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Autographs/M: Signer of the Declaration Of Independence Robert Morris Sells Land Shares to Benjamin

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:1,000.00 - 1,200.00 USD
Autographs/M: Signer of the Declaration Of Independence Robert Morris Sells Land Shares to Benjamin
ROBERT MORRIS. Partly Printed Document Signed, "Robt Morris," as President of the North American Land Company, 1 page, on laid watermarked paper, dated April 18, 1795, Philadelphia, 9.25" x 12.25", Choice Crisp About New. Countersigned by James Marshall (Morris' son-in-law, and brother of Chief Justice John Marshall). A stock certificate of the North American Land Company, for five shares in the name of William Temple Franklin. Some trivial clear tape on blank verso on the scalloped left side far edge. Morris' large 3" and extremely bold brown signature is found at lower right. A great looking piece ready for display. Robert Morris arranged for financing supplies for Washington and his troops, was a member of the Continental Congress, a Signer of the Declaration of Independence, founder and organizer of the Bank of North America, delegate to the Constitutional Congress, and U.S. senator from Pennsylvania. He and his partners speculated heavily in Western lands, believing that Europeans fleeing revolutions would buy, but this did not happen. A minor creditor had Morris arrested and he spent 3-1/2 years in "Prune Street," the debtor's prison. He was released in 1801 with the passage of the national bankruptcy law, but died in poverty and obscurity. William Temple Franklin was Benjamin Franklin's illegitimate son. He served as Governor of New Jersey from 1763-76. He was in conflict with the revolutionary sentiments of his father and the colonists and was arrested as a Loyalist in 1776. He was exchanged in 1778 and returned to England in 1782. He inherited most of his father's fortune upon the latter's death in 1790, much of which he lost in unsuccessful land speculations, such as the one documented here.