Sharpe, John

1 page (12 x 7 5/8 in.; 308 x 194 mm) on a bifolium of laid paper, "mudiriver" [Muddy River, later incorporated as Brookline], 8 January 1676, addressed on the integral blank "This for loving Master Thomas Meekins living at hatfield," remnants of seal, tears, browned and lightly stained, some minor marginal chips and fold separations.

Descended in the family of Thomas Meekins to the present owner.

First published in The New England Historical and Genealogical Journal, Vol. 10, No. 1 (January 1856): p. 65, the text provided by Dr. Thomas Meekins of Williamsburg.

1 page (12 x 7 5/8 in.; 308 x 194 mm) on a bifolium of laid paper, addressed on the integral blank "This for loving Master Thomas Meekins living at hatfield," remnants of seal, tears, browned and lightly stained, some minor marginal chips and fold separations.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

One of the earliest documentary witnesses to King Philip's War. King Philip's War was probably the most significant—and certainly the deadliest—of the several seventeenth-century North American conflicts between Native Americans and European colonists. A coalition of Indian Peoples, let by Metacomet ("King Philip") of the Wampanoag Confederacy, threatened by English enchroachment into their lands, terrorized New Engand with a series of raids on colonial settlements throughout the second half of 1675. John Sharpe, a militiaman, like most able-bodied colonists, here reports on the fall campaign to his former employer, mill-owner Thomas Meekins:

"my saving remembrance unto you and my dame hopeing you are weell as I am at the riting heareof blessed be god for it: my wiff desiars to be remembered unto you and my dame and wee are yet in our habitations thro gods marsi but we are in expectation of the enimi everi day if god be not the more marsifull unto us I have been out 7 weeks my self and if provision had not grown short we had folood the enimi into your borders and then I would have given you a visit if it had been posibel for I went out a volintere under Ca wardsworth of milton but he is caled hom to scout about there oune toun and so I left off the desine at present—there is many of oure frends are taken from us Ca. Jonson of roxberi was slaine at naragansit and will lincorn died before his wound was cured: and filap Curtis was slaine at a wigwame above mendham but we have lost but one man with us these wares my mother vose is ded and my sister swift I pray remember my lov to John elis and his wiff and the rest of oure frinds and however it is like to fare with us god knows and wee … Comit all oure afairs into his hands so having nothing els desiaring youre praiars for us I rest Your Sarvant John Sharpe" 

Sharpe's letter in unerringly accurate in its lists of casulties, and the spring would find Sharpe's own name added to that roster. He rejoined the command of Captain Samuel Wadsworth as a lieutenant and in April 1676 they and their men were marching to relieve the town of Sudbury, which was under seige, when they were ambushed by Wampanoag warriors. Nearly half of the militia force of sixty, including Wadsworth and Sharpe, were killed. Primary manuscript accounts of King Philip's War are virtually unknown in the market.