?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 2,000
SIGNER: "ALL AMERICA . . . SEEM INCLINED TO PAY FOR THE TEA DESTROY'D AT BOSTON" LEE, FRANCIS LIGHTFOOT. Portion of Autograph Letter, unsigned, to his brother Arthur ("Dear Bro'r"), including only first two [of three] pages, expressing outrage that the owners of a ship [presumably chartered by Lee] were demanding demurrage [a fee charged for delays], blaming the delay on the captain's failures, requesting that he pause remittances for fear that sale of the tobacco shipment would not be sufficient to maintain Arthur's credit, speculating that "our dispute with G. Britain" might cause the feared effect on tobacco prices, discussing the billing for shipping or merchant services including Lee's purchase of three handkerchiefs, sending a shipping agreement [not present], urging him to return to America, recommending a ship's captain and disparaging another, sending a Virginia newspaper [not present] and speculating that most Americans are sympathetic to paying for the tea recently destroyed in Boston in the hope of restoring trade with Britain. 2 pages, folio, written on recto and verso of single sheet; complete separations at horizontal folds expertly repaired verso with tissue. Menokin, 19 July 1774
". . . The owners of Brown must be very unreasonable if they insist upon demurage. . . . If Roman was obliged by his agreement to do the duty of Merch[ant]'s Cap[tai]n, he cant be entitled to any demurage as it is a fact easily proved, that the delay of the ship was owing entirely to the non performance of that duty. The truth is, he dismist his mate, & staid onboard himself to stow the Ship & the loading was neglected; this saved the expence of his Ship & you was to pay for her . . . . an evident plan of a villain. . . . I will swear that he confest to me that he had not been out of his Ship for 4 weeks, having sprained his back in stowing the tob[acc]o. . . . I understand he has been as remiss since our return from the Assembly. . . . If the market sh'd take a start & occasion a cash price here, I think you w'd soon receive what is due, but this can't be expected while our dispute with G. Britain lasts. I will deliver y'r Let'rs & strongly urge a compliance with their contents. . . . Inclosed you have T&T's bond, for their first cargo, they have refused giving security since; and Muses for the first cargo, R[ichard]H[enry]L[ee] has got those for the last. I will send them soon. I before sent you copy of M Smith's agreem't. There was certainly some part of y'r Let'r to Col P.L.L. w'ch imply'd more than you intended, for I think R.H.L. told me he saw it & he tho't Col. P. was empower'd. The young Lee is son to Hancock Lee who lived near fallmouth. I dont remember who bred him but he has the character of a diligent discreet young man. You will see him when you come over, which I everyday think more necessary. Is not Tho's Woodford out of employ? A good Cap'n is absolutely necessary, unless you had an Agent to do the business of riding Cap'n for I'm confident that Roman with a list of 500 h[ogshea]ds well engaged w'd not load his Ship of 300 in 4 months. There is a very clever man in the Ship that Blackwell loads, Blackwell himself is far preferable to any you have ever had. Inclosed you have the last Virg[ini]a paper I have rec'd. All America is going on in nearly the same tract. We all seem inclined to pay for the tea destroy'd at Boston, to convince the world that no private injury, no insult to the British trade was intended . . . ." When the present letter fragment was brought to auction in lot 128 at New York's Anderson Galleries on November 2, 1927, it was accompanied by a second leaf containing the remainder of the letter, the whole being described as a three-page ALS. On January 21, 2004, this second leaf--containing only 7 lines and the signature--was offered by RR Auction as lot 25. The final lines of the complete letter, beginning with the last sentence of the present letter fragment, are as follows: "We all seem inclined to pay for the tea destroy'd at Boston, to convince the world, that no private injury, no insult to the British trade was intended [the present fragment ends here] but to prevent the establishment of a precedent, destructive of our Liberty; what do you think of it? I have only now to assure you of my most affectionate attention to all your concerns, & to beg our best Love to our dear Sister & bro'r Templar, being at all times your aff'e Friend & Brother."
