1817 Stampless Letter on Antigua Genealogy

[Antigua] Autograph Letter, Signed, to Anthony Browne about the Genealogy and History of the Browne Family in Antigua

Wilson, Richard

Publication: [St. John's], Antigua: 1817.

Notes: A three-page manuscript letter (on a single large sheet folded to make four pages) responding to a request for information about the family and land holdings of the ancestors of one Anthony Browne (of London). The letter is densely written with more than forty lines per page in a very clear hand.

This letter is transcribed on pp. 58–61 of Vere Langford Oliver (ed.), Caribbeana, vol. V (1919). It begins with a plantation near Willoughby Bay owned by the earliest recorded Anthony Browne in Antigua in 1668. The letter describes various property transactions of Anthony Browne and his wife, Elizabeth, followed by additional changes in property in the name of Anthony Browne, who may be offspring of the original settler or an unrelated person with the same name. The letter references property records, wills, and church records. For his efforts, which seem to be inconclusive, Wilson requests what appears to be an extraordinary sum, £30.

The letter was sent "per packet" and has a large "Antigua Jan 20" black-ink stamp on the cover. There is also a red "B 28FEB28" ink stamp, probably indicating when it arrived in England. The postage is marked 2/2. The pages measure 7-1/2 by 12-1/2 inches.

PROVENANCE: Jay Kislak.

Edition + Condition: There is a seal tear on the second leaf where the original wax seal (now missing) was opened; this does not affect any text. There is also an old short tape repair to one fold. Generally very good.

Item No: #364029

Price: $500