1790 Original SAMUEL WALLIS Hand Signed PHILADELPHIA PENNSYLVANIA Land Baron

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EARLY AMERICAN DOCUMENT WITH FOUR ORIGINAL SIGNATURES. "Articles of Agreement" between THOMAS CANBY with SAMUEL WALLIS, dated January 1790 (1798?). Measures 13 1/2" by 8 1/4", good condition, with folds and creases, some edge wear and splitting at folds. Signed and sealed by Canby and Wallis, still retains the small diamond shaped paper seals. The document was witnessed by MOSES RUSH and WILLIAM JOHNSTON, and is also hand signed by both of them.This document is from a collection of papers relating to Samuel Wallis, a well known figure in Lycoming County. Wallis served as a land agent for the Holland Land Company, a group of Dutch capitalists that also advanced large sums of money to ROBERT MORRIS, one of the major financiers of the American Revolution and a signer of the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution. Wallis also worked with another agent for the Holland Land Company, JAMES WILSON, also a signer of the Declaration of Independence and one of the framers of the Constitution. I have included much information about Wallis below. INTERESTING HISTORICAL DOCUMENT. I guarantee this document to be original and as described. Check out my other listings for more.SAMUEL WALLIS was among the giants of early Lycoming County history -- probably the largest landholder in the area in the last 30 years of the 18th century.According to John F. Meginness' monumental "History of Lycoming County" written in 1892, Wallis was "the most energetic, ambitious, persistent, and untiring land speculator who ever lived in Lycoming County. His energy was marvelous, and his desire to acquire land became a mania which followed him to the close of his life."Among those great holdings, Wallis used 7,000 acres near Muncy to locate his estate anchored by a solidly built stone mansion. It was built in 1769 on the high ground near the mouth of Carpenter's Run. "The location was well chosen," Meginness observed. "A few hundred yards north of the house Fort Muncy was afterward erected and became a rallying point for the settlers. Their home became a haven of rest for weary travelers . . . They dispensed a liberal and elegant hospitality for the rude times in which they lived."The solid, fine homestead played a key role in an episode known as "The Great Runaway."According to historian Paul A. Wallace in "Indians of Pennsylvania," that event in the summer of 1778 followed a "series of heavy Indian raids directed at the Susquehanna Valley above Shamokin."A captured American Indian prisoner reported that it was the intention of the Indian war parties to murder all white inhabitants on both branches of the Susquehanna River. That revelation produced a great panic among the white settlers of the area, and they fled to various places that were perceived to be strong points. People living above Lycoming Creek fled to Antes Fort. Those at the mouth of Bald Eagle Creek went to a place known as Harris Fort.A Formidable HomesteadPeople at Muncy were sheltered at Capt. John Brady's and those settlers located from above Muncy to Lycoming Creek sought refuge at Wallis'.Wallis' formidable homestead was one of the few structures in the Susquehanna Valley spared the Indians' torch. Meginness wrote that it was spared because its sturdy stone construction rendered it immune to the ravages of fire.Some historians have speculated that there may have been other deeper and darker reasons for it escaping destruction.The Indian war parties were whipped up, in part, by British officials as a way of opening a second front in their fight to put down the American War of Independence. According to historian Carl Van Doren's book, "The Secret History of the American Revolution," published in 1941, Wallis may have been in league with the British.Van Doren claims Wallis acted as an intermediary in transferring money between British Gen. Sir Henry Clinton and Benedict Arnold in Arnold's treasonous plot to turn over the fort at West Point, N.Y., to the British."There can be no doubt that Wallis was Arnold's agent an... read more

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