LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 October Rare Books & Manuscripts #675  / 

30051

Richard Gridley Autograph Document Signed

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:200.00 USD Estimated At:400.00 - 600.00 USD
Richard Gridley Autograph Document Signed
<B>Richard Gridley Autograph Document Signed</B></I> “<I>Richd Gridley,</B></I>” one page, 5” x 4”. Boston, December 1, 1733. In full, “<I>Receiv'd of Mrs. Elizabeth Prentice Seven Pounds ten Shillings & 8 in full of all acctts to this day.</B></I>” For his engineering service in the French and Indian War, Richard Gridley (1710-1781) was awarded a commission in the British army, a grant of the Magdalen Islands with an extensive seal and cod fishery, 3,000 acres of New Hampshire land, and a life annuity. He was made Chief Engineer in the New England Provincial Army in 1775 and, in that post, laid out the defenses on Breed's Hill where the Battle of Bunker Hill was fought on June 17, 1775. On the night of June 16th, Col. William Prescott and his men, using Gridley's outline, had dug a fortification 160 feet long and 80 feet wide with ditches and earthen walls. After Washington assumed his duties as Commander in Chief of the newly created army in July, Gridley, wounded at Bunker Hill while working the cannons, was appointed the first Chief Engineer of the Continental Army (1775-1776). At his furnace in Stoughton, he made the first cannon and mortars ever cast in America. He also directed the construction of the fortifications which forced the British to evacuate Boston in March 1776. When Washington moved his Army south, Gridley remained as Chief Engineer of the New England Department. Irregular edges at top and right. Fine condition.<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Flat Material, Small (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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