[American War of Independence, 1782.] Manuscript folio leaf from British governmental [War Office?] ledger of payments to 'David Thomas Esq. / Carolina', re General Leslie and the British Army of the South, headed ‘Extraordinaries in North America’.

A valuable artefact of the American War of Independence: a leaf from a British War or Colonial Office ledger detailing payments to officials in General Leslie’s administration in Carolina in 1782. Among many details are references to the Loyalist units the North Carolina Highlanders and New York Volunteers, as well as to Colonel Probart Howarth, Governor of Fort Johnson, and to Colonel de Benning [Friedrich von Benning], Commander of James Island, where one of the last Battles of the war, at which Kosciuszko was nearly killed, would take place a few days after the entries those of the entries in this ledger. 1p, folio. On one side of a leaf of laid paper with fleur-de-lys armorial watermark. Worn and slightly discoloured, with closed tear along central fold line repaired with archival tape. The leaf is evidently part of a ledger. It is numbered 19, and headed ‘99 / Extraordinaries in North America’, with the payments being to ‘David Thomas Esqr / Carolina’. The sums involved are substantial: the opening balance brought forward is for £214,908 11s 9 1/2d, and the closing balance to be carried forward being £216,710 7s 7 1/2d. The leaf has been neatly ruled in red, with columns for ‘Warrants’ (subdivided into ‘by whom granted’ and ‘Dates’), details of payments and sums paid. The ten payments, nine of them dating from 10 October and the last one from 11 October 1782, are all on warrants granted to ‘Lt. Genl. Leslie’. The first six entries are highly detailed, and the seventh to the tenth are additions to the sixth. First, for £111 5s 0d: ‘Paid Capt. John McKinnon, Depy. Quar. Masr. Genl. witht. dedn. being his Pay at 10s/. a day, & Pay for Lieutts. Rankin & Bard, as actg. Depy. Quar. Masr. Genl. at 5s/. a day from 1st. July to 30th. Septr. 1782. also for Lieutt. Condner from 1st. July to 17th. Septr. 1782 at 5s/ P day’. The second, for £39 17s 4d: ‘Paid Lt. John Reeve, of 82d Regt. of Foot, witht. dedn. being Pay for himself as actg. Quar Masr. at 4s/8d. Pr day. & for Mr. Mc.Pherson as Actg. Adjt. to said Regt. at 4s/- Pr. Day from 1st. July to 30th. Septr. 1782’. Third, for £155 13s 8d (annotated ‘1 Warrt. at Audrs. Office’): ‘Paid Lieut Edwd. Scott, Secy. to Genl. Leslie being for Money paid by himself to Coll. de Benning as an Extra Allownce during his Command on James Island from 16th. Mau to 6th Octr. 1782’. Fourth, for £31 1s 10d: ‘Paid Ensn. Robt. Mc.Pherson, being Pay for Captn. McRa. late of the North Carolina Highlanders at 5s/- Pr. day & for Ensn. McKay at 1s./10d. Pr Day from 25th. Septr. to 24th. Decr. 1782.’ Fifth, for £502 16s 8d: ‘Paid Captn. Willm. Johnson, Paymts. to the New York Volunteers being their Pay from 25th. Augst. to 24th. Octr. 1782’. Sixth, £405 18s 4d: ‘Paid the followg. Civil Officers of South Carolina, being an Allowce. made to them by order of the Lords Commissrs. of His Majesty’s Treasury, all witht. dedn. Vizt. Honble Willm. Bull Esqr. Lt. Govr. from 5th. July 1781 to 10th. Octr. 1782’. Seventh, for £88 15s 10d: ‘Honble. Thos. Skoltow Esqr. Secy. from Do. to Do.’ Eighth, for £180 19s 2d: ‘Honble Thos. K. Gordon Esqr. Chief Justice from Do. to Do.’ Ninth, for £31 14s 1d: ‘Jas. Johnson Esqr. Clerk of the Crown from Do. to Do.’ Tenth, for £253 13s 11d: ‘Col. Probart Howarth Govr. of Fort Johnson, from Do. to Do.’ In 1826 advantage was taken of the blank reverse of the leaf, which was evidently torn out of the ledger at this point, when three sets of itemized commissary accounts were given, after ‘Stock taken Sept 1. 1826’, the sums involved (in one case hams, bacon, butter and other items totaling £10,000 5s 7d). It was then folded four times into a packet dated ‘Sept 1. 1826’.