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JAMES IRVINE Manuscript Document Signed Revolutionary War Date

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:1,400.00 USD Estimated At:1,800.00 - 2,000.00 USD
JAMES IRVINE Manuscript Document Signed Revolutionary War Date
Autographs
1782 Revolutionary War Major General James Irvine Signed Document to Pennsylvania President William Moore
JAMES IRVINE (1735-1819). American Revolutionary War Major General of Pennsylvania Militia, later the Vice-President of Pennsylvania.
July 27, 1782-Dated Revolutionary War, Manuscript Document Signed, “James Irvine,” 1 page, measuring 8.25” x 13.25” and tipped to a slightly large backing, Choice Extremely Fine. Choice period patriotic content in this Document from Philadelphia, being a Petition request sent to Pennsylvania President William Moore by Martha Robins, with the top portion signed, “Martha Robins.” Robins herein asks that Governor Moore contact New Jersey Governor William Livingston and have him arrange for the Free Passage during Wartime of Robin's daughter across New Jersey through to Pennsylvania. At bottom, James Irvine, John Franklin and John Connelly attest to the fact that the daughter, Elizabeth Robins, has been: "... know them to be well affected to the cause of the United States of America and know them to have been of the greatest servis (sic) to the prisoners for years past".
James Irvine was born in Philadelphia, the son of Irish immigrant George Irvine and Mary Rush. As a young man, James became a hatter and then entered the Pennsylvania militia in 1760, spending most of his service along the northern frontier of Pennsylvania. By 1763, he was promoted to Captain.

Irvine was among the first to support the move for independence from Britain. In 1775 he was made captain of the first group of Philadelphia Associators, and quickly fought in a number of campaigns. By the fall of that year, when field officers were being commissioned for the Continental Army, Irvine was made a Lieutenant-Colonel. A year later, after continued military action in Virginia and Canada, he rose to the rank of Colonel. Irvine, however, resigned because he had not been promoted to General. Soon after this resignation, he was made Brigadier-General of the Pennsylvania militia.

When Irvine returned to the battlefield, he was taken prisoner by the British in a skirmish in Chestnut Hill outside of Philadelphia. His repeated pleas to Congress for his exchange were slow to bring results; he was held captive in New York, and then Flushing, Long Island until 1781. Nearly four years after his capture, he was released, having lost three left fingers and suffered neck injuries in the Chestnut Hill skirmish.

After the war he served, as a Constitutionalist, on Pennsylvania's Supreme Executive Council from 1782-1785, and then the next year in the commonwealth's General Assembly. When the Constititionalist party lost its support in 1786, Irvine's political career was ended. Irvine's military service was of longer duration; he served from 1782-1793 as a Major-General in the Pennsylvania militia. In 1819 he died in Philadelphia after a long illness.

As Vice-President of the Pennsylvania Supreme Executive Council (the equivalent of Lieutenant-Governor) from 1784 to 1785, Irvine became an ex officio trustee of the University of the State of Pennsylvania. He continued as an elected trustee until the 1791 union of the College of Philadelphia and the University of the State of Pennsylvania to form the University of Pennsylvania.