American Historical Ephemera & Photography Online

2 1/4 pages, 8 x 12 1/2 in., on bifolium. Creased, with some small holes and separations, staining and toning throughout, wear to edges and corners. Addressed to James Dalrymple or Framingham, MA on integral leaf. 

In this letter to his father, Ezekiel apologizes for not returning home over the winter, and then explains his absence. He describes how he met with an associate of his brother William, Mr. M. Hagar, in Montreal, who explained that William was on a trip but was expected back in a matter of weeks. Ezekiel stayed with him for several months, awaiting his brother's return, when finally someone who had been with William arrived and told them that William had died in a snow storm on land after a trying journey at sea. Ezekiel mentions that he has also sent a copy of a letter written to Benjamin Hagar by the Custom House officer at Gaspé, the place near where William perished. 

[With:] 2 1/4 page copy of a letter to Mr. Benjamin Hagar from a Custom House officer at Gaspé, written in Ezekiel Dalrymple's hand. 7 January 1812. 

In part: "I tak [sic] upon my self the Melancholy task of informing you of the Death of your partner Wm Dalrymple which event took place between the 14 & 15 inst on his way to Quebec by Land at a place called Grand Valle [sic] five leagues on this side of Magdalion River. This unfortunate young man had embarked on board the schooner Lord Nelson [indecipherable] for Quebec at a very late season and after Beating about the River for a considerable time they was obliged to bore[?] away and come into this Harbour about the beginning of December to Lay up for the winter...Saturday the 14th Decr. when late in the evening the weather being then very cold and storming they arrived at Grand Vally [sic] and proposed staying there that night when takeing [sic] off their packs Mr. Dalrymple told his man that he had lost a packet of paper which he would not have parted with for twenty dollars and would return back a little way upon his track to look for it and desired the Canadian to employ himself in making a cabin and in cuting [sic] wood for the night which he the Canadian agreed to do...next morning when he started again to search for him and at a small Distance from the cabin in the edge of the woods he found the unfortunate young man quite dead and stiff..."

James Dalrymple (1757-1847), the father of Ezekiel and William Dalrymple, fought in the Revolutionary War, receiving an honorable discharge at the close of the war, and turning to a life of farming thereafter. He purchased land in Framingham, Massachusetts, and lived there until 1819.

Ezekiel Dalrymple (1789-1819) engaged in privateering in South America, and lost his life sailing a vessel that was taken by a violent storm after it set out in May of 1819.