Scope and Content: During the Revolutionary War, Massachusetts needed to keep track of military supplies and other provisions stored in various state stores. The Board of War started a process in which they were sent inventory lists from the major stores in Watertown, Boston, and Sudbury. This process was discontinued once the Board of War was disbanded per Resolves 1780, Jan 1781 Sess, c 62 (Feb. 8, 1781), and these duties and supplies were transferred to the commissary general, who already had similar operations. Series consists of returns of all sundry supplies, including materiel (powder, cannons, and firearms), tools, provisions, and other goods at both Watertown and Sudbury state stores, and from storekeepers who ran town stores. –There are also requests for compensation from Sudbury storekeepers William Rice and Charles Miller, who purchased many items for the state. Miller’s 1780 returns were used as receipts for what he had previously purchased; also inventory lists used as receipts for items previously owned by the state but stored in various town storehouses. Receipts include name of item, amount paid, and claimed value. Also included is an order sent by the Board of War for appraisal of Col. Craft’s horses, property of the state to be reclaimed, and 1777-1778 provision returns from the Boston Laboratory (workshop and storage facility) including amounts and prices. Resolves 1778-79, c 248 (Oct. 9, 1778) directed the Board of War to sell six firearms per one hundred men with a cost of six pounds for each firearm, and deliver them to the selectmen of towns from the state stores supply. Due to failure of the Board of War to fulfill this order, Resolves 1779-80, c 79 (June 10, 1779) extended the time in which the Board of War could sell the firearms. There are copies of this resolve and of Resolves 1778-79, c 403 (Jan. 26, 1779), raising four companies to guard in and about Boston. –See also: Massachusetts. Office of the Secretary of State. Muster rolls of the Revolutionary War ((M-Ar)57X), v. 69, p. 129, which contains a Sept. 18, 1779 Return of warlike stores, signed by the commissary general.
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