1795 Stampless--Mt. Welcome, MD-->Wilmington, Delawa (02/10/2011)...

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1795 Stampless--Mt. Welcome, MD-->Wilmington, Delaware

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1795 Stampless--Mt. Welcome, MD-->Wilmington, Delaware

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Sold Date: 02/10/2011
Channel: Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category: Stamps

1795 Letter From JamesBrindley to Wife

-- Letter Written During George Washington's Second Term! --

Brindley's Staying at Historic " Mount Welcome "

George Will Leave His Horse at Our House & Take Stagecoach !

Hired By Robert Morris , Canal Work Moving Ahead... But Slowly.

-- -- NO RESERVE -- --

James Brindley (1745-1820) was born in England , and his father Joseph was the brother of the celebrated English canal engineer, James Brindley (1716-1772) . He was the first of six children: James , Matthew, Elizabeth, Susannah, Sarah , and Mary.

After apparently apprenticing under his famous uncle -- known today in Great Britain as the " Father of English Canals " -- young James sailed to colonial America in 1774 , settling in Wilmington, Delaware , where he married his wife Elizabeth in 1779.

He would eventually build, advise or consult on the following canal projects: Maryland's Potomac Canal , Virginia's James River Project , Little Falls and Great Falls canals, Pennsylvania's Conewago, Tulpehocken (Swatara Route) , and Swatara canals, South Carolina's Santee Canal , and the Susquehanna Canal in Maryland and Pennsylvania. The Conewago Canal was Pennsylvania's first canal, and the project was financed by Declaration of Independence signer Robert Morris.

Brindley knew and associated with future U.S. President George Washington (who worked as a surveyor and engineer), and Washington mentions Brindley by name in a letter. Washington wrote "... Mr. James Brindley , nephew of the celebrated person of the same name...possesses I presume, more practical knowledge of Cuts & Locks for the improvement of inland navigation, than any man amongst us..."

According to a Delaware historical account, Washington had coffee in the Brindley home in Wilmington the morning of the Battle of the Brandywine which occured on September 11, 1777 . Washington suffered a defeat, and two weeks later the British marched into Philadelphia . Historical records detail Brindley's sympathy with the colonists (against his homeland which he'd left just three years earlier) , and in 1778 he took the Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity , and eventually became a Second Lieutenant in Capt. John Garrett's Militia.

Brindley became a wealthy and prominent citizen of Delaware and was actively working right up until his death in 1820 at age 75. Although he never achieved the international celebrity of his more famous English uncle, his valuable contributions to early American transportation helped to build America and improve early American commerce in the first decades of its existence.

Mount Welcome, Maryland -- where James Brindley was staying when he wrote this letter -- was the enormous 2,000-acre estate of the famous Elihu and Elijah Hall families of Maryland . It was on high ground, on the east side of the Susquehanna River , about a mile above the mouth of the Octoraro. It would later extend all the way down to the mouth.

Elihu had fought in the Revolutionary War , and Mount Welcome sheltered many American patriots. It also was once the scene of a ball given for Marquis de Lafayette -- a wealthy French citizen who came to America to fight in the Revolutionary War and became a general. Befriending George Washington , Lafayette was with him at Valley Forge . Lafayette was wounded during the Battle of the Brandywine -- this famous in Brindley Family history, since Washington had coffee at the Brindley home in Wilmington the morning of the Brandywine battle.

Item Description -- Please Read CAREFULLY!

This is an original 1795 handwritten letter sent from the historic " Mt. Welcome " area in Maryland. It is being sent to Brindley's home in Wilmington, Delaware, and addressed to his wife. Mt. Welcome was the spacious farm and plantation that belonged to Elihu Hall and his family. The nephew of Elihu Hall was George Whitefield Hall (who lived at Mt. Welcome), and he is the bearer of this letter between James Brindley and Brindley's wi...