Offered for sale by Denis Gouey of 'And Books Too' - for more information please contact him via email at bibliopegist@yahoo.com or text 203 232 4338

1830’s Letters to her father William LEE (Consul to France) and sister Susan LEE
Elizabeth LEE, Baron Franz von MALTITZ (Russian Consulate)

A collection of letters from Europe and USA, prints and books from the LEE family of Massachusetts. Letters to her father William LEE (Consul to France) and sister Susan LEE. 1830’s American expatriate letters. This small archives consist of ten complete letters dated from August 20 1828 to July 25 1838, all from Mary Elizabeth to her sister Susan and addressed to her father William LEE, one letter starting with 25 lines by Baron MALTITZ, in French, describing their arrival in Washington and taking lodging at “Washington Hall because there were no rooms at the American Hotel”, saying that he was well received by Krüdener (von Krüdener (Russian: Pavel Alexeevich Kridener; 31 January 1784, 29 January 1858) ) who told him that he will place a request for him (MALTITZ) to be promoted consul when he (Krüdener) retires from his post. MALTITZ goes on to beg Susan not to tell a soul between “the Potomac and the Susquehanna” as it would jeopardize his future position. He goes on to describe Mei’s(Mary’s nickname) lodgings “with a superb parlor facing Broadway” in New York, and a “grand bedroom”. He closes the letter mentioning acquaintances and ceding the “quill to his petit loup ( little wolf)”.The same letter is continued by Mary Elizabeth in English, speaking of acquaintances and noting that they have great accommodations and has not seen any bed bugs (punaises)...All the letters have interesting contents, from traveling “the ship we go in is the New York and a very good one” (August 24 1828), written by Mary to her father, the next letter to her sister Susan, from Paris and dated October 30 1828 mentions “we were 3 days on the way , hiring a carriage with 3 horses” and describes her itinerary through france, and her visit in Paris to Pere Lachaise, the Jardin des Plantes, Bois de Boulogne, Pont Neuf, the Opera Italian etc... Interestingly Mary Elizabeth uses both English and French in her writings, a reflection on her education while in France.There are also one incomplete letter and two fragments, accounting for forty manuscript pages, two been crisscross written pages.All letters with postal cancels are addressed to William LEE, Mary’s father, the earlier bears the address of him as an Auditor, Treasury Department, Washington DC, the later to Beacon Street , Boston.

TOGETHER WITH

FR. NOEL, LECONS DE LITTERATURE ET DE MORALE, Ou Recueil, en prose et en vers, des plus beaux Morceaux de notre Langue, etc... PARIS, Chez le NORMANT, imprimeur - libraire, rue des Pretres Saint - Germain l'Auxerrois, no 17; A la Librairie stereotype, chez H. NICOLLE, rue des Petits - Augustins, no 15. DE L'IMPRIMERIE DES FRERES MAME, rue du Pot - de - Fer, no 14. 1808. Two volumes, contemporary leather over boards, gift inscription of Elizabeth’s father, William LEE.

TOGETHER WITH

JOHN LEIGH OF Agawam (Ipswich) Massachusetts 1634-1671 AND HIS DESCENDANTS OF THE NAME OF LEE WITH GENEALOGICAL NOTES AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF ALL HIS DESCENDANTS, SO FAR AS CAN BE OBTAINED INCLUDING NOTES ON COLLATERAL BRANCHES COMPILED BY WILLIAM LEE, ALBANY, N. Y. JOEL MUNSELL'S SONS, 82 STATE ST., 1888 mostly disbound, provenance Mary Lee Mann, with holographic notes.

TOGETHER WITH

A portrait of Mary Elizabeth Baronin von MALTITZ , a lithograph on chine colle by Lemercier, an albumin print of a painting of the Baron, a lithograph of Mary and MALTITZ’s home on The Hague, an albumen portrait of a painting of Susan, Mary’s sister.

Also included is a copy of Yankee Jeffersonian: Selections from the Diary and Letters of William Lee of Massachusetts, Written from 1796 to 1840.Baroness Mary Elizabeth Lee Maltitz -1799-1852 married Baron Johann Georg Friedrich Franz von MALTITZ William Lee (1772-1840) began his career as a commission merchant in Boston. In 1794 he married Susan Palfrey. Her father, William Palfrey, a Boston merchant who served as paymaster general during the War for Independence, had been made U.S. consul general to France but died in 1780 on his way to take up the post. In 1796 Lee journeyed to Bordeaux on business, traveling also in Britain and Holland and returning to the United States in 1798. Among the people he saw in Europe were Joel Barlow, Elbridge Gerry, and James Monroe. John Marshall, in Paris as a U.S. envoy, called Lee “a gentleman of good connections good character.” On his return voyage Lee carried letters from various sources directed to recipients in America. After Lee arrived in the United States Oliver Wolcott took possession of a portion of that correspondence, including at least one letter addressed to Thomas Jefferson Lee hoped for a consular appointment even at that time, and on 3 June 1801 Thomas Jefferson made him commercial agent at Bordeaux. John Adams had named Isaac Cox Barnet to that post, but Barnet was one of the February 1801 nominees who never received letters of appointment after Thomas Jefferson took office. In January 1802 the Senate approved Jefferson’s appointment of Lee. In 1811, while still holding the Bordeaux consulship, Lee acted as secretary of legation for Barlow, who had been appointed U.S. minister to France.

Offered by And Books Too