4to (254 x 174 mm ). Portrait frontispiece, title-page printed in black and red. EXTRA ILLUSTRATED BY THE ADDITION OF APPROXIMATELY 85 PLATES AND 4 ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS (see below). (Some minor spotting and occasional offsetting.) Contemporary half navy morocco gilt (spine sunned, some light wear to extremities).

ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS NEATLY BOUND OR LAID IN from various members of the Tilghman family, comprising: TILGHMAN, William, as jurist. ALS to James C. & Samuel W. Fisher. 7 April 1794. 1pp. Regarding financial transactions with Solomon Scott and Edward Tilghman. -- TILGHMAN, James. ALS to Tench Tilghman. 25 February 1786. 1pp. Regarding request for additional funds. -- TILGHMAN, Tench, and Thomas TILGHMAN. Partially printed DS, counter-signed by Robert Denny. Baltimore-County, Maryland,  25 November 1785. 1pp. Regarding the maturity of a loan from the State of Maryland at the Port of Baltimore to the Tilghman brothers. -- TILGHMAN, Tench, as General Washington’s s aide-de-camp. ALS, to General Benjamin Lincoln, 19 April 1777. 1pp. Regarding plans for General Lincoln to discipline privates who have attempted to desert.

Tench Tilghman served as aide-de-camp to General George Washington, and became a trusted member of his staff. He split with Loyalist members of his own family to dedicate himself to the cause of the Patriots. He was admitted as an original member of The Society of the Cincinnati in his home state of Maryland when it was established in 1783; Benjamin Lincoln was also a founding member. On his untimely death in 1786, George Washington wrote to Tilghman's brother and father: "As there were few men for whom I had a warmer friendship or great regard than for your brother...with much truth I can assure you, that, there are none whose death I could more sincerely have regretted...No one entertained a higher opinion of his worth...than I had done."