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L. H. J.
Liber No. 50
April 17
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which possibly you may be of Opinion is in Force; but by your
Excellency's saying so much, in your several Messages on this Sub-
ject about the Conduct of the late Lower House, we think ourselves
laid under a Necessity, in the first Place, to recapitulate the Affair
relative to the Marching and Service of the Miltia, or rather those
who have gone out as Volunteers under that Denomination, at differ-
ent Times, since the Commencement of Hostilities with his Majesty's
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p. 39
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Enemies; and to represent, how widely different the Circumstances
of our unhappy Frontier People were, when those Volunteers went
out (for the March of Part whereof your Excellency applied for
and had the Approbation of that House) from what they were
under when the Militia of Queen-Anne's and Kent Counties were
lately marched.
Some Time about the latter End of August, 1756, a Party of the
Enemy, supposed to be about Sixty or Seventy, made an Incursion
in several Divisons, fell on the Settlement of Conococheague within
this Province, and killed and captivated, as it was reported, near
Twenty Persons; on the Second Day after, they made their Retreat.
As they were returning, a Prisoner, who understood some French,
escaped from them, and informed the People, that the Enemy had
determined in a Council of War, to return immediately to Fort
Duquesne, and then to make another Incursion into Conococheague
Settlement, in about Twenty Days.
About the same Time, Fort Granville in Pennsylvania, we are
informed, was taken and destroyed by the Enemy, and the Garrison,
which consisted of about Thirty Men, mostly, if not all, killed or
captivated.
At the Opening of the Session in September 1756, your Excel-
lency was pleased to lay before the then House, a Letter from the
Earl of Loudoun, then Commander in Chief of all his Majesty's
Forces in North-America, informing you of the " Loss of Oswego,
with all it's Stores and Ammunition, and the Train placed there;
and the Garrison was made Prisoners of War, and our Naval Power
on the Lake destroyed." And his Lordship was pleased, on that
Occasion, to shew his Sense of the imminent Danger hanging over
this Province, by expressing himself in the following Words: " I
must put you on your Guard, against every ill Consequence of such
an unhappy Event; and as you may now expect the Weight of the
French Indian Power on your Back, I must caution you to put your
Frontiers immediately in the best Posture of Defence you are able ;
as from the Condition and Number of Troops left to me, when I
came to my Command, I can scare hope to do more than to resist
the French Power in these Quarters." The House, deeply affected,
no Doubt, by the melancholy Situation of their Fellow-Subjects on
the Frontiers, were moved to approve a Measure, which they little
thought at that Time (tho' they might even then esteem it a Stretch of
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