Books and Manuscripts

Benjamin Franklin Approves the Sale of Land Confiscated from American Loyalist Joseph Galloway

[Americana] Franklin, B(enjamin).
Partially-Printed Land Patent, signed
Philadelphia, November 7, 1787. Partially-printed document on vellum, signed by Benjamin Franklin as President of the Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, granting Thomas Lieper (sic) of Philadelphia five lots of land in Philadelphia, "late the estate of Joseph Galloway, and forfeited to this Commonwealth...on the South of Market or High Street and on the East side of Thirteenth Street from the River Delaware..."; counter-signed by James Trimble on behalf of Secretary Charles Biddle. Paper seal and yellow silk ribbon intact at left; inscribed on verso by master of rolls and recorder of deeds Matthew Irwin, with paper and wax seal, dated February 1788; docketed on verso. Creasing from contemporary folds, short separation along center fold at left edge; other very minor scattered wear. 

While serving as the President of the Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (today's position of governor), Benjamin Franklin approves the transfer of ownership of five lots of Philadelphia land at Market and 13th Streets for £1,070 to Scottish American patriot, inventor, and businessman, Thomas Leiper (1745-1825). This land originally belonged to Pennsylvania politician and Loyalist Joseph Galloway and was confiscated by the state after his collaboration with the British Army during the American Revolution.

Of the nearly 500 individuals attainted of high treason by the Commonwealth during the American Revolution, and who had their land and property confiscated by the state, Galloway was one of the most politically prominent and one of Pennsylvania's wealthiest and largest landowners. A longtime colleague and friend of Franklin's before the war, Galloway was a leading lawyer and politician in colonial Pennsylvania in the years leading up to the Revolution, serving in the state Assembly for 18 years, eight as Speaker. During the First Continental Congress he served as a delegate from Pennsylvania, where he unsuccessfully called for a plan of union similar to that proposed by Franklin at the 1754 Albany Conference, that would have created an American colonial parliament. As a conservative who sought for reconciliation with Great Britain he became increasingly unhappy with the creep toward independence, refused to serve in the Second Continental Congress, and opposed the Declaration of Independence. Following the adoption of the Declaration he remained loyal to the Crown and then joined the British side. He became a trusted advisor to British General William Howe, and during the British occupation of Philadelphia in 1777-78 he served as the city's Superintendent of Police. When Howe was recalled by the British government and the British evacuated Philadelphia in the summer of 1778, Galloway fled to British-occupied New York and eventually Great Britain, where he died in 1803. 

Following Galloway's desertion to the British in 1777 he was convicted of treason in absentia by the Pennsylvania Assembly and his property and land, amounting to £40,000, were confiscated and sold at auction over the next several years.

Thomas Leiper was one of the wealthiest men in the Philadelphia region during his day, having amassed a fortune as a merchant in the tobacco and snuff business. An early advocate for independence, when war broke out he personally financed the war effort, helped organize the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, and fought in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth. Following the war he established himself in Delaware County where he operated various quarries and snuff mills, and where he notably built the first practical railroad in America. He was a founder of the Bank of North America, and financed several infrastructure projects throughout Pennsylvania before his death in 1825. 

Very rare. According to RBH this is the first Franklin-signed document relating to Galloway's confiscated land offered at auction since 1948.