Lee, Richard Henry

Autograph letter signed ("Richard Henry Lee"), 1 page (9 x 7 3/8 in.; 230 x 188 mm) on a bifolium, reception docket on verso of integral blank, New York, 4 October 1785, to an unidentified correspondent (but Thomas Lee Shippen).

Not in Letters of Delegates, ed. Smith, and presumably unpublished

From Congress in New York, Lee sends a packet of recent newspapers to his kinsman Thomas Lee Shippen, who is sailing back to Philadelphia. "I had the honor of thanking you from Philadelphia, by Mr. Crump, for your polite letter by the Mayflower. But your Vessel having been detained here longer than was expected, now gives me an opportunity, on my return to N. York to thank you again for your obliging letter by this Vessel, and to send you the latest Newspapers that have been published here, and which contains all our news, I beg my respectful compliments to your Lady and good wishes for your whole family may be presented to them." The recipient can be identified because Lee's letter to Shippen of 14 October 1785 references the latter's recent return to Philadelphia and its conveyance by Mr. Crump (see Letters of Delegates, ed. Smith, 22:685).