Passed June 7, 1779

Whereas one Robert Allen,1 late a Captain in the Continental Regiment raised by this State, late commanded by Col. Ichabod 2 Alden deceased, is apprehended upon a Charge of Forgery and defrauding several Towns within this State of large Sums of Money, upon Pretence of having inlisted divers Soldiers into the Continental Service on their Account, and as the Attorney-General has informed this Court that the Witnesses against the said Allen cannot at present be had, by reason of their residing at a distance from Boston, where the said Allen is now committed to Gaol for further examination; and whereas there was found upon the said Allen, when he was formerly apprehended and made his Escape, a considerable Sum of Money which by the Council was ordered into the keeping of the Sheriff of the County of Suffolk, and another Sum of Money, together with a Loan Office Certificate has now also been found upon him; and whereas it is highly reasonable that the Government should be reimbursed the Costs and Expences they have been at in apprehending the said Allen, and may further expend in prosecuting him upon the said Charges: Therefore

Resolved, That the said Allen be and remain committed unto the Gaol aforesaid until the Attorney-General may have an opportunity to procure the Witnesses against said Allen, provided that he shall not stand committed for that Cause after the next Term of the Superior Court of Judicature, &c. to be held at Boston in and for the County of Suffolk. And be it further

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Resolved, That the Sheriff for the same County be and he hereby is directed to receive and retain in his Hands all the said Monies and Certificate, to the End that the Costs, Charges and Expences aforementioned be paid and satisfied out of the same, and the Residue, if any, be subject to the future Order of the Court.3

Printed as Chapter 58 [1779–1780] in The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, 1779–1780 (Boston, 1922), 30.

1.

Robert Allen was commissioned as captain in the 7th Massachusetts Continental Regiment under Col. Ichabod Alden, on Jan. 1, 1777. He resigned on Sept. 3, 1778 (Heitman, Officers of the Continental Army, 59, 61).

2.

Brackets reproduced from the 1922 printed edition of Acts and Resolves, which supplied Alden’s first name from Mass. Soldiers and Sailors of the Rev. War, 1:107.

3.

This case was not heard at the subsequent session of the court, which occurred on Aug. 31 or thereafter (Superiour Court of Judicature Minute Books, Suffolk County, Aug. 1779. Massachusetts Judicial Archives, Boston, Mass.).