Williamsburg [Va.] 17th. June 1778
The Brig Northampton being turned over to my Department1 and your having taken the Command2 I must request you will proceed with all convenient expedition up Rappahannock River, and go to Fredericksburg, at which place you will apply to my assistant Mr. Benjamin Day at that place for your full Load of Tobacco; which I want you to get on Board with all convenient possible dispatch, after you have got your Load Complete, make the best of your way to York Town where you are to deliver your Tobacco on Board the Fair Roderick a French 50 Gun Ship lying there,3 and take his the Captain's4 Receipt for the same but you will do right to give me Notice of your Arrival at York I have not farther to observe than I wish give due attention to this matter which is of considerable importance.5 let me hear from you & Sir your most [&c.]
T Smith
LB, Vi, Thomas Smith Letterbook, vol. 3: 66. Addressed at top: "Captain John Lurty."
1. Smith was Virginia's State Agent. Permission for Smith to use the Virginia State Navy brigantine Northampton to carry tobacco is in a letter from Lt. Gov. John Page to Smith of 12 June. Letters of Patrick Henry, p. 289.
2. The previous commander of Northampton, Capt. Francis Bright, had resigned his commission on 12 May. See Journal of the Virginia Navy Board, 12 May, in NDAR 12: 340.
3. That is, Fier Roderique.
4. The merchant Pierre-François Chevallié.
5. On 29 June, Smith ordered Pharoah Fitzpatrick, the recently-appointed master of the Virginia trading schooner Peace and Plenty, to pick up a load of tobacco at Alexandria and carry it to "Monsieur Chevallie" onboard Fier Roderique, see Smith to Fitzpatrick, 29 June, below. On 10 July, Smith informed Benjamin Day that Northampton had carried seventy-four hogsheads of tobacco to Yorktown and that Smith had decided to send the brig back to Fredericksburg for another load. Vi, Thomas Smith Letterbook, vol. 3, fols. 92.
