Receipt to Abel James, 26 July 1783
Receipt to Abel James1
Philadelphia, July 26, 1783. Receipt for papers relating to lands in the Otsego Patent which had formerly belonged to George Croghan2 and which were mortgaged to William Franklin.3
ADS, anonymous donor.
1. James was a Philadelphia merchant and land speculator.
This document concerns a complicated and protracted dispute over several large tracts of land located in the vicinity of Lake Otsego and Cherry Valley, New York.
For the text of this document and an explanation of its contents, see the discussion of the Otsego Patent of George Croghan in
, forthcoming volumes.2. Croghan, who had died on August 31, 1782, had been a land speculator and an Indian agent and trader. For information on Croghan’s landholdings, see Richard Peters to H, February 18, 1795 ( , XVIII, 277).
3. Franklin, the son of Benjamin Franklin, was the last royal governor of New Jersey. During the American Revolution he was imprisoned as a Loyalist in Connecticut. In 1778 he was exchanged and went first to New York City and then to England.