1779 Letter of Boston Poet and Loyalist Exile Joseph Green Written from London During the Revolution: “The Door Was Then Shut, Now It Is Bolted.”
London: March 26, 1779. Autograph letter signed, Joseph Green, to Boston merchant Samuel Eliot. Folded letter datelined "London, Mar. 26th 1779," with "Rec'd 22nd Decr. 1779" docket on top flap. 7 x 9 ¼ inches, 3pp. Some repairs with archival tape, folded, small tears at some folds. Excellent. Item #List3711
A thoughtful Revolutionary-era letter written by Joseph Green, the Boston clergyman, poet, satirist, and wit whose verses made him one of the best-known literary figures in colonial New England. A graduate of Harvard College and member of Boston’s mercantile elite, Green maintained friendships with figures including Mather Byles and Benjamin Church. He is known for his satirical poetry and as a signer of the 1773 attestation supporting Phillis Wheatley’s authorship of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. A Loyalist during the American Revolution and named in the 1778 Massachusetts Banishment Act, Green departed Boston in 1775 and spent the remainder of his life in England. The present letter was written only a year before his death in London in 1780.
Written during the period of British blockade and privateering that turned the Atlantic into a contested military space, the letter survives as a rare example of communication successfully passing between a Loyalist exiled in London and a Boston merchant. Green repeatedly returns to the difficulty of maintaining contact, noting that “all means of correspondence seem to be cut off” and explaining that he is able to write only because he has found “a particular friend, in whom I can confide.” The letter itself, written in March and not received until December 1779, provides tangible evidence of the obstacles confronting transatlantic correspondence during the Revolution.
Green writes:
“Having now an opportunity of writing by a particular friend, in whom I can confide, I embrace it, to let you and our niece know that your Aunt and I are both well, and very solicitous to hear of your health and welfare. We think it no small unhappiness to be so far removed from so many of our friends, especially at a time when all means of correspondence seem to be cut off; but when we consider what scenes of confusion and distress we have escaped, and what repose and quiet we have enjoyed here, we ought not to repine.
“Notwithstanding we have been so long in Engl’d, I have seen nothing of the country, and your Aunt, next to nothing of the town. I amuse myself in trolling thro’ several parts of it, where new objects are perpetually presenting themselves; and I am the fonder of this exercise, as it contributes to health as well as amusement.
“The climate here agrees well with my constitution. I enjoy better health than I did at home, & my friends tell me I am younger. But I know better than to believe them in this, because I think if I was to go about it, I could prove I am near four years older than when I left Boston.”
Green’s remarks describe the reality of transatlantic communication during the Revolutionary War, when Loyalists abroad and their friends in America frequently depended upon trusted private carriers rather than regular postal channels. The letter’s journey from London to Boston—requiring months to arrive and bearing Eliot’s receipt docket of December 22, 1779—illustrates precisely the obstacles Green describes.
Green continues with observations on one of the great public controversies of wartime Britain, the celebrated court martial of Admiral Augustus Keppel following his engagement with the French fleet off Brest. Green describes the intense public reaction and the partisan passions surrounding the affair:
“We have had a forced and ostentatious display of joy on acct. of Admiral Keppel’s acquittal. He has been try’d by a court martial on a charge brought against him by Admiral Palliser, for misconduct in the engagement he had the last summer with the French fleet off Brest. This has been made a party affair and has been carry’d to a most extravagant height. The whole city has been illuminated three or four nights, and there have been great rejoicings thro’ the Kingdom. But the matter is now pretty well over and Palliser has ruin’d himself by it.”
Most affecting, however, is Green’s reflection on the increasingly remote prospect of ever returning to Boston. He seems to realize that his exile may be permanent, writing that “At the time I left Boston, it was uncertain when I should return, or whether I should return at all. But the improbability was not so great then, as it is now. The door was then shut, now it is bolted."
Green’s letter offers a moving account of Loyalist exile—separation from friends and family with hope for return fading. We find no other records of letters written by Green during this period in commerce or at auction.
Price: $3,250.00