Apr 17, 2012 - Sale 2276

Sale 2276 - Lot 111

Price Realized: $ 1,560
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
FROM ONE CONNECTICUT SIGNER TO ANOTHER SHERMAN, ROGER. Autograph Letter Signed, to Captain Oliver Wolcott as sheriff of Litchfield County, CT, cancelling a request to collect a debt due to Sherman. Docketed "Roger Shermans orders" on verso, probably by Wolcott. 1 page, 8vo; edges slightly trimmed, minor foxing. New Milford, CT, 5 October 1752
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the earliest sherman letter on the market. Sherman would later sign the Declaration of Independence, as well as the Articles of Association, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution--the only man who could make that claim. Here, he asks the county sheriff to hold off on collecting his debt against Daniel Averill. Exhibiting both forbearance and prudence, he adds: "I would desire you, sr., to keep the execution safe until you have opportunity to convey it to me, so that if there should be occasion it may be renewed." The sheriff who received this letter, Oliver Wolcott, would happen to join Sherman in the Continental Congress two decades later.
This letter was written when Sherman was a humble 31-year-old shopkeeper and surveyor, before he entered politics or was admitted to the bar. It is earliest of his letters to appear at auction since at least 1927, per American Book Prices Current. Provenance: Henkels sale, 10 April 1930, lot 49; William D. Morley sale, 21 November 1950, lot 73.