Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Richard St. George Mansergh St. George military commission, 1776 December 23

Item

Dublin Core

Title

Richard St. George Mansergh St. George military commission, 1776 December 23

Date

Description

William Howe signed military commission dated December 23, 1776 appointing Richard St. George Mansergh St. George lieutenant in the 52nd Regiment of Foot. The British Army under Howe was at that time stationed in New York City.

Mansergh was horribly wounded at the Battle of Germantown on October 4, 1777. A surgeon removed a portion of his skull which was then covered with a silver plate. Mansergh retired from the military in 1785. We was killed in Ireland during the uprising in 1798.

The commission was on display at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia as part of the exhibit: Cost of Revolution: The Life and Death of an Irish Soldier from September 28, 2019 through March 17, 2020.

Identifier

Text Item Type Metadata

Text

Recto

By His Excellency The Honorable William Howe,
General and Commander in Chief of all His Majesty's Forces within the Colonies laying on
the Atlantic Ocean from Nova Scotia to West Florida inclusive &. &. &.

To Richard St. George Mansergh St. George Gent.


By Virtue of the Power and Authority in me vested, I do hereby constitute and
appoint you to be Lieutenant to that Company whereof   Esqr. is Captain in His
Majesty's Fifty Second Regiment of Foot. Commanded by Lieutenant General John Clavering.
You are therefore carefully and diligently to discharge the Duty of Lieutenant, by exercising and well disciplining both
the inferior Officers and Soldiers of that Company ; And I do hereby command them to obey you as their Lieutenant.
And you are to observe and follow such Orders and Directions from Time to Time as you may receive from your Colonel,
Captain or any other your superior Officer, According to the Rules and Discipline of War, in pursuance of the Trust hereby
reposed in you. Given under my Hand and Seal at Head Quarters in New York the Twenty third Day of December,
One Thosand Seven Hundred and Seventy Six, in the Seventeenth Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third,
by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith and so forth.


W Howe


By His Excellency's Command,
Robert Mackenzie


Verso

Richd. St. George Mansergh St. George Gent.
Lieutenant
52nd Regiment of Foot.

Original Format

Ink on paper

Citation

Great Britain. Army, “Richard St. George Mansergh St. George military commission, 1776 December 23,” Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, accessed March 29, 2024, https://cwfjdrlsc.omeka.net/items/show/78.
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