05/23/2026
Are there documents about Liss that I haven’t found yet? Absolutely! How about a letter describing her escape? Just such a letter was written today, May 23rd, 1779 by Samuel Townsend to his son Robert. The problem is, the letter is missing.
Samuel’s neighbor, Joseph Latting, delivered the letter to Robert in lower Manhattan. If you’re familiar with Oyster Bay, Joseph Latting lived in a house at 193 South Street, which is empty now, but was the location of Visiting Nurse Services for many years. (In an ironic twist, my husband and I were walking past that address years ago, when the offices were being emptied out. A box of ledgers and documents from the business, dating back to 1915, was sitting on the curb with the garbage. We brought the box around the corner to the Oyster Bay Historical Society, where the records were added to others from the VNS. But I digress!)
I know about Samuel’s missing 1779 letter about Liss’s escape because of a tantalizing clue at the beginning of Robert’s reply, written just three days later. This second letter specifically mentions Liss and her escape from his father’s home, so I can only wonder what the first letter said! Robert writes, “I have received yours of the 23rd Inst. by Joseph Latting and observed the contents.” Was the first letter destroyed by Robert? Is it in someone’s private collection? Maybe a Townsend descendant owns it? Check your attic crawl spaces – scour auction listings – pay attention at garage sales – or better yet, if you’re one of the lucky researchers who gain access to archives, keep your eyes peeled for this one, please!
