Partly Printed Document Signed by Richard Gridley for a Loan of 600 Pounds to Gridley, Joseph Jackson, and Edmund Quincy, from Jonathan and John Amory, Likely for the Purchase of a Furnace, 1772

Boston, 1772. Single sheet measuring 12 ½ x 8 inches. Notes in margin in an early hand, fine. Richard Gridley was an artilleryman, military engineer, and entrepreneur, who had a prolific career in several conflicts including the Revolutionary War, where he served as an engineer. Offered here is a very rare document likely relating to his forges in 1772, which he would operate in support of the war effort. The document relates to a loan from Jonathan and John Amory to Gridley, Edmund Quincey and Joseph Jackson. Quincy and Gridley had done business together two years earlier, when Gridley bought a half share of Massapoag Lake from Quincey for the purposes of smelting iron ore.

"In 1770 Gridley joined two others in purchasing Stoughtonham Furnace, located about eighteen miles south of Boston. The possibility of casting cannon in the event of hostilities was a motivating factor in the enterprise. With the onset of the revolutionary war, the owners, with the help of lessees, cast ordnance stores and some small cannon for Massachusetts and for privateers. An attempt to satisfy an order for forty howitzers from the Continental Congress in early 1777 seems to have been unsuccessful. At best, the furnace venture was only marginally profitable. From 1772 Gridley had made his home a few miles away in the present town of Canton." - ANB. According to the Canton Historical Society: "In 1770, Gridley purchased half interest in Massapoag Lake from Edmund Quincy; here he either purchased or erected a furnace for smelting iron ore. In 1772, he bought Leonard's Forge; that same year, he began "The New Forge" in the Hardware section of Canton, though it was not until the following year that he began to live in Canton. In 1773, he received a land-grant of 3000 acres in Jackson, New Hampshire, in recognition for his Canada service." - "Richard Gridley," Canton Historical Society." (https://cantonmahistorical.pbworks.com/w/page/34431174/Richard%20Gridley, accessed 3/9/23).

A contemporary note on the document's margin reads: "Richard Gridley Major Genl. was born in 1711. In 1746 he was engineer in the reduction of Louisburg. He was concerned in the expedition to Crown Point under Winslow. He served under Amherst in 1758 & was with Wolfe on the plains of Abraham. For his services Magdalen Island was given 0im, with half pay. He was chief Engineer at the commencement of the Revolution & laid out the fortification of Breed's Hill the day before the battle when he was wounded June 17th, 1775. He died 1796 - aged 84.

Edmund Quincy, agent for Mass. at the court of Great Britain. He was Judge of Superior Court."

Despite his importance to the war effort, documents relating to Gridley are particularly scarce, with only a handful of examples of his signature in the auction records, most on brief letters. We find no other documents relating to his pre-war activities as an engineer in the trade.