Feb 04, 2016 - Sale 2404

Sale 2404 - Lot 241

Price Realized: $ 469
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(RHODE ISLAND.) Brown, John. Pair of letters from an important Providence merchant. 2 Autograph Letters Signed, various sizes and condition as described. Providence, RI, 1797 and 1802

Additional Details

Autograph Letter Signed to Providence attorney David Leonard Barnes (later United States District Court for Rhode Island). One page, 5 x 8 inches, plus integral address leaf with no postal markings. Relates to a complex case recently settled by the United States Supreme Court case, Brown vs. Van Braam, between Brown and Barnes's client. Brown writes: "You ought to write to Mr. Vanbram or his agent to know if they would not . . . agree to take the bills by the 15th of September, you will have the same." This letter was written at a critical moment in Brown's career; just three weeks previous, he had been the first American convicted under the Slave Trade Act of 1794 and had forfeited one of his ships. Np, 26 August 1797
Autograph Letter Signed to the president and directors of the Providence Insurance Company (a group which apparently included David L. Barnes). One page, 12 x 7 1/4, plus incomplete integral address leaf with no postal markings. Dampstaining wear with slight loss of text, partial separations at folds. Discusses an insurance settlement for losses on a recent voyage of his famous ship General Washington, which had been the first Rhode Island merchant vessel to visit China. Providence, RI, 4 September 1802.