October 11, 1783 .

Whereas it appears to this Court, by the report of a committee of both Houses, appointed to adjust and settle accounts between Capt. Benjamin Gould, 1 of Lancaster, and the men under his command, that there is a balance due to this Commonwealth, from the said Capt. Gould, of four hundred eighty-one pounds four shillings and one penny:

Resolved, That the Attorney General be, and he hereby is directed and required, to commence a process against the said Capt. Benjamin Gould, of Lancaster, in the county of Worcester, for the recovery of the aforesaid sum of four hundred eighty-one pounds four shillings and one penny, and to persue the said prosecution to final judgment and execution, provided the 273 aforesaid Capt. Gould does not pay the said sum into the public treasury, on or before the first day of November next.

And it is further Resolved, That the Secretary be, and he hereby is directed, to furnish the Attorney General with attested copies of this resolution, and all such papers in his office as may be necessary to afford evidence in the course of the said process.

Printed as Chapter 46 [Sept. 1783] in Acts and Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts [1782–1783] (Boston, 1890), 761–762.

1.

Benjamin Gould (1751–1841) was a native of Topsfield, Mass., for which town his father was serving in the Provincial Congress at Watertown when he died suddenly in 1778. Benjamin served in several different companies during the Revolution and took command of Capt. Samuel Flint’s division at Stillwater in 1777 when Flint was killed. After his marriage in 1781, Gould lived at Lancaster until 1805, then returned to Topsfield and later moved to Newburyport, where he died (Benjamin Apthorp Gould, The Family of Zaccheus Gould of Topsfield [Lynn, Mass., 1895], 64–65, 91).

October 22, 1783 .

On the petition of the selectmen of the town of Franklin, and the representation of others, setting forth, that Captain Nathan Thayer commanded a company of men inlisted to serve three months in the Continental service, in the year 1780; and that the said Thayer has since made up his muster roll according to order, and received out of the public treasury the whole sum due to the men borne on the said roll, but refuses to pay the amount due to each man, and retains a part in his own hands, to the prejudice of the said men, and of such towns as by agreement are intitled to a part of their wages.

Whereas the said Captain Thayer was by order of Court notified to appear on Friday the seventeenth instant, at ten o’clock in the morning, to render an account of the expenditure of the money he received out of the treasury, in pay­274ment of his muster roll, and the reasons for retaining any part of the money due to the men borne on the said roll in his own hands; but the said Thayer has neglected to render the account and reasons required by the said order, and it does not therefore appear what is the balance justly due to the men borne on the said roll:

Therefore Resolved, That Josiah Stone, Esq;1 Lemuel Kollock, Esq; and Mr. John Baxter, be a committee to settle and adjust the accounts, and ascertain the balances that may be still due to the men borne on the said roll, which was lodged in the Treasurer’s office, and paid to the said Thayer; and that the said committee give timely notice to the said Thayer, and to the men borne on the said muster roll, and to the selectmen or town treasurers of such towns as may be interestd, by virtue of any agreements made with any of the men as aforesaid, of the time and place when and where they shall meet in order to make such settlement, that he and they may be present; but if either of the parties shall neglect to appear, the said committee, or the major part of them, are to proceed ex parte, and find the balances in the best way they can, and report the same to the General Court, on the second Wednesday of the next sitting of the said Court, in order for payment of the balances that may appear to be still due on the said rolls.

And it is further Resolved, That the Attorney General be, and he is hereby directed, to commence a process against the said Nathan Thayer, for the balance that shall appear to be due to government, agreeable to the settlement that shall be made by the committee aforesaid, unless the said Thayer shall immediately pay the same into the hands of the said committee, for the use of those to whom it shall be found due, or to the Treasurer of this Commonwealth, within one month after the second Wednesday of the next sitting of the General Court.

Printed as Chapter 81 [Sept. 1783] in Acts and Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts [1782–1783] (Boston, 1890), 781–782.

1.

Josiah Stone (1724–1785) represented Framingham at the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and was a state senator from 1780 until his death in 1785 (Providence Gazette, Apr. 23, 1785).