Oct 10, 2013 - Sale 2324

Sale 2324 - Lot 43

Price Realized: $ 3,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(AMERICAN REVOLUTION.) Loyalty oath certificate issued to James Worrell of Philadelphia. Partly-print Document Signed by commissioner John Ord, 3 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches, on vellum; folds, minimal wear. Philadelphia, 27 January 1779

Additional Details

This certificate was issued to James Worrell (circa 1731-1797), attesting that he had "voluntarily taken and subscribed the Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity, as directed by an Act of General Assembly of Pennsylvania, passed the 5th day of December, A.D. 1778." This was a few months after the British had ended their occupation of Philadelphia. The word "Oath" was completed in manuscript; Quakers were given the option of signing an "affirmation" instead. Worrell was a prominent house carpenter whose patriotism was already well known in Philadelphia. He helped build a fort on Liberty Island in 1776, and in 1777, with ammunition in short supply, he served on a committee to gather all the lead downspouts in the city for smelting.
While a 1777 printing by John Dunlap of a similar certificate appears occasionally on the market and is listed as Evans 15519, we have found no other examples of the current printing.