[AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, FROM JUDGE WILLIAM SMITH TO GEN. JOHN BRADSTREET, REGARDING PAYMENT OF A THIRD PARTY DEBT]

New York, July 15, 1773.. [1]p. plus integral address leaf. Quarto, on a folded folio sheet. Old fold lines. Light soiling and wear. Very good. Letter written by New York judge and historian William Smith to Gen. John Bradstreet regarding a debt owed by Beverley Robinson, a New York landowner. William Smith (1728-1793) served as Chief Justice of the Province of New York from 1763 to 1782. Though he seemed to avoid choosing a side during the Revolution, he left New York for England after the war, eventually settling in Quebec. His correspondent, John Bradstreet (1714-1774), stationed at Albany, was a British army officer best known for an audacious and (truncated) skillfully coordinated expedition in the summer of 1758 through the New York wilderness and across Lake Ontario to destroy the French Fort Frontenac, a major turning point in the French and Indian War. The man under discussion, Beverley Robinson (1721-1792), married into a large estate along the Hudson River. He was a Loyalist and likewise left the country at the end of the war. Smith writes:

"Dr. Sir, In every thing in my power you may command me. I will write to Beverly Robinson, the moment I receive your answer, for you forgot to send me a copy of the bond or a note of the state of the payments and ballance. He has lands, but I believe owes a great deal, & has but small personal funds - this entre nous - God send you health and ease."

A postscript reads: "We have been roasted and boiled afterwards for a fortnight past - the glass fluchiating [sic] between 87 & 92." (Inventory #: WRCAM50267)