Description:

Beautifully printed Colonial Insurance Document assuring protection against "Seas, Men of War, Fires, Enemies, Pirates, Rovers, Theives, Jettisons...and all other Perils, Losses and Misfortunes...." for a ship captained by William Wyer, later a prisoner in the notorious British prison ship "Old Jersey"

Partly Printed Document Signed, Thos & Isaac Whartonone page, 13" x 16.5", Philadelphia, April 26, 1775. Completed in manuscript. Professionally strengthened on the verso at folds. Small loss at fold intersections, else near fine condition with bold, dark writing.

In part, "Whereas We Reynell & Coates as well in Our Name, as for and in the Name and Names of all and every other Person or Persons, to whom the same doth, may or shall appertain, in Part or in all doth make Assurance and causeth Ourselves and them and every of them to be Insured, lost or not lost, at and from the port of Philadelphia To Newbury Port in New England upon all Kinds of lawful Goods and Merchandizes, loaden or to be loaden aboard the good Schooner called the Polly whereof is Master for this present voyage William Wyer...Touching the Adventures and Perils, which we the Assurers are contented to bear, and to take upon us in the Voyage, they are, of the Seas, Men of War, Fires, Enemies, Pirates, Rovers, Theives, Jettisons...and all other Perils, Losses and Misfortunes...." Thomas and Isaac Wharton were Philadelphia merchants and cousins to Thomas Wharton Jr., Governor of Pennsylvania (1776-1778). Docketed on verso: "Regd in Book H fol. 221 pr Thos & Isaac Wharton."

In 1770, the firm of Thomas & Isaac Wharton was formed in Philadelphia. In addition to being merchants exporting local agricultural and finished products, importing manufactured goods, and selling retail and wholesale, they acted as a broker for marine insurance.

William Wyer was a sea captain and trader. He was listed as having been one of about 8,000 captured by the British in the Revolutionary War and held prisoner on board the prison ship "Old Jersey" in Wallabout Bay, later the site of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In "American Prisoners of the Revolution," published in 1910, author Danske Dandridge writes, "Of all the ships that were ever launched, the 'Old Jersey' was the most notorious. Never before or since, in the dark annals of human sufferings, has so small a space enclosed such a heavy weight of misery. No other prison has destroyed so many human beings in so short a space of time."

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