Mercy Otis Warren: Selected Letters

318 Pages·2009·3.55 MB·English

by  Mercy Otis Warren

Mercy Otis Warren
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Mercy Otis Warren
Selected Lett ers
edited by Jeffrey H. Richards
and Sharon M. Harris
the university of georgia press
Athens & London
© 2009 by the University of Georgia Press
Athens, Georgia 30602
www.ugapress.org
All rights reserved
Set in WalbaumMT by BookComp, Inc.
Printed and bound by Thomson-Shore
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for
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Printed in the United States of America
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Warren, Mercy Otis, 1728–1814.
[Correspondence. Selections]
Mercy Otis Warren : selected letters / edited by Jeffrey H.
Richards and Sharon M. Harris.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn-13: 978-0-8203-2680-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-8203-2680-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Warren, Mercy Otis, 1728–1814—Correspondence. 2. Authors,
American—18th century—Correspondence. 3. Women authors,
American—18th century—Correspondence. 4. Historians—United
States—Correspondence. 5. Women historians—United States—
Correspondence . 6. Warren, Mercy Otis, 1728–1814—Family.
7. United States—History—Revolution, 1775–1783—Women.
8. United States—History—Revolution, 1775–1783—Historiography .
9. United States—History—Revolution, 1775–1783—Sources.
10. American letters—Women authors. I. Title.
ps858.w8a83 2008
818'.109—dc22
[b] 2008023994
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
Editorial Note xxxi
Letters
1. To James Otis Jr., [c. September 10,1769] 3
2. To James Warren, April 22,1772 5
3. To James Warren Jr., [September? 1772] 7
4. To Hannah Fayerwether Tolman Winthrop, February 1773 8
5. To Hannah Fayerwether Tolman Winthrop, April 1773 12
6. To Catharine Sawbridge Macaulay, June 9,1773 14
7. To James Warren Jr., [c. July] 1773 17
8. To Sarah Walter Hesilrige, [c. December 1773 or March 1774] 20
9. To Hannah Fayerwether Tolman Winthrop, January 31,1774 23
10. To Hannah Fayerwether Tolman Winthrop, 1774 27
11. To Hannah Quincy Lincoln, June 12,1774 29
12. To Hannah Fayerwether Tolman Winthrop, August 1774 31
13. To Hannah Quincy Lincoln, September 3,1774 33
14. To Catharine Sawbridge Macaulay, December 29,1774 37
15. To Abigail Smith Adams, December 29,1774 41
16. To John Adams, January 30,1775 43
17. To Sarah Brown Bowen, April 1775 47
18. To Harriet Shirley Temple, June 2,1775 49
19. To James Warren, June 15,1775 52
vi (cid:1) contents
20. To Ellen Hobart Lothrop, [July?] 1775 53
21. To Harriet Shirley Temple, July 30,1775 56
22. To Catharine Sawbridge Macaulay, August 24,1775 58
23. To John Thomas, January 10,1776 61
24. To James Warren, January [20],1776 62
25. To Janet Livingston Montgomery, January 20,1776 64
26. To James Warren, February 11,1776 67
27. To John Adams, March [10],1776 69
28. To Dorothy Quincy Hancock, [c. April] 1776 72
29. To James Warren Jr., June 1776 74
30. To James Warren, [September] 15, [1776] 77
31. To James Warren, November 24,1776 79
32. To James Warren, December 26, [1776] 81
33. To Catharine Sawbridge Macaulay, February 1,177[7] 84
34. To Catharine Sawbridge Macaulay, February 15,1777, part 1 86
35. To Catharine Sawbridge Macaulay, February 15,1777, part 2 92
36. To James Warren, [June 14,1777] 96
37. To Janet Livingston Montgomery, November 25,1777 97
38. To James Warren, [December 30,1777] 99
39. To James Warren, March 10,1778 100
40. To James Warren, June 2,1778 101
41. To John Adams, December 16,1778 104
42. To Abigail Smith Adams, March 14,1779 107
43. To Janet Livingston Montgomery, March 18,1779 109
44. To Hannah Fayerwether Tolman Winthrop, May 24,1779 113
45. To John Adams, July 29,1779 115
46. To Winslow Warren, December 4,1779 117
47. To Winslow Warren, December 1779 120
48. To James Warren, [January 1780?] 123
49. To Janet Livingston Montgomery, January 5,1780 125
50. To James Warren, March 12,1780 128
51. To Winslow Warren, March 25,1780 129
52. To John Adams, May 8,1780 133
53. To John Sloss Hobart, June 9,1780 135
54. To Janet Livingston Montgomery, June 178[0] 138
55. To Winslow Warren, August 20,1780 140
56. To Winslow Warren, November 7,1780 142
contents (cid:1) vii
57. To Catherine Livingston, [November 23,1780] 144
58. To Winslow Warren, December 16,1780 146
59. To Winslow Warren, January 18,1781 150
60. To Winslow Warren, September 28,1781 153
61. To Winslow Warren, March 24,1782 155
62. To Catherine Livingston, July 5,1782 157
63. To Janet Livingston Montgomery, October 1782 159
64. To Winslow Warren, November 24,1782 161
65. To John Adams, December 18,1782 164
66. To John Adams, [May?] 1783 167
67. To Winslow Warren, May 4,1783 168
68. To Winslow Warren, May 19,1783 170
69. To Elizabeth Otis Brown, June 15,1783 171
70. To Abigail Smith Adams, April 24,1784 174
71. To Sarah Sever, May 2,1784 180
72. To Winslow Warren, August 16,1784 182
73. To Winslow Warren, August 22,1784 184
74. To Winslow Warren, August 28,1784 186
75. To Winslow Warren, November 11,1784 189
76. To Winslow Warren, January 4,1785 193
77. To Martha Ball Custis Washington, April 1785 198
78. To Janet Livingston Montgomery, April 1785 200
79. To John Adams, September 1785 201
80. To James Warren Jr., [January] 178[6] 204
81. To Elbridge Gerry, February 19,1786 206
82. To Catharine Sawbridge Macaulay Graham, [September?] 1786 208
83. To John Adams, December 1786 210
84. To Dorothy Quincy Hancock, [February?] 17[87] 213
85. To Catharine Sawbridge Macaulay Graham, December 18,1787 215
86. To John Adams, May 8,1789 218
87. To Catharine Sawbridge Macaulay Graham, July 1789 221
88. To James Warren, March 29,1790 223
89. To George Washington, May 18,1790 225
90. To Winslow Warren, April 25,1791 226
91. To Winslow Warren, May 22,1791 228
92. To Catharine Sawbridge Macaulay Graham, May 31,1791 230
93. To James Warren Jr., [December] 28,1791 233
viii (cid:1) contents
94. To Janet Livingston Montgomery, April 1792 234
95. To Henry Warren, February 10,1793 236
96. To Elizabeth Otis Brown, April 28,1793 238
97. To Sarah Gray Cary, June 24,1793 239
98. To Robert Treat Paine, [October 1794?] 240
99. To James Warren Jr., May 14,1796 242
100. To Sarah Gray Cary, June 8,1799 245
101. To Sarah Gray Cary, August 18,1799 246
102. To Sarah Gray Cary, August 23,1800 248
103. To Sarah Gray Cary, February 7,1802 250
104. To a Very Young Lady, [Early 1800s?] 251
105. To Margaret Cary, January 1,1814 253
106. To Mary Gray Otis, May 24,1814 256
Bibliography 259
Index 267
acknowledgments
The editors wish to thank the following individuals and institutions for
assistance and permissions to use manuscript material. At Old Dominion
University, we are grateful to the College of Arts and Letters and Dean
Chandra De Silva; the Department of English and its former chair Joyce
Neff; and the Old Dominion University Research Foundation for a summer
grant that aided in the volume’s preparation. In addition, we owe debts to
Old Dominion graduate students Elizabeth Vincelette, who transcribed a
number of the letters and achieved readings of words we marveled at,
and Daniel Cutshaw, who pursued many of the quotations in Warren’s
correspondence. We also thank Sarah Richards for her work in the mi-
croform room. Among institutions, we thank the Massachusetts Historical
Society for permission to print transcriptions of letters from the Mercy
Warren Papers, the Cary Family Papers, and the John Thomas Papers;
the Gilder Lehrman Collection, courtesy of The Gilder Lehrman Institute
of American History, for GLC 1800.01, Mercy Otis Warren autograph let-
ter to Catharine Macaulay, December 29, 1774, and GLC 1800.02, Mercy
Otis Warren autograph letter to Catharine Macaulay, August 24,1775; the
Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections,
Princeton University Library, for quotation from a letter of Mercy Otis
Warren to Janet Livingston of March 18, 1779; the Wesleyan University
Library for the autograph letter of Mercy Otis Warren to Catherine Liv-
ingston, November 23, 1780; and the Pilgrim Society Library, Plymouth,
Massachusetts, for the letter from Mercy Otis Warren to Elizabeth Otis,
June 15,1783. And special thanks to Nancy Grayson and the editorial staff
at the University of Georgia Press for their excellent work.