Sir, Concord 18th: December 1777.

Mr. Heman Allen of Salisbury1 has transmitted to me the inclosed copy of a letter from Mr. Bowdinot,2 Commissary General of Prisoners for the American Army; wherein he is pleased to signify, that he is willing to accede to my being immediately exchanged for Colol: Ethen Allen, in case the matter could be Accomplished by my writing to Newyork.

The experience I have already had of the inefficacy of epistolary endeavours, convinces me that obstructions from Governor Trion3 on that subject, require the exertions of personal industry to combate them. For the purpose of negotiating that business, as well as matters of interesting concern to my family in Europe, which have suffered exceedingly by the length of my Captivity; I made application to the Honorable Council at Boston for leave to go to Newyork upon my Parole of honor, from whence I should immediately return, incase the best exertions in my power to accomplish this exchange, should contrary to my expectations prove ineffectual. But as the Honorable Council at Boston are pleased to say.— ”Considering the resolutions of Congress respecting Colol: Campbell, they do not think it proper at this time to grant his request.” I have taken 434the liberty of addressing you, from the hope, that you may do me the honor to remove an objection which seems to have chiefly arisen from a just delicacy to the Orders of the Honorable the Contintal Congress.

I am perswaded Sir, it was never justly pretended that an improper conduct on my part as a prisoner of War, gave birth to the resolution of Congress for my being taken into close custody; and that necessity alone, from not having an Officer of General Lee’s distinction in their possession, occasioned a retaliation of circumstances on the persons of Six Officers of the British Army inferior to him in point of Rank.

Since that period, the captor of General Prescott4 has fully removed that Act of necessity; and there is reason to presume, that the Justice and Candour of Congress, meant their resolution of my being held in close custody, should not only cease, but that an extension of my former Parole as a prisoner of War, should be duely granted to me on terms as honorable as I had ever enjoyed it. If such is the case, I have reason to apprehend, the Honorable Council at Boston, are not fully informed of the circumstance; and from that cause, have been pleased to decline their compliance to a request, in which the interest of Colol. Allen is equally concerned. The repeated instances of Similar Obligations granted to the field Officers of the American Army, who have obtained permission to retire on Parole of honor from Newyork, seem on the principle of common reason and Equity, to justify my claim to such an indulgence.

On this presumtion Sir, I have used the freedom of offering the subject of my request to your notice. Should your Ideas suggest that the resolution of the Honorable Congress respecting my confinement, ought not to operate to my disadvantage after the Captor of General Prescott; so long at least, as my conduct as a Prisoner of War, stands irreproachable, your interposition with the Honorable Council to that effect, and any act of kindness which may enable me to prosecute an Exchange for Colol: Allen, will at all times be acknowledged as a very singular favour confered upon Sir Your most Obedient and Most humble Servant,

Archd: Campbell Lieut Colol: 71st: Regt.

RC ; addressed: “The Honble: Robert Treat Payne Esqr.”; endorsed.

1.

Heman Allen (1740–1778) with his brothers Ethan, Ira, and Zimri and Remember Baker formed the Onion River Land Company in 1772 to speculate in land in the Champlain Valley of what eventually became Vermont. By the outbreak of the Revolution they had established a strong 435presence in the region, although Heman never moved from his home in Salisbury, Conn. (John J. Duffy, ed., Ethan Allen and His Kin: Correspondence, 1772–1819 [Hanover, N.H., 1998– ], 1:xxxi, 85).

2.

Elias Boudinot (1740–1821), a lawyer from Elizabethtown, N.J., served on the local committees of safety and correspondence as well as in the provincial congress. In 1777 he served as commissary-general of prisoners, and then in the Continental Congress (1778–1779 and 1781–1783). He went on to serve in the Federal Congress until 1795 when he became director of the U.S. Mint ( ANB ).

3.

William Tryon (1729–1788), a British army officer, served as governor of North Carolina (1765–1771) and of New York (1771–1780) ( ANB ).

4.

Richard Prescott (1725–1788) was the British general in charge of occupied Newport, R.I. On the night of July 9/10, 1777, Maj. William Barton (1748–1831) and 40 volunteers from his regiment captured General Prescott. Prescott was held prisoner until May 1778 when he was exchanged for Charles Lee, which is said to have been Barton’s original intention (Mark M. Boatner, Encyclopedia of the American Revolution [New York, 1966], 61–62, 886).