Details
MORRIS, ROBERT, 1734-1806, Financier, Signer of the Declaration of Independence (Pennsylvania). A group of six partly printed shares in the Asylum Company, each signed ("Robt. Morris") as President of the Company, countersigned by Secretary James Duncan, all Philadelphia, 9 October 1794. All 4 pages, large folio, 408 x 248 mm. (16 x 9 1/4 in.), edges untrimmed, certification and signatures on last page, accomplished in manuscript.
"THE FINANCIER OF THE REVOLUTION" COURTS FINANCIAL RUIN BY SPECULATION IN WILDERNESS LAND
The six shares (numbers 161-165 and 412) carry the imprint of "Zachariah Poulson, Jr."; the text, headed "Articles of Agreement," describes the corporation's by-laws, setting out its plan for "settling and improving one or more tracts" of land in western Pennsylvania, which they are "ready to dispose of to actual settlers." At the end is a large decorative cartouche of printer's type ornaments, assigning each share to John Nicholson, who was a partner with Morris in this venture. Morris "was deeply involved in land speculations which, at this period, brought so many to disaster. His belief in the potential value of the undeveloped lands west of the settled areas, together with his audacious confidence in himself...led to his downfall" (Dictionary of American Biography). Arrested for debt in February 1798, Morris, who had done much to establish the new nation's finances during the Revolution, spent several years in a Philadelphia debtor's prison and "ended his days...a nearly forgotten and much pitied man."
(6)
"THE FINANCIER OF THE REVOLUTION" COURTS FINANCIAL RUIN BY SPECULATION IN WILDERNESS LAND
The six shares (numbers 161-165 and 412) carry the imprint of "Zachariah Poulson, Jr."; the text, headed "Articles of Agreement," describes the corporation's by-laws, setting out its plan for "settling and improving one or more tracts" of land in western Pennsylvania, which they are "ready to dispose of to actual settlers." At the end is a large decorative cartouche of printer's type ornaments, assigning each share to John Nicholson, who was a partner with Morris in this venture. Morris "was deeply involved in land speculations which, at this period, brought so many to disaster. His belief in the potential value of the undeveloped lands west of the settled areas, together with his audacious confidence in himself...led to his downfall" (Dictionary of American Biography). Arrested for debt in February 1798, Morris, who had done much to establish the new nation's finances during the Revolution, spent several years in a Philadelphia debtor's prison and "ended his days...a nearly forgotten and much pitied man."
(6)