ABSTRACT
William Walters wrote this letter six years after his emigration from Governor’s Island, in New York harbor – a 172-acre island about half a mile from the southern tip of Manhattan. Walters seems to be a member of the elite. He sounds educated and seems well off. He notes that there is a great need for medical men in the area, and his observation that about a hundred Englishmen attended a local funeral indicates the strength of the English community there. His obscure, bawdy references to his ‘old Lover’ (who seems to have been killed) are tantalizing clues about his background.
