Manuscript document. Norwich, Connecticut, 1 November 1779. 1 page, 8 1/4 x 5 3/8 in., docketed to verso. 

A document detailing the expenses outlaid by Elijah Lothrop, a Connecticut patriot, seeking reimbursement for his care of a recuperating French prisoner of war: "To keeping & sending Mr. Tiersie a French Prisoner in his sickness form the 14th of last November to the 28th January being 10 weeks & 4 days." Including the cost of "transporting him to Lebanon bank on his way home to Philadelphia," he was reimbursed £109..20..0.

France recognized the American colonists' independence efforts in February 1778, and Great Britain responded immediately by declaring war on France the next month. A French fleet under Admiral Comte d'Estaing arrived by August to help attempt to oust the British from Newport, Rhode Island. However, a violent storm waylaid them before engaging and they instead traveled to Boston for repairs. 

Shortly after France formally entered the War, a French fleet under Admiral Comte d'Estaing arrived in August 1778. A prisoner exchange occurred between the French fleet and the British in New York in October. As The Norwich Packet reported on 12 October 1778: "Last Saturday arrived in this town from Boston, under a proper guard, and this day set out for New York, about 230 British prisoners, taken by the Count de Estaing’s fleet; they are to be exchanged for the like number of Frenchmen, captured by the English."  In a letter written on 25 October 1778 by Jedediah Huntington from Norwich: “Between 5 and 600 Frenchmen came in from N York in the Flag they arrived here last Night. Part are gone on this day to Boston.” (Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, Volume XX, Huntington Papers, Part I, Correspondence of Col. Joshua Huntington). 

These prisoners were almost certainly French civilian sailors, as the British Navy had been seizing French trading vessels since the start of the war. Some twenty of the French prisoners of war died and were buried in Norwich. Others recuperated there for various lengths of time, and Mr. Tiersie was certainly one of these exchanged prisoners. 

A fascinating document related to early French involvement, whether voluntary or not, in the American Revolution. 

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