[Archive]: A Collection of Manuscript Estate Documents for Historic Properties in the City of Burlington, New Jersey, Signed by Notable Colonial and Post-Colonial Figures, Including Chief Justice James Kinsey, General Joseph Bloomfield, Philadelphia Lawyer Horace Binney, and Writer Mary Griffith (1794-1835)

(Burlington, New Jersey, 1935. Very Good. An archive of 23 documents consisting of a 1794 "Field Book" land survey (with several hand drawn maps), and 21 associated property deed indentures and agreements: most dating from 1796-1847, with a later three later from 1868, 1872, and 1935. The 1794 Field Survey has some partial splitting along the horizontal folds and fraying to the edges of three final fold-out leaves; two other documents (from 1809 and 1830) have some splitting along the folds; very good overall with scattered short tears at the edges. The collection documents the history of several adjoining properties located at the heart of Burlington's historic district extending from the Delaware River to St. Mary's Episcopal Church (built in 1703), and Wood Street westerly to Talbot Street. Also included is a rare engraved map (circa 1810), of 112,000 acres of wilderness lands in northwestern Pennsylvania owned by William Griffith, who was a New Jersey U.S. Circuit Judge appointed by John Adams, and the Mayor of Burlington.

Much of the original Burlington City property, owned by the brothers Richard and William Smith, appears to have been inherited by William and Rachel Coxe (Smith) in the mid-1790s. Portions of the property later came into the possession of Horace Binney and other notable figures from Philadelphia and Burlington, including: Thomas Isaac Wharton (a Captain in the War of 1812 and an important legal scholar); and the writer Mary Griffith (author of *Three Hundred Years Hence*, the first known utopian novel by an American woman).

The collection documents how significant portions of the property were owned or "conveyed" by women such as Rachel Coxe, (the only surviving child and heir of Richard Smith) Bloomfield's wife Mary McIlvaine, Mary Griffith, and Mary Destouet, who was compelled to sell her husband's house for one dollar to John Broomhead in 1868. The "highly respected" John Broomhead operated a tanning business on Wood Street.

In addition to principal signatories like Rachel and William Coxe, Binney and Wharton (and their wives); the collection includes documents signed by several historically important figures: James Kinsey (a member of the Continental Congress and Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court), Joseph Bloomfield (a Revolutionary War hero and fourth Governor of New Jersey), U.S. Supreme Court Justice Henry Baldwin, and two successive Chief Justices of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court: William Tilghman and John Gibson.

One document from 1796 is handwritten on parchment and the final document from 1935 is typed, else all of the other documents (other than the engraved map) are handwritten in ink on folio paper sheets. All but four (copied in 1832-33) are original documents signed by the principal parties and witnesses.

An important collection that contains a significant amount of primary historical and biographical information about several properties in Burlington's historic district, and of the eminent owners and tenants who lived there in the years following the Revolutionary War.

A detailed list of all 23 documents, together with biographical notes, is available upon request. (Inventory #: 456284)