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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Watson, Brook, 1735-1807 to Joshua Mauger

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03902.032 Author/Creator: Watson, Brook, 1735-1807 Place Written: New York, New York Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 17 June 1783 Pagination: 2 p. : address : docket ; Height: 22.5 cm, Width: 19 cm Order a Copy

Discusses the loyalist migration to Canada after the end of the American Revolution. Reports that "the unhappy and Sacrificed Loyalists Continue to Embark for Nova Scotia in great Numbers indeed they have no other place of refuge." Claims that the population of Nova Scotia will double within the year and comments on opportunities to sell land. Laments the treatment of Loyalists: "The wretched disaffected New Englanders must turn Loyal, or turn out. The People gone to settle, having suffered so much...You would never forgive their persecutors or forget their Crueltys." Watson was a member of Parliament. Mauger was a loyalist merchant with business interests in British Nova Scotia. Red seal intact.

Watson, Brook, 1735-1807
Mauger, Joshua, 1725-1788

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