Letter written home by a Gloucester mariner caught by the British during the Revolutionary War. Call # P27:FF08 Townsend June [torn] [1]777 on Bord the Amuscade one of his maiesteayes frigates Capt John M. Meacartery Esqr. My Dear and loving wife these few lines come from a kind and loving husband to lett [tell] you our misforten in two Dayes after we left Cape ann we was taken and it pleases god so to be and I Desiere to Be thank full to think that I fell into So good hands we all fear [fare] Very well Beyond Expectaion from Capt and officers they are all good to us But when we shall get Clear I Don’t know But my Dear wife and Children and mother Brothers and Sisters I wish you well and I trust in god for Deliverence and so No more at Present But I Remain your loving Husband Till Death Ezekiel Robinson and I Send By the Barrer in my letter to you 49 Dollores that is £14:14 shilling lafful money.

Ezekiel Robinson was one of the dozen children of Abraham Robinson and Lydia Day. The “loving wife” he is writing to is his second wife, Abigail Tarbox. At the time of his capture he and Abigail had four children: Mary Hiller aged 11; Ezekiel Jr. aged 6; William aged 3; and Daniel, just 3 months old. The Amuscade (often spelt Ambuscade) was a 32 gun English frigate launched in 1773. She was captured by the French in 1778 and re-captured by the English in 1803. She was a fifth rank naval frigate and as such not a war-ship but a scout or cruiser used to patrol and disrupt enemy shipping lanes. Being assigned to such a vessel was considered a desirable posting as there was a good chance of collecting prize money. Despite the good treatment Ezekiel and his men received from the captain and crew of the frigate Amuscade, Ezekiel did not survive his subsequent incarceration in Halifax goal, dying there before the year was out.