Author: [Harvard University] Winthrop, William
Title: [Als] Letter of Resignation from Cambridge Town Clerk, William Winthrop
Description: Cambridge, [MA], 1789. [2] pp. Bifolium. 7.75 x 10 inches. March 2nd, 1789, with integral address to the Chairman of the Selectmen of Cambridge. Winthrop firstly asks Hill to attend an upcoming meeting in his stead, before expressing his desire to resign his post as Town Clerk. "After near seven years service rendered to the town in the office of their Clerk, a part of which time it has been attended with a considerable injury to my own Affairs, I must now leave that office; and which I should have done two years ago, had not the unsettled State of publick Affairs, together with some other considerations, prevailed on me to continue in the office.." He then asks that Hill be the one to communicate his resignation to the Town, and adds that "..though it is no longer in my power to serve them as their Clerk, yet it will always give me pleasure to promote the interest of the town, when it is not, in too great a degree, inconsistent with my private concerns." William Winthrop (1753-1825) was the youngest son of John Winthrop, the Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Harvard, and graduated from Harvard in 1770. He "was minimally involved in troop movement to Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War before playing a small role in John Hancock's problematic tenure as Harvard's Treasurer. Hancock authorized Winthrop to escort the College's financial records from Boston to him in Philadelphia in 1776. After the war, Winthrop held several civic appointments including Town Clerk and Selectman in Cambridge. In 1784 was appointed Justice of the Peace and Register of Deeds for Middlesex County." Winthrop spent many years researching the biographical histories of Harvard's graduates..[his]own entry in Biographical Sketches notes that, 'Winthrop never married, and the devotion which would otherwise have gone into a family he lavished on an effort to determine the profession, resident, and date of death of every man listed in the Harvard Alumni Catalogue' (Vol. 17, page 462). He served as a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, American Antiquarian Society, and the New York Historical Society." See: Overview. Winthrop, William, 1753-1825. William Winthrop Collection, 1782-1825. HUM 26, Harvard University Archives. Very good, small tears along edges and folds, primarily to last leaf, light soiling, contents clean.

Keywords: Autographs & Manuscripts, , Americana, Colonial & Early America, Autographs & Manuscripts, Harvard University Cambridge Massachusetts, Manuscript


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