Description:

Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA, May 31, 1730
Notorious Philadelphia Quaker Embezzler Gives 1730 Account with Estate
ADS

[PENNSYLVANIA.] William Fishbourn, Autograph Document Signed, May 31, 1730, [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]. 1 p., 13" x 8.25". Separations on folds repaired with tape on verso; small holes at intersections of folds; general toning.

Prominent Philadelphia Quaker merchant William Fishbourn wrote out this account of debits and credits of the estate of his father-in-law, Samuel Carpenter, which belonged to the heirs of John Carpenter, with Fishbourn as the assignee of William Sallaway's heirs. After detailing rents on both sides dating back to 1718, Fishbourn asserted that he was due a balance of £20..17..6. In a supplemental statement that updated the rents to early 1730, he claimed a balance due to him of £27..10.

Quaker Merchant Samuel Carpenter (1649-1714) had served as the Deputy Governor of colonial Pennsylvania (1694-1698) and the first Treasurer of Pennsylvania (1704-1713). His son John Carpenter (1690-1724) served on the Philadelphia Common Council from 1718 until he died in 1724. Quaker William Sallaway / Salway (d. 1695) had migrated from Somerset, England, to Philadelphia in 1683. In 1688, he married Sarah Pennock in Philadelphia. He became a justice of the peace in 1693.

In January 1731, the Pennsylvania General Assembly impeached William Fishbourn, the person responsible for managing the province's paper currency, for misappropriating "diverse great sums of the public money bills of credit to his own use" and for staging a burglary to cover up the embezzlement. After an investigation and a lengthy debate, the House found Fishbourn guilty of "knowingly and fraudulently concealing and applying to his own Use, considerable Sums of the Publick Money." He was not jailed or sued for the bond he posted for holding his office, but he was prohibited from holding any office of public trust or profit for five years, dependent on his repaying the £1,780 he owed the province plus 5 percent interest. He spent the final decade of his life trying to repay the money he owed.

William Fishbourn (1677-1742) was born in Maryland into a Quaker family and was apprenticed to Samuel Carpenter, a friend of William Penn and a prosperous trader. In 1702, Fishbourn married his master's daughter, Hannah Carpenter (1686-1728), with whom he had six children. He was sometimes accused of inappropriate behavior: in 1717, he pursued a lawsuit without first seeking arbitration as his fellow Quakers expected. In 1724, he was censured and excluded from the local meeting for "very scandalous practices" toward an unnamed woman. Despite these demerits, he served as a Philadelphia common councilman (1713-1718), then alderman (1718-1719), and then mayor for three terms (1719-1722). He also served in the General Assembly (1716-1720), the provincial council (1723-1731), and as a justice of the peace (1718-1731). He was appointed a trustee of the General Loan Office in 1723. In 1729, he submitted a paper of self-condemnation and gained readmission to the local Quaker meeting, which allowed him to marry Jane Roberts (1704-ca. 1748), with whom he had two children. After the General Assembly convicted him of embezzlement in 1731 and prohibited him from holding any public office, the local Quaker meeting found the General Assembly's evidence circumstantial but again disowned Fishbourn for "continued unchaste Practices" towards women and "other unrighteous proceedings." In August 1739, he sent a paper to the local Quaker meeting condemning his "Scandalous practices" and was again readmitted.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 13" x 8.25"
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