hv_sansomj_letters_1796_009

Fourth Day Albany 6th. Mo. 8th. 1796 My dear Friends Agreeably to the expectation given you in my last I write again from this low-dutch City, of which you will have a tolerable idea when you figure to yourselves an old square Church (with a roof almost high enough for a steeple, capped with a clumsy belfry) fixed trans- versely across the center streets, which wind about it in all directions, generally presenting gable ends, scol- loped with battlements, and often antiquated with the lead- ed casements that have so long given way to the improve- ments of modern times elsewhere. But I am un- intentionally rambling from Edward Hallock's patri- archal family; before I have told you that his Fa-ther lived to see 140 of his Descendants, to the 4th ge-nerations; and Edward himself begins to keep count for 100 to the third: like somebody else he is still more active than either of his sons, abounding with life and spirit, anecdote and observation. One circumstance of his life deserves particular attention: shortly after the British took possession of New York and Long Island, I think in 1776, he attended the Yearly Meeting then