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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Circular letter from Wills Hill, Marquis of Downshire to the American governors
Downshire, Wills Hill, Marquis of, 1718-1793
December 11, 1770
Volume 08, Page 264

[B. P. R. O. America & W. Ind. N. C. Vol. 274.]
Circular Letter to Governor Tryon.

Whitehall Decr 11th 1770.

The House of Commons having voted an augmentation to the King's Forces consisting (among other particulars) of an additional light Company to every Battalion and of 20 men to every Company on the British Establishment, and it being of great importance in the present situation that the several Batallions now serving in America should be completed as soon as possible, I am commanded to signify to you His Majesty's pleasure, that you should exert your utmost endeavours to give efficacy and dispatch to this plan of Augmentation by assisting His Majesty's Officers to raise such a number of recruits as shall be sufficient for that purpose giving every encouragement in your Power that may induce His Majesty's faithful subjects to engage in a service so essential to their security and defence, and I think it fit to press this matter with the greater urgency, as nothing has happened since my secret and confidential letter of the 28th September to strengthen the hopes I then expressed that the peace might still be preserved and consequently every motive for a vigilant attention to the security of every part of His Majesty's Dominions still exists in its full force.

I am &c,
HILLSBOROUGH.