Diary of Reverend Enos Hitchcock, June 4, 1777

Receiv^d of Paymaster twenty pounds— paid Col^o Francis¹ six pounds, my proportion of the Stores together with 2^1b. 8^s 6^d paid before; paid Col^o Littefield 2^lb., 8^s. 6^d. Expenses on the Road paid Cap^t. Porter 30 Dollars which I borrowed to send Home—cool westerly wind—fair Day—a Pickeril sent us two feet & ¾ ft long²—

_______________

¹ Ebenezer Francis, of Beverly, Mass., commanded one of the fifteen battalions which were assigned to Massachusetts by Congress Sept. 16, 1776. He was a gallant officer, respected alike by friend and foe. "No officer so noticed for his military accomplishments and regular life as he was."

² As our Chaplain was a fisherman himself, we must not scrutinize his measurements too closely. Fish stories carry their own ethics in every generation.

SOURCE: Amos Perry, The Town Records of Rhode Island, Publications of the Rhode Island Historical Society, New Series, Vol. 7 (1899), pp. 110-1