Description:

Revolutionary War

Revolutionary War New York surgeon expelled for misappropriation of soldier’s pay

 

 

DONALD CAMPBELL, Autograph Document, Copy of Expulsion Resolution of John Williams, February 8, 1779, Albany, New York. 1 p., 8.25" x 5.75". Some foxing and chipping on edges but does not affect text..

 

 

Complete Transcript:

 

 

State of New York, In Senate 8th         1779.

            The crimes of which John Williams Esqr stands Adjudged by the Resolution of this Senate of the 29th Janry last hold him up as intirely destitute of Integrity Evidenced by his unjust Missapplication of Military Authority His Flagrant peculation on the United States of North America His Dishonest Attempts to deprive the Militia under his Command of their Just pay and his after Attempts to cover Injustice by undue Application of a great part of the Monies which he had received from the Pay Office of the said United States upon false & fraudulent Pay Abstract fabricated and attested by himself  In this Accumulated & Just view of his Conduct he Appears to Senate as Wholy Unworthy to Represent the good People of this State in the Dignifyed & Important place of a Senator thereof—

Resolved Therefore that the said John Williams Esqr be & he is hereby Expelled this House

            A true Copy from the Minut                Robert Benson Clark

Copy at Mr Duncan Campbell’s Scotch Patent 4th Decr 1784 by Donald Campbell

 

 

[File Note:] Resolution of Senate of NY /79 against J Williams

 

 

 

Donald Campbell was the quarter master general for the New York department from July 1775 to June 1776. He was arrested by Brigadier General John Sullivan and court-martialed in July 1776. He was sentenced to be cashiered, and the proceedings were sent to General George Washington for approval or disapproval. In August 1776, Washington sent them to President John Hancock of the Continental Congress for their consideration. Congress read the proceedings and sent them to General Philip Schuyler, commander of that department, for approval or disapproval. After receiving no reply from Schuyler to this referral or another one in October 1776, Congress, meeting in Baltimore in January 1777, asked General Horatio Gates to decide the matter. Gates determined that Campbell did not deserve to be cashiered, and Congress restored Campbell to his rank and pay in February 1777. However, Campbell did not return to active duty.

 

 

James Williams was the colonel for a Charlotte County, New York, militia regiment, and a member of the state senate, when he was accused of submitting false muster reports and payrolls and drawing pay for soldiers that he then kept. He was also accused of holding unauthorized courts-martial and keeping the fines imposed on the soldiers. He was later exonerated and promoted to brigadier general of the militia. And he was back in the New York Senate by 1782.

 

 

Campbell may have collected this information from the New York Senate as part of his ongoing effort to clear his reputation of wrongdoing and settle his quartermaster accounts.

 

 

Donald Campbell (d. c. 1802) served as a lieutenant and quartermaster in the French and Indian War and was put on half pay in 1763. In 1775, he gave up that half pay to accept appointment by the Continental Congress as deputy quartermaster general for the New York department with the rank of colonel. He accompanied Brigadier General Richard Montgomery’s 1775 expedition to Canada and briefly took command after Montgomery was killed. After his court-martial sentence was overturned by Congress, Campbell did not return to duty but spent most of the war disputing with Congress over the settlement of his quartermaster accounts.

 

 

John Williams (1752-1806) was born in England and studied medicine in London. He immigrated to America in 1773 and settled in New York. He served as a member of the New York Provincial Congress from 1775 to 1777. He also served as surgeon of state militia forces and colonel of a Charlotte County militia regiment. He was a member of the New York State Senate from 1777 to 1779, when he was expelled for fraud and theft. Later exonerated, he resumed his political and military careers. He served in the New York Stage Assembly from 1781 to 1782 and the New York State Senate from 1782 to 1794. He represented New York in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1795 to 1797.

** The next lot in this sale is related to the entire affair **

 

 

 

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