Sep 27, 2018 - Sale 2486

Sale 2486 - Lot 217

Price Realized: $ 1,875
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
APPLYING AS PRISONER OF WAR TO BRITISH GENERAL CLINTON FOR RELAXED PAROLE (AMERICAN REVOLUTION--1780.) Clarkson, Matthew. Letter appealing for a change in the terms of his parole. Autograph Letter Signed, "M. Clarkson Major," to British General Henry Clinton, retained draft, 1 page, folio; moderate loss at upper edge and fold intersections with minor loss to text expertly repaired with paper, complete separations at folds repaired verso with tissue, faint staining at folds from previous inexpert repair, two lines of text struck out, docketing verso in his hand. Philadelphia, 28 July 1780
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"As the Commissioner of Prisoners informs me that no exchange will soon take place, I am to entreat of your Excellency the enlargement of my parole, which at present confines me to Pensilvania. General Lincoln, to whom I was an aid, is in New England. It is his wish & mine that I may be with him, and as no ill consequence can follow to the arms of His Britannick Majesty. I have a confidence in your Excellencies indulgence that the general parole usually given to prisoners in my situation may be extended to me."
On 12 May 1780, at the end the Siege of Charleston, Major General Benjamin Lincoln surrendered his garrison to the British, making Matthew Clarkson a prisoner of war. He was exchanged in February of the following year, becoming Lincoln's aide-de-camp, and witnessing the surrender of Yorktown in October. Provenance: from the collection of William Wheeler III.