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"The prayer of your Loveing Wife."

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:175.00 USD Estimated At:350.00 - 450.00 USD
 The prayer of your Loveing Wife.
Highly unusual, endearing letter of wife Mehitabel Wadsworth, Middletown (Conn.), "Dec. ye 16, 1771," to her husband, Capt. Jere(miah) Wadsworth - future Commissary General of the Continental Army, delegate to the Continental Congress, member of Conn. Convention ratifying the Constitution, and member of first, second, and third Federal Congresses. 5 3/4 x 7 1/2, 1 full p. Integral address-leaf, addressed to "...Hispaniola or Wherever he may be found." "Dear Sir, I am well as common as I hope this will find you. I have this day heard from Hartford. Our friends are all well there. The little Boy is Better tho he don't quite get rid of his turns of pain yet. The ear of these little dear Selves seems to be so grate in your absence that I hope you won't leave us again. May Heaven preserve you safe from all harme, prosper your voige 'voyage] and make it short, is the prayer of your Loveing Wife." Interesting coat-of-arms watermark. Arithmetic on blank inside leaf, apparently computing pounds, shillings, and pence, presumed in the addressee's hand, an apt prelude to his future post as George Washington's Commissary Gen. Only four years old when his father died, Wadsworth was trained as a sailor by his ship-owning uncle, and went to sea at age 17. Advancing to mate and then master, Wadsworth made a fortune sailing the West Indies. At the outbreak of the Revolution, his home became the commissary store and a rendezvous for soldiers. A six-month diary survives, describing the Wadsworth house overflowing with 20,000 flints, a hogshead of bread, "cyder" and rum, with pork by the barrelful cooking in the kitchen for the troops. At other times the house had been filled with 5,000 pairs of yarn stockings, and quantities of tin kettles for Army campsites. The Wadsworth house was a beehive of activity, with a constant flow of visitors; surely his wife never anticipated that she would not only be cooking for their six children, but for the Continental Army. Fragment lacking at blank left edge where opened at red wax seal, original folds, pleasing oatmeal toning, superficial dust soiling, else very good. American domestic letters from the Revolutionary War era (the Boston Massacre had taken place the preceding year) are now notably scarce. Delightful for display.