Books and Manuscripts

No place, 1779. 1 1/2 x 9 3/4 in. (38 x 248 mm) (sight). Fragment of an autograph document, signed by Signer of the Declaration of Independence from Delaware, Caesar Rodney, as President of Delaware, being a receipt of payment for the mortgage of Thomas Webb. A few light stains. In mat and in frame, unexamined out of frame, 7 3/4 x 16 1/4 in. (197 x 413 mm).

Caesar Rodney (1728-1784) was elected to the Continental Congress in 1774, but was not in Philadelphia in late June of 1776, when most of the debates surrounding the question of independence were going on. He famously received word on July 1 that his fellow delegates Thomas McKean and George Read were deadlocked on the vote. Upon hearing this he immediately rode 70 miles to Philadelphia on horseback, supposedly through a thunderstorm, arriving just in time to cast his vote for independence on July 2.