"To Mr James Rivington, Printer N. Y."
This address was reproduced in Hugh Gaines's _New York Gazette_,
June 17, 1782.
Whether the John Cooper who signed his name to this address is the
Mr. Cooper mentioned by Dring as the orator of the Jersey we do not
know, but it is not improbable. Nine Coopers are included in the list,
given in the appendix to this volume, of prisoners on the Jersey, but
no John Cooper is among them. The list is exceedingly imperfect. Of
the other signers of the address only two, George Wanton and John
Sheffield, can be found within its pages. It is very certain that it
is incomplete, and it probably does not contain more than half the
names of the prisoners who suffered on board that dreadful
place. David Sproat won the hatred and contempt of all the American
prisoners who had anything to do with him. One of his most dastardly
acts was the paper which he drew up in June, 1782, and submitted to a
number of American sea captains for their signature, which he obtained
from them by threats of taking away their parole in case of their
refusal, and sending them back to a captivity worse than death. This
paper, _which they signed without reading_ was to the following
effect:
LETTER PURPORTING TO BE FROM A COMMITTEE OF CAPTAINS, NAVAL PRISONERS
OF WAR TO J. RIVINGTON, WITH A REPRESENTATION OF A COMMITTEE ON THE
CONDITION OF THE PRISONERS ON BOARD THE JERSEY
New York, June 22, 1782.
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