TITLE: Letter from John Bowne to Hannah Bowne, from Jail in New Amsterdam
DOCUMENT ID: BFP 2018.1.03-01
DATE: 5 November 1662 (Old Style) / 15 November 1662 (New Style)
This letter also appears in the series “Papers of Hannah (Feake) Bowne”.
John Bowne wrote this letter to his wife while jailed in New Amsterdam for the offense of holding forbidden Quaker Meetings in the colony of New Netherland. In it, he affirms their shared religious fervor, but quickly pivots to the urgent matter at hand: advice on running the farm and providing for their family in his absence, with recommendations as to which neighbor to ask for help with various tasks. The reader gains insight into the tremendous weight of labor and responsibility with which John entrusted Hannah during his ordeal, but also the strength of community ties in the Colonial-era farming settlement that enabled the couple’s family to survive. He also requests that she bring him "his “red book,” which appears to be his Journal, in which he recorded his ordeal and other significant life events.