GENTLEMEN,
I am to acquaint you, that immediately after the arrival of the unrighteous and cruel edict for shutting up our harbor, the inhabitants of this Town appointed a Committee to receive and distribute such donations as our friends were making, for the employment and relief of those who would become sufferers thereby.
Your letter of the 19th of September last, directed to Jno Hancock, Esq., or the Overseers of the Poor of the Town of Boston, was laid before the same Committee, enclosing a bill of lading for one thousand and eighty-seven bushels of corn, being part of a very valuable contribution, shipped on board the schooner Sally, James Perkins, master, for the sufferers, from our respectable friends in Essex County, in Virginia. The schooner was by contrary winds driven to the island of St. Eustatia. Mr. Isaac Van Dam,2 a reputable merchant of that place, generously took the care of the corn, and having made sale of it, remitted the amount of the proceeds, (free of all expense,) being one hundred seventy-one pounds 8/, New York currency, in a bill of exchange, drawn on Mr. Isaac Moses, of that city, which we doubt not will be duly honored.
The Committee very gratefully acknowledge their obligations to you, Gentlemen, for your trouble in transmitting this charitable donation, and they request that you would return their sincere thanks to the benevolent people of your County, for their great liberality towards the oppressed inhabitants of this devoted Town.
This is one among many testimonies afforded to us, that the Virginians are warmly disposed to assist their injured brethren and fellow-subjects in this place. This consideration has hitherto encouraged our inhabitants to bear indignities with patience and having the continual approbation of all the Colonies, with that of their own minds, as being sufferers in the common cause of their country, I am fully persuaded of their resolution, by God's assistance, to persevere in the virtuous struggle, disdaining to purchase an exemption from suffering by a tame surrender of any part of the righteous claim of America. May Heaven give wisdom and fortitude to each of the Colonies, and succeed their unremitted efforts, in the establishment of public liberty on an immoveable foundation.
I am, in behalf of our Committee, Gentlemen, your affectionate friend and countryman,
_________________________________________________________________ 1Archibald Ritchie, Jonathan Lee, and Robert Beverly, of Essex County, Virginia. 2 Cf., page 190.
TO SAMUEL PURVIANCE, JUNIOR.1
[Collections of Massachusetts Historical Society, 4th ser., vol. iv., p. 263.]
BOSTON, March 14th, 1775.