You will do me a kindness if you would explain the Cause. I am, my Dear Friend, your most affectionate Brother and humble Sert.

Henry Pelham to Copley

MY DEAR BROTHER,

H.

BOSTON, Jany. 27, 1776.

One or two Vessels have slipped away without my writeing to you. sorry I am that in reassuming the Pen after so long an Omission, I am called upon to condole with you and my dear Sister upon the death of your little Son, who died the 19th Instant of a consumption with which he has been declining for some months past. As Mrs. Bromfield has very lately given my Sister an Account of the Progress of his disorder till within a few days of his death I shall omitt it. Being confind with a Cold I had not seen him for several days, till Nurse sent to aquaint me he was very ill and that she thought he could not live. upon my going down I found him very near his end, lying seemingly insensable with every symptom of an approaching dissolution which in a few Hours took place. Soul and Body perhaps never parted with less pain than those of my amiable and lovely little Friend's. Not a groan or a Struggle discomposed his innocent and chearfull face. His remains were deposited in Mr. Clarke's tomb. The funeral was from Mr. Bromfield's. Mr. Parker1 read the burial Service. Thus early has our little Friend paid the great Debt of Nature and left the Vice and Miseries of this life for the unchan[g]able joys and Happyness of blessd Eternity. Tho' Affection may call forth a tear yet Reason and Humanity forbid our mour[n]ing his departure. When we take a Retrospective View of past Life

1 Samuel Parker, of Trinity Church.

and recollect the innumerable troubles and Disapointments, The Cares and Anxieties which have tarnishd our happyest Hours; when we see the distress and Danger in which the greatest part of our fellow mortals are involved, and reflect upon the various ills attendant upon the happyest in this Mortal State, We cant view Death without his Horrors. But when we turn our eyes to the bright scenes which lie beyond the grave, the unclouded and serene Happyness, the virtuous and good there, find Death instead of appearing the King of Terrors to them will assum[e] the milder aspect of a Messenger of Peace and Comfort.

I should do injustice was I not to mention the great care and faithfulness with which nurse discharged her Duty by the infant. Her whole attention and time was devoted to its comfort and welfare: and she appeared to have a real affection for her charge.

I have before incidentally mentioned the receipt of your very agreable favour of March the 14, 1775, tho it was above Nine Months before it came to hand. I found it in the post Office: Somebody had Curiosity eno' to open it. This is a liberty now very frequently taken: However they had manners eno' to seal it again, which I thank them for: I mention this to give you a caution both as to the subject on which you write and to the manner in which you send your Letters. You are to recollect that I now live under a military goverm[e]nt, where the will of the commander in Chief is the Law and the good of the service is the rule of Action: The Army was perhaps never governed by a better sett of general Officers than the present, weither we consider them as Soldiers, as Men, or as Gentlemen. Genel. Howe's and Lord Percy's Character as Soldiers are establishd by their Bravery and good Conduct since they have

been in America. Their generosity and Virtues in private Life are universally known and acknowledged: But I am sorry to say the secrescy that attends military operations affords innumerable Opertunities to the Envious, the Revengefull, the mischeviously wicked, to blast, undiscoverd and unknown, the Characters and Reputation of those who are infinitely better Subjects and better Men than themselves. several Instances of this kind have lately taken place. I have hitherto avoided every cause of Blame, on the contrary, am considered as what I really am, a faithfull and loyal Subject to the most amiable and Injured of soveriegns, and am hon'd with the Civilities and Notice of some of the first Characters in America, yet I have had and possably may now have Enemies who would improve even an innocent peice of prudential advice to my disadvantage. I could therefore wish you to exclude all political Observations from your Letters, and leave me to scrable thro this turbulent and Dangerous Contest as well as I can. For you[r] Observations, tho intended for my Benefit, may eventually prove detrimental, the Events of war being precarious, and it being entirely uncertain into whose hands your letters may fall, both sides now opening all they meet with: The men of war are the safest Conveyances, the transport and provision Vessells too frequently becoming prize to the privatiers which have for some time and still Continue to infest these Seas: I have been more perticular and lengthey on this head, as it will reach your hands unexamined, Sir Wm. Pepperell taking the care of it: I am much grieved at the disagreable diference that subsists between you and him, for I must consider him as a very amiable and Worthy man. I wish something might take place to remove it, as I think it founded intirely on Missapprehension and Mistake: As to News we seldom have any. We still continue in the

same State as when Mr. Clarke left us.1 Both side[s] strengthing their Works, and preventing the other from receiv'g supplies. Pork and peas, and little eno of that, still continues to be our Diet: a baked Rice pudding without butter milk or Eggs, or a little salt fish without Butter, we think luxurious living. Lamenting our most disagreable Situation is the only them[e] of our discourse. Contriving ways and means to gett a pound of Butter, a quart of peas to eat, or 3 or 4 rotten boards the ruins of some old barn to burn, our only buisness; and the recollection of our having some friends at a Distance from this scene of Anarchy and Confusion almost our only Happyness.

Our hond. Mamma gives her kind Love and Blessing to you my Sister and the Lovely little ones: she is in great trouble on the death of her little grandson. desires sincerely to condole with you on the Event. her Health is nearly the same as when you saw her, rather injured by the very poor living we have. She, as well as myself, are rendered very happy upon hearing of you or my Sister. if you knew what joy it gives us I am certain no opertunity would escape unimproved. I intended to have observed upon some parts of your very improv❜g Letter, but defer it till my next, having already I fear tired your patienc[e], tho I have not yet done. You desire me to be very perticular. I will so, without observing order or Method. My next perhaps will be accompan[i]ed with a plan of Boston and Charlestown which I have been surveying with the Country for three or four miles round this town in this plan I lay down all the works which are erec[t]ed to confine the Troops and Torrys to the narrow limitts we now range in: I dont think if I had Liberty I could find the way to Cambridge, tho I am so well

1 The Clarke family arrived in London, December 24, 1774, twenty-one days from Boston.

aqua[i]nted with the Road. not a Hillock 6 feet High but What is entrench'd, not a pass where a man could go but what is defended by Cannon; fences pulled down, houses removed, Woods grubed up, Fields cut into trenches and molded into Ramparts, are but a part of the Changes the country has gone thro. Nor has Boston been free from the Effects of War. An hundred places you might be brought to and you not know where you were. I doubt if you would know the town at all. Charlestown I am sure you would not. there not a Tree, not an house, not even so much as a stick of wood as large as your hand remains. The very Hills seem to have altered ther form. In Boston almost all the fences: a great Number of Wooden Houses, perhaps 150, have been pull'd down to serve for fewel. in this ruin you[r] Estate has escaped, no Injury being done it; Dr. Byles', Dr. Cooper's, Dr. Ma[t]hew's Meeting Houses turned into Barracks. Dr. Sewells' into a Riding School, Fanuel Hall into a Theatre. The old North pulled down and burnt. Every rising fortified. in short nothing but an actual sight of the town can give an Idea of its situation. My Brother Pelham and family I have not hea[r]d any thing of for 8 Months, nor dont know with[e]r they are dead or alive: Mr. and Mrs. Bromfield are well. I there frequ[ently] spend some of my agreable Hours: Betzey is well; she and little Ned were lately inoculated; they are both recovered. he was finely pepered off with it: In the natural Way it has been very fatal 1 in 3 dying. by innoculati[o]n in gener[a]l it was very favourable. By a letter Mr. Bromfield has lately rec'd from Harry I was made very happy to find that himself with Miss Nabby1 and my very amiable and lovely fr[i]end were well. Miss Sally spend[s] the Winter at Andover; Nabby at 1 Abigail Bromfield (1753-1791) married Daniel Denison Rogers.

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