AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR - MOLESWORTH, Richard.

£6,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Manuscript subsistence receipt signed. Revealing a crucial moment in the aftermath of Saratoga, this 1778 receipt documents the transfer of £56,000 from New York to support General Burgoyne's imprisoned Convention Army in Boston. The receipt was signed at a delicate point for the British Army. In the summer of 1777, General William Howe succeeded in taking Philadelphia, but in October a separate force under John Burgoyne was forced to surrender to Horatio Gates following the two battles of Saratoga in the autumn of 1777. Subsequently, the Convention Army, named for the treaty of surrender, was marched to Boston where they were held prisoner. Burgoyne was permitted to leave for England in April 1778, but his army remained in captivity until the end of the war. This immense sum of £56,000, perhaps equivalent to £9,500,000 today, was sent to Burgoyne to feed his starving army. The Battles of Saratoga represented the turning point of the Revolutionary War, winning the assistance from France, "which was the last element needed for victory" (Morgan, pp. 82-3). The receipt was signed by Richard Molesworth (1737-1799), a longstanding deputy paymaster in the War Office. Molesworth is briefly mentioned in a letter to Howe on 10 April 1778, where the need for money to support General Burgoyne and his army in Boston is discussed. Richard was the brother of the Robert 5th Viscount Molesworth, who inherited the title from his cousin Richard Nassau Molesworth, 4th Viscount Molesworth, who d

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