Introduction

This is the oldest letter in the Thomas Wilson Dorr correspondence files at the John Hay Library at Brown University. In March 1820, Thomas Dorr was a 14-year-old freshman at Harvard College. Dorr enrolled at Harvard after completing three years at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. Samuel Adams Dorr (1775-1855), an older brother of Thomas' father, Sullivan Dorr, was stationed in Canton, China, representing the merchant firm of J. & J. Dorr.