This volume is a manuscript copy of Captain Moses Brown's diary, August 9, 1776 to January 22, 1777, bound into the end of a copy of Major-General William Heath's published memoirs [Memoirs of Major-General Heath (Boston: I. Thomas and E. C. Andrews, 1798)]. Captain Brown served in the 21st Massachusetts Provincial Regiment and the 14th Continental Regiment.
The binding together of the 11-page diary and printed memoir conveniently collocates Heath's and Brown's firsthand accounts of the same battles. Beginning when Brown left his hometown of Beverly, Massachusetts, the diary pages contain brief records of daily troop movements, lodging, dining, and correspondence around the Battles of Long Island, White Plains, and Trenton. The final pages include two military returns in the form of a list and a table: a return of men belonging to Captain Brown's company who went to Trenton, and a return of prisoners taken at Trenton, both dated December 26, 1776. The last diary entry shows Brown returning to Beverly.
A pastedown inscription reads "Ex Libres Theodore Satter; Retournez s'il vous plait," and precedes a black and white engraved printed portrait of Major-General William Heath. A printed portrait of Brown, originally painted by John Gilbert Stuart, is situated between the memoir and diary sections.
Captain Moses Brown (1748-1820) was born to Isaac Brown (1711-1759) and Mary Balch Brown (1714-1781) in Waltham, Massachusetts. After earning a Harvard law degree in 1768, he moved to Beverly, Massachusetts, and married Elizabeth Trask (1754-1788) in 1774. Brown worked as a merchant in the business of his wife's family.
In the American Revolution, Brown served as a captain in Colonel John Glover's 21st Massachusetts Provincial Regiment and then in the 14th Continental Regiment, fighting in the Battles of Long Island, White Plains, and Trenton. After the war, he resumed his business career in partnership with his brother-in-law Captain Israel Thorndike (1755-1832). Brown's first wife died in 1788, and he remarried a year later to Mary Bridge (1760-1842); they had a son, Charles (1793-1856).