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258

Declaration of Independence: William Hooper

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:3,500.00 - 4,000.00 USD
Declaration of Independence: William Hooper

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Auction Date:2010 Jul 14 @ 22:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
ADS, signed “Wm Hooper Atty for the Plaintiff,” one page both sides, 8.5 x 13, March 19, 1778. Legal document for a case between John Wright and Joseph Wrong. In part: “John Right Complains against Joseph Wrong in Custody for this cause, to wit, that upon the twentieth day of February in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and Seventy five in the County of Carteret in the district of New Bern in the State of North Carolina, Joseph Bell Innholder in the County aforesaid demised [leased] granted and to farm Let to the said John Right a certain…Lot of Land known and distinguished in the said Town of Beaufort in the County aforesaid by Number Seventeen with the outhouses Garden, Improvements and appurtenances (Smoak house and Shop only excepted) for and owing the term of Five Years from the said twentieth day of February in the year above mentioned to the full end and term of five years to be completed and ended by virtue of which said demise, the said John Right entered the said Lot of Land…and was thereof legally possessed until the Eleventh day of February in the Year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and Seventy Eight, when the aforesaid Joseph Wrong illegally dispossed the said John Right by force and arms into the said Lot and the houses thereon…and upon the Possession of the said John Right thereof entered and Ejected drove out and removed the said John Right from his said Lot…and the said John being so Ejected drove out and removed from his possession thereof withhold and still doth withhold and then and there did other injuries to him the said John Right against the Peace and dignity of the State aforesaid and to the Damage of the said John Right Five hundred Pounds Current money of the State of North Carolina aforesaid, and therefore he brings suit …”

Beneath Hooper’s statement is a handwritten statement signed “Joseph Wrong,” with text and signature by Hooper, reading: “To Mr Joseph Bell Tenant in possession of the Premisses on the within Declaration of Ejectment mentioned.” In full, “I am informed that you are in possession or Claim a Tith [sic] to the Premisses in this Declaration of Ejectment mentioned or to some part thereof and I being sued in this action as a casual Ejection and having no claim or Title to the same, do advise you to appear at the Superior Court of Law to be held for the District of New Bern at the Court House in New Bern on the Twentieth day of May next by some Attorney of that Court and then and there by a Rule of the same Court to cause yourself to be made Defendant in my stead otherwise I shall suffer Judgment to be entered against me and you will be turned out of Possession.”

In very good condition, with several intersecting folds, two through single letters of signature, and scattered creasing and wrinkling.

Hooper was appointed a delegate to the First Continental Congress in 1774, and later to the Second Continental Congress, but much of his time was split between those duties and work in North Carolina, where he was assisting in forming a new government. Interestingly, due to matters in dealing with this new North Carolina government, Hooper missed the vote approving the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, but arrived in time to sign it on August 2. In 1777, due to continued financial concerns, Hooper resigned from Congress, and returned to North Carolina to resume his law career. It was in that capacity that he lent his name to this document. During the Revolutionary War, Beaufort, North Carolina, was a pro-patriot enclave, and many privateers serving the American cause used its port.
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