War of 1812 Strikes Boston Near Famous Girls' Academy Wife Almost Killed
3 pp, 7 x 8 7/8 from "Silence" to Captain William Lee, New York, on hand written letterhead Mrs. Saunders and Miss Beach's Academy, Clifton Hill, Dorchester [MA], Nova 3d, 1814, with good content on the War of 1812 and its impact in the Boston area. In part, My brother Peter at last arrived at Bath. He was at Machias when it was captured.
I had a letter from him last week. He says he thinks he shall be at Boston in a short time. I expect to return with him as my present quarter terminates in a fortnight.
I shall visit my friends at Hingham before we return. Judge Hill has a daughter at this academy. He was out to see us the other day. We have been very much alarmed this summer expecting the enemy every day, but I believe Boston and its vicinity are now very strongly fortified.There is a new fort built upon Noddle's Island near Boston, and forts on Dorchester Heights, Commercial Point and Savin Hill. We have had soldiers all round though not within a mile of us. There were two thousand troops stationed at Commercial Point sometime, but they have gone home now. Some of the companies pressed this house.
They looked happy at the thoughts of returning all safe. I believe the people in general do not apprehend any danger this winter and I hope we shall have Peace by the Spring. Hovey's house was burnt this summer. Parcely kept a tavern in it.
Burnt in it and his wife was almost killed. She [had a] fall on the ground as she was obliged to get out of upon the windows as the house was all in flames below. Saunders and Miss Beach's Academy was one of many schools for young women that sprang up in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The Saunders and Beach Academy in Dorchester emerged as one of the most respectable. Examples from this school are in the collections of the Winterthur Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Old Sturbridge Village, the Dorchester Historical Society and many others.
Indeed, no other girls' school of the Federal period has left so many positively identified examples of delicate and sophisticated pictorial needlework. Punctuation added in places for clarification. Overall excellent, beautiful penmanship and strong information about Boston and the War of 1812. Our goal is to please every customer.