Mar 22, 2018 - Sale 2470

Sale 2470 - Lot 8

Price Realized: $ 15,600
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000
24-YEAR-OLD FUTURE SIGNER TO HIS BROTHER HANCOCK, JOHN. Autograph Letter Signed, twice (in full and "Hancock" in postscript), to his brother Ebenezer ("My Dear Brother"), acknowledging receipt of a letter from a ship's captain, promising to write more soon, asking him to convey Hancock's promise to bring a monkey for his sister, and, in a postscript, asking him to persuade [Hancock's nephew William?] Bowes to send cages of birds. 1 page, 4to, with integral address leaf bearing holograph address and his black wax seal; faint scattered staining, folds; matted with portrait and framed. London, 25 February 1761

Additional Details

"I . . . Acknowledge the Receipt of your Agreeable Letter by Capt Folger, Rejoyce to hear you are well, & that you are on so good a footing with your Uncle & Aunt . . . .
"Present my Duty to my Dear Mother, Love to my Sister, with my sincere Respects to Mr. Perkins & the Doctr. Let them know I am well, & tell my Sister I shall bring her a Capuchin [monkey]. My Love to Hannah, Betsy & the whole Family . . . ."
The postscript: "Can't you & Mr. Bowes Contrive to send me a Cage of yellow Birds, & a Cage of Bobelincornes [bobolink]? Think of me."
The Captain Folger mentioned in this letter is likely Timothy Folger (1732-1814), a Nantucket shipmaster and distant cousin to Benjamin Franklin.