456 Journal and Correspondence.

Red Book

No. S

Sometime after M^r Randall had received the Cloth brought up by M^r
Keeport, he took upon himself to deliver it Individually, no day or
time was appointed for a delivery, no method taken to proportion
the Cloth to the different Regim^ts agreable to its Quality, or quantity,
& altho I demanded of M^r Randall the time he meant to deliver the
Cloth to the Officers, it was kept from me while the prime & greatest
part was delivered & this delivery was made on the very day, that
I requested of M^r Randall to know when we might attend for our
proportions of the Cloth, finding this to be the case I applied to Gen^l
Gist, who Commanded the Maryland Division, to give some order
respecting the matter, that lustice might be done to the Officers;
that Conceived themselves injured, his reply was, that he did not
think the distribution a proper one, but that he had not Authority to
give order respecting the matter I inform'd him that all distributions
of State stores in our Line, had been made by order of Gen^l Small-
wood, & never heard the authority doubted by any in the Line, except
by M" Randall & that very lately, but these Arguments proved to have
no effect. A material difference there was in the Quality of the Cloth,
& leave you to ludge, from the nature of the distribution, whether
those that were not among the foremost is not Injured, they are of
your Brigade and did not expect an unjust distribution would have
taken place. I am so unfortunate as to have none of the Cloth, &
cannot conceive that the Assembly of Maryland, ever intended that
M^r Randall should have had the entire order of the clothing fur-
nished for the use of her Officers, or from the Letter of her Act, that
an Ensign should have prefference to a Field Officer in distribution ;
I wrote to M^r Randall some short time after he had made delivery,
requesting he owuld inform me the quality of the Cloth he had on
hand, also what he had delivered, he inclosed me in his answer five or
Six Samples of the cloth he had received; in them were papers
pinn'd to the different Samples and on them were wrote Gen^l Gist
choice, Col^o Williams choice, Major Andersons choice, &c. &c. this
is the true State of the treatment we have received, if any thing is
necessary to be done to prevent, an injury of this kind's taking place
again in your absence, I make no doubt but you will attend to it, I
have nothing new, your Officers and Soldiers are in Gen^l very
healthy, the Officers present their Compliments to you, & by accept-
ing mine you'll very much Oblige dear Gen^l

March 25

[Ezek Forman, Clk, to Gov. Lee.]

[On behalf of Justices of Kent County reports death of Mr. Hall,
the Sheriff.]

March 26

Red Book

No. 26
Letter
No. 128

[Joseph Ford Saint Marys Co'ty tn Gov Lee]
Sir I Purchased of M^r Charles Hayden Forty Barrels Corn and
paid him for it at the rate of Twenty Seven Pounds p^r Barrel Eigh-