Books and Manuscripts

New York, April 8, 1767. One sheet folded into four pages, 10 x 14 3/4 in. (254 x 375 mm). Manuscript letter, signed by Signer of the Declaration of Independence from New York, Philip Livingston (1716-1778), to "Messrs: Baynton Wharton & Morgan" reviewing a business account with them, and addressing a dispute: "it gives me real pleasure to find you are still of Opinion that after paying all your debts, something handsome will be left...You are most Undoubtedly Mistaken in telling Mr. Hicks that you had no concern with Mr. Verplanck...I have further to Observe to you that Mr. Verplanck never Opened his lips to me Abo't this Affair since the purchase was made so that the steps he has taken to Arrest You are Entirely without my Knowledge privity or Procurement...there can be no reason Assigned why I should pay the money out of my pockett not having had any view in the whole Transaction..." Creasing from old folds; scattered stains; a few small tears in top margin repaired with tape on verso; three small sections of loss replaced with paper, one affecting one word. In mat and in frame, unexamined out of frame, 16 1/4 x 21 1/4 (413 x 540 mm).

Baynton & Wharton were a Philadelphia-based mercantile firm, founded at the end of the French and Indian War, with the aim of investing large amounts of money in land made available to English colonists through the Treaty of Paris (1763).