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FOREIGN ARMS PROCURED BY INDIVIDUAL COLONIES During the colonial period, each colony had functioned more or less independently of the others under the authority of the British Crown, as represented by the colonial governor. The unification into the United Colonies and then the United States achieved only a loose confederation of those individual colonies, or states, each of which had much greater power in relation to the central government than is true today. Many of the colonies undertook both domestic and foreign procurement of arms from the early years of the Revolution. The domestic procurement is described in the section "Muskets Procured by Authority of a Colony or State." Very little information has been located regarding the individual colonies' foreign procurement of arms, but enough is known to indicate that significant quantities of arms and other militarysupplieswere procured abroad. Additional information regarding this procurement must surely survive in the archives of the thirteen original states, and this subject offers an intriguing area of research. MASSACHUSETTS 057.4 The first known foreignpurchase ofarmsby any of the American revolutionary forces took place several months before the outbreak of war, in April 1775. In November 1774 the MassachusettsProvincial Congress had voted to purchase arms abroad. At this time the colony had two agents in London: Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee. Using the pseudonym "M. de Tuillerie," Franklin began negotiating with two French officers named Plairn and Penet. All that is known about these men prior to this time isthat Penet wasfrom Santo Domingo. In early 1775 Penet went to Paris and then to Nantes. He probably was acting as Franklin's agent. At Nantes the transaction wasmanaged by the commercial trading firm of Montaudovin Freres & Cie. Massachusetts paid a total of £20,837 for the 15,000 muskets that were shipped from Nantes to Saint Eustatius,accompanied by Penet. French archival records indicate that Penet accompanied the muskets to Philadelphia, and American records indicate that the muskets were reshipped to Massachusetts aboard American ships. In light of subsequent events, it is probable that Penet went to Philadelphia after visiting Massachusetts. It is not known where the muskets originated. They mayhave been Dutch or Liegemuskets that had been shipped to Nantes for sale and transhipment elsewhere. It is also possible that they were from French arsenals. However, if they were from French arsenals, they most likely were condemned arms that had previouslybeen purchased for resale. It isdoubtful that any serviceablearmswereremoved from French arsenals 057. FOREIGN ARMS PROCURED BY INDIVIDUAL COLONIES specifically for shipment to the Americans until after the king's grant of aid to the Americans in May of 1776. By 1776 the Massachusetts BayColony had established trading relationships in France, usually using Plairn, Penet & Cie. as commercial agents. M. Plairn was located in Nantes, and M. Penet appears to have taken up residence in Baltimore, from where he traveled extensively to Philadelphia, Virginia, and the Carolinas. This commercial relationship was managed by the Massachusetts Board of War, presided over by Samuel Phillips Savage. The Board of War also administered the colony's many privateers. The privateering operations were closely integrated with the commercial trading operations. Additional information regarding the colony's commercial trading and privateering operations is in the Appendix "Revolutionary War Navies and Privateers." The following descriptions include only the specific references to foreign procurement of arms and military stores contained in the records of the Board of War in Massachusetts archives. Because a substantial part of these records have become illegible in storage, and because there are references to other as-yet-unknown transactions, this information is far from complete. On December 3, 1776, the Board of War wrote Louis Poncet & Son, merchants at Bordeaux, that a ship had sailed from Newburyport with a cargo consigned to Poncet. It was to be sold at the "best advantage" and the proceeds applied to the purchase of"good, effective firearms with bayonets, such as areused in the King ofFrance's Army, or those that approach nearest to them. There has been a good manufacture of this kind lately shown here as a specimen by a gentleman from Nantes ... this fusil wasoffered at twenty-two Livres." The letter continued, stating that ifPoncet wasunable to obtain muskets, perhaps he could supply the following: 500 bridled gun locks, good flints, ten brass 3-pound cannons for field pieces, 50 pounds of Borax Purificada, and duck cloth for tents. In early March 1777, Massachusetts privateer Captain Tristram Coffin wrote to the Board ofWar that aprize ship had been sold...

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