Scope and Content: During the Revolution, the Massachusetts General Court designated the Board of War to administer the war effort on behalf of the colony, including the provisioning of troops. –Under the Board of War, from July 1776 to 1783 the Boston Laboratory served as both a workshop and a storage and redistribution center for the regiments of the Continental Army. It (1) purchased, stored, and redistributed materials needed by the regiments including saddles, bridles, horse collars, bayonets, coal, and rum (2) manufactured goods from raw materials purchased including wagon spokes, tools, flints, carriage tires, timber, powder, iron, rubber, canisters, belts, thread, and tubes (3) delivered finished goods to colonels, generals, and ships of the Continental Army including carriages, weapons, wagons, cartridges, and ammunition (4) provided laboratory workers (carpenters, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, and ironworkers) with supplies, provisions, and salaries. –The laboratory’s surviving records show that the laboratory, apparently located at the fort on Castle Island (known as the Castle) in Boston Harbor, was active from mid-1776, under the supervision of Col. Thomas Crafts, head of the artillery regiment stationed there. Resolves 1777-78, c 881 (Mar. 12, 1778) directed that the Council determine how many from the regiment be devoted to laboratory work. Resolves 1777-78, c 1044 (Apr. 28, 1778) provided for the legislative appointment of a commissary of military stores, with the laboratory among his responsibilities, for which he should appoint a clerk and conductor and make return of the stores under his keeping to the Board of War. –Resolves 1778-79, c 127 (June 23, 1778) appointed a committee to examine the improper condition of the laboratory; Resolves 1778-79, c 286 (Oct. 15, 1778) admitted failure of the procedure instituted the previous April, and provided for legislative appointment of a comptroller of the laboratory , who would commission a master fire-worker and appoint a clerk; Col. Crafts was again ordered to provide laboratory staffing. –Per Resolves 1778-79, c 586 (Feb. 26, 1779), Col. Crafts and his officers resigned, and c 587, passed the same day, required the Board of War to settle accounts with Crafts for the funds and supplies furnished to the laboratory while the fort had been under his command. Meantime Col. William Burbeck had been appointed comptroller (see Resolves 1781, Sept Sess, c 196, Sept. 29, 1781, per which Caleb Davis was made the governor’s agent in delivering materiel to the laboratory), and Joshua Bentley clerk (Resolves 1780, May-Sept Sess, c 107, June 22, 1780). Resolves 1781, c 483 (Mar. 1, 1782) removed Burbeck’s title and pay because of diminished call on the laboratory’s resources, but supplemented his pay as captain-lieutenant of the Castle (Resolves 1779-80, c 430, Oct. 6, 1779) to continue superintending the laboratory, while Davis would sell excess assets for the benefit of the state. Resolves 1783, May Sess, c 27 (June 19, 1783) effectively closed the laboratory by directing the commissary general to receive its stores, to be either sold or deposited at the Castle, after which the fire worker and clerk were to be discharged.
Related Catalog Records:
Archivegrid
OCLC
