Robert Eden to Lord Dartmouth, September 9, 1775

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Annapolis 9th Septr 1775

[Extract]

This will be delivered to your Lordship by my particular Freind the Recd Mr [Jonathan] Boucher,² whom I took the Liberty of mentioning in the most favourable Terms in my last ー should that, by any Accident, which I scarcely apprehend, being in a very good Ship, never arrive, Mr Boucher, from having long been occasionally, a confidential Secretary to me, as well as from his own Knowledge of American Affairs in general and those of Virga & Maryd in particular, is exceeding able to give Your Lordship the fullest Information to any Questions you may propose. And should your Lordship have Occasion to employ him, you will find him a Man of Ability; and willing to do His Majesty any Service. ー Leaving a comfortable Estate, and a good Living to avoid persecution here, I hope that from the different Recommendations he carries with him, he may procure at home some Church Preferment equal to his Merit.

I shall conclude with informing your Lordship that I propose to continue here as long as I can be of the least Service to His Majesty, unless driven away, or in danger of being seized as an Hostage. Boucher can communicate some Inducements I had to come away some time ago and my doubts thereon, which yet remain. Tomorrow is the last day of Our ports remaining Open. So that, exct by a few Ships yet to go, we shall have few Opportunities of writing ー Your Lordships Dispatches by the June pacquet were opened before I received them and if they contained any thing, (besides the late Acts, with the Letter on, and Order for Mourng for the Qn of Denmark) it was taken out.

I am with great Respect, My Lord [&c.]

Rob^t Eden

1. Eden Transcripts, MdHS. Dartmouth was Secretary of State for the Colonies until November 1775 when he was appointed Lord Privy Seal. Eden was Royal Governor of Maryland.

2. Extract from the Reminiscences of Jonathan Boucher, MdHS.: "On the 10th September, 1775, in company with Mr. Addison and his younger son, and a Mr. Braithwaite from Annapolis (attended also to the ship by my wife's younger brother and my sister) we left the Lodge, amidst the tears and cries of our slaves, and went on board a small schooner called the Nell Gwyn. Our accomodations here were but bad, and such, as I told my poor wife, as were, I feared, too ominous of the hardships she was about to encounter. She and I slept, I remember, on one .of the miserable bunkers in the miserable cabin, with a piece of an old sail for our coverlid, and a small bag of hominy for our pillow . . . After a day and a night spent in this vessel we reached our destined ship, the Choptank frigate, then lying off Quantico. Here we stayed one day; and nothing material happened to us, save that here our two friends, Jack Addison and my sister, took their leave of us. At the mouth of the Potomac we stayed several days, and went often ashore, and were hospitably and genteely entertained by Mr. Wolstenholme. At length the wind came fair, and we sailed with a fine fresh breeze down the Chesapeak; and on the 20th of the month, just about sunset, in a charmingly fine evening, we lost sight of the capes of Virginia, never to see them more."

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1775 September 9

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