Militia & Associated Companies of Bucks County Pennsylvania
Captain Joseph INSLEY's Company
The first account of Captain Joseph INSLEY's company is on February 12, 1747, as Pennsylvania's Provincial Council issued commissions to the officers of five militia companies in Bucks county, with Captain Joseph INSLEE, Esquire, Lieutenant Anthony TEATE, Gentleman, and Ensign David LAWELL, Gentleman, receiving commissions in the third company listed. (Note: such minor variations in the spelling of surnames are relatively common among such early records.) Battle's, The History of Bucks County, cites Captain Joseph INSLEE, Lieutenant Anthony TREAT, Ensign David LOWELL as again receiving commissions on February 12, 1748.
In March of 1756 it was necessary to relive the troops garrisoned at Reading and Easton. Accordingly, Pennsylvania's Governor MORRIS ordered a Colonel CLAPHAM to do so in the following letter:
"Sir:
As the Regular troops posted at the towns
of Reading and Easton are ordered to March to New York, It is thought necessary
to take a company of fifty men, including Sergeants, into the pay of the
Province, to be posted one half in Each of those towns, and to be employed in
Escorting the necessary Stores and Provisions to the troops stationed upon the
Frontiers. You will therefore go into the County of Bucks, to the town of
Newtown, where Capt. INSLEY has a Company, which by
him and his officers have offr'd their service to the Government, and he having
orders to get his men in readiness to be reviewed and Examined by you; you are
to review and examine them accordingly, and if he has a full Company of fifty
men, Exclusive of Commission officers, that you approve and think fit for
service, you are then to cause every man to take the oath of fidelity, and to be
inlisted [sic] according to the form herewith given you, but for no less time than
three months, and when they are so Listed you are to muster the men, and Return
the Muster Roll to me under your hand, and you are to order the Capt, with his Ensign & 25 men, to the town of Easton, &
ye Lieut. and other 25 men to Reading, there to remain as a
guard till further orders, & to hold themselves in readiness to march at an
Hours warning.
If you do not find that Company in
order and fit to march, you are to make return to me of the fact as soon as
Possible, that other measures may be taken.
8 March, 1756."
Col. CLAPHAM made his inspection and finding the company in good order, promptly brought it into provincial service. The company was then divided, per the governor's instructions, with Capt. INSLEY, his ensign (presumably Joseph INSLEY, Jr.), and twenty-five men ordered to Easton. The company's lieutenant (presumably John ZUBER) and another twenty-five men were ordered to Reading. Nothing more is heard of the troops ordered to Reading, but Capt. INSLEY's command is named in a report of the "Commissy Genl of ye Musters" in June of that same year:
"At six came to Easton, found Ensign INSLEY of Captain INSLEY's company with twenty-four men; he told me the captain was gone to Philadelphia for the company's pay, and one man absent, sick at Bethlehem. - Provincial stores, twenty-five good muskets, twenty-five cartouche boxes with eleven rounds each, fifteen blankets.
"26 June. - At nine A.M. mustered the company stationed here, found them stout, able men; their arms in good order; they fired at a mark, sixteen of twenty hit within nine inches of the center at eighty yards' distance. The ensign had no certificates of enlistment, but told me that Colonel CLAPHAM had carried them with him."
Finally, the Pennsylvania Archives, 2nd Series, Volume III, records the following officers and troop strength for the company as of November 4, 1756: Captain Joseph INSLEE; Lieutenant John ZUBER; Ensign Joseph INSLEE, Jr.; Sergeants - 2; and Private men - 62. By this time it also appears that Anthony TEATE, Capt. McLAUGHLIN's former lieutenant, captains a company of his own.
Pennsylvania
Colonial Records, Vol. V;
The Pennsylvania Archives, 2nd Series, Vol. III;
and The History of Bucks County,
Battle.
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