LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 December Signature Texana Auction #661  / 

56159

Thomas Toby Texas Scrip Document Signed

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:1,450.00 USD Estimated At:3,000.00 - 4,000.00 USD
Thomas Toby Texas Scrip Document Signed
<B>Thomas Toby Texas Scrip Document Signed</B></I> "<I>Thomas Toby</B></I>," one page, 10.5" x 17". New-Orleans, October 10, 1836. In part, "<I>Dobson & Williams of the City of Mobile & their legal representatives are entitled to Six Hundred and Forty Acres of the Public Lands, to be located in the Republic of Texas, agreeably to the conditions contained in a Power of Attorney...to Thomas Toby, dated the 24th day of May last past, and to instructions from his Excellency David G. Burnet President of said Republic, to the said Thomas Toby, dated on the 25th day of May last past, true copies of which Documents are hereto annexed for reference...</B></I>" Two documents, each signed in type "<I>David G. Burnet</B></I>," are on the integral leaf. They appoint Toby "<I>Lawful Agent for the purpose of raising money for the Government of Texas</B></I>" and authorize him "<I>to sell the Public Lands of Texas...provided, however, no sales shall be made at a less price than fifty cents per acre</B></I>." The Mobile, Alabama, merchant partnership of George Dobson and Nathaniel Williams, formed c. 1827, went bankrupt in 1837 due to the financial "Panic of 1837" and their loans to the Republic of Texas. <B>William Christy.</B></I> The integral leaf is signed "<I>Wm. Christy/ Not. Pub</B></I>" with a cut cancellation not near signature. A similar cut on the Texas Scrip document touches the signatures of the two witnesses, removing a tiny rectangular portion. In New Orleans, merchant William Christy was instrumental in helping Texas Commissioners Stephen F. Austin, Branch T. Archer, and William H. Wharton secure the first Texian loans totaling $250,000 in January 1836 and financially aided the revolution. He also recruited men for the Tampico Expedition. Sam Houston wrote that Christy's name would "never be uttered by the people of Texas unaccompanied by a prayer for his happiness and prosperity." A manuscript transfer, Mobile, Alabama, July 5, 1837, is penned on verso but it was not filled out or signed. There are other small cuts not materially affecting the documents' appearance. In 1836, the Texas Navy named a privateer <I>Thomas Toby</B></I> in honor of the Texas agent; it captured several vessels off the Mexican coast before it was lost at sea in a storm off Galveston in October 1837. In fine condition.<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Flat Material, Small (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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