Petition of William Johnson and Others, 24 July 1803
Petition of William Johnson and Others
District of North Carolina
Sneydesborough 24th July 1803—
To the President of the
United States
The Petition of the subscribers Humbly Sheweth that on or about the 16th June last a commission of Bankrutpcy was obtaind from his Honour Judge Potter of this district on the application of Farquhard Campbell against John & Farquhard Campbell late Merchts. of Tindalsville in this district. which was directed to the commissioners of Bankruptcy. who have been duly notified of the same but from the distance (being 170 miles.) and indisposition have declind the Excution of the commission We the Subscribers Creditors of the said John & Farquarhard Campbell there fore pray your Excellency to appoint other commissioners to execute the said commission and your Petitioners will ever pray &.c.
Wm Johnson for
Johnson Lawrence & Co.
Hurbert Pearson
Isaac Lanier
Lanier & Dickson
Rbt W Harris
RC (DNA: RG 59, LAR, 12:0632); in Johnson’s hand and signed by him and Pearson, Lanier, and Harris.
Virginia-born William Johnson (1761-1840), a Revolutionary war veteran who moved to North Carolina in 1781, was one of the founders of Sneedsborough (Sneydesborough), chartered in 1795, in Anson County near the South Carolina border. He was a prominent landowner in the town and proprietor of the large gin and mill patronized by grain farmers from a fifty-mile radius. For several years he represented Anson County in the North Carolina House of Commons. Johnson, Hurbert Pearson, and Isaac Lanier served as trustees of the Sneedsborough Academy when it was chartered in 1800. Robert W. Harris was the town’s postmaster in 1803 (Virgil D. White, Genealogical Abstracts of Revolutionary War Pension Files, 4 vols. [Waynesboro, Tenn., 1990-92], 2:1860; Mary L. Medley, History of Anson County North Carolina, 1750-1976 [Wadesboro, N.C., 1976], 72-6, 81, 184; Jedidiah Morse, The American Gazetteer, 2d ed. [Charlestown, Mass., 1804]; , 202; Journal of the House of Commons of the State of North-Carolina [Raleigh, 1807; , No. 13257], 10; same, [Raleigh, 1808; , No. 15778], 1; same, [Raleigh, 1810; , No. 20927], 1).
It is not clear when or through whom TJ received this letter. It may have been among the papers regarding the John and farquhard campbell bankruptcy case, which North Carolina congressman Samuel D. Purviance brought to Washington and sent to TJ on 24 Oct. (; Samuel D. Purviance to TJ, 24 Oct.; Nathaniel Macon to TJ, 17 Nov. 1803). On 14 and 18 Nov., TJ appointed additional bankruptcy commissioners for North Carolinan (list of commissions in Lb in DNA: RG 59, MPTPC; Vol. 37:710-11).