Lot 262

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Description:

Williams William



William Williams Declaration Signer, Scarce ALS re: The War Room Meeting House also Attended by George Washington

 

Single page ALS on laid paper, 7.5" x 12.5." Dated "Lebanon 23 Sep 1772," and signed by William Williams as "Wm Williams." Penned on recto and docketed to verso. Page toned with faint pale stains. Red wax seal still present. Verso has a small line of supportive tape to the top edge right edge, and a silk filler to the remnant hole left behind from the wax seal upon opening the letter. Expected folds with light chipping.

 

A scare letter written entirely in the hand of William Williams. Rare in that his signature is more commonly found on signed documents. Williams pens to a Revolutionary War Soldier, and a member of the General Assembly, The Safety House and The War Room member, Jedediah Elderkin. Shown in part below:

 

                                                    "Lebanon 23 Sep 1772

Sir

If you tho'd be well enough to attend the next Gen Assembly, as I hope you will (whether I thod need your assistance or not) .. thod be any matters there relating to ye Difficulties we are likely to be involved in suspecting our meeting house in ye old society; tho'd be glad you wo'd not be engaged against, but on our side, & will confer further with you about, if you thod be there, & anything is (illegible) as I am at present certain now it will be

 

I am Sir you most obed serv

Wm Williams"

 

This phenomenal letter directly alludes to the Gen Assembly meeting house in Lebanon, Connecticut whose official name was first dubbed in 1775 "The Safety House,"  and then shortly after renamed "The War Room." Both Williams and Elderkin where original members of this important group, with Williams the council's secretary (and later an important signer of The Declaration of Independence). It was the beginning of the Connecticut town's vital role in the fight against Britain, led by Gov. Jonathan Trumbull. Trumbull's efforts even brought Gen. George Washington, himself, to the rural town in eastern Connecticut as well as Hartford.

 

Trumbull was the only governor among the 13 colonies who publicly opposed the British before the start of the war. When the first shots were fired in Lexington and Concord, Mass., Trumbull convened what became known as the Council of Safety. This Council originally consisted of leaders from all over Connecticut, eventually met more than 1,100 times during the war. At least half of those meetings took place in a small, red clapboard building that sits along the massive Lebanon Town Green.  It became an ideal meeting place for the Council of Safety because its location was far from the shoreline and from Hartford, both seen as possible objects of British raids.

 

"The council started meeting shortly after the Lexington alarm," said Robert Rivard, a member of the Sons of the Revolutionary War, which today maintains the War Office. "It's first order was to send gunpowder made in the factories here in Connecticut to Lexington."

 

The council's duties were mostly to insure that supplies were getting to both Connecticut and other colonial troops. It was also responsible for housing any captured prisoners, dealing with economic issues and overseeing the state's fledgling Navy, which consisted of 13 commissioned ships that protected the state's long coastline. Before long Connecticut was shipping everything from tents and utensils to salted pork and beef and guns to colonial troops.

 

An incredibly important signed letter alluding to stealth rumblings foreshadowing the Revolutionary War. Scarce as this Declaration Signer's 'signature' is more typically found only on documents.



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