Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4
The Attorney General sends his Complim. to Genl. Gates1 & informs him that there are a no. of Witnesses on board the Cartel agt. Simon Baxter2 whom the Grand Jury have indicted of knowingly uttering Counterfeit money; that by the order of Law no testimonies to be can be taken before a civil majestrate to be used in a criminal trial, that if the tryal of Baxter was put off by the honble. Court at the his motion to accomodate him with a Witness 30 miles off—that if the Cartel sails before that time the Goverment will lose the benefit of the Witnesses on board her & a great villain may escape punishment—that he should personally explain this matter to Genl. Gates but his engagements will not admit & wishes the Cartel may be detained till that time.
Gen. Horatio Gates (1727–1806) was a native of England and first came to North America as a captain in the British army in Nova Scotia. He later returned to England but in 1773 settled in Virginia, where he was made lieutenant colonel of a Virginia regiment. He joined the American cause in the Revolution, served actively in the army, and by 1777 was president of the Board of War. Shortly after the date of this letter, Gen. Gates was put in charge of the army at Providence, and at different times was in command of the Northern Army and of the Southern Department (Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, 12:370–380).
RTP prosecuted the case of State v. Simon Baxter, of Alstead, N.H., yeoman, for uttering a false $8 bill of credit, before the Feb. 1779 session of the Superiour Court of Judicature in Suffolk County. Baxter was found 79 guilty, fined £90, assessed treble damages amounting to £7.4s., and sentenced to sit on the gallows for one hour with a rope tied around his neck and to suffer six months imprisonment (Superiour Court of Judicature Minute Books, Suffolk County, Feb. 1779. Massachusetts Judicial Archives, Boston, Mass.).