Jul 30, 2020 - Sale 2543

Sale 2543 - Lot 1

Price Realized: $ 1,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(AMERICAN REVOLUTION.) HENRY, PATRICK. Partly-printed Letter Signed, "P. Henry," as Governor, to the Justices of Charlotte, informing them how much is their allotment of salt and from whom they are to obtain it. Accomplished in holograph, address panel on verso in holograph. 1 page, small 4to; minor loss to flourish of signature from ink burn, moderate marginal discoloration from prior matting, faint scattered offsetting, folds, docketing verso. Williamsburg, VA, 5 April 1777

Additional Details

"Your County is entitled to receive of Mr. John Osborne at Osbornes One hundred & Ten Bushels of Salt . . . . The Cost of the Salt . . . is 12s. 9d. per Bushel . . . ."
On October 12, 1776, the General Assembly of VA authorized the Governor to purchase, distribute, and fix the price of salt. VA and other colonies had little domestic production of this commodity, having become dependent upon imports, and as relations with Great Britain and its colonies soured, salt, which was necessary primarily for the preservation of meat, became dangerously scarce.