Rare 1781 VERMONT Revolutionary War Navy Related Payment in Continental money!

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Aug 24, 2019

Set Reminder 2019-08-24 12:00:00 2019-08-24 12:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Autographs, Colonial Currency, Political Americana, Historic Guns https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/early-american-history-auctions/autographs-colonial-currency-political-americana-historic-guns-4347
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• Lot Description
  American Revolution
  Sylvester Rhodes Revolutionary War Privateer March 10, 1781 Payment for Conveying the Charter fees of Navy to Vermont for me
  March 10, 1781-Dated Revolutionary War Period, Manuscript Document Receipt Signed, "Nich(olas) Field," Conveying the Charter fees of Navy to Vermont per war(ant).", Very Fine.
  This original Revolutionary War Period Manuscript Document measures about 6.5" x 2.25". It is well written and easily readable with light traces of prior hinge mount traces at each corner tip. Overall, boldly and clearly written in deep rich brown ink on period laid paper. Being an unusual payment receipt in "Continental money" and mentioning noted American Privateers. It reads, in full:
  
  "March 10, 1781 - Received of Silvester (sic) Rhodes (its symbol) "$"19 Continental money it being his part of a Ballance (sic) Due to me for Conveying the Charter fees of Navy to Vermont per war(ant). - (Signed) Nich(olas) Field".
  
  Nicholas Field is listed as having been taken prisoner by the British of the Privateer Ship "Carolina" was placed into The Old Mill Prison at Plymouth in England on either the charge of 'treason' or 'piracy'.
  
  Sylvester Rhodes (1742-1782), mentioned for this payment, was the Sailing-Master of the American Privateer "Chance". Rhodes was descended from one of the early settlers of New England, named Zachary Rhodes, who came from England to Plymouth, Massachusetts at an early day, and subsequently settled, with his wife Joanna, daughter of William Arnold, one of the original settlers of the State, at Pawtuxet, Rhode Island. He entered the public service at an early period of the American Revolutionary War and he continued to serve his country, sometimes at sea, at others ashore, until his death in 1782. Rhodes was with American Revolutionary War Continental Navy Commander Commodore Abraham Whipple on his first cruise. For Commodore Whipple, it proved to be one of his most incredible achievements that he destroyed the British Customs Schooner "HMS Gaspee.
  
  Vermont actually played an important Naval role during the Revolutionary War, including the Battle of Lake Champlain. After the British Campaign of 1777, the British controlled Lake Champlain for the duration of the Revolutionary War. The British naval fleet provided transportation and support for raids into the Champlain and Mohawk Valleys from 1778 to 1780, and served as supply vessels for the British posts at the northern end of the lake. When the Revolutionary War ended in 1783, the British fleet was laid up at St. John's, Newfoundland, except for the Schooner Maria, which continued to patrol the northern end of the lake. More research should be accomplished on this intriguing Vermont Naval related document.
  Sylvester Rhodes was with American Revolutionary War Continental Navy Commander Commodore Abraham Whipple on his first cruise. For Commodore Whipple, it proved to be one of his most incredible achievements that he destroyed the British Customs Schooner "HMS Gaspee."
  
  The Gaspee Affair was a significant event in the lead-up to the American Revolution. HMS Gaspee was a British Customs Schooner that had been enforcing the Navigation Acts in and around Newport, Rhode Island in 1772. It ran aground in shallow water while chasing the packet Ship Hannah on June 9 near Gaspee Point in Warwick, Rhode Island. A group of men led by Abraham Whipple and John Brown attacked, boarded, and torched the ship.
  
  The event increased hostilities between the American colonists and British officials, following the Boston Massacre in 1770. British officials in Rhode Island wanted to increase their control over trade-legitimate trade as well as smuggling-in order to increase their revenue from the small colony. But Rhode Islanders increasingly protested the Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts, and other British impositions that had clashed with the colony's history of rum manufacturing, maritime trade, and Slave trading.
  
  This event and others in Narragansett Bay marked the first acts of violent uprising against the British Crown's authority in America, preceding the Boston Tea Party by more than a year and moving the Thirteen Colonies as a whole toward the war for Independence.
  
  Rhodes, as Prizemaster, carried into Boston the First "Prize" a British Ship captured by that officer in the military operations in Rhode Island, he also served with honor and usefulness.
  
  He was subsequently one of the eight Prize-Masters on board the Privateer General Washington, which sailed in May, 1780; and he was at the head of the list of Prize-Masters on board the Privateer Stlitariiu, when she sailed from Boston and was captured and carried to New York, in 1781.
  
  In 1782, he was Sailing-master on board the Privateer Chance, of which his brother-in-law, Daniel Aborn, was the commander; and, with the crew of that vessel, he was again carried to New York, and confined on board the British Prison Ship the Jersey.
  
  When the crew of the Chance was exchanged, it is supposed that Sailing-master Rhodes was among those invalids on Blackwell's Island who were left in captivity,3 and his brother-in-law, Captain Aborn-, subsequently renewed his exertions to obtain his release, as he had done that of his shipmates.
  
  As Rhodes was an officer in the army, as well as on the Privateer, the enemy refused to release him as they had released his associates- man for man ;' and not until his father had secured the interposition of a family in Newport whose connections in New York were friendly to the Government, was any progress made in effecting his discharge, notwithstanding the very feeble state of his health.
  
  At length, through the kind offices referred to, his parole was secured, and Captain Aborn proceeded to New York to convey him to his family ; hut so far had disease performed its work, he never saw, in life, the home and family which were so dear to him. He died on board the cartel, while on her passage through the Sound, on the third of November, 1782; and his body having been taken nshore at New Haven, it was interred at that place.
  
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