Brocksopp Letter #2, 1677

TITLE: Letter from Joan Brocksopp to Ann Easton,c/o John & Hannah Bowne

DOCUMENT ID: BFP 2018.1.03-08B

DATE: 23 August 1677 (Old Style) / 2 September 1677 (New Style)

DESCRIPTION & NOTES

This letter to Ann Easton of Rhode Island, a friend of Brocksopp’s youth, was bundled along with the previous one to “ye Rulers of Boston.” The two may have met during Brocksopp’s mission to America, when she and her traveling companion Elizabeth Hooten attended tthe first General Meeting of Friends in Rhode Island in 1661. The Bownes were entrusted with the task of traveling back to New England with these missives and seeing that they found their intended recipients. The fact that both remain among the Bowne Family Papers indicates that they never made it. Likely John was preoccupied in the aftermath of Hannah’s death in England and forgot to deliver them upon his return.