Our Collection

At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Winthrop, John (1714-1779) to Jonathan Belcher

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC01541.01 Author/Creator: Winthrop, John (1714-1779) Place Written: Cambridge, Massachusetts Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 25 January 1765 Pagination: 2 p. : docket ; 24 x 19 cm. Order a Copy

Congratulates Judge Belcher on recovering "from a dangerous illness." Notes having read that many French Acadians have been removed from Nova Scotia, Canada, to the West Indies, and observes that because of their religion, they "could hardly ever have been good Subjects to a Protestant government." Indicates that the Sugar Act and the Currency Act, referred to as "The late Acts of Trade," are widely discusses and cause much uneasiness among merchants and judges alike. Notes the death of Edward Wigglesworth, the first Hollis professor of Divinity at Harvard College. Discusses Thomas "Hutchinson's History of the Massachusetts Bay," which he is sending to Belcher. His only criticism of the book is that its treatment of witchcraft is insufficient. Winthrop was a professor of philosophy and mathematics at Harvard.

Winthrop, John, 1714-1779
Belcher, Jonathan, 1710-1776
Wigglesworth, Edward, 1693-1765
Hutchinson, Thomas, 1711-1780

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