CONTINENTAL CONGRESS SECRETARY THOMSON, CHARLES. Group of 5 items Signed, or Signed and Inscribed, "ChaThomson," including an Autograph Letter Signed, twice, a Letter Signed, as Secretary, an Autograph Check Signed, a partly-printed Document Signed: a colonial banknote, and Thomson's ledger book Signed, thrice, in the third person within the text, additionally with some holograph ledger entries and notes. Format and condition vary. Vp, 1764-1821
ALS, to John Francis Oberlin, sending the fabric purchased on his behalf [not present]. 1 page, small 4to; inlaid, short separations at folds, address on verso. Philadelphia, 2 December 1764 LS, to CT Governor Samuel Huntington, a circular letter sending "a State of the representation for last month" and "two copies of the Journal . . . one for the legislative & the other for the executive branch of Government" [not present]. 1 page, folio, with integral blank; horizontal folds. [New York], 1 April 1786 Check: "Cashier of the Bank of the United States pay to Pompey Smith or bearer twenty dollars." 3 1/4x7 1/2 inches; cancellation slices through signature (but without loss). "Harriton" [Bryn Mawr, PA], 10 December 1821 Banknote, two shilling engraved note issued by the Province of Pennsylvania. 3 1/2x2 3/4 inches; marked fading to signature, chipping at edges, folds. Np, 25 April 1759 Ledger, recording the expenses and credits for the [Harriton] farm between 1787 and 1819, including three holograph receipts for Thomson's payments additionally signed by the various recipients. Over 60 pages, 8vo, leather. Charles Thomson of Philadelphia (1729-1824) was the longtime secretary of the Continental Congress. He signed the Declaration of Independence as secretary when it was first passed in July, 1776, and his name appears alongside Hancock's in the first printed versions, but he did not sign the immortal version drawn up the following month.
