1782 William Cooke ALS to Walter Stone Port Tobacco Annapolis Maryland Congress For Sale

Original handwritten December 8, 1782 letter from William Cooke (1746–1817) to Walter Stone (c. 1752–1791), written from Strawberry Hill and addressed to Stone at Annapolis, Maryland.

This is a substantial Revolutionary-era Maryland letter connecting two members of the state’s prominent merchant, legal, and political circles. Walter Stone was the younger brother of Thomas Stone, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and of John Hoskins Stone, later Governor of Maryland. William Cooke was a Maryland attorney and tobacco commission merchant whose surviving papers document his legal, commercial, and mercantile activities in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

The letter is especially interesting for its candid discussion of Port Tobacco, Annapolis, Philadelphia, the seat of Congress, Haberdeventure, shipping, family networks, and social life in Maryland during the closing phase of the American Revolution.

Cooke tells Stone that he has been ill in Virginia, explains that he plans to spend the winter at Haberdeventure, and jokes about his preference for Port Tobacco over Annapolis:

“my depraved taste in preferring Port Tobacco to the seat of Congress”

He explains that this preference is based not on pleasure but on business and personal advancement:

“it is not inclination but interest which I now consult—I have gratified the one long enough it is now time to think seriously of the other.”

Cooke also remarks that Annapolis would likely be:

“a place of dissipation”

which would not suit the plan he had “chalked out” for himself that winter.

The letter contains numerous references to members of the Maryland elite and Stone family circle, including Mr. Jenifer Magruder, the Ridout family, Stockton, Mrs. Hanson, Miss Hanson, Miss Lee, Mrs. Key, Capt. Mitchell, Miss Gracey, and Stone’s brother and family.

Commercial and transportation references include goods arriving from Philadelphia and a question about transatlantic shipping:

“Do you know of any Vessel sailing soon for London or Scotland?”

A particularly charming marginal note concerns a shirt Cooke discovered among his clothes:

“When looking over the cloaths in my chest I found a shirt marked W.T.S. I remember you complained when at Philadelphia of having lost one. I suppose it is yours & shall therefore take care of it for you.”

Walter Stone (c. 1752–1791) was a Port Tobacco merchant and member of one of the most important political families in Revolutionary Maryland. He was a son of David Stone and Elizabeth Jenifer and brother of:

• Thomas Stone (1743–1787) — signer of the Declaration of Independence and Maryland delegate to the Continental Congress.
• Michael Jenifer Stone (1747–1812).
• John Hoskins Stone (1750–1804) — Revolutionary War officer and Governor of Maryland from 1794 to 1797.

Walter Stone spent time in Philadelphia and was associated with the federal financial administration during the Revolutionary period before becoming established in commerce at Port Tobacco. A substantial body of correspondence addressed to him survives, reflecting his connections with prominent Americans including Charles Carroll of Carrollton, James Monroe, Robert Morris, and Benjamin Rush.

William Cooke (1746–1817) was a Maryland attorney and tobacco commission merchant. His surviving papers include correspondence, accounts, legal records, tobacco consignments, and estate matters. He developed a reputation as an able lawyer and was later offered a judicial appointment in Maryland.

Cooke’s references in this letter to Congress, Philadelphia, tobacco-region commerce, shipping, Annapolis society, and the leading families of Maryland are consistent with his professional and social position.

Dated December 8, 1782, this letter was written while the American Revolutionary War was technically still ongoing, several months before the Treaty of Paris formally ended the conflict in 1783. Its discussion of the “seat of Congress,” Philadelphia, Annapolis, Port Tobacco, and transatlantic shipping provides an unusually personal glimpse into the life of Maryland’s planter-merchant and professional elite at the transition from Revolution to the early Republic.

The connection to Walter Stone and Haberdeventure, home of Declaration signer Thomas Stone, gives the letter additional significance for collectors of Revolutionary War, Declaration of Independence, Maryland, Annapolis, Charles County, and early American manuscript material.

Signed: William Cooke
Recipient: Walter Stone
Date: December 8, 1782
Origin: Strawberry Hill
Destination: Annapolis, Maryland
Format: Handwritten autograph letter signed, with integral address panel and marginal writing.

Please review all photographs carefully for condition, folds, toning, edge wear, ink fading, and other age-related characteristics. This is an original 18th-century manuscript and is sold as shown.