Warfare in North America, c. 1756-1815 | British Perspectives
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Title:
PRO 30/55/044/042 - Autograph Letter to M Morgan
Date:
1782
Language:
English
Date from:
1782-07-06
Date to:
1782-07-06
Section:
2 : PRO 30/55 - British Army Headquarters Papers
TNA Shelfmark:
PRO 30/55/044/042
Full Description:
New York. Joseph Crew, Secretary for Indian Affairs to Maurice Morgan[n]. Crew, after several conversations with a particular unnamed Indian, reports the following. He [the Indian interlocutor] says much about peace, religious and Christian duties following his education and ordainment as a minister at Dartmouth College, New England [a place well known for the true spirit and zeal in the cause of rebellion]. He has been preaching to the Stockbridge tribes and other Indians under the care of Mr Kirkland who was educated in the same pious manner and as a consequence got the Oneida Indians to join the Rebels. As these missionaries are unable to draw a salary allowed by the Society in Great Britain to the Indian Missionaries, Mr Simons's principal business is to find a reward for what he calls his Christian labours. Having heard of the money given by the people of England to Whitaker, Wheelock and the Mahican Indian preacher Ocum he proposes to seek a passage to England under the pretence of bringing civilisation to the savages, and there to get his salary fixed and to obtain other charitable donations. Joseph Crew adds that he has put him off for the time being as there is no good that can arise from such a venture. Crew adds that he hears that the Oneida Indians have retired from amongst the inhabitants and gone back to their former settlement. Also that the Indians of Stockbridge and the New England tribes who were with the Patriots have quit the service and are now home. He opines that if the Commander-in-Chief were to send a favourable message forgiving their former behaviour they will remain at home, attend to their own affairs and have nothing more to do with the Americans [notwithstanding Mr. Kirkland's endeavours to keep them in their service, who with many others have made them believe it was the King's troops from Detroit who murdered the Moravian Indians on the Ohio.] Later he comments that he knows several instances of kindness shown by the Connecticut Indians, particulalrly the Nahautick [Nehantic] tribe, to the King's persecuted subjects, and believes that any favourable report this man may make will have a good effect.
TNA Link:
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C16349679
Format:
Handwritten
DOI:
10.1163/37612_WNA_PRO_PRO_30_55_44_42