In Committee of Safety, Philadelphia,                     November 3, 1775.

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SIR: You will please to admit Captain Thomas Proctor, with his Company of Artillery, into the Barracks, and furnish him with the Bedding late belonging to the Royal Artillery Company, and with what other necessaries belonging to the Province, for their accommodation, that you may have in your power to supply him with.

By order of the Committee:

ROBERT MORRIS, Vice-President.

To Joseph Fox, Esq., Barrackmaster.

Monday, November 6, 1775.

At a meeting of the Committee of Safety: Present—

Robert Morris, John Nixon, Samuel Howell, Bernard Dougherty, James Biddle, John Montgomery, George Clymer, Robert White, Andrew Allen, Michael Swoope, Thomas Wharton, Jun., James Mease, John Cadwallader, Daniel Roberdeau, Alexander Wilcocks, George Gray, Owen Biddle.

Mr. Dougherty reports his having delivered the Order of Assembly to Joseph Fox, Esq., Barrackmaster, for repairing the Barracks; that the Barrackmaster expected they would be ready for the reception of the Troops in about ten days; that he supposed that there would be six Muskets finished by Saturday next.

George Hastings, late Commander of the Ship Rebecca & Francis, being desirous to go to the wreck of said Vessel, now laying on Brigantine Beach, we do hereby certify that the said Commander has been examined by the Committee of Safety of this Province, and regularly discharged.

The Articles for the Artillery were this day completed, agreed to, and are as follow, viz:

Rules and Regulations for the Artillery Company.

Whereas a Company of Artillery being necessary for the defence of this Colony, the Committee of Safety have therefore resolved to take into pay one Captain, one Lieutenant, one Fife, one Drum, with twenty-five Privates, for that service, who are to be subject to the following Rules and Regulations, viz:

1. All officers and privates belonging to the said Company who shall be guilty of profane oaths, cursing, drunkenness, or other scandalous actions, shall incur such punishment as the nature and degree of the offence shall deserve, at the discretion of a court-martial.

2. Any officer or private who shall strike the Commander-in-Chief or other his superior officer, or draw, or offer to draw, or lift up any weapon or use any violence against him, or shall behave himself with contempt or disrespect to him, them, or either of them, being in the execution of their office, shall be punished according to the nature of his offence, at the discretion of a court-martial.

3. If any person in or belonging to the Artillery Company shall raise, or endeavour to raise, a mutiny, on any pretence whatever, or shall disobey any lawful commands of his superior officer, he shall on conviction thereof suffer such punishment as shall be ordered by a court-martial.

4. Any officer or private who shall without leave of his commanding officer absent himself from the Company, or from any detachment of the same, or shall advise or persuade any other officer or private so to do, shall be punished at the discretion of a court-martial.

5. Every person in time of action who shall mutiny, or who, through cowardice, disaffection, or negligence, shall at such time withdraw, keep back, or not come into the fight or engagement, or shall endeavour to persuade or deter others from doing their duty at such time, shall suffer death.

6. Every person who shall desert to the enemy, or shall entice others so to do, shall suffer death, or such other punishment as the circumstances of the offence shall deserve and a court-martial shall think fit.

7. Any officer or private who shall be convicted of holding any correspondence with or giving intelligence to the enemy, either directly or indirectly, shall suffer death or such punishment as shall be ordered by a court-martial.

8. Every officer or private who shall be convicted of having designedly or carelessly wasted or embezzled the ammunition, arms, stores, or provisions with which they are intrusted for the publick, shall suffer such punishment as a court-martial shall think proper for the offence.

9. Whatever officer shall be found drunk on guard or under arms shall be cashiered; and any private so offending shall be punished at the discretion of a court-martial.

10. No person in or belonging to the said Artillery Company shall sleep upon his watch or forsake his post, on pain of such punishment as a court-martial shall think fit to impose.

11. Any officer or private who shall, by discharging firearms, beating of drums, or by any other means occasion false alarms, shall suffer such punishment as shall be inflicted by a court-martial.

12. All officers, of what condition soever, belonging either to the Artillery Company or the Provincial Armed Boats, shall have power to part and quell all quarrels, affrays, and disorders, amongst or between any sailors or soldiers in the pay of this Province, and order officers to be arrested, and non-commissioned officers or privates to be confined till their superior officers shall be acquainted therewith; and whoever shall refuse to obey such officer, though of an inferior rank, or shall draw his sword or lift up any weapon against him, shall be punished at the discretion of a court-martial.

13. If any officer or private shall think himself wronged by his commanding officer, he may apply to the Committee of Safety, who will redress his grievance.

14. The Captain of the said Artillery Company shall rank with the Captains of our armed boats, according to the dates of their respective commissions; and the Lieutenants of said company shall have rank with the First Lieutenants of the said boats, in like manner, according to the date of their respective commissions.

15. All ships and other vessels, and their cargoes, ammunition, artillery, clothing, or other articles taken from the enemy, shall be disposed of or distributed as the Provincial Assembly shall hereafter think proper.

16. If any officer or private shall commit any crime deserving punishment, he shall by his commanding officer be put under arrest, if an officer, or if a non-commissioned officer or private, be put in confinement until he shall be tried by a court-martial or discharged by proper authority.

17. If any officer under arrest shall leave his confinement before he is set at liberty by the officer who confined him, or by proper authority, he shall be cashiered.

18. Any officer who shall presume to discharge any prisoner committed to his charge, without proper authority for so doing, or shall suffer the prisoner to escape, shall be punished at the discretion of a court-martial.

19. If any commissioned officer shall be convicted before a court-martial of behaving in a scandalous, infamous, cruel, oppressive, or fraudulent manner, unbecoming the character of an officer, he shall be dismissed from the service.

20. All crimes not capital, and all disorders or neglect which officers and privates may be guilty of, to the prejudice of good order and military discipline, though not mentioned in these articles, shall be taken notice of by a court-martial, and punished according to the nature of the offence.

21. No person to be sentenced by a court-martial to suffer death, except the cases expressly mentioned in the foregoing articles; nor shall any other punishment be inflicted, at the discretion of a court-martial, other than degrading, cashiering, drumming out of the company, fine not exceeding two months’ pay, and imprisonment not exceeding one month.

22. The Captain of our said Company of Artillery shall appoint some suitable person to receive all such fines as may arise within the same, for breach of any of these articles; which fines shall be accounted for to the Assembly or Committee of Safety, and by them to be appropriated for the relief of the maimed and disabled in the service, and the support of the widows and families of such as may be killed.

23. Courts-martial may be composed of commissioned officers from our armed boats, in conjunction with any of the officers of our Artillery Company, who shall have power to hear and determine all causes, agreeable to these articles.

24. No court-martial for the trial of offences under the degree of capital shall consist of less than five officers,