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GOV. THOMAS HUTCHINSON'S TENANT IS WARNED OUT OF JAMESTOWN, RHODE ISLAND

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Militaria Start Price:100.00 USD Estimated At:200.00 - 300.00 USD
GOV. THOMAS HUTCHINSON'S TENANT IS WARNED OUT OF JAMESTOWN, RHODE ISLAND
Unusual A.L.S. "Isaac Peirce" 2pp. legal folio, Jamestown, [R.I.], July 15, 1771 to Edward Hull, President of the town council of Jamestown reacting to the town's desire to "warn out" Peirce who was not considered a resident of the town. Peirce defends his right to live in the town: "...I am here by Virtue of a lease from his Excellency Thomas Hutchinson Esq. of Boston, of Good Land (whose Right or fee in or to the same I am Determined to Support & Defend as far as is Lawful…Sir I am Determined not to Depart the Town ... If you Had been Pleased to Visit Mr Hutchinson…I make no doubt he would have answered in the most Explicit manner and you beyond Dispute if you were a man of Sense...You are willing & ready to receive the Tax of Mr. Hutchinson's farm & my Stock for the Benefit of the Town and would if it was in your power deprive him of Letting his farm to who he pleases & me from Improving of it ... I was not born on this Island but the King's first Representative in New England has given me his Word he would Support me on it & it is my Opinion it will Puzzle you to get me off...". The lands in question were likely part of a 1737 purchase by Hutchinson from his in-laws, Andrew Oliver and Mary Sanford (Hutchinson had married their daughter Margaret in 1734). Hutchinson leased the farms to tenants like Peirce and controlled the property until 1780 when the State of Rhode Island seized his property as was their policy for lands owned by Loyalists.