Description:

MANASSEH CUTLER
(1742-1823) American patriot and long-time New England clergyman who, soon after the battle of Lexington, addressed the minutemen then mustering in Ipswich and accompanied them to Cambridge, where he saw the British as they retreated into Boston. Took part in General John Sullivan's expedition to Rhode Island, for which he was recognized for gallantry in action. Rare A.L.S. "Manasseh Cutler" 1p. legal folio, Ipswich, Oct. 26, 1773, to Elbridge Gerry who at this time was a member of the Massachusetts Provincial Legislature, but personally was an affluent patriot in the family shipping business, and one of the concerned citizens of Marblehead who had contributed to the building of a "sanitarium" on Cat Island for citizens with small pox. Cutler, who will soon visit this Island with a group of friends, generously pens: "...You will be so kind as to forward the inclosed to Dr. Whitney. As we are informed by your advertisement, that Memorandums are taken by yr. boat-men of yr. state of each patient & lodged at your store - have requested Dr. Whitney, Mr. Brown & Mr. [Robert] Dodge to send a particular acct. of their State to your store (being yr. only way of the incoming intelligence from them) & shall esteem it as a singular favor if you will inclose yr. same in a line to me...". Addressed in his hand on verso to "Mr. Ellbridge Gerry, Mercht, Marble Head", and bearing an A.E. of future Signer of the Declaration of Independence, ELBRIDGE GERRY: "Ipswich Letter, Manassah Cutler, Octr 1773". Toning with marginal wear and seal tears in vertical margins, very good. Reverend Cutler mentions his friend Robert Dodge in his diary, noting that only days earlier, on Oct. 8, 1773, he had accompanied Dodge to the newly completed Essex Hospital on Cat Island fearing that Dodge had become infected with small pox, which indeed he was. Cured of the disease, Dodge was released from Essex Hospital on Nov. 11, 1773 in perfect health. Elbridge Gerry, John Glover, Azor Orne, and Jonathan Glover and Elbridge Gerry had collectively built Essex Hospital privately after the town opted to not build one. The people of Marblehead, apprehending that the dread disease, by means of the hospital's inoculations, might become a pestilence among them, were violently opposed to it; and a party of men completely disguised, on the night of January 26, 1774, went to the island and set fire to the hospital, and the buildings, with their contents, were destroyed. With an engraved portrait.

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January 20, 2010 10:00 AM EST
Stamford, CT, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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