Autograph letters signed (12) : [London], to [Edward Dickinson], his mother's lawyer, and to his mother, Lucy Cleland, 1752 Nov. 23-1762 Sept. 21 and 1758 Mar. 6.

ArchivalResource

Cleland, John, 1709-1789. Autograph letters signed (12) : [London], to [Edward Dickinson], his mother's lawyer, and to his mother, Lucy Cleland, 1752 Nov. 23-1762 Sept. 21 and 1758 Mar. 6.

Autograph letters signed (12) : [London], to [Edward Dickinson], his mother's lawyer, and to his mother, Lucy Cleland, 1752 Nov. 23-1762 Sept. 21 and 1758 Mar. 6.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/270870536

Complaining bitterly of his poverty and his mother's refusal to grant him an allowance without attaching certain conditions: "Despair has taken absolute possession of me, my heart is broken; and my head is distracted. My life is at once my execration and reproach." The letters provide details of his life, about which little is known, including his early travels to South Carolina and possibly Jamaica and his political opinions. The letter to his mother offers condolences on his aunt's death and appealing for a reconciliation; it is enclosed in a letter of the same date to Dickinson. With autograph drafts (4) of letters by the lawyers to Cleland, expressing regret at his resentment toward his mother, despite her offering him a "very kind ... allowance."

12 items (39 p.) ; 27 cm. and smaller.

Pierpont Morgan Library.