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[Connecticut - Christian Clergy - Texas] [Mary Austin Holley] Sherman, Roger MinottBiblio.com

1807 Letter Introducing Rev. Horace Holley and Mary Austin Holley to Rev. Edward Dorr Griffin

1807rif. BK0083Stamford Connecticut 1807. Autograph letter signed 2 pp. with integral address leaf from Roger Minott Sherman to the Rev. Edward Dorr Griffin of Newark. 6 x 8 inches. Addressed in manuscript to Griffin at Newark; later pencil identification to address panel. Old folds some staining and handling wear small losses at folds and margins otherwise good. A letter from Roger Minott Sherman introducing the Rev. Horace Holley and his wife Mary Austin Holley to Rev. Edward Dorr Griffin during the couple's journey to Philadelphia. Sherman writes that "The Rev'd Mr Holley of Greenfield in company with his Lady is on a Tour to Philadelphia" and explains that because they will pass through Newark "I embrace the opportunity to introduce them to your acquaintance & attention." He recommends Holley warmly as "a gentleman whose piety & talents render him the object of our very high esteem in this vicinity" before discussing the recent settlement of the Rev. Roswell R. Swan at Norwalk and sending his respects to Griffin and his wife. The "Lady" accompanying Holley was Mary Phelps Austin Holley 1784-1846 whom he had married two years earlier. A cousin of Stephen F. Austin Holley would become an important early writer on Anglo-American Texas. She first visited Texas in 1831 and published Texas: Observations Historical Geographical and Descriptive in 1833 followed by Texas in 1836. Her writings correspondence and advocacy helped circulate information about Texas among prospective American emigrants during the period of colonization and revolution. Roger Minott Sherman 1773-1844 a nephew of Roger Sherman was a prominent Connecticut attorney and Federalist who later served as a delegate to the Hartford Convention and as a judge of the Connecticut Supreme Court. Edward Dorr Griffin 1770-1837 then minister of Newark's First Presbyterian Church subsequently became the first minister of Boston's Park Street Church a professor at Andover Theological Seminary and president of Williams College. Horace Holley 1781-1827 later served as president of Transylvania University in Kentucky. An early document connecting Mary Austin Holley with the northeastern clerical and intellectual circle in which she and her husband moved more than two decades before her first journey to Texas. . unknown