A brief description of content in Volumes 2-4, dating between March and December of 1759:

• The Six Nations Indians and an additional four tribes agree to support the British at a meeting arbitrated by William Johnson
• Vessels are built by the British for use on the Great Lakes
• Alex Johnstone orders a general court martial at Fort Oswego
• Inhabitants of Half Moon, New York, retaliate against the British by fencing in their land and maiming British Army animals that trespass
• A Mohawk Indian reports that various assembled Indians are poised to strike against Fort Duquesne
• A prisoner of war provides Thomas Gage with intelligence about the French

Special Notes About this Grouping

Preserved in this volume, a man named Thomas Gist writes to Gage: “Sir, I was taken prisone the 14th Day of Sept. 1758, within about four miles of Fort DuQuesne by the Wyendot Indians at the Defeat of Major Grant.— the number of French men that can be raised at Fort Detroyt are about Twelve hundred. the nations of Indians living near Detroit, first the Wyendot, the Tawwas, the Potowotomes these three Nations live within sight of the Fort… The Country is leavel and very wet but Chiefly sandy but good Land, and well Timbered bringeth good grane…”

“An Account of the number of Hutts and by whom Inhabited, in the City of Albany”— includes the names of several women, a widow, a doctor, a “Dutch Baker” and a Black resident.

We are seeking contributors to help offset the costs of unhinging and re-boxing approximately 23,000 manuscripts in 172 volumes from the Thomas Gage Papers. Conservator Julie Fremuth will remove each manuscript from the paper on which it is currently mounted and other staff will place the manuscripts into new archival boxes and folders. A donation of $175 will support the unhinging and re-housing of one volume of the Thomas Gage Papers.

The Thomas Gage papers consist of the military and governmental correspondence and headquarter papers of General Thomas Gage, officer in the British Army in America (1754-1763) and commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America between 1763 and 1775. The papers include incoming correspondence and retained copies of letters written by Gage, together with a large quantity of documents related to military matters and manuscript maps. The collection is particularly strong in documenting British administration of North America after the French and Indian War, interactions with Native Americans, and the years preceding the American Revolution.

Conservation, Manuscripts