Knox, Henry (1750-1806) to Thomas Seward
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.01152 Author/Creator: Knox, Henry (1750-1806) Place Written: Verplanck's Point, New York Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 22 August 1781 Pagination: 2 p. : address ; 31.3 x 19.6 cm. Order a Copy
Written by Brigadier General Knox to Captain Seward. Orders Seward to proceed to New Windsor and to bring all the garrison carriages for 18 pounders. Says if there are not 10 there, he is to take some of the French 18 pounder carriages that Colonel Crane had placed on a ship lying off New Windsor. Also wants 3 carriages for English 24 pounders. Needs them to be at Verplanck's Point by tomorrow. Says General McDougall will assist him in this mission with men and boats. Captain Mitchell will also help him. Expresses confidence in Seward's ability carry out the mission.
Thomas Seward (1740-1800) was born at Boston. Before the Revolution he was a hatter in Boston and a member of Paddock’s renowned Artillery Company. The following sketch for his service in the Revolutionary War appears in Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (13:1021): Thomas Seward, Captain, Col. John Crane’s (Artillery) Regt.; Continental Army pay accounts for service from Jan. 1, 1777, to Dec. 31, 1780; also, return of officers for clothing; receipt for said clothing, dated Boston, May 26, 1778, and signed by Col. Crane; also, muster roll for May, 1778, dated Camp Valley Forge; commissioned Jan. 1, 1777; also, return of officers for clothing, certified at Boston, Sept. 25, 1778; also, list of officers who were to continue in the service, as returned by Thomas Vose, Captain and Adjutant, dated Boston, Jan. 19, 1781; also, receipt given to Capt. Lieut. Knowles, signed by said Seward and others belonging to Col. Crane’s (3d Artillery) Regt., for subsistence money for June 1782.
He served until June 1783, and became a Brevet Major 30 September 1783. After the war he resumed his trade of hatter; later was an officer of the United States Customs, 1796-1800; was termed ‘gentleman’ in administration papers settling his estate. He was an Original Member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati from 1783 until 1800, and was a member of the Standing Committee of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati 1793-1797. Thomas was granted a Bounty Land Warrant 29 January 1790. Seward's obituary appeared in The Columbian Centinel 29 November 1800.
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