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Auction: 318 - The Collector's Series
Lot: 1536

American Indians; Pennsylvania History: Land Warrant for the purchase of Indian land by a consortium of Dutch bankers. One page, 13 ½ x 8 1/3", partially printed warrant issued by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Feb. 3, 1794. Issued to the Deputy Surveyor, John Brodhead, the warrant reads in part "Whereas Wilhelm Willink, Nicholaas Van Staphorst, Christiaan Van Eeghen, Pieter Stadnitski, Hendrick Vollenhoven and Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck of Amsterdam…paid into the Office of the Receiver-General of the Land Office, the whole of the purchase money for nine hundred acres of land with the last purchase made of the Indians, East of the Allegheny river and Conawango Creek…authorise and require you to survey…for the said Wilhelm Willink, Nicholaas Van Staphorst…the said quantity of acres…" Secretarial signature of Governor Thomas Mifflin below and in left margin. A signor of the Constitution, speaker in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and the state's first governor, Mifflin served as Major-General, Aide-de-Camp to General Washington and Quartermaster General in the Continental Army during the American Revolution (his non-pacific roles caused him to be expelled from his family's Quaker faith). Minor foxing along light folds, slightly ragged bottom Fine. Official documents which make mention of the purchase of land from Indians are rarely found.

Sold for
$400