(AMERICAN REVOLUTION 1777) Bayard Helena Letter announcing

Sale 2505 - Lot 25

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Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION--1777.) Bayard, Helena. Letter announcing that her brother-in-law Arthur St. Clair was not a defector. Autograph Letter Signed to her cousin Quincy. One page, 12 1/4 x 7 1/2 inches, with docketing on verso; toned with wear on right edge and slight loss of text. Boston, 28 July 1777

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Helena Wendell Bayard was a sister-in-law of General Arthur St. Clair, who had recently abandoned Fort Ticonderoga to the British. Some suspected that it was an act of treason, though he was acquitted in a court-martial. Here she passes on the good news that St. Clair was at least not a defector: "We had a letter from St. Clair today, so he is not gone to the enemey as I heare. The truth will come out in time respecting Ticonderoge being left, and than we shall see whear the fault lays."
Bayard also notes the difficult situation in Boston, a year after the British occupation: "I shall go to Nebury next week to carrey Betsey to Mrs. Druatt to board . . . it's time she went sumwhear, and we have no schools in town." The letter was apparently written to her cousin Henry Quincy (1726-1780), son of town leader Edmund Quincy (1703-1788) and brother-in-law of John Hancock; it concludes with a joking reference to Henry's wife Eunice.