Nov 20, 2014 - Sale 2367

Sale 2367 - Lot 28

Price Realized: $ 1,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
(VERMONT.) ALLEN, IRA. Printed Letter Signed, to the Governor of New Hampshire, circular explaining Allen's intention to correct misinformation concerning his own character and the attempt of the British government to deprive Vermont of military supplies, sending a summary of his [1804 book, Narrative of the Transactions relative to the Capture of the American Ship] Olive Branch [not present], and promising to send books on the subject. 1 page, 4to; folds. (MRS) Philadelphia, 4 July 1806

Additional Details

"As false reports have been industriously circulated to injure my character, and to divest me of much property, I feel it a duty . . . I owe to the citizens of my native Country, to shew them the measures taken by the British Government and Court of Admiralty, to deprive the State of Vermont . . . of Military Stores, purchased for the use of their Militia . . . ."
Ira Allen (1751-1814) was a brother of Ethan Allen who helped draft the Vermont constitution in 1777, helped establish the University of Vermont in 1789, and who in 1796 was captured by the British aboard his ship Olive Branch with 15,000 French muskets and subsequently thought at various times to be a traitor by the British, French, and Americans.