Mar 21, 2019 - Sale 2502

Sale 2502 - Lot 1

Price Realized: $ 35,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 20,000 - $ 30,000
MOHAWK CHIEF AFTER MEETING WITH GEORGE III TO PLEDGE SUPPORT AGAINST REBELS (AMERICAN REVOLUTION.) BRANT, JOSEPH. Autograph Letter Signed, "Jos. Brant / Thayeadanegea," to an unnamed recipient ("Sir"), explaining that he has been in England for five months with [British Superintendent of Indian Affairs of the northern colonies] Colonel [Guy] Johnson since the death of Sir William [Johnson], relating last year's news that 13 Indians had been killed by American rebels, sending regards from Captain [Gilbert] Tice, and, in the postscript additionally Signed, "J.B.": "I was made a mason when I was in London for my satisfaction. Sir, Keep my bad writing." 2 pages, small 4to, with (detached) integral blank; short closed separations at folds, moderate scattered staining overall, tissue repair to blank. Falmouth, England, 31 May 1776
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"This is to acquaint you that I was here in England this five months. I came over with Col'l Johnson and his people. We are now ready to return to America, only waiting for fair wind.
"I was with Col'l Johnson since Sir Will'ms daeght [death], gave me much trouble for he is a strange sort of a man. . . . I have no news to tell you at present, only what happen last year, we lost thirteen Indians by the rebels. I hope we will have our satisfaction some way [o]rother. Nothing cou'd give me so much Pleasure is to see you in America. I want you & I shou'd be together these warlike times. . . ."
When Brant returned to America in November of 1776, he worked to persuade the Iroquois nations to fight against the American revolutionaries, leading the Mohawk and several of the Iroquois nations in campaigns throughout the Mohawk Valley region and, in 1778, he shared command with other Iroquois and British Loyalists during the Cherry Valley massacre.
Brant became a Third Degree Freemason on April 26, 1776, in a Lodge of the Moderns, the Falcon, in London.
This letter was on temporary loan to the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, PA, where it was displayed in their permanent exhibition space between June and November, 2018.