Sep 27, 2018 - Sale 2486

Sale 2486 - Lot 197

Price Realized: $ 5,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(AMERICAN REVOLUTION--1775.) Charles McEvers & Co. Letters describing unrest and British artillery fire in New York. Autograph Letters Signed to wine merchants Newton & Gordon of the Portuguese island of Madeira. Each 2 pages (the first 14 3/4 x 9 1/4 inches and the second smaller) with integral address leaves and no postal markings; minor dampstaining, the first letter worn with slight loss of text. New York, 22 May and 6 September 1775

Additional Details

In his first 22 May letter, McEvers complains that "this once peaceable & happy country is now a scene of the utmost confusion and distress. . . . Mr. [Samuel] Prince is one of the many who are now leaving this country for a time, in hopes some favourable change may take place whereby peace may again be restored." The second letter dated 6 September discusses the recent 23 August bombardment by the HMS Asia, which was New York's first combat of the war. McEvers observes "not the least prospect of a reconciliation between this country and the parent state. On the contrary, war and desolation is intended against every quarter of this continent. This city a few evenings ago was thrown in the utmost confusion by the firing from his majesty's ship Asia on this defenceless town, under a pretence of defending the King's property. . . . The present confusion of this country is beyond description. We are all obliged to lay aside the merchant and put on the soldier. . . . We are now loading a ship for Lisbon which will be the last we shall attempt until peace is again restored."