Sale 2470 - Autographs, March 22, 2018

AMERICANA LOTS 1 - 10 “IT HAS PLEAS’D . . . GOD . . . TO PERMITT . . . TROOPS TO ENTER . . . BOSTON” 2 c   (AMERICAN REVOLUTION.) GRAY, JOHN. Autograph Letter Signed, as member of the Standing Committee of the First Church in Boston, to the committees of Rev. Cooper’s church and the Old South Church, offering them the use of his church during British occupa- tion. Additionally signed by Standing Committee member Jeremiah Green. 1 page, square 8vo, with integral address leaf; faint scattered staining, minor ink burn, folds. Boston, 5 April 1776 [1,500/2,500] “As it has pleas’d almighty God in his holy Providence to permitt the King’s Troops to enter & take pos- session of the Town of Boston & make great havock among the Churches & there not remaining now more than two, or three of them fit for the publick worship,We the Committee of the Old Brick Church do with pleasure open the Doors of Our Church & bid you hearty welcome either to meet with us when we meet or at other times when it shall sute you best.” The Reverend Cooper, one of the addressees of this letter, is likely Samuel Cooper (1725-1783), the Congregational minister of Brattle Street Church, whose parishioners included John Adams, John Hancock, and Samuel Adams. The First Church in Boston was founded in 1630 by members of the Puritan settlement of JohnWinthrop.