1783 Col. JOSEPH HART Letter Signed to John Nicholson Comptr General Philadelphia

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Aug 24, 2019

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• Lot Description
  American Revolution
  Colonel JOSEPH HART Writes to John Nicholson Comptroller General at Philadelphia on Fiscal Accounting
  June 24th, 1783-Dated Revolutionary War Autograph Letter Signed, "Joseph Hart L;B;C." (Lieutenant of Bucks County), Buck's County, Pennsylvania, Letter Addressed to John Nicholson Comptroller General, at Philadelphia, Very Fine.
  A well written Letter in regard to various Accounting and reconciliation issues that Colonel Hart had been in charge of overseeing, and of the other two assistants who were also being paid for their work. This rather standard Letter content wise is 1 page (written), measuring 8" x 6.5" on a double-sheet of laid period paper, fully measuring 16" x 8" open, then folded at center to four pages with an Integral Address Transmittal Cover boldly addressed to: "Mr. John Nicholson Comptrol(ler) General - Philadelphia." Docket reads: "Letter from Col Hart Bucks County - June 24th. 1783".
  
  John Nicholson was chosen one of three Commissioners of Accounts of Pennsylvania in 1781, and in the following year the legislature abolished the Commission and appointed Nicholson "Comptroller General" of the State with very broad powers. For the next twelve years Nicholson was the virtual "fiscal dictator" of Pennsylvania, and under his management the state was the first to be restored to financial stability after the turmoil of the Revolution. He later became Land business partners with Robert Morris, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, also know as the and later Land speculator.
  
  Colonel Joseph Hart's (1716-1788) Battalion of the Flying Camp from Buck's County, Pennsylvania Militia was organized in 1776. (A Flying Camp was a military formation employed by the Continental Army in the second half of 1776, during the American Revolutionary War. In military strategy, a flying camp, or camp-volant, was a small but strong army of cavalry and dragoons, to which were sometimes added foot soldiers. Such an army was usually commanded by a lieutenant general, and was always in motion, both to cover the garrisons in possession, and to keep the adversary in continual alarm.)
  
  That Buck's County Battalion of the Continental Army was in the Battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776. His inscription upon his Gravestone reads: "Revolutionary War Veteran; aged 72 years; "Here lieth the Remains of Joseph Hart, Esq, who departed this life the 25th of Feb 1788, Aged 72 Years, also the remains of Elizabeth his Wife, who departed this life the 19th of Feb 1788, aged 74 years."
  
  Joseph Hart's Military Service joined on July 20, 1775, was elected Colonel of the Second Battalion Bucks County, Pennsylvania. In 1776 he was Commander of a regiment of the Bucks County Militia serving in New Jersey. On July 9th, 1774 appointed a committee to represent Bucks Co., as well as was part of the committee to fight the American Revolution against Britain
  
  John Nicholson was a financier and land speculator who was elected Comptroller General of Pennsylvania from 1782 to 1794. He was impeached for mismanaging state funds for his own gain in 1793 but was found not guilty.
  On January 16, 1775, a Committee of Safety was organized in Bucks, Pennsylvania, of which Joseph Hart was (chosen/elected) Chairman, and John Chapman as Clerk, in which was reposed, for the time being, the legislative and executive authority of the county. During the Winter of 1775 that Committee of Safety collected 252.19s.18d. to relieve (and support) the people "of the town of Boston."
  
  The "Society of Friends" were against the war from the beginning, because strife and bloodshed were opposed to their religious tenets, but the authority of the fathers could not restrain the sons. A number of their young men gave open sympathy to the cause of the colonies, and some entered the military service. Among the latter we find the well-known names of Janney, Brown, Linton, Shaw, Milnor, Hutchinson, Bunting, Stackhouse, Canby, Lacey, and others.
  
  The meeting "dealt with" all who forsook the faith, and the elders of Richland were visited with ecclesiastical wrath for turning their backs upon King George. We must do the Society justice, however, to say that it was consistent in its action, and that the same censure was launched against the martial Quaker, whether he entered the ranks of the king or the colonies. Nevertheless, the society did not forget the needs of charity, and down to April 1776, they had already distributed 3,900, principally in New England, and Falls monthly meeting authorized subscriptions for the suffering inhabitants of Philadelphia.
  
  When Congress authorized an Army, John Lacey, an Orthodox Quaker of Buckingham, in January of 1776, raised a company of 64 men for Wayne's Regiment, whose first lieutenant was Samuel Smith, of Buckingham, Michael Ryan, the second, and John Bartley, and John Forbes, ensigns. About the same time, among those who entered the military service from this county, were Robert Sample, a scholarly man from Buckingham, a Captain in Hubeley's (sic) (Adam Hubley's) Tenth Pennsylvania regiment, a good officer who served to the end of the war, Augustus Willet, who had served with Montgomery in Canada, in 1775, a captain in Bull's regiment, Samuel Benezett, major in the Sixth Pennsylvania regiment, and Alexander Grayden (Graydon), of Bristol, a captain in Shee's regiment, who was made prisoner at Fort Washington. Colonel Robert Magaw, of the Sixth Pennsylvania regiment, recruited a number of his men in this county, and the roll of his killed and captured at Fort Washington gives many well-known names. (1) Adjutant Johnson, (2) of Buckingham, and Lieutenants Matthew Bennett and John Erwin, of this county, were among the captured at Fort Washington, and were kept prisoners several years.
  
  Four militia regiments were organized in the county immediately after the (Revolutionary) war commenced, and in the Summer of 1776, Bucks sent a battalion of 400 men, under Colonel Joseph Hart, to the Flying camp near Amboy, whose adjutant was John Johnson, surgeon, Joseph Fenton, Jr., quartermaster, Alexander Benstead, and Captains John Folwell, William Roberts, William Hart, Valentine Opp, and John Jamison.
  
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