. I have given the Command thereof to one Capt. Dagworthy a Gentn born in the Jerseys, who commanded a Company raised in that Province for the Canada Expedition since the miscarriage of which he has resided in this Province upon an Estate which he purchased in Worchester County; I have placed under him 3 Lieutenants & I hope our Company will not in any respect make the worst Appearance on any on the Expedition. Inclosed are Seconds of four Bills of Exch. Sent with my last to the amount of 125 which I hope you will safely receive, & I will for the future send my Bills rather before the Day appointed if possibly I can, lest the Delay of them should at any time put you to inconvenience which would give very great uneasiness to Sr &c

I have taken the Liberty to direct for his Ldp a pipe of the best Madeira wine that I could procure, wch I hope his Ldp will do me the hounour to accept & you will be kind enough upon the Captains Application to let him have the inclosed Bill of Lading to get it signed & returned me. H S.


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