LOT OF 4: WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA AND MARYLAND DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR ERA

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/7/2018

1) [Northumberland Petitions for Protection from Indian Depredations, 1778]. Docketed on recto, "Petition of divers inhabitants of the county of Northumberland . Read in Council June 26, 1778. Provided for by a late Vote of Council." DS, 1 pages, folio, some creasing but otherwise very good. 100 "respectable Inhabitants" affixed their signatures to this important petition for protection, including William Maclay, William Montgomery, and Joseph Antes, noting that "the British and Indian savages have penetrated so far into this Country that we are by no means able to Exist as a County any Longer without some assistance from Council as the attention of every Individual is turned to the preservation of his Own family [and] That ravages are daily Committed and more Likely to be done and on Thursday Last we Lost Eight Killed and five missing and unless some speedy measures are fallen upon the Center of Lancaster County will in a short time be the frontier." With an 1866 steel engraving of the "Massacre of Wyoming" from the original painting by Alonzo Chappel. (2 pieces) Provenance: Goodspeed's Bookshop to John Reed, 24 December 1964; Reed (?)to O'Connor, date unknown. 2) Alexander McKee to Jasper Yeates, ALS, dated Fort Pitt, 27 September 1773, one page, bifolium, with integral address on recto "Favour'd by Doctor [Edward] Hand", some loss to paper from seal opening on the opposite leaf, not affecting letter text on first leaf. Fur trader, Indian agent and interpreter McKee (c. 1735-1799) writes to noted Lancaster lawyer, Jasper Yeates, that he received the deeds sent to him and that he will have them executed at Fort Pitt, as "Mr. Graydon is here and I imagine is still in the Commission of the Peace for Northumberland County..." At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, most of the western settlers suspected his loyalty and after some mistreatment, he left the Patriots in 1777, fleeing to the British garrison at Detroit. It was during this transition that he established his well-known association with Loyalists Matthew Elliott and the Girty brothers: Simon, James, and George. During the next 25 years, as Indian agent for the Crown, Alexander McKee led efforts to promote the alliance of the Indians with the British, most especially with the Shawnee, but also with the majority of the Northwest Indian tribes, until his death in Upper Canada in 1799. McKee autographed letters are extremely rare. 3) [Frontier Maryland settlers petition for taxation redress, 1783]. Petition of Thomas Cresap, Andrew Bruce, Charles Brathey and John I. Jacob "on behalf of the Inhabitants of W[ashington] County to Thomas Jennifer, Intendant of Taxation at Annapolis, dated 8 March 1783, one page, bifolium, some water staining along left margin and chipping and mend along right, otherwise very good. The petitioners mention "the disagreeable Circumstances Attending the payment of our taxes for the present Year...being situated] "one hundred Miles from Hagars Town the place Appointed by Law." They point out that due to "the peculiar scarcity of Cash in these parts we must ...suffer the mortification to see our property seized & sold at less than half Value for payment of our taxes" unless a more convenient place can be arranged for the delivery of wheat, flour and other goods in payment, suggesting either Sprigg's Mill at Old Town or Tomlinsons on Wills Creek near Fort Cumberland. Thomas Cresap (c.1702—c.1790) was an early settler of western Maryland and noted Indian trader. He served Lord Baltimore as an agent in the Maryland–Pennsylvania boundary dispute that became known as Cresap's War. Later, together with the Native American chief Nemacolin, Cresap improved a Native American path to the Ohio Valley, and ultimately settled and became a large landowner near Cumberland, Maryland, where he was involved in further disputes, including in the French and Indian War and Lord Dunmore's War. We can find only one record of a Thomas Cresap autographed document or letter at auction. From the Walter O'Connor collection.