On this day 250 years ago in Newport, Rhode Island, Governor Nicholas Cooke wrote Gen. Washington about the much needed cargo of the British ship Thomas, that had been captured the previous month by the Rhode Island privateer Hawke commanded by Capt. Arthur Crawford:

I inform Your Excellency that a Prize Ship is brought in here, having a Quantity of Blankets, some coarse woollen Goods, Linens and Shoes, which the Owners of the armed Vessel who took her, are desirous may be purchased for the Use of the Army; and in Order that those Goods may not be scattered, they propose that they be all put up in One Lot together; and that no Stranger be allowed to bid them off, unless he shall produce Orders from You or the Congress that he is making Purchase of them for the Army—I should be glad, if Your Excellency should think proper, that You would appoint Somebody immediately to purchase the same.

Sources: “Nicholas Cooke to George Washington, 19 October 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-06-02-0450. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 6, 13 August 1776 – 20 October 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase and Frank E. Grizzard, Jr. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1994, pp. 590–591.]