Lot
349 
[Revolutionary War] "Abington June 1st 1775", dateline on folded letter carried privately and addressed to Cotton Tufts at Weymouth Mass. as Chairman of the Committees of Cohasset Hingham Weymouth & Braintree, reads "Pursuant to your letter (of the 30 of May) to use directed we send you as followith…. (Selectmen of Abington) Joshua How, Benjamin Bate, Joshua Shaw (Committee of Correspondence of Abington) Lieut. Nath.el Pratt, "" Thos. Wilks, Col. David Jones, "" David Jenkins, ""Dan.el Noyes, Capt Willm. Reed, Capt. Edward Cobb… By order of the Selectmen and Committee of Correspondence, attest Daniel Noyes Clerk""; some fold separation, Fine. Estimate $3,000 - 4,000.
The Battle of Lexington-Concord marked the outbreak of the Revolutionary War on April 19th 1775. This call to arms letter was sent two weeks prior to the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17th 1775. The addressee, Cotton Tufts was a Massachusetts physician. He was a cousin of John Adams. He was the grandson of Peter Tufts, who immigrated to the United States in 1654. Cotton graduated from Harvard in 1749, studied medicine, and settled at Weymouth.
The Committees of Correspondence were shadow governments organized by the Patriot leaders of the Thirteen Colonies on the eve of the American Revolution. They coordinated responses to Britain and shared their plans; by 1773 they had emerged as shadow governments, superseding the colonial legislature and royal officials.
Realized: $3,750