Manuscripts
A Leeward Islands letter book containing 87 letters relating to the management of the estates, financial, and legal affairs of William Freeman. The majority of the letters concern the management of his estates in St. Kitts, Nevis, and Montserrat, the transatlantic sugar and indigo trades, the movement of enslaved persons, and other political, legal, and financial matters; letters include mention of the death of Charles II, the Monmouth Rebellion, and the invasion of William of Orange. The main correspondents are Henry Freeman (William's younger brother), and Robert Helme; there are also letters to William's sister-in-law Sarah Helme, other local merchants, and Sir Nathaniel Johnson, Governor of the Leewards from 1686 to1689. In early 1685, Henry Freeman had travelled to the Leewards to act on his older brother's behalf, with very mixed results, until Henry's early death in 1690. The volume is written in a variety of italic and secretary hands, by clerks and presumably William Freeman; it is in four gatherings, evidently once bound but now loose and secured at the inner margin with old tape. The volume also contains a duplicate copy of one letter laid in.
mssHM 84411
