John Witherspoon, Signer of the Declaration from New Jersey

One page on a bifolium (9 1/4 x 7 3/8 in.; 233 x 186 mm), London, 15 March 1784, to James French at Edinburgh, docketed; seal tear and repair, integral address leaf dampstained with light offset on the letter, laid on paper.

On a fundraising tour of Europe soliciting money for the College of New Jersey (Princeton), of which he was president, John Witherspoon regrets that his health has delayed a trip from London to Scotland to visit his brother-in-law James French, who was one of the masters of the Royal High School at Edinburgh, Scotland.

 “Your favor of the 12th of February I received from Mr. Burr after he had kept it at Charles Wallace’s 10 days or a fortnight in his pocket. I would probably have written to you sooner but that I have had a very severe cold for about three Weeks which I thank God seems now to be a little better. This has retarded any Business & postponed my Journey to Scotland which I think cannot now take place if at all sooner than the 1st of April. … I have heard nothing from America since I left it except Letters from Dr Ramsay and his Wife from Charlestown.” 

John Witherspoon (1723-1794) was elected to the Continental Congress in 1776. He voted for independence and is alleged to have said, in response to a colleague who had claimed the declaration was premature, that the country “was not only ripe for the measure, but in danger of rotting for the want of it.” He also helped draft the Articles of Confederation and later supported the Constitution during the fight for ratification. Witherspoon was the only active clergyman and the only college president to sign the Declaration of Independence.