Lot 28
(Family Letters of Robert P. Wilson). A notebook of approximately 35 letters and documents kept by Robert P. Wilson, who served in the 16th N.Y. Infantry and the 121st N.Y. Volunteers. Eight items predate the Civil War. The earliest letter was written from Ireland in 1786 by the grandmother of Wilson's grandfather, telling him that she is glad he completed his service (in the Revolutionary War) without being wounded; poor condition. An 1819 letter describes being a printer's apprentice in Utica, N.Y. Three have manuscript postage. Other letters refer to their ancestor, Robert Wilson, who received the British standards at Yorktown in 1781; others have personal content. An 1875 autograph letter from Hamilton Fish to Wilson, encloses the 1879 list of Society of the Cincinnati members for New York State, of which they were both hereditary members. Five autograph letters were written to Wilson in 1884/85 by John Schuyler, secretary of the N.Y. Society of the Cincinnati, one of them explaining how N.Y. Governor DeWitt Clinton became a member (the Wilsons and the Clintons were related); also, the Proceedings of the Triennial Meeting of the General Society of the Cincinnati, Held at Princeton, N.J., May 14th and 15th, 1884; a list of the N.Y. State Society officers in 1885, and a list of the toasts given at a dinner on February 22, 1886 at Delmonico's. Three 1881 letters regard the Centennial celebration of the surrender at Yorktown. Additionally, a small notebook, written in 1878 has 30 pages of Wilson family history--includes Capt. James Greigg (the first Robert Wilson's uncle) being scalped by the Indians, and being cousins to Gov. DeWitt and George Clinton; a very interesting account of how the Grieggs, the Wilsons, and the Clintons came over on the same ship from Ireland; a story of a Wilson widow in the Revolution being made a commissary general for a regiment by Gen. Washington; a list of the Civil War battles in which Robert P. Wilson fought, and more family lore. Also included is a 13¼ x 12 in broadside from 1807, headed "To the People of Onondaga County," in which Robert Wilson (from the Revolutionary War), defends his character. Condition is overall Very Good to Fine.
Estimated Value $1,500 - 2,500.
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