Circular letter to all his Majesty's Governors, inclosing a printed copy of a Proclamation for a General Thanksgiving.

[From P. R. O. B. T. Plantations General, No. 40, Ent. Book L., p. 171.]

To Fras Bernard Esq' Governor of New Jersey.

Sir.

It having pleased Almighty God to give signal Success to His Majesty's Arms, both by Sea and Land, particularly by the Defeat of the French Army in Canada, and the taking of Quebec; and His Majesty having thought fit, in Acknowedgement of so great Blessings, to appoint a day of Publick Thanksgiving for the same throughout Great Britain; We herewith inclose to you His Majesty's Royal Proclamation for that purpose; and it being His Majesty's Pleasure, that the like Publick Thanksgiving should be solemnized in all His Majesty's Colonies in America, which are so particularly interested in these happy Events; We do hereby signify to you His Majesty's Commands, that you do, as soon as possible after the Receipt hereof, appoint a proper day for that purpose, to be observed throughout the Province under your Govern! with such Solemnities as are suitable to so great an Occasion.

We are, Sir,

Your most obedient most humble Servants;

Nov 13th 1759.

DUNK HALIFAX
JAMES OSWALD.

SOAME JENYNS.

W. G. HAMILTON.

A like Letter was wrote to all His Majesty's Gov'

in America.

Officers of the New Jersey Regiment in the French War, 1758, 1759.

[From Book C2 of Commissions, in the Secretary of State's Office, at Trenton.]

A List of Officers in the New Jersey Regiment augmented to 1000 men.' The Commissions were given in the common form by the Honble John Reading Esq' President &c dated in March & April 1758,

The two rosters given herewith are entered together, and apparently in 1759. In 1758, "New Jersey, instead of raising reluctantly 500 men, doubled that number." -Gordon's Hist. of N. J., 131. The Act of April 4, 1758, provided that a sufficient number of men, whites or well affected Indians, "should be raised as with that part of the Regiment which then remained, would complete one thousand effective men."-Allinson's Laws, 216. The New Jersey Regiment had been sent out at the beginning of the French War, in 1755, under command of Colonel Peter Schuyler (Allinson's Laws, 204; Gordon's N. J., 119; N. J. Archives, VIII., Part 2, 104), and on his capture at Fort Oswego, with a part of his Regiment, August 14, 1756 (N. Y. Col. Docs., X., 444; Wynne's British Empire, II., 65), such of the Regiment as remained at large fell to the command of Captain John Parker.-N. Y. Col. Docs., X., 591. Colonel Parker and the remainder of his troops (301 officers and men) having been made prisoners at Fort William Henry on August 9, 1757, they were paroled on condition that they should not serve for eighteen months against the French, and consequently they came home.-Wynne, II, 71-3; Whitehead's Perth Amboy, 132; N. Y. Col. Docs., X., 617, 624. Col. Schuyler and Col. Parker were thus both disqualified from taking command of the Regiment as "augmented" in the spring of 1758, and hence it was, doubtless, that John Johnston was commissioned Colonel of the New Jersey troops sent to Canada in 1758. The organization was known as "Col. Johnston's Jersey Regiment" at the disastrous attack made by the British and American soldiers on the French at Ticonderoga, July 8, 1758.-N. Y. Col. Docs., X., 732. Col. Johnston was a son of John Johnston, of Monmouth County [born

Note they are not placed in the above List according to Seniority and are all that came to my knowledge.

1691, died 1732], who was a son of the noted Dr. John Johnstone, of Perth Amboy. Col. Johnston's commission bears date March 10, 1758. He was second in rank on the Oneida Station the next year, and is said to have been killed by a cannon ball at Fort Niagara in the course of the war.-Whitehead's Perth Amboy, 71–2.

Some notices of other officers of this regiment may not be amiss. Thomas Shaw was a captain under Col. John Parker in the unfortunate ambuscade made at Sabbath Day Point, July 26, 1757, and was killed at Ticonderoga, July 8, 1758.-Penn. Archives, III., 203; N. Y. Col. Docs., X., 732. Samuel Hunt was a captain at Sabbath Day Point, and was reported among the killed (Penn. Archives, III., 203), but in the following spring he is commissioned Major, as above, and subsequently became Lieutenant-Colonel, under Col. Peter Schuyler. (See next roster.) He was Colonel of the Regiment in 1761 and 1762. (N. J. Analytical Index, 360, 366.) Lieutenant Solomons, doubtless the John Salmon mentioned above, was reported killed at Sabbath Day Point; also Lieut. McDaniel, probably the William McDonald who figures above as Captain in the ensuing spring.-Ib. Was this the Captain McDonald who so gallantly led the attack on Fort DuQuesne (Pittsburgh) in September, 1758?-N. Y. Col. Docs., X., 902. William Winds was born at Southold, L. I., in 1727 or 1728, and removed at an early age to Morris County, N. J., where he was a prominent character until his death, in 1789. He was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel in the New Jersey Continental troops, in 1775, and two years later was made Brigadier-General. A full sketch of this remarkable man, by the Rev. Dr. J. F. Tuttle, will be found in Proceedings N. J. Hist. Soc., May, 1853; also in Dr. Tuttle's "Annals

List of Officers in the New Jersey Regiment.

Peter Schuyler, Col. & Capt.'

Samuel Hunt, Lieut. Col. & Capt.
William Douglass, Major & Capt.

John Riley
Zeph Luse

of Morris County," 18, and in "Centennial Collections of Morris County," 73. See also Gen. W. S. Stryker's Roster of Jerseymen in the Revolutionary War, 15, 65, 350. William Douglas held the rank of Captain in the Sabbath Day Point fiasco, and was wounded at Ticonderoga.-Penn. Archives, III., 203; N. Y. Col. Docs., X., 732. Silas Newcombe was a resident of Cumberland County, and was a member of the Revolutionary Committee of that County, in March, 1775, but nevertheless had the temerity to drink "East India tea in his family," "in open violation of the Third Article of the said Association," and to declare that he would continue to do so, whereupon it was decided to break off all dealings with him." A week later he confessed, in writing, his error and asked pardon for his great offence. He was commissioned Colonel in 1776, and in 1777 rose to the rank of Brigadier-General of Militia.-Minutes Council of Safety, 1775-6, 93, 95, 551; Stryker, ut supra, 64, 335, 350. Elias Dayton was one of Elizabethtown's most prominent citizens, and was a Brigadier-General in the Revolution.-Ib., 63, etc.; Hatfield's Elizabethtown, passim. William Maxwell, the last in the above list of Col. Johnston's Regiment, was a member of the Sussex County Revolutionary Committee in 1774, was a member of the Provincial Congress, in 1776, from the same county, and entering the military service, "commanded the 'Jersey Line' during his entire term of service as a general officer [1776–80], and took an active part in every battle in which his brigade distinguished itself."--Minutes Council of Safety, 1775-6, 19, 169, et seq.; Stryker, 64. This French War served as an admirable school for training Americans to fight for their independence twenty years later.-[W. N.]

1 In 1759 (March 15), the New Jersey Legislature enacted a law providing for the emission of £50,000 Bills of Credit, to raise and equip 1,000 men, to join in the grand final campaign to conquer the French forces in America.-Allinson's Laws, 224. Col. Peter Schuyler having been exchanged, November 1, 1758 (N. Y. Col. Docs., X. 883-4), was again called to command the New Jersey contingent at the front. This officer stands out conspicuously as one of the most gallant, distinguished and picturesque in the military annals of New Jersey. Probably the fullest account of his career may be found in Winfield's Hudson County, 536; see also Smith's New Jersey, 493; N. J. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, I., 53, 58, 178, 179; N. Y. Col. Docs., X., 776. No time was lost in officering the regiment. The commission to Elias Dayton "to be Lieutenant of a company of New Jersey troops, in Col. Peter Schuyler's Regi

ment," was signed by Governor Bernard March 19, 1758, just four days after the passage of the law authorizing the raising of the regiment.-N. J. Analytical Index, 351. Among those reported killed at Sabbath Day Point, July 26, 1757, was Griffis (Penn. Archives, III., 203), possibly referring to him who was afterwards Ensign Thomas Griffin, in Col. Johnston's Regiment, and Lieutenant in Col. Schuyler's Regiment in 1759. William Shute served as Captain and Paymaster in the New Jersey troops from 1775 to the close of the Revolutionary War.—Stryker, 72, 355. There was an Ensign Ogden among the Jerseymen surrendered at Oswego. -N. Y. Doc. Hist., II., 326.-[W. N.]