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Papers of British officer Richard St. George on his enlistment and the head wound he suffered at Germantown.

Various places, 1776-1781 and undated
6 manuscript items, various sizes, variously worn, some with separations at folds and mount remnants on verso. 

Richard St George Mansergh-St George (1752-1798), usually known more simply as Richard M. St. George, was an Anglo-Irish nobleman who graduated from Cambridge in 1775 and then became an officer in the British army. He went to America in 1776 as an ensign, and soon became a lieutenant in the 52nd Regiment of Foot. He suffered a gruesome head wound in the 1777 Battle of Germantown. Part of his skull had to be removed, and he carried a silver plate in his head for the rest of his life. After the war, he wrote a book on local conditions in his part of Ireland, and was killed in his home by rebels in the Irish Uprising of 1798. 

St. George was an accomplished amateur artist. Modern scholarship has determined that in 1782 he collaborated with Italian painter Xavier della Gatta to create realistic views of the Battles of Paoli and Germantown, now owned by the Museum of the American Revolution. In the latter, he can be seen wounded in the foreground, being carried off by a comrade. He was the subject of a 2019 exhibition at the same museum, titled "Cost of Revolution: The Life and Death of an Irish Soldier." His story is also discussed in last year's book "The American Revolution: An Intimate History" by documentarian Ken Burns and Geoffrey Ward. 

We can safely say the St. George is more famous today than he was during his lifetime. Offered here are six documents relating to his military service and his nearly fatal injury:  

REQUEST TO THE KING FOR AN AMERICAN COMMISSION.  "To the King's Most Excellent Majesty, the Memorial of Richard St. George Mansergh St. George." One manuscript page, 12¾ x 7¾ inches, plus docketing on integral blank, unsigned (possibly a retained draft?); long separations at folds. Recounts that St. George had "in December last purchased a cornetry in the 8th or King's Royal Irish Regiment of Light Dragoons . . . in memory of his grandfather the late Lt. Gen'l Richard St. George who formerly commanded therein." With that regiment assigned to duty in Ireland, "your memorialist is desirous of being employed in actual service and . . . humbly submits to your Majesty his strong inclination to exchange his commission for one in any regiment now at Boston. . . . testifying his zeal to support the honour & dignity of your Majesty's crown and his just abhorrence of the unnatural rebellion prevailing in America." [Ireland], early 1776.

LETTER DESCRIBING HIS HEAD WOUND. Autograph Letter Signed, John West to Mr. Atkinson. 3 pages, 8¼ x 7¼ inches, plus docketing on final blank page; quite worn with full separations at all folds, and loss of some fragments, but still largely legible. In full: "Mr. St. George received a very dangerous wound in the he[ad] by a musket bullet, in an action with the Rebels the 4th inst. at Germantown about 5 miles from hence. His life has been in eminent danger, the scull being badly fractur'd on the back part of his head. However, there is now the greatest hopes of his [recovery?] as his intellects have remained perfectly sound, and no dangerous symptom common in a fractured scull has appear'd. He is at present very weak, and has just been able to write a few lines to his mother, who it is necessary to decei[ve] regard'g the true state of his wound. I have theref[ore] at the earnest desire of Mr. St. George wrote to h[is] [moth]er, Miss Gardiner, & the Revd. Mr. Hume, to all of whom I have only said, that Mr. St. George had received a very slight wound in the head which has done no injury to the scull. The same caution I understand is not necessary to you, sir. You will, ther[efo]re please keep this letter to your self till you hear again from me or Mr. St. George. In the meantime, he begs, you will do everything in your power to [?] his mother, who he dreads may suffer much on his account should she believe him in a dangerous way. He thinks it may be in your power to explain to her the nature of wounds in the head, so as to make her mind easy till she can receive a more satisfactory letter from himself, which I have the greatest reason to hope by next packet he may be able to send. Mr. St. George has on every occasion remark[ably] [dist]inguished himself in the field, & had many narrow escapes in the action. On the hights of Brandywine (the 11th Sept'r) he receiv'd a contusion on the ancle by a musket ball which confin'd him some time to his tent, but had perfectly recover'd of it before the late action in which he has suffer'd so much. Sir, your most obedient humble s[ervant], John W[est.] Philadelphia, 26 October 1777. 

MEDICAL REPORT. "The Case of Captain St. George, 44 Reg't, Wounded ye Fourth of Oct'r 1777."  Manuscript Document, unsigned. 2 pages, 7½ x 6¼ inches, plus docketing on integral blank; worn and faded, without substantial loss of text. "The ball passed transversely about half an inch below the lambdoidal suture near to the protuberance of the os occipitis, fracturing the skull and detaching a large portion of the inner from the outer table, wounding the dura mater. In twelve days  a fungus appear'd and increased its magnitude, notwithstanding the most assiduous attention and the application of dry sponges. It continued very obstinate for some time. At last from persevering it began gradually to lessen, till at length it was entirely subdued. The pieces of the inner table very fortunately separated & by degrees were all extracted. Those of the outer terminated equally successful, and without the application of the trephine, he perfectly recover'd in four months. N.B. The fracture extended about an inch & half in length & ½ inch in breadth." No place, circa 1778.

LEAVE OF ABSENCE. Letter Signed by William Barrington, 2nd Viscount Barrington as Secretary of War to Mansergh St. George. 2 pages, 12¾ x 8 inches, plus docketing on integral blank; partial separations at folds. "Mr. Adair having represented to me that from the present situation of your wound, it will be very dangerous for you to undertake a voyage to America. . . . The King, who unwilling that so gallant an officer should run any risk of his life by undertaking the voyage at an improper time . . . he entirely approves of your continuing in Europe for the better recovery of your wound. . . . I shall be glad to contribute everything in my power to facilitate your wishes to attend your duty." War Office, 2 July 1778. 

EXTENDED LEAVE OF ABSENCE. Letter Signed by Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool as Secretary at Wart, and additionally Signed by King George III as "George R," to Welbore Ellis Agar as Deputy Commissary General.  One page, 13 x 8 inches, plus docketing on integral blank; separations at fold to blank leaf only. "We are pleased to give leave unto Captain Richard Mansergh St. George of our 44th Regiment of Foot . . . for twelve months from the expiration of his former leave for the recovery of his health." Court at St. James, 15 January 1781.

WRAPPER. Autograph Document, unsigned but by Mansergh St. George. One page, 7¾ x 7½ inches. "Leave of absence in consequence my ill health from the effect of the wound my head rec'd at the affair of German Town near Philadelphia when General Washington attacked our lines, 1777. Also my memorial to the King for permission to sell my cornetcy in 8th Dragoons & purchase in same reg't or service in America. Kept as I feel pleasure in reading any memorand'm of the active circumstance of my [?]." No place, circa 1780s.

Provenance: the documents were listed for sale in Walter R. Benjamin's "The Collector: A Magazine for Autograph and Historical Collectors," July 1927, as item 8368, for $12.50. Folded in Mansergh St. George's wrapper, they were laid into a 1915 book, "Germantown History, Consisting of Papers Read Before the Site and Relic Society of Germantown," as part of the library of famed golf course architect Albert Warren Tillinghast (1876-1942) of Englewood, NJ. The book and these contents were sold in Anderson Galleries' 5 February 1930 Tillinghast sale, lot 232.  The book and papers were acquired circa 1950 by collector William S. Hart (1900-1971) of Philadelphia, and the papers are now consigned by his family. 

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