Description:

Morris Robert

London-Based Firm Invests in American Frontier Lands

 

[NORTH AMERICAN LAND COMPANY]. Robert Morris, Partially Printed Document Signed, Certificate for two shares, March 16, 1795. 1 p., 9" x 12".  Irregularly cut edges that split “NORTH AMERICAN LAND COMPANY” printed up the left side.

 

President Robert Morris of the North American Land Company, signer of the Declaration of Independence, signs a certificate for two shares of stock for a London-based firm one month after he formed the Company with John Nicholson and James Greenleaf.

 

Complete Transcript

                                                                                                No 466 representing 2 shares

                                                                                                from 11543 to 11544


            This is to Certify, that Bird, Savage and Bird of London are entitled to two Shares in the entire Property of the NORTH AMERICAN LAND COMPANY; the Dividend whereof shall not be less than Six Dollars, on each Share Annually, conformably to Articles of Agreement Duly Executed: dated at PHILADELPHIA the twentieth day of February 1795 Transferable only at the Company’s Office in that CITY, by the Owner in Person, or by his Executor, Administrator, Attorney, or Legal Representative, Signed in the presence, and by Order of the Board of Managers, at Philadelphia, this sixteenth day of March. One thousand seven hundred and ninety five.

James Marshall Secretary                              Robt Morris, President.

 

Historical Background

One month before purchasing this stock, Bird, Savage, and Bird sent to Alexander Hamilton, who had resigned as Secretary of the Treasury on January 31, their agreement with “the applause that the wisdom of your financial measures has procur’d from all persons in this Country where the subject is so well known, & understood.”

 

The North American Land Company was organized by Robert Morris, John Nicholson, and James Greenleaf on February 20, 1795, to speculate in land. The company speculated in 6,000,000 acres of frontier land in many areas, including Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.

 

Robert Morris (1734-1806), signer of the Declaration of Independence, merchant and land speculator, is best known for his role as financier for the Continental Congress. With the national government virtually bankrupt, Morris risked his own personal fortune by purchasing supplies for the army, pressuring the states for cash contributions and securing a major French loan to finance the Bank of North America. He spent his remaining years in various public positions, including senator of Pennsylvania. Morris speculated extensively in western land after the war, forming the North American Land Company with James Greenleaf and John Nicholson. Soon after, however, the land market collapsed and Morris was ruined. The final blow came in 1798, when a minor creditor’s claim sent him to the Philadelphia debtor’s prison. Former President George Washington visited Morris in prison, where Morris remained for three years until his wife was able to bail him out.

 

Bird, Savage and Bird was a South Carolina firm of merchants and bankers formed in 1782 and operating in London. The partners were brothers Robert Bird (b. 1760) and Henry Merttins (Martins) Bird (1755-1818) and Benjamin Savage (b. 1750). Savage was the son of John Savage, a South Carolina loyalist who fled to London in 1776. Bird, Savage, and Bird of London did considerable business with South Carolina merchants and New York shippers and also marketed U.S. government debt in London. Bird, Savage & Bird became the main London house dealing in American securities, placing in Britain several million dollars of the domestic debt of the United States in 1791, but failed in its bid to become paying agent for the Bank of the United States in 1793. American minister to Britain Thomas Pinckney recommended the firm as general agent for the federal government in London in 1795. In 1799 the partners established the house of Robert Bird and Company in New York to avoid European hostilities and take advantage of American shipping to the Far East. In March 1802 the London firm began to encounter difficulties and failed in February 1803. Henry Merttins Bird and Benjamin Savage were declared bankrupt in June; Robert Bird and Company also failed. In the final balance, Bird, Savage, and Bird showed liabilities of £280,000 and capital of £69,000, with the U.S. as a substantial creditor.

 

 

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