1772, Ephraim Blaine, Revolutionary War patriot, Seizure of land, sold, signed

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This item is a wonderful, original document dated 1772, where Ephraim Blaine, as High Sheriff, seized the property of Samuel Hudson for not paying a debt owed and after no debt was paid, Blaine sold the property via public auction to George Kennedy, merchant of Philadelphia for 240 pounds. The lot after surveying, containing 340 acres, is now fully and legally owned by Kennedy. Signed on � fourth page by Ephraim Blaine, Andrew Ross, William Irvine and John Agnew. Document is large folio, 8x16, four pages, nicely penned, folds, minor splits, pencil notation by historian, else in overall very good condition.Colonel Ephraim Blaine (1741–1804) was an early Pennsylvania settler who served as commissary-general for the middle district of the Continental Army under General George Washington. In his early twenties, Blaine fought in the French and Indian War, and was among the defenders of Fort Pitt from the forces of Chief Pontiac in the subsequent Pontiac's War. After the wars ended and commerce resumed with the Native American tribes, Blaine began a career trading with them and became one of the wealthiest men in western Pennsylvania.In 1776, with the outbreak of war, Blaine was named chief commissary officer of the newly formed 8th Pennsylvania Regiment. Soon thereafter, Washington appointed Blaine commissary of purchases for the northern (or middle) department of the Continental Army.� In that position, Blaine helped to feed the Army that wintered at Valley Forge in 1777–1778.In 1777, Blaine was also made colonel of the Cumberland County militia.� As commissary-general, Blaine traveled throughout the colonies to arrange food deliveries for the army, often having to advance his own money for payment.After the war ended, Blaine returned to Carlisle and resumed his trading business, also engaging in land speculation.He remained out of the political arena, but did host Washington at his home in 1794 when the President was traveling west to confront the Whiskey Rebels.� Washington and Blaine maintained a strong friendship until the former's death in 1799.Blaine's wife, Rebecca, died in 1795 and he married again, to Sarah Elizabeth Postlethwaite, in 1797.� They had one son, also named Ephraim. Blaine died at his home in 1804 by drowning in the family mill pond. Colonel Blaine was so devastated at the loss of his three year old son, that some say he died of a broken heart only a few months later.William Irvine (November 3, 1741 – July 29, 1804) was an Irish-American physician, soldier, and statesman from Carlisle, Pennsylvania.Irvine was born near Enniskillen, County Fermanagh in Ireland. He served as a brigadier general in the Continental Army and represented Pennsylvania in both the Continental Congress (1787–88) and the United States House of Representatives (1793–1795). During the war, he convinced Colonel William Crawford to come out of retirement and lead an expedition against Indians in villages along the Sandusky River, which ended in Crawford's brutal execution. The militia troops went back under the commande of John Rose, a Baltic German officer from Estonia. He died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was buried in a graveyard near Independence Hall.John Agnew. son of James Agnew, was born March 4th, 1732, in Donegal township, Lancaster county, his parents removing west of the Susquehanna prior to 1740. John subsequently located in the town of Carlisle, was commissioned one of the Provincial justices May 23, 1770, and continued in that office under the constitution of 1776. He was a member of the Committee of Observation in 1774, and was an active Whig during the war; was commissioned clerk of the court of quarter sessions Nov. 5, 1777, and judge of the Court ot Common Pleas, Oct. 26, 1784. He died at Carlisle, April 8, 1790 in Him 59thyear, and the Gazette in its brief obituary of him says: "He long exercised the office of magistrate, both before and since the Independence ot America, in which office he gave universal satisfaction. Please view the other historical and Civil War re... read more

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