On this day 250 years ago off Cape Ann, Massachusetts, the 74-ton, 6-gun schooner commissioned by General Washington as the Lee captured the 250-ton British cargo ship Nancy. The Lee was commanded by Captain John Manley (an immigrant from England) and manned by soldiers from Colonel John Glover’s regiment from Marblehead, Massachusetts. The capture of the Nancy provided the Continental Army ordinance badly needed for the siege of Boston — 2,000 muskets, 100,000 flints, 8,000 fuses, 30,000 round shot, 31 tons of musket shot, and a 13-inch brass mortar weighing over 2,700 pounds, and several barrels of gunpowder, as well as a ship that would later be christened in the United States Navy as the “Congress.”
Sources: Sources: https://www.americanrevolution.org/naval-history-washingtons-fleet/; https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/nancy-capture; https://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/uss-lee-captures-brigantine-nancy.html; https://boston1775.blogspot.com/2007/11/lee-captures-nancy.html; https://catalogs.marinersmuseum.org/object/CL12742; Phillips, Kevin, 1775 A Good Year for Revolution, New York: Viking, 2012 at p. 327
Note: Some of the sources say the Nancy was captured on November 28 rather than the 29th.
On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress
Resolved, That a Committee of Five be appointed for the sole purpose of corresponding with our friends in Great Britain, Ireland, and other parts of the world.
The resolution’s vague reference to “other parts of the world” was designed to obscure this committee’s mission to negotiate with France, Spain, the Netherlands and other nations to support America’s Revolution. Benjamin Harrison of Virginia, Benjamin Franklin and John Dickinson of Pennylvania, Thomas Johnson of Maryland, and John Jay of New York were appointed to this Committee of Secret Correspondence which would after the Declaration of Independence be called the Committee for Foreign Affairs.
Sources:
https://americanfounding.org/entries/second-continental-congress-november-29-1775/; ““Between Hawk and Buzzard”: Disclaiming Independence While Edging toward Continentalism [Editorial Note],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jay/01-01-02-0106. [Original source: The Selected Papers of John Jay, vol. 1, 1760–1779, ed. Elizabeth M. Nuxoll. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010, pp. 170–174.]
On This Day In The Revolution 
One response to “On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — November 29, 1775”
I know virtually nothing about John Jay except that he was one of the authors of the Federalist Papers (I have copy but have not read it). Thanks for mentioning this founding, young “father.” I hope we learn more about him.
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