Letter to Betsy from Alexander Harper, April 8th, 1780

Delaware, 8th of April 1780.

My Dear, by this you may know that I am Prisoner:
and I am very glad that I am fallen into their hands that has me, seeing
that it is my lott ~~that has me~~ to be taken Prisoner, (to Witt Capt. Brant
And Lieut. Johnson;).who used me, and all them that is taken along
with me exceeding well. And as for them that was kill'd there is no
accounting for it; And as for Stephen's being kill'd at Walter Eliott's,
I wou'd not have you look the worse on him, for it, for he has suffer'd
a great deal of loss, and has very near, sheared the same fate: And
I wou'd not have you to revenge it upon the place at all, for I think the[y]
new nothing of the party; And I hope that you will spare no pains
nor cost, but apply immediate to the Governor, for an immediate
Exchange, for I have been talking to Capt. Brant about an Exchange
who says it can easily be obtained, and that it is the faIt of the Country
and none of theirs if it is not. And as for my advice to you, I can
not give any; you must try to do the best you can. I will ad no
more; only remain your loving Husband; likewise give my
love to all my Friends & to Father and mother. You must shew this
immediately to the Comanding officer.
Alexander Harper

(A Copy)

N. B. The above letter was wrote by one of those Disaffected
Persons in Harpers Field in Presence of Brant.
Peter Vroman.

Penciled in writing is annotation by State Archives worker long after letter was written.
It reads:

N.B. There must be a mistake in the date of
this letter, or in that of Col. Vrooman's as his at Schoharie
of April 2. purports to enclose this of April 8th
at Delaware !
The answer to this is that Col. Vroman's date of the 2nd is missing the "1". It was written and sent on April 12th. — Rick Harper - Family Historian

BACK	Letter written by Alexander Harper to his wife on the day after his capture, Saturday, April 8th, 1780. This letter is the copy prepared by the commanding officer at the Middle Fort, Col. Peter Vroman, and forwarded to Governor George Clinton.
	Letter images	Transcription
Front of letter		Delaware, 8th of April 1780. My Dear, by this you may know that I am Prisoner: and I am very glad that I am fallen into their hands that has me, seeing that it is my lott ~~that has me~~ to be taken Prisoner, (to Witt Capt. Brant And Lieut. Johnson;).who used me, and all them that is taken along with me exceeding well. And as for them that was kill'd there is no accounting for it; And as for Stephen's being kill'd at Walter Eliott's, I wou'd not have you look the worse on him, for it, for he has suffer'd a great deal of loss, and has very near, sheared the same fate: And I wou'd not have you to revenge it upon the place at all, for I think the[y] new nothing of the party; And I hope that you will spare no pains nor cost, but apply immediate to the Governor, for an immediate Exchange, for I have been talking to Capt. Brant about an Exchange who says it can easily be obtained, and that it is the faIt of the Country and none of theirs if it is not. And as for my advice to you, I can not give any; you must try to do the best you can. I will ad no more; only remain your loving Husband; likewise give my love to all my Friends & to Father and mother. You must shew this immediately to the Comanding officer. Alexander Harper (A Copy) N. B. The above letter was wrote by one of those Disaffected Persons in Harpers Field in Presence of Brant. Peter Vroman. Penciled in writing is annotation by State Archives worker long after letter was written. It reads: N.B. There must be a mistake in the date of this letter, or in that of Col. Vrooman's as his at Schoharie of April 2. purports to enclose this of April 8th at Delaware ! The answer to this is that Col. Vroman's date of the 2nd is missing the "1". It was written and sent on April 12th. — Rick Harper - Family Historian
Back of letter		Penciled in writing is annotation by State Archives worker long after letter was written. Schoharie, Apr. 2. & oters, at Schoharie, to G. C. – with persons killed & captured at Harpersfield by Joseph Brant — & a copy of a letter from Harper to his wife. Val On this side also, the date penciled in of April 2nd is incorrect. - Rick Harper
Notes: This letter was transcribed and published in Volume V, page 579-580, of the "Public Papers of George Clinton". The original manuscripts were held in the State Archives in Albany. In 1911, a great fire destroyed much of the Capital building. The building housed hundreds of thousands of original manuscripts. We are both fortunate that this letter was transcribed just 10 years prior to the fire and that it was not completely destroyed - thousands of manuscripts were lost forever.
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