In the hand of Benjamin Franklin, "from the manuscript. Translated from the High Dutch."

In the hand of Franklin, "from a manuscript not yet printed."

Essay by British politician and capitalist. Complete title is "Free Parliaments, or, A vindication of the fundamental right of the Commons of England...to be sole judges of all those privileges of the electors and of the elected, which are absolutely necessary to preserve free parliaments and a free people..."

Copied from a pamphlet in duodecimo printed at Philadelphia and sold by Andrew Bradford, 1725.

Acts for issuing bills of credit (1727), for victualling the forces on an expedition to Canada (1746), and for further victualling forces lately raised in New Jersey on an expedition to Canada (1747).

The Great Law, or, The Body of laws of ye province of Pennsilvania territorys thereunto belonging past at an assembly at Chester als Upland the seaventh day of ye 10th month.

This manuscript is Sir William Keith's copy of the royal charter issued by George I.

Circa 160 transcripts prepared for publication in Alan Armstrong, ed. Selected correspondence.

These are miscellaneous documents relating to appointments, money acts, defense, etc., mostly addressed to Charles Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, Secretary of State for the Southern Department. Contain signatures of important Englishmen, among whom are: Wm.Blathwayt, Jas. Craggs. Mitford Crow, Dartmouth, Herbert, Sir P.Meadows, Wm. Popple, Jr., Matthew Prior, John Smith, Stamford, Sunderland,etc.

Intelligence of Parliamentary affairs in the wake of the Stamp Act, tea taxation, etc.

Copies by Mrs. Deborah Norris Logan of letters from Logan, while president of the Council, to the Proprietors of Pennsylvania, the Duke of Newcastle, and Ferdinand John Paris, on province business. The letters relate to the choice of Logan's successor, his retirement, crown-proprietor relations, and the Pennsylvania-Maryland boundary.

These minutes record the business of, and actions taken by, the Provincial Council.

This copy of John Watson Sr.'s narrative of the 1737 Walking Purchase, written in 1815, was made by Watson's son in 1822. The elder Watson's narrative was printed with corrections and additions by the son in the Pennsylvania Correspondent, Doylestown. The volume includes the younger Watson's report of the recollections of Moses Bartram, his own commentary on the Walking Purchase, and a letter (1822) about this manuscript.

Catalogue and Tracts relating to Pennsylvania, 1681-1770, collected by Joshua Francis Fisher (presented to APS in 1839), contains: 1. "Catalogue of Printed Tracts relating to the Political History of . . . Pennsylvania, 1681-1770," with an introduction by Fisher (20 pp.); 2. (Sir William Keith), "The Life and character of a strange `He Monster' lately arrived in London from an English Colony in America, . . .," n.d. The "Monster" is identified as Andrew Hamilton by Walker Lewis, William and Mary Quarterly 38 (1981): 269-294; 3. A modest apology for the eight members. (3 pp.); 4. Petitions of merchants and others to the King for the safety of the Province and against the Quakers, n.d. (4 pp.).

Much of the material in both volumes is printed in Charter to William Penn, and Laws of the Province of Pennsylvania . . . (Harrisburg, 1879). The first volume, prepared possibly for James Logan, contains copies of Charles II's grant to William Penn of the Lower Counties, 1683, an act of the Privy Council, 1705, the charter of Pennsylvania of 1701, acts of the Assembly, 1682-1719.

A New Hampshireman and one of the most famous military figures in colonial America, Robert Rogers saw brief service in the militia during King George's War, but found fame as a commander of rangers during the Seven Years War. An efficient leader and crack woodsman, Rogers gained a hard driving reputation in leading his rangers against the Abnaki Indians at St. Francis Quebec, and for service at Quebec, Montreal, Fort Pitt, and Detroit. After voyaging to England in 1765 to advance his career, he was appointed to the command of Fort Michilimackinac at the tip of the southern peninsula of Michigan, but was recalled less than two years later for impropriety and suspected treason. He later offered his services to George Washington before serving in the Loyalist Queen's Rangers. As Commander of Fort Michilimackinac from 1766-1768, Rogers sat at the critical nexus of the British fur trade, the point connecting the vast interior of the western Great Lakes and northern plains to the trading centers at Montreal and elsewhere in the east. His "Estimate of the Fur and Peltry Trade in the District of Michilimackinac, according to the bounds and limits, assign'd to it by the French, when under their government: together with an account of the situation and names of the several out-posts" is, as the title suggests, an overview of this most important area of economic activity. Rogers gave this manuscript to Jonathan Carver (the man he has sent on an expedition to find the Northwest Passage), who relayed it to Thomas Barton of Lancaster, Pa., who, in turn, sent it to the American Philosophical Society. It was received at the APS and referred to the Committee on Trade and Commerce on December 20, 1768.

There are letters, petitions, and reports concerning the Loyalists and the losses they sustained in the Revolutionary War. Includes the Committee of American Merchants, Observations on trade (1783), Banished American merchants petition (1789), and Classes of American loyalists and their claims.