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Signer ROBERT MORRIS, 1795 Signed North American Land Company Stock Certificate

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:800.00 USD Estimated At:1,200.00 - 1,600.00 USD
Signer ROBERT MORRIS, 1795 Signed North American Land Company Stock Certificate
Autographs
Financier of the American Revolution 1795 “Robt Morris” Signed Stock Certificate as President of the North American Land Company, Philadelphia
ROBERT MORRIS, Signer to the United States Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution, Financier of the American Revolution.
March 10, 1795, Partly-Printed Document Signed, “Robt Morris,” as President of the North American Land Company, Philadelphia, 1 page, on laid watermarked paper measuring 9.75” x 12.75”, Choice Crisp About New. Countersigned by James Marshall (Morris’ son-in-law, and brother of Chief Justice John Marshall). This magnificent looking Document has a scalloped left edge, and is a stock certificate of the North American Land Company, for twenty-five shares in the name of Sylvanus Bourne. Morris’ large 2.75" long, extremely bold brown signature is found at lower right with a fine manuscript cancel with document is fresh and clean with some light creases. A beautiful specimen that is perfect for framing or display.

April 18, 1795-Dated, Ornate Partially-Printed Document Signed, “Rob. Morris,” as Company President, Philadelphia, PA, large size 10” x 12.25” Share Certificate on beautiful laid watermarked “HS - SANDYRUN” laid period paper, Choice Extremely Fine+. This bold brown signature is on this very low Certificate number 178. The document reads, in full:

“This is to Certify that Sylvanus Bourne is entitled to 25 Shares in the entire Property of the North American Land Company; the Dividend whereof shall not be less than Six Dollars on each Share Annually, conformably to Articles of Agreement Daily Executed: dated at Philadelphia the twentieth day of February 1795. Transferable only at the Company’s Office in that City by the Owner in Person or by his Executor, Administrator, Attorney, or Legal Representative. Signed in the presence and by Order of the Board of Managers at Philadelphia this eighteenth day of April One thousand seven hundred and ninety five. “James Marshall,” Secretary; “Rob. Morris President.”

Sylvanus Bourne (1761 - 1817) was a Massachusetts businessman and United States Consul in Santo Domingo (1790-1791) and in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (1794-1817). Drafts and photocopies of Bourne’s personal and diplomatic correspondence, business and commercial papers, a scrapbook, and account books. Consists primarily of correspondence relating to commerce between the United States and European countries, primarily France and Great Britain, and United States foreign relations and politics. Other material concerns Bourne’s business in Massachusetts and the Bourne family are part of the Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, in Washington, D.C.. The collection also includes family correspondence and a scrapbook with material relating to Thomas Jefferson, Tobias Lear, and George Washington.
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.