Apr 17, 2012 - Sale 2276

Sale 2276 - Lot 170

Price Realized: $ 1,020
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400
(YORKTOWN CAMPAIGN.) WORMELEY, RALPH (SR. AND JR.) Pair of Autograph Letters Signed, to Brigadier General George Weedon, concerning slaves taken from their plantation, thought to possibly be infected with smallpox. 1 and 3 pages, 4to; minor wear, separation on one center fold. Rosegill [Middlesex County, VA], 17 and 21 September 1781
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Ralph Wormeley (1715-1790) and Ralph Wormeley (1745-1806) were the fourth and fifth of that name to own the large Rosegill plantation. They were Tory sympathizers, although not an all-out Loyalists, and were exiled to western Virginia for the early part of the war. Their estate was plundered by Continental troops and British raiders alike throughout the war. Here, the family asks for assistance from the head of the state militia, shortly before the siege of Yorktown.
In the first letter, Ralph Senior writes to the local Continental militia leader to inquire about slaves and silver that had recently been looted from Rosegill: "As the negroes are to be deliver'd up again, if call'd for by the Gov'r, I think I had better not take them 'till that point is determined." Four days later, with the slaves in a ship ready to be returned to Rosegill, Wormeley Junior follows up with concern about smallpox: "Not any person having had the small pox in our family, except myself, not an overseer, it may be impossible for us to comply with the terms." He requests "a guard (two men with fixed bayonets)" to "prevent the disorder spreading, as well as the negroes elopement, which concerns the public, should they be demanded."