Sale 290


 
Lot 87



1769 (Sep. 15) Amsterdam Netherlands to Portsmouth N.H., missent to Portsmouth England, datelined folded letter missent to Portsmouth England, resent with "PORTS / MOUTH" two-line handstamp to Portsmouth N.H., various Bishop marks including "13 / JA" and manuscript "1N" rating, carried via the Lord Hyde packet arriving in New York on April 18, 1770 with "18 AP" Franklin mark, red manuscript "8" rating, Fine, the 4 dwt (1 shilling) packet fee and the single 4 dwt rate from New York to Portsmouth.
Estimate 3,000 - 4,000

A portion of a lawyer's letter expressing outrage over the mishandling of a will: "the Detail of the Villany practiced by the attorney Augustus Johnston employed by our late friends is really very shocking & cannot but excite our astonishment that they should put so Important an affair in the powers of a bad man."

Also, some observations of the backwardness of the colonists regarding legal matters: "these ignorant people with their ignorant & suspicious advisors think themselves ruined or that there is some design against them when one attempts to get them to sign what they do not understand & which at [the] same time its impossible to reduce to their comprehension."


 
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