Boston Mar. 27th. 1776 Dear Sr.,

I have a moment spared me by the bearer (Mr. Lucas) to write a line from the place of my nativity which has been so long in the possession of the British barbarians, who in a very precipitate manner left the town last Sabbath day morning. Many of the inhabitants have been plundered of their whole effects. Poor brother Leverett1 has been a large Sufferer. I have lost nothing.

Your family were well when I left Taunton, which was last monday week. My family are in middling circumstances as to health & all your friends there.

Whether I shall remove into town, soon, or not, I cannot determine. I think it will not be prudent, (before The enemies ships are gone out of the 184harbor) to have my family here. My apprentices are all in the army & I know not what I shall do to set the office going. No help is to be had. Tommy wont like to work alone.

We are by order of the Council & house making inquisition for addressers, associators, & the aiders & abettors of The enemies of our country.

To morrow the Thursday lecture will be opened. Gen. Washington & some other officers will grace the audience with their presence. Dr. Eliot2 is to preach. A dinner will be prepared for the Genl. &c. & a number of the house & council will attend the entertainment.

I should be glad to fill this sheet but am not allow’d time only to add that I am, dear Sr. Sr. yr. hume. Servt.

Jos. Greenleaf

RC ; addressed: “To The hone. Robt. Treat Paine Esq. In Philadelphia. fav’d by Mr. Lucas”; endorsed.

1.

John Leverett (1726/7–1777), a Boston merchant and colonel of a Boston regiment during the Revolution, was married to Greenleaf ’s sister Mary. He died in Middletown, Conn., the following year.

2.

General Washington invited the Rev. Andrew Eliot (1718–1778), minister of the New North Church, to offer the Thursday Lecture as an official thanksgiving sermon to commemorate the evacuation of Boston by the British army. The official party processed from the state house to the Old Brick Church for a sermon based upon activities in Boston under siege. They then proceeded to the Bunch of Grapes Tavern for an elegant meal, provided at public expense ( Sibley’s Harvard Graduates , 10:155; New-England Chronicle, Apr. 4, 1776).

Elizabeth Town 27 March 1776 Dr. Sir,

I just now received the inclosed,1 but as I do not care to take it upon myself to give directions concerning it, I beg you to lay it before the Committee, & procure their answer to Mr. Lewis as soon as possible. The man of war’s men set fire to the ship bleu mountain valley last night, but it being discovered before it got much head, was happily extinguish’d.2 If they appear on such another frolic, I believe the Towns men here will make them repent it. I am Sir your most humble Sert.

Wil. Livingston

RC ; addressed: “To Robert T. Paine Esqr. at the Congress In Philadelphia. Free”; endorsed.

1.

Enclosed letter from Francis Lewis to William Livingston, Mar. 20, 1776, on the supply of cannon and shot is published in Letters of Delegates, 3:417–419.

2.

The Blue Mountain Valley, commanded by Capt. James Hamilton Dempster, was a transport from England “with Coals, Porter, Potatoes, Hogs, & Horse Beans designed for the ministerial Troops at Boston.” A combined force of Continental troops under William Alexander and Elias Dayton captured the ship on Jan. 23 and took it into Elizabethtown, N.J. On the night of Mar. 26 men from the H.M.S. Asia set fire to the Blue Mountain Valley but without much success (Naval Documents of the American Revolution, 3:1200–1203, 4:547).