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National Bankruptcy Archives early documents
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Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Biddle Law Library [Contact Us]3460 Chestnut Street, Biddle Law Library, Philadelphia, PA 19104-3406
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: Biddle Law Library. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
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Subject
- Publisher
- University of Pennsylvania: Biddle Law Library
- Finding Aid Author
- Jordon Steele
Collection Inventory
Metropolian Mercantile Agnecy, Geo W. Bristol, General Manager. Telegraph Print, Norwich, Connecticut. Undated, but internal date stamp of 1883.
Small flexible red silk moire gil-stamped binding stiched volume, 42 pages. Small institutional hand-stamp to title page.
This was a legal directory of attorneys across America, their addresses, county, and state who could collect outstanding deb.ts The Mercantile Agency also offered to provide credit reports and character statements of business owners and their dealings. Testimonials are also printed.
Autograph Letter Signed, A.Rabeau to Reverend Burgess Allison of the Academy of Bordenton, New Jersey in 1804. Rabeau describes his failed attempts to repay money and creditors; no opportunities to reunite with his family in Amerca. Letter signed, "Curton 15 miles from Bordeaux, October 15, 1804.
Quarto, 2pp. and integral address leaf, wax seal, transmitted by ship mail. The ALS is entirely written in English. Normal folds, one small split, clean and very good condition.
A. Rabeau, likely a former student, addresses Dr. Burgess Allison, founder of the exclusive classical boarding school for boys in Bordentown, new Jersey. Allison opened his school in 1788-1789: "Students from every colony and state, from Spain, France, West Indies, and South America flocked to his school. Young men preparing for the ministry and for professional life were drawn to Bordentown as a center of choice, culture, and advantage, crowding the halls of the large building he had erected ... His wide reputation and the eminence of his school gave him a commanding position in all educational circles." [Griffiths, "A History of Baptists in New Jersey" (1904) p.218.]
Rabeau lived in the Bordentown area, but returned alone to France. He took with him writing paper, as this letter is written in Bordeaux on paper watremarked by Amies S. & Co., a Pennsylvania papermaker. Rabeau writes with apprehension: Reverend Allison has not been repaid for money Rabeau borrowed. Rabeau is worried that Allison may believe that Rabeau has abandoned family in Ameica.
In part: "...but if God preserves my life I hope I shall go and give you proofs of my honesty, be assured, Sir, that I shall never forget you and your kindness. Rabeau wherever he went has always passed for an honest man. I hope you do me more justice than to suppose that I ever could leave my wife and children."
Rabeau explains that money he was to receive from his father selling land had not materialized, describing how he had hoped to: "...embark myself on board a vessel as interpreter of the English language. There are a great many young men who in their four months have earned 1000 dollars, but the French send no more vessedls out [perhaps due to the ongoing Napoleonic Wars] therefore I wait...[On his family:] I leave them in poverty, but is it not better for them to suffer a little longer than if I was to start without anything? I cannot help saying that here I have everything which nature wants, but it is not sufficient. They are alwayts present to my mind which brings with it very disagreeable thoughts..."
The 1787 bankruptcy of Matthias Slough. Four manuscript documents, (clerk's copies ca. 1796-1798), likely concerning lands once owned by Slough, still in dispute into the 1970s.
1] Commissioning of Pennsylvania Bankrupcty Special Commissioners in the matter of Matthias Slough issued 1787 and copied 179_, copy acknowledged by I. Hamilton and Thos. Duncan, attorneys.
2] Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Note on the issuing of a bond in the matter of Slough's bankruptcy copied 1976. Copy acknowledged by Hamilton and Duncan.
3] Indenture turning over Slough's property to the Commissioners copied 1796. Copy acknowledged by Hamilton and Duncan.
4] Indenture concerning Matthias Slough "A bankrupt" regarding various tracts of land and copied in 1798. Copy acknowledged by Hamilton and Duncan.
Matthias Slough (1733/1734 - 1812) was the largest enslaver in colonial Lancaster County. He was an innkeeper of the "White Swan" in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and a politcian. The "White Swan" was used for local political, social, and business activities. When the Continental Congress stayed in Lancaster, John Adams and others were hosted by Slough. Local lore claims that the country's founding documents, including the Declaration of Independence, were stored in a guarded wagon kept in Slough's courtyard.
In 1787, he became bankrupt. The bankruptcy commission declared him "a bankrupt" on June 15 of that year. See Sephen Austin, Jeremiah Wadsworth, and John Church vs. Matthias Slough, September 1795 term of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.