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1775 BENJAMIN CHEWs Warrent for Daniel Clymers Servant who Stole Two Horses!

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:550.00 USD Estimated At:800.00 - 1,000.00 USD
1775 BENJAMIN CHEWs Warrent for Daniel Clymers Servant who Stole Two Horses!
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Autographs
“Benjamin Chew” Chief Justice of Pennsylvania Signed Warrant to Pursue and Capture Daniel Clymer’s Servant Lad who “had stolen from him two valuable Horses”
BENJAMIN CHEW (1722-1810). Philadelphia Lawyer, Head of the Pennsylvania Judiciary System under both Colony and Commonwealth, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Province of Pennsylvania.
October 24, 1775-Dated Revolutionary War Period, Autograph Document Signed, “Benjamin Chew” as Chief Justice of the Province of Pennsylvania, measuring 6.75” x 8.5”, 1 page, Philadelphia, Choice Very Fine. Chew was also a friend of George Washington and John Adams, and as relations between Great Britain and the colonies began to sour, he was at first an outspoken advocate for the colonies. This document is well written in rich brown ink and easily readable on clean laid period paper. The signature “Benjamin Chew” is bold with his red wax seal full intact next to his name which measures fully 3” long. The document reads, in full:

“City of Philadelphia -- Daniel Clymer Esq (1748-1810) of this City informs me the Subscriber Chief Justice of the Province of Pennsylvania That on Sunday the 22d Instant he had stolen from him two valuable Horses, and that he is about to send his Servant Lad named John Peter Denkirken in Pursuit of them and the Thief. & hath requested me to give a Pass for that purpose to the said Jn Peter Denkirken All Persons therefore are hereby required to suffer the said John Peter Denkirken quietly to pass in & thro this Province he behaving himself peaceably this given under my Hand this 24th Day of October Anno Dom. 1775 -- (Signed) “Benjamin Chew”. Docket on reverse. Wax seal still affixed. Minor edge chips and toning.

Daniel Clymer graduated at Princeton in 1766, studied law and became eminent in his profession. At the beginning of the Revolution he at once joined the Associators of that city and was commissioned a lieutenant colonel and placed in command of a rifle battalion. he was appointed in 1775 and again in 1776 by Congress as a Signer of Continental Currency Bills of Credit, and held the office of deputy Commissary-General of Prisoners and commissioner of claims of the treasury. During the closing years of the Revolution he removed to Reading, Berks County, and represented the county in the legislator in 1782 and several succeeding terms. He died in Reading, Pa. Jan 25, 1810. Also See the Book titled: “Benjamin Chew 1722-1810” originally published 1932 by author Burton Konkle.
Benjamin Chew (1722-1810) was born in Maryland, but his Quaker father soon moved the family to Philadelphia. After receiving a classical education and then studying law with Andrew Hamilton in Philadelphia, young Chew travelled to London to continue his legal studies at the Middle Temple. While abroad he made many important connections that advanced his career down the road; most important among his new ties were those to the proprietary Penn family.

When he returned to America in 1744, Benjamin Chew settled in Delaware, where he established a successful law practice. Additionally he was elected Kent County representative to the Assembly of the Lower Counties, serving as speaker of that body from 1753 to 1757.

In 1754 Chew moved to Philadelphia and again established a thriving law practice. During this period, Chew represented the interests of the Penn family, and like them, left his Quaker faith to join the Church of England. As early as 1755 he was made both Recorder of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Attorney General. Over the years, the Penns appointed Chew to a variety of other public offices, including Register-General (in 1765) and Chief Justice of Pennsylvania (in 1774, following in the footsteps of William Allen).

Chew was also a friend of George Washington and John Adams, and as relations between Great Britain and the colonies began to sour, he was at first an outspoken advocate for the colonies. Nonetheless, Chew believed protest and reform were the solution to the problems with Parliament, and when the Declaration of Independence was adopted, Chew was not among its supporters.

Chew lost almost all of his Pennsylvania positions at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, retaining only the post of Register-General until 1777. In that year, due to his lack of support for the revolution and his close ties to the Crown, Chew was arrested for treason and paroled to Union Iron Works in New Jersey. Shortly after his arrest, his Germantown mansion "Cliveden" was occupied by the British and damaged by fighting during the Battle of Germantown.

For over a decade after he was freed and returned to Philadelphia in 1778, Chew stayed out of private legal practice and continued to be politically active only on the Philadelphia Common Council. With the 1790 adoption of a more conservative Pennsylvania constitution, Governor Thomas Mifflin in 1791 appointed Chew to the High Court of Errors and Appeals, a post he held until 1806. He lived his remaining four years outside the public light.

Benjamin Chew was elected a trustee of the Academy and College of Philadelphia (the origins of the University of Pennsylvania) in 1757 and continued as such until 1791. He was not named a trustee of the University of the State of Pennsylvania, as Penn was organized by the new state government in 1779; nor was he included on the Board of Trustees created by the 1791 union of the College and the University of the State of Pennsylvania. His son Benjamin Chew, Jr., (1758-1844) A.B. 1775, would serve, however, as a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania from 1810 until his death in 1844.