Sale 2455 - Printed & Manuscript Americana, September 28, 2017

20 c   (AMERICAN REVOLUTION—1775.) Group of 6 receipts issued to Minute- man captain Jacob Gerrish. 6 manuscript documents, various sizes and conditions, some unevenly toned with moderate edge wear. Vp,April 1775 to January [1776] and June 1778 [1,500/2,500] Jacob Gerrish (1739-1817) of Newbury,MA was a captain of a company of minutemen who answered the Lexington alarm inApril 1775, and went on to serve as an officer in the Continental Army and the Massachusetts Militia through 1779.The earliest document in this lot is dated 17 April 1775—the day before Paul Revere’s ride and two days before the Battle of Lexington.An order to deliver three gal- lons of rum to Jacob Gerrish, addressed by Nathaniel Adams to AbrahamAdams and receipted on verso, it would seem to be one of the last acts of Gerrish’s civilian life before the war began. Next comes an 8 July 1775 receipt to “Capt. Jacob Gerrish by the hand of Silas Adams, six shillings lawfill money.” Gerrish had assumed the title of Captain and was in Cambridge for the siege of Boston.A 28 Septem- ber order is dated “Prospect Hill” in what is now Somerville, overlooking Boston. It is a request from Eliphalet Poor, apparently one of Gerrish’s soldiers, to turn over a portion of his wages to a third party. A similar 24 November order is signed by Benjamin Poor, requesting payment to Nathaniel Adams. another is dated “Cambridge, Jan’y 2 1775” was clearly misdated in 1776, as Gerrish is named as Captain and is on the front north of Boston rather than at home. It lists his personal purchases of a handkerchief, knives and forks, a pepper box and a mug from a local merchant. Finally comes a receipt dated in Winter Hill (now Somerville) from 14 June 1778 for “sundries delivered out of the states store” by Gerrish, by then a militia colonel. with —a 1789 memoranda from Lexington. 21 c   (AMERICAN REVOLUTION—1776) [Paine, Thomas; editor.] Issue of the Pennsylvania Magazine or American Monthly Museum. Illustrated title page and one other full-page illustration. [2], 57-67, 64-104 pages. 8vo, disbound, lacking wrapper; apparently lacking at least one leaf at end, uneven toning to title page only. Philadelphia: Robert Aitken, February 1776 [300/400] The Pennsylvania Magazine was the only American magazine published during the first year of the Revolution.This issue includes “Method of Manufacturing Gun-Powder,” an illustrated article on sign language titled “Dumb Speech, or the Art of Conversing by the Fingers Only,” “General Schuyler’s Account of his Expedition toTryon County,” and more. Evans 15009; Lomazow 11a. 20