[Harford County Committee of Correspondence] to Baltimore County Committee of Correspondence, circa 1774 December

The Purviance papers fall naturally into four distinct divisions. The four sections comprising the collection are the correspondence, Robert Purviance Jr.'s A Narrative of Events which Occurred in Baltimore Town during the Revolutionary War, receipts for sums paid by the Collector of Customs for the port of Baltimore, and a commonplace book kept by Robert Purviance, Jr. A brief description of each section should aid the reader in his research.

The first section consists of all the correspondence included in the collection. Because of the relatively small number of letters, they were placed together in a strictly chronological arrangement. The earliest correspondence is dated 1766 and it continues, although quite sporadically, through 1846. The sporadic nature of the correspondence is immediately apparent. While the correspondence of 1774 and 1776 is rather complete, the collection lacks any from the year 1775.

Most of the correspondence consists of letters exchanged among the various committees established in the American colonies for the purpose of coordinating their revolutionary strategies. The correspondence begins with letters referring to Boston's attempt to build colonial support in resistance of the Boston Port Bill, passed by Parliament in March 1774. The papers provide substantial evidence of the remarkably efficient and effective lines of communication established between the colonies. Committees in Baltimore, Annapolis, Boston, Philadelphia and other towns are represented in the correspondence. While the Revolutionary War material forms the bulk of the correspondence, several letters pertaining to the private business interests of the Purviance brothers and several letters dealing with the genealogical history of the Purviance family are also included in the collection. A complete index of the correspondence is contained in this guide.

Before examining the correspondence of the collection, the researcher should be aware of several facts. In many cases the letters in the collection are not originals but contemporary copies. Difficulty may arise in some instances where the content of a letter refers to enclosures mailed with that letter. Although such references usually indicate the subject matter of the enclosure, in some cases it is quite difficult, if not impossible, to establish the identity of the enclosure. The correspondence given to the Maryland Historical Society by Robert Purviance, Jr. and used in preparing his narrative is numbered on either the address leaf or the back of the letter. These numbers correspond to the numbers of the transcripts included in the second section.

The second section of the Purviance Papers is the handwritten manuscript volume of A Narrative of Events which Occurred in Baltimore Town during the Revolutionary War, written by Robert Purviance, Jr. in 1849. The narrative includes an appendix of Purviance's transcripts of the letters found in the search of the Baltimore Custom House in 1847. The numbers on the transcripts correspond to numbers on the address leaf or back of the originals found in the first section of the collection. The originals of transcripts 1, 25, 26, 42, 66, 76, 83, and 85, however, are not included in the collection. Although these letters might have been included in Purviance's gift to the Maryland Historical Society in 1849, they are no longer contained within the Purviance Papers, nor are they located elsewhere in the Society's holdings. In addition, Purviance also included several unnumbered transcripts in the appendix of his narrative. The originals of these transcripts are in the Gilmor Papers (MS. 387.1) at the Maryland Historical Society.

Although most of Purviance's transcripts are essentially accurate, in some cases they are not exact duplicates of the originals. Care should particularly be used in cases where Purviance furnished signatures not found on the original copy of the letter. In most cases the originals are clearly legible and the scholar, exerting caution in accepting some of Purviance's insertions, should rely primarily on the originals.

The third section of the microfilm edition consists of receipts for sums paid by Robert Purviance, Sr. during a portion of his service as Collector of Customs for the port of Baltimore. The receipts date from October 1798 to May 1799 and, with a few minor exceptions, they are arranged in chronological order. Although restorative processes have preserved the condition of the receipts, the material was previously damaged severely and portions of the individual receipts are either illegible or completely destroyed.

The fourth section of the collection is a commonplace book kept by Robert Purviance, Jr. Although the book is largely written in French, some portions are in English. The book contains notes on Purviance's travels in Europe as well as essays on numerous people and places of historical significance. Purviance's comments include notes on the reaction to Jay's Treaty, the foreign diplomacy of the United States, and the value of merchandise exported by the United States. This commonplace book was written between 1794 and 1800.