Beschreibung:

AMERICAN HISTORY: PENNSYLVANIA]. Two manuscripts referring to Joseph GALLOWAY, the first a transcript in the hand of Colonel Walter Stewart (Aide de Camp to General Gates) of the confession dictated by James Molesworth on the eve of his execution as a British spy, n.p., n.d. [30 March 1777], implicating Galloway, 3 pages, folio , countersigned by Thomas Proctor of the Pennsylvania Artillery, annotated in later hands below the signature (repaired in centre-fold, silked); the second: Manuscript in an unidentified 18th-century hand of a draft treatise, 'Directions for raising Nurseries, making Cyder etc', including numerous revisions and a note inside the upper cover describing the contents as 'procured and drawn up by Thomas Thompson at the request of his brother, John Thompson' and compiled for Joseph Galloway, n.p., 1772, written in a copperplate hand, approximately 35 pages, folio , on leaves numbered 1 - 29, including several loosely inserted notes, stitched in marbled paper covers; and a second draft of the first part of the treatise, including revisions, a preface and a list of contents, 17 pages, folio , blanks, paper covers (dust-stained); together in a green calf-backed marbled case. Molesworth admits to attempting to secure pilots for Lord Howe and his fleet to sail up the Delaware and to attack Philadelphia. He describes the plot to cut down a bridge over Ogden's Ferry, and to neutralise the cannons at the Fort, referring to a number of fellow-conspirators, and several times to Mr Warren 'alias Caton', who took delivery of a 'book' for 'Mr Galaway' [Joseph Galloway], who on receiving it 'applied it to the fire which enabled him to read it'. The second manuscript is an interesting survival of a plan to improve the stock of fruit for cider-making in Pennsylvania. The instructions are described as being compiled for Joseph Galloway, the leading Loyalist in Pennsylvania during the War of Independence. Endorsements and notes with the manuscript indicate that the Thompsons were Quakers, from Somerset, and related to Jonah Thompson (author of a Quaker tract published at Bristol). The subjects covered include grafting, the planting of orchards, the choice of fruit, harvesting of apples and windfalls, and making and bottling of cider. Joseph Galloway (1731-1803), lawyer, statesman, Loyalist and member of a family with extensive lands in Maryland and Pennsylvania, was Speaker of the Pennsylvanian Assembly, 1766-1775, and a delegate to the First Continental Congress, where his plan for reorganising and thus preserving the empire was narrowly defeated. Like the Quaker Party, and Benjamin Franklin he favoured making Pennsylvania a royal colony. When the British, under the command of General Howe, held Philadelphia, Galloway was both Magistrate of the Police, and Superintendent of the Port, and is said to have plotted to bring the rebel governor into the British camp and even to capture the Continental Congress. From 1778 he lived in England as the chief spokesman for the American Loyalists.