Nov 29, 2001 - Sale 1916

Sale 1916 - Lot 253

Price Realized: $ 6,900
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000
(NORTH AMERICAN LAND COMPANY.) Archive containing 9 Manuscript Documents and One Manuscript Map. Various sizes, all with usual folds, and most on vellum. All documents are signed and sealed with red wax or paper seals and usually have various filing notations, dockets, and certifications.<\t>Philadelphia, 1795-1859
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The North American Land Company, founded 20 February 1795 at Philadelphia, was one of the larger American land speculation companies of the time, controlling at one point about 6,000,000 acres in North and South Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, New York, and Virginia, including present-day West Virginia. Despite reorganizations in 1802 and 1806, the company did not prosper and ultimately failed but not before tangled affairs that went on for decades. Many prominent Americans, among them Signer of the Declaration Robert Morris, were active in this company. The present documents go back to the original years of the company, touch upon its 1806 reorganization, and illustrate the problems that ensued with overlapping claims, dubious deeds, and other such conveyance problems. Many of the documents are certified for use in nineteenth-century court suits and some documents represent the settlement of one such suit that involved land in Virginia.
Map titled "Draught of the Country between Great & Little Kenhawas, Ohio and Elk Rivers" drawn by Robert James from various sources and older surveys, signed and dated by him. Paper on contemporary linen; folds split; dirty with water and mold stains. 40x47 inches. Contemporary hand coloring. New Geneva, Pennsylvania, 3 November 1797. Extremely detailed map showing land in present day West Virginia in the area bounded by the Ohio, Elk, Kanawha, and Little Kanawha rivers, including surveyed tracts owned by such individuals as the Gallatin families and Savary de Valcoulon.
Indenture "tripartite" among Albert Gallatin and Savary de Valcoulon (aka John Savary) and Robert Morris. 2 pages. Page 1 is 28x27 inches; page 2, which is attached to the top of p. 1, is 15x27 inches. Philadelphia, 7 May 1794. Transfers land in Kanawha county from Gallatin to Morris and from Vaucoulon to Morris for payment of five shillings. Includes a long, detailed recital of the deeds and warrants underlying the transfers. An important document predating the Company's founding that shows Morris maneuvering to acquire lands. Signed multiple times by Gallatin.
Indenture between Robert Morris, John Nicholson and James Greenleaf and Thomas Willing, John Nixon, and John Barclay granting 550,000 acres of land in Virginia to the latter group for 5 shillings. 1 page, 34x28 1/2 inches, somewhat worn. Recto contains schedule of lands transferred in upper left corner and verso contains a more extensive listing of "instruments" underlying the transfers. Philadelphia, 5 March 1795. An extremely important document showing the company being organized, dated just three weeks after the company's founding. Signed twice by Morris.
Thomas Willing. Document signed "Thos Willing" stating "that immediately on my receiving notice that Robert Morris, John Nicholson, and James Greenleaf [i.e., the company's managers] had conveyed certain Estates of Land to John Nixon, John Barclay, and myself in Trust for the North American Land Company, I did particularly refuse to accept or act under the Trust so intended to be created and that I have no time since accepted the said Trust or acted in any wise as Trustee in relation thereto." 1 page, 4to, on paper. Philadelphia, 19 December 1806. Bradded and sewn onto by pink silk thread is a 24x23 inches vellum sheet on which are five affadavits signed and sealed from various Pennsylvania officials, and all dated 21 September 1843, certifying that Willing's signature is genuine. Another affadavit is dated Virginia, 29 March 1859. An extremely important document, the result of which was apparently to throw the company's affairs into confusion and cloud some of its transactions. It was in 1806 that the company attempted to reorganize and named Willing one of its new trustees.
Indenture between John Nixon and John Barclay and Henry Pratt, John Ashley, John Vaughan, Robert Porter and John Miller conveying to the latter group the property of the North American Land Company for use as intended originally by the company. 1 page, 26x21 inches. Philadelphia, 27 April 1808. Attached at lower right is a partially printed paper form signed certifying W. Frauch's signature on the main document. Np, 16 August 1843. Apparently the first transfer of title in this year in an effort to keep the company afloat.
Indenture between John Vaughan and Robert Porter, acting as "surviving managers of the North American Land Company," and Benjamin Tilghman, wherein the entire remaining property of the company is conveyed to the latter to act in trust for the company's original purposes. 1 page, 17x27 1/2 inches, signed and sealed by Vaughan and Porter. Philadephia, 30 April 1838. On verso is another indenture wherein Tilghman conveys his entire interest to John Vaughan, Robert Porter, James Dundas, Henry Nixon, and Benjamin Kugler. 1/2 page. Philadelphia, 1 May 1838. Apparently the second such transfer of this year in an effort to keep the company afloat.
R. R. Robb. Three manuscript statements signed and certified that he heard and saw John Vaughan and Robert Porter execute the 30 April 1838 indenture. 1 page, 12x29 inches. Philadelphia, 22 August 1843. One of the statements is certified by South Carolina; the other two by Pennsylvania.
Indenture between Clement and Nancy Biddle, John, James, and Charlotte Barclay, John B. Biddle, George W. Biddle, Chapman Biddle, and James Cochran and John James Dundas and Benjamin Kugler to settle a lawsuit about a large tract of land in Virginia wherein title is transferred to Dundas and Kuglar for $1.00 based on the original 5 March 1795 deed executed by the Company. 1 page, 36x27 1/2 inches. Philadelphia, 7 June 1845. This agreement settles a 29 March 1845 court suit, which was apparently heard in nisi prius court for the district of East Pennsylvania.
Indenture on partly printed form from James Dundas and Benjamin Kugler as "Trustees of the North American Land Company" conveying land to Lot M. Morrill of Augusta, Maine, and quieting his title to about 558,000 acres in Virginia for payment of $25,000. 1 page, 18 1/2x23 1/2 inches. Philadelphia, 1 December 1854.
William H. Huster. Partly Printed Document Signed "Wm. H. Huster" as Secretary of the Commonwealth certifying that John Rowe is Pennsylvania Surveyor General. 1 page, oblong folio. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 7 August 1859. Attached by brads and ribbon is a 4 page, folio, copy of a 25 March 1794 statement by John Savery that Albert Gallatin is "his partner" in disposing of Savary's lands in Virginia.<