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1782 March From

   30th      Robert Severs
                  Esq.

Northampton County Philadelphia Secretary of ___________War Major General Lincoln The Honorable Public Service

Sir Easton March 30th 1782

        Yesterday in the afternoon a certain Person who called himself James [Yaing?], was brought before me, on suspicion of being a Prisoner of War, belonging to Lord Cornwallis's captured Army, he said he had at Norfolk in Virginia a deserted from the British (& belonged to the 33[?] Regiment) before the Surrender; has from many circumstances, being convinced he was no deserter, I committed him to the [Gaol] in this Town, giving [series unders to ?] him, least he might have letters & [ca?] with him_ In consequence of which it appears, by a discharge, found with him, from the Hospital at Norfolk, dated the 22nd July 1781, his name is James [Bruce], a Corporal in [Sr. Col.?] Balper's Company of the 23rd Regiment, and he has since confessed he is a Prisoner of War, that at York in Pennsylvania he was with a Party of Six to hunt wood, and took that opportunity to make his Escape, and came [this] far, on his Way towards some Relations he has in the Jerseys, at some distance from Brunswick. That he had no intention to attempt to go to New York. He is a Searchman. I have since wrote to the keeper of the [terry] to examine and stop all Travellers, that he may have reason to suspect_There will be some Recruits sent from hence next Week to Reading, with whom this Prisoner of War may be [forewarded]_As there is no Provisional Post here, in what manner, and Prisoners of War should others be [taken] up to be [subsisted], until they can be removed from hence. 
        Having been applied to by the Wife of [Clincherfoose], a [Hessian] Prisoner of War, [now] in Gaol, to endeavor to get him enlarged, and his confinement, whilst others Prisoners of War have their Liberty,  appearing to be the Results of Anger and Resentment rather than a just Punishment for demerit, sufficient Security having been received for his forthcoming, from time to time [for] since the year 1780, I take the liberty to engage a few moments of your time, in representing the case of this man, as it has come to my Knowledge_This that [Hessian] Prisoner by his own account, Isaac [Clincherfoose], by name, was taken as [Saratoga] as the Reduction of General [Burgoyne] and his army by General [Gases], that remaining among the capital prisoners as Winder Hill till November [1778], when they were about to be removed to Virginia he left them and went to Boston, and there [tarried] working for different Gentlemen till May 1779-That one [man] John Smith with whom he worked at Boston, went with him to General Heath, who gave him a Pass, which he says he lost with his Pocket Book_That in May 1779, he left Boston, and worked at several places about eight miles from thence, after which he left that Country and came to Mansfield in Jersey, where not finding much work, he departed from thence and came to Valentine [Beidleman's], who keeps a mill in Sussex Country in Jersey, about a mile from Boston, in August 1779-And staying there about a month and a half, he went from thence to one Henry Haines, a neighbor of said [Beidleman's], as which Haines he continued about Ten months _ after the ten months were expired. He married the Daughter of one John Worts Philipsbergh a Town in Jersey, opposite [Eastern], and worked [about] from place to place.

The Honorable major General Lincoln

place in that neighborhood. That during the Ten months he lived with Haines, doctor Andrew Ladley of [Easten] who acted as a [Xemmifany] of Prisoners went into the Jerseys to Mr. Haines, and [charged] him not to let [Clincherfoose] go without a acquainting him. Soon after and a [little] before Harvest in the year 1780, [Clincherfoose] being in [Easten] Mr. Ladley thought it best to secure him and put him in Gaol where he remained five days. And then Mr. Haines, Mr. [Beidleman] and one Phillip [Michael] became his [Peecinokes], and he was released from his confinement. That [Clincherfoose] having worked twenty [in [the course] of [legs] summer and fall]

eight days and [an] and half for Mr. Ladley, ^[in [the course] of [legs] summer and fall]^ partly as a mason, and partly as a labourer, and receiving as he said no pay therefor, and being again wanted by Mr. Ladley to assist in quarrying a considerable quantity of stone for him, which [Clincherfoose] seemed unwillling to do, alledging he could not live so without [pray] upon which [Clincherfoose] says, Mr. [Beidleman] told him, that ^[Mr. Ladley ordered him]^ he should bring [Clincherfoose] over to {Easten] and take up the Bend and that [Clincherfoose] should be put into Gaol. This happened some time in February last. That Mr. Ladley having lately been at Philadelphia, and as he [make] me, as I had frequently said that I could not persuade myself to believe, that the Board of War would ^ [ have]^ continued an officer as Commissary of Prisoner in this Place for more than the Space of Eighteen months passed. There being no profitable duty for him to perform, and which as the same time appeared to be loading the Public with unnecessary burdens, which were already in [Epantialo], almost too heavy "was imprisoned by the Board of War to collect the Prisoners in the Country, and wait their orders for the disposal ^[of they]^ [who] thought he was not a Commissary of Prisoners",