Letter from Stonington, Connecticut, to his brother Gideon Lee in New York

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Stonington CT, Asa Lee, 1822

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1822 letter from Asa Lee in Stonington CT to his brother, Gideon, a fur merchant in New York City. Asa pleads with Gideon to accept the transfer all his assets to safeguard them from a suit. He is being sued for $5,000 damages for reneging on a verbal agreement to sell seal skins. Asa had been active in the defense of Stonington during the War of 1812, and had invested in the “South Sea” ships that sailed the Atlantic (as far south as Cape Horn and Antarctica) to hunt seal and whale. Among the assets he lists are hundreds of gallons of “elephant” oil, one shipment bound for Philadelphia. Other assets include land in Illinois. Gideon Lee (1778-1841) would become mayor of New York City in 1833.