Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 3
The purport of this is to acquaint you that I have been at Col: Grubb’s Furnace where I proved Two of their 12 lbrs. with 8 lb. of powder & two Shot. boath stood. Mr. Bastead had proved one of them with 12 lb. of Powder & one Shot before my arrvel. Last Saturday I left their when they had 27 twelve pounders cast, the Majore part of which looks Extreemly well & cast very Smooth a quality pecular to that Metal. An accident happened that they Brock the Gudgin of their water wheel or elce they would had several others ready. Before I left it they cast a new gudgin so they will soon be able to get a boreing again & I endevored to prevail on the Cleark to get one made at some Forge which he promissed me he would, for I have but a poor oppinion of cast Iron for such kinde of work. They have excessive hard work in boreing out their coers. I have told him Bustead of Meteirals to make them with so as they can be got out with the greatest ease which I make no doubt but he will try.
They go on with the greatest spirit & I make no doubt but will soon accomplice their contract. The greatest fault in their cannon is they are 286very large being 17 3/8 Inches at the Touchole & 11 3/4 Inches at the Muzle & I soppose will weigh about 30 C. They requested me to apply to you for a resolve of congress for Liberty to employ a number of the prisoners of war (not exceeding twelve) which if you should obtain please send it via Lancaster to be forwarded by Mathias Slough1 or Wm. Henry2 to cornwall Furnace. Working people are very scarce at present about the Furnaces’s. I remain with much Esteem your very Hble. Servt.,
P.S. When I was in Philada. last I saw some Double-headed Shot in the State-house yard the Barrs of which were large enough to over load any gun, they being 2 1/2 or 3 Inches square, And as Messrs. Rutter & Potts3 have an order to make some for Congress I have herewith sent you the size of the Barrs &c. as I calculated them for sd. R: Potts. You’ll see they are in a just Ratio with the Shot. That is they are 21/2 Diameters of the Shot long in the clear & 1/5 of a Diameter Squar. The greatest length that ever was alowd was 3 Diameters. I am &ca.
Matthias Slough was coroner and a vendue master in Lancaster, Penna., where he operated a public house under the “Sign of the Swan.” He was elected to the provincial House of Representatives in October 1773 and discontinued innkeeping in April 1776 but continued dealing in dry goods there. Slough, in partnership with George Ege and Michael Hillegas, owned the Martic Forge and Furnace near the village of Colemanville, Lancaster County, Penna. By 1792 Slough was bankrupt, and his shares were assigned to creditors (Pennsylvania Gazette, Oct. 6, 1773, Apr. 17, 1776; Forges and Furnaces in the Province of Pennsylvania [Philadelphia, 1914], 141, 142).
William Henry, a merchant of Lancaster, Pa.
Thomas Rutter and Samuel Potts, both descendants of long-time area furnace owners and operators, themselves owned and operated Warwick Furnace in Chester County; in 1778 they bought Reading Furnace (Forges and Furnaces in the Province of Pennsylvania, 74; Cremers, Reading Furnace, 1).