Draft of an Autograph Letter, signed with initials. To Joseph Dean, prominent importer who served on the Philadelphia Board of War during the Revolution.

Gurney writes about settling his account: “I am just now going to Head Quarters and Trust in god in the course of a few days we shall have the immortall Honor of Beating G. How and his Army and thereby restore this distress’d bleeding Country peace, happiness and plenty..” With: John Bern. Autograph Letter Signed. Potts Town, Pa., October 2, 1775: To Francis Gurney about an order for Porter and Indigo and “wishing you a pleasant Journey to the Camp and safe return…” Francis Gurney (1738-1815) was a wealthy Philadelphia merchant who had made his fortune after serving as a teenager in the British Army in Canada and the West Indies during French and Indian War. During the American Revolution, “he donated heavily to the cause, both monetarily and in military service”, as a Lt. Colonel in the Philadelphia Militia. He resigned his commission in October 1777 – days after writing this letter, when, arriving at Washington’s headquarters, he failed to receive an expected promotion to Brigadier General (a rank he finally won in 1799 after leading a militia company against the Whiskey Rebellion farmers of western Pennsylvania. The 1775 letter was written three months after the Battle of Bunker Hill, probably when Gurney first joined the volunteers who later formed the Philadelphia Militia.