On this day 250 years ago in Prince William County, Virginia, Captain James Scott, Jr. of the Fauquier Independent Company wrote to George Washington, on behalf of himself and Captain Thomas Marshall, to offer Washington command of Fauquier Company. Both Scott and Marshall had served in the Virginia House of Burgesses and Virginia Convention with Washington. Captain Scott would die of disease commanding the Fauquier militia company while serving under Washington’s command in Pennsylvania in 1777. Captain Marshall would become a Colonel in the Continental Army and was one of the heroes of the Battles of Great Bridge and Brandywine but is best known as the father of Chief Justice John Marshall of the Supreme Court.

Source: “To George Washington from James Scott, Jr., 16 February 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-10-02-0196. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, vol. 10, 21 March 1774 – 15 June 1775, ed. W. W. Abbot and Dorothy Twohig. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995, pp. 263–264.]

Also on that day, Holt’s New York Journal reported on a cargo of goods from England that was blocked by the people of New York from being unloaded because the shipment was in violation of the Continental Association earlier in the month:

On Thursday morning, the 2d instant, the ship James, Captain Watson, arrived at New York from Glasgow, with a cargo of coals and dry goods, but as she did not arrive within the time prescribed by the tenth article of the association of the Continental Congress, a strict watch was constantly kept, by some of the subcommittee, and a number of inhabitants, to prevent the landing of any goods, in a clandestine manner; and the captain was requested to procure such necessaries as he might stand in need of, and immediately quit the port. With this request, he seemed rather unwilling to comply, and was encouraged to hope from the assurances of a number of ministerial tools, who promised to support him, that his cargo would be landed; for which purpose they employed a few vagrants to go on board the ship, which then lay in the harbor, and bring the colors on shore, with a view of raising a posse, to assist in landing the goods; but the banditti that were collected for this purpose were soon suppressed by the inhabitants, who are for supporting the association, and who began to assemble in great numbers; upon which the captain, conceiving the ship to be in great danger, sent the mate on shore, requesting assistance to get her under sail, as the seamen refused to do that duty. This request being complied with, they immediately got her under weigh, and fell down about four miles below the city, where she remained, attended by a boat, with a member of the committee and some of the townsmen on board, till last Thursday night (9th), when she was again brought into the harbor, by an officer and a number of men belonging to his Majesty’s ship King Fisher; which ship it is supposed came down from Turtle Bay expressly for the purpose of protecting her, and intimidating the inhabitants.

Source: https://historycarper.com/1775/02/16/the-ship-james-at-sandy-hook/

Holt’s Journal on that day also published reports of gunpowder seized by Loyalists in Stamford, Connecticut at the beginning of the month only to be seized again by Patriots only a couple of days later.

The next week’s issue of Holt’s Journal published a letter written February 16, 1775 reporting:

While the county delegates were in session at Fairfield, Connecticut, the day before yesterday, the following toast was drank by a company of gentlemen in that town:— Addition to Whigs; Subtraction to Tories; Multiplication to the friends of Liberty, and Division to the enemies of America.

Source: https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/february-1775/