Primary Source Analysis: Letter from Mary Hay Burn to John Hay Burn

In this 1776 letter from Mary Hay Burn to her husband John Hay Burn, Mary explains that a man named Dirrick Hoogland has ordered her to relocate from her home in New-Hackensack, New York. Mary begs her husband, a Revolutionary soldier, to get permission to leave his company and return to New-Hackensack. Mary mentions that John is “at King’s Bridge” (another city in New York), so it seems reasonable to assume that this was where he was stationed at the time. Furthermore, because Mary refers to Dirrick Hoogland by name only, indicating some familiarity, and because she asks John to look to his superiors to “see whether Dirrick has any right to turn [her] out of doors”, it would appear that Mr. Hoogland is an American official himself.

Though Mary both opens and closes her letter with assurances of love for her husband – “most loving husband” and “your loving wife” respectively – the body of the letter, which makes no other mention of her relationship with John, suggests that these are more formalities than sentimental terms of endearment. Mary’s priority here, very understandably, is to keep a roof over her head, not to warm John’s heart with romantic prose. Still, I think this letter is deserving of classification as a love letter and thus worthy of inclusion in my project for what it reveals about marital relationships and communications during the Revolution.

Mary’s very decision to write her husband illuminates John’s social influence and her own lack thereof, as well as the degree to which she relied on her spouse for protection and financial support. Mary explains near the end of the letter that she has depleted the money John sent her, so if he can’t come home, he must “send all the money [he] can.” It is clear, though, that Mary would much prefer his actual return to any amount of money he might send, in all likelihood not just for the heightened physical safety his presence would bring her, but the emotional security as well.

Despite her reliance on her husband, Mary is not entirely powerless here. The fact that she all but demands that her husband leave his post at King’s Bridge reveals her influence over John as well as her expectation that he prioritize her safety over his military service. Indeed, the only question Mary poses in the entire letter is not a polite entreaty for John’s return, but a rather poignantly worded reflection on their uneven social standings: “why should I not have liberty whilst you strive for liberty?” Unconsciously echoing Abigail Adams’ request for her own husband to “remember the ladies” [1] when drafting the laws of the new nation, Mary voices her suspicion of a struggle for liberty that protects some of its supporters and evicts others.

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