Massachusetts. Provinicial Congress. Committee of Supplies.

In pre-Revolutionary Massachusetts, the first Provincial Congress ordered a committee to inquire and report on the proper time for the province to provide a reserve of powder, ordnance, and ordnance stores (Journals, Oct. 24, 1774). The committee provided an itemized list of proposed ordnance the following day. Then the congress appointed a Committee of Supplies to work in conjunction with the Committee of Safety to provide for the reception, support, and provision of any militia that might be formed (Journals, Oct, 26, 1774). The committee continued in existence for only a few months after the resumption of the General Court in July 1775 (Resolves 1775-75, c 371 (Nov. 9, 1775)). Its work was assisted by a commissary (Journals, Feb. 11, 1775) and a quartermaster general (Journals, Committee of Safety, Apr. 30, 1775)

During the period of the second Provincial Congress, the Committee of Supplies was empowered to purchase military stores and provisions and to deposit them in suitable places for delivery to the troops by the commissary general (Journals, Apr. 29, 1775). The following day the Committee of Safety was able to report (Journals, Apr. 30, 1775) the presence of ordnance stores at Cambridge and Watertown (at Edward Richardson's tavern, to which Capt. Waite Foster had been ordered to care for cannon and entrenching tools--Journals, Committee of Safety, Apr. 22, 1775), supply sites that amassed and delivered weaponry and accouterments to the Massachusetts army. Soon thereafter, the third congress appointed Major Nathaniel Barber ordnance storekeeper at Cambridge (Journals, June 7, 1775), succeeded by Ezekiel Cheever (Journals, June 27, 1775). Meantime, four storekeepers of officer rank were authorized (Journals, June 19, 1775). Following his July 1775 assumption of command of the Continental Army in Cambridge, George Washington reorganized Massachusetts ordnance stores and storekeepers. In August, he appointed Cheever to the position of Commissary of Artillery, later renamed Commissary of Military Stores of the Continental Army.

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