Manuscripts
This collection contains the papers of American British loyalist and statesman Joseph Galloway (1731-1803) and his wife, Grace Growden (1727-1782). The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence, legal instruments, plans, surveys, appraisals, accounts and other documents related to the Growden legacy; including the shares in Durham Iron Works, the properties in Durham, Bensalem, and Richland Townships, an upper lot of the Delaware River, and houses in Philadelphia. The materials cover the 1773 partition of the Growden estates and their fate after Pennsylvania Act of Attainder (1778) and the death of Joseph Galloway. Correspondents include: Joseph Galloway, his brother-in-law Thomas Nickelson and their Philadelphia representatives Abel James and John Thompson; Nickelson's sons-in-law Ellis Button Metford and John Jeffery; Grace Galloway's granddaughter Ann Grace Roberts Burton; John Thompson's grandson John James Thompson (1815-1875); and others. Personal correspondence of Grace Galloway and her family, including her daughter Elizabeth Galloway Roberts (d. 1815) and Ann Collier, an English cousin and a Quaker who lived in Topsham, Devon. In the letter of November 6, 1753, to her sister, Grace Galloway gives an account of her wedding and decries the "ceremonious farse" of society's demands on the new bride. The letter to her daughter and husband (1779, May 17 and 22) vividly describes the privations and distress of a British loyalist woman in the revolutionary Philadelphia. Ann Collier's correspondence contains local and family gossip, news from America, particularly from Philadelphia, and inquiries regarding American Quakers, including the descendants of William Penn. There is also the letter from Deborah Morris, a close friend of Grace Galloway's, to Joseph Galloway that recounts Grace's last days. Also included are copies of newspaper publications regarding the trial of Abraham Carlisle and John Roberts convicted of treason in 1779, a note about "a party of Rebel Troops" raiding Joseph Galloway's house in 1779, and a newspaper clipping related to Sir William Howe's attack on Joseph Galloway (1780, Nov. 11). Also included are contemporary copies of accounts of Napoleon's voyage to St. Helena onboard of the Northumberland (1815): "An extract of letter to a particular friend", by Charles Bayne Hodgson Ross, and an anonymous "Remarks of Buonaparte" [sic]. Some letters bear notes and remarks by William S. Metford.
mssHM 36839-36895
