Letters: Two Autograph letters signed.
Two holograph letters by 18th Pennsylvania litterateur Elizabeth Graeme Ferguson.
(1) Graeme Park; March 18, 1780.
Signed "E. Ferguson” Single sheet: 5-7/8 x 8-3/16" folded to 5-7/8 x 4-1/4"; 4 pp; off-white writing paper, written on all four leaves. Lower edge rough as though torn (perhaps an economy of the letter writer herself, taking only what she required from a larger sheet).
A small, neat 19th century hand briefly identifies Mrs. Ferguson along the fold of the first leaf. The letter is accompanied by a 19th century transcription of the letter on ruled paper. Elizabeth Ferguson writes to congratulate a friend upon the birth of a son:
"Do give my love to Mary and tell her I congratulate her on her little Billy, for I am sure a little Billy it must be.
“Upon my word you bid fair for a Patriarchal family: I am glad it is a boy: in the first place it will prevent Louis being spoilt, which he was I imagine in danger of had he been the only son.
“In the next place the State requires a Regiment of Soldiers: and in the third place I am always glad when a boy is born because they are better calculated to Scramble thro Life than the weaker Sex..."
By 1780, the War of Independence had begun to affect the availability of goods and Elizabeth closes: "Be so all Mary if she wants a point of Excellent Green tea I will spare her a pound: and I will Barter for Coffee and Madeira wine to the one half of it, for green Tea I seldom drink But when I have company".
2) Billet Siphon, [ND]. Single sheet: 8-15/16” x 7-3/16"; buff writing paper, written both sides in brown ink with body of letter ruled off. Mild foxing. About very good.
Ferguson appears to be acting as an intermediary in the hire of a housekeeper for a friend. She writes: "Dear Sir / As soon as the weather cleared up after your most uncomfortable ride, which I fear your oyl cloth could not defend from Rain, I went to Alee Vandyeeng Widow to the brother of the Millar...She appeared as before desirous to avoid the expenses of Roomkeeping". However, since she may face "dislodgment from a little Snug home she could not finally determine till she talks with you". Elizabeth goes on to describe the widow: "She has no children, is a hail woman between fifty and Sixty. She bears a very good Character here where she has always resided she can Spin, Knit, Bake good Bread, make a plain Pye, Cut out plain Cloth And make a Shirt neatly". As the widow has no conveyance, she suggests he may wish to arrange to officiate at a Saturday or Sunday service at All Saints, use the occasion to stay with her and: "we would walk to Mrs. Vandyeengs Cottage, which is but a mile and half from here, and talk matters over. If I can render you any Service in the afair it will give ... pleasure to your / E. Ferguson".
Elizabeth Graeme Ferguson (ca. 1737-1801), poet, letter writer, diarist, published little in her lifetime yet gained a reputation as "the most learned woman in America". She was born to an affluent and prominent Pennsylvania family. Despite frail health, she had a bright, eager intelligence. She read widely and gained fluency in several languages. She found herself, however, at odds with her family when she fell in love with William Franklin, a natural son of Benjamin Franklin. Their relationship ended in 1759 when William traveled to London with his father and married. To divert herself, the young woman translated Fénélon's TELEMAQUE. Her parents remained anxious about her lackluster spirits and indifferent health. And her mother sensed she herself was in decline. Her parents sent her to London in the care of Rev. Richard Peters where she become friends with notable literary and scientific figures such as Laurence Sterne and John Fothergill, the botanist. Her London journal circulated among friends as did her translation. When she returned after her mother's death to assume the management of Graeme Park, she had acquired a literary reputation. She instituted Saturday evening gatherings frequented by William Smith (provost of the College of Philadelphia), physician Benjamin Rush, author and judge Francis Hopkinson, and poet Nathaniel Evans. (One authority calls it "the most brilliant literary salon in colonial America".) In 1772 she met and married a young Scot named Henry Ferguson. His sympathies were Loyalist and he lived almost entirely in England. With the onset of the American Revolution, Elizabeth's loyalties were torn. Ferguson persuaded his wife to convey a letter from Rev. Jacob Duché to General George Washington in which he urged Washington to surrender. Washington made clear his displeasure, but eventually reconciled with Mrs. Ferguson. Yet once again she placed herself in an anomalous position when she transmitted to Joseph Reed, Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress and an aide to Washington, the offer of a bribe of 10,000 guineas for securing advantageous peace terms for Britain. Reed famously observed: "He was not worth purchasing, but such as he was, the King of Great Britain was not rich enough to do it". The activities of husband and wife caused Graeme Park to be confiscated. Elizabeth fought for return of the property and with the intervention of friends succeeded in regaining title. The disarray of her financial affairs soon forced her to sell the estate on which she had been born and reared. The woman who had entered life amid family, affluence and comfort endured final years of poverty and solitude.
Still she continued to write. Contemporaries prized her letters. She penned commonplace books of which she would make gifts to friends. She also circulated letters and manuscripts with literary women such as Annis Boudinot Stockton, Hannah Griffitts, Esther Edwards Burr, Mary Read, Anna Young Smith, Rebecca Moore Smith, Elizabeth Norris, and Susanna Wright. Occasionally she published individual poems. Though her writings seldom appeared in print, "they were circulated and read by a numerous audience, spreading word of her learning". The 19th century transcription which accompanies the first letter attests to an awareness of Ferguson's reputation and the significance of the letter. Descendants later burned “three cart loads” of papers. “The historian who heard this news several years after the event commented bitterly, lamenting the loss, that ‘Mrs. Ferguson, in all respects, was undoubtedly the most distinguished literary woman this country produced in the last century or any time previous’.” [Anne M. Ousterhout].
Two nice examples of a woman whose writings and influence considerably enhanced the literature of 18th century America. CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE, pp. 318 and 338-340. Griswold, FEMALE POETS OF AMERICA (2nd edition), pp. 24-27. THE FEMINIST COMPANION, p. 366. NAW, Vol. I, pp. 610-611. See also, Ousterhout, THE MOST LEARNED WOMAN IN AMERICA.
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