Folios 113-116. Letter from Lord Viscount Weymouth to the Earl of Buckingham enclosing...

Folios 113-116. Letter from Lord Viscount Weymouth to the Earl of Buckingham enclosing a copy of the depositions of William James and James Hunt, by which it appears that there are in Ireland three officers of the Regiment of Dillon in the French Service, recruiting men for that Corps. Dated at St James's. Enclosed: Folio 115: Deposition of William James (Serjeant of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers), sworn before John Gretton (Justice of the Peace for the County of Middlesex) on 18 June 1777 and indicating that: he was approached by James Hunt to enlist with him as a private soldier; on their way to do so, the said Hunt informed him that he was a deserter from the Regiment of Dillon now on duty at Lisle [Lille], and that he knew of three sergeants of the same regiment (Dowlan, Coates and Coppin; all three under the orders and supervision of Lieutenant McDermott) now in London under an actual furlough from their Officer to enlist men into the said Regiment and service of the French King [Louis XVI]; these three sergeants had recently sent two young men (Brown and Edmonson) over to the said regiment from England; there are three officers of the said Regiment of Dillon in Ireland upon the recruiting service. Folio 116: Deposition of James Hunt adding to the above that the said Coppin (a staymaker by trade), Dowlan (a wool comber), and Coates (a cutler) had enlisted and sent the said Brown and Edmonson from England into the French service. Hunt had seen them actually embodied in the Regiment of Dillon, who paid them the usual bounty (62 [Livre?] 10 sous) French money and bound them into the French King's service for four years. The names of the officers on the recruiting service in Ireland are Captain Swiney, Captain Brown and Lieutenant Nugent. Deposition is signed Jacques Hunt and sworn before John Gretton.