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

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.

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.

Volume of extracts from provincial records compiled by Thomas Sargeant, and printed in part in Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania 4 (1829), 205 through vol. 6 (1830), 369.

This is a volume of extracts from provincial records copied by Thomas Sargeant when Secretary of the Commonwealth. Includes material on Indian affairs and French and Indian wars in Pennsylvania and the New England colonies.

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.

Copied by Mrs. Deborah Norris Logan from original letters and papers in her family, with additions by J. Francis Fisher and Redmond Conyngham. Includes Logan's correspondence with William Penn, Hannah Callowhill Penn, Isaac Norris, Governor George Clarke of New York, Governor William Gooch of Virginia, and Governor George Thomas of Pennsylvania. Contains materials regarding early Philadelphia and Indian and colonial affairs.

This volume describes the boundary dispute between William Penn and Baron Cecil Calvert Baltimore over land in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the counties of Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex.

This volume contains approximately 175 letters written by Thomas Penn and Richard Penn on public business. A few are copies of letters by James Hamilton, a member of the Provincial Council and lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, and by or to Abraham Taylor.

George Weedon (1734-1793) was Captain in the French and Indian War and a General in the American Revolutionary War. Between the two conflicts he was a prominent citizen of Fredericksburg, Virginia, operating a tavern in that city which served as a meeting place for George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, John Marshall and others to discuss politics and the future course of the American colonies.

From the Sugar Act of 1764 through the Tea Act of 1773, the British Parliament imposed a variety of taxes upon their American colonies in an effort to raise revenue to offset the enormous debts incurred during the Seven Years' (French and Indian) War. Far more efficiently than raising revenue, these duties raised the indignation of the colonits, contributing more than their share to the alienation that fueled the independence movement The two volumes that comprise the Pennsylvania Stamp Act and Non-Importation Resolutions Collection contain 34 manuscript and printed items relating to the political crisis over taxation on goods imported into the American colonies between 1765 and 1773, with a focus on Philadelphia. The first volume is concerned exclusively with agitation over the Stamp Act of 1765 and its repeal, while the second volume relates more specifically to the Non-Importation agreements of the 1760s, the Townshend Duties, and the Tea Act of 1773. Among these are letters of Governor John Penn, correspondence between the Sons of Liberty at Philadelphia and those of New York, 1766, an address of the committee of Boston merchants to a committee of Philadelphia merchants, 11 August 1768. Among the more dramatic letters are those from John Hughes, the would-be Stamp Officer for Pennsylvania who resigned bis commission in the face of public protest, and a seies of threatening letters addressed to James and Drinker, consignees for the sale of tea in Pennsylvania in 1773.

An early settler and prominent citizen in the Moravian heartland near Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Timothy Horsfield was named justice of the peace when Northampton County was formed out of Bucks in 1752, and was one of those given responsibility for the defence of the local white and Christian Indian populations during the French and Indian War. The Horsfield Papers offer a window onto the tumultuous history of northeastern Pennsylvania during the 1750s and 1760s. Comprised largely of correspondence and related documents between Horsfield, William Parsons, and provincial and military authorities, the collection includes important information on the Native tribes' actions (previously described as "Indian assaults") in the region in 1756 and 1757 and the military and diplomatic response of settlers.

The only son of Benjamin Franklin, William Franklin served as Royal Governor of New Jersey during the critical years between 1762 and 1776. An ardent Loyalist, William split with his father over their political differences in the early days of the Revolution, and after enduring two years of imprisonment, became a leader in the Loyalist cause. He settled in London in 1782, where he worked as an agent for Loyalist claims. The William Franklin Papers are a miscellaneous assemblage of letters and documents, dealing largely with Franklin's years as Royal Governor of New Jersey. The majority of the letters are perfunctory, however they provide some information on Franklin's land holdings in New Jersey and the Ohio country. The collection includes two letters relating to Franklin's imprisonment in Connecticut during the Revolution, two affectionate letters to his sister Sarah, and one to his son William Temple Franklin.

These letters relate principally to provincial business and comment on the Indians of Pennsylvania, the French and Indian War, a survey of the Maryland-Pennsylvania boundary, and the Stamp Act. Correspondents include James Burd, Jeremiah Dixon, Joseph Galloway, Humphry Marshall, Charles Mason, Edward Shippen of Lancaster, and Edward Shippen, Jr.

Three volumes contain letters, laws, charters, reports, proclamations, petitions, and other official and semi-official documents relating principally to early Pennsylvania and New Jersey, signed by or addressed to William Penn, among others. A fourth volume is Penn's cash book, 1699-1703, which records expeditures, payments of quit rents, etc. Tipped in is "Catalogue of Goods left at Pensbury," and of goods left at Philadelphia, 1701.

The Welsh non-conformist minister Richard Price (1723-1791) was a moral philosopher and political and economic theorist whose ideas leant support to the American cause during the Revolution. Of broad and liberal mind, he was an integral member of the intellectual coterie surrounding William Petty, the Earl of Shelburne, and was a founding member of the Unitarian Church. Befitting a latitudinarian thinker, the range of Richard Price's correspondence is extremely broad, touching upon his rationalistic philosophy and dissenting theology, his political views on British politics, America and the American Revolution, the Constitutional settlement, the future of the United States, social reform, demography, prisons, and slavery. The ninety letters in the collection are arranged chronologically, with correspondents including Charles Chauncy (8 letters, 1772-1779), Benjamin Franklin (7 letters, 1775-1789), John Howard (11 letters and a biographical manuscript, 1770-1789), Thomas Jefferson (3 letters, 1785-1789), Benjamin Rush (8 letters, 1786-1790), and Edward Wigglesworth (3 letters, 1775-1786), as well as lesser known figures such as the reformer John Howard.

James Burd (1726-1793) was well-known in colonial Pennsylvania through his role in the French and Indian War, as well as his connections to many of the colony's leading families (most notably the Shippen family). Initially starting out as a merchant in Philadelphia, Burd became increasingly involved with colonial affairs after moving to Lancaster County with his family in 1752. It would be on the frontier where Burd would make his mark first as a soldier, and later as a magistrate. The Burd-Shippen Papers consist mainly of letters and business documents sent to James Burd, with the bulk of the collection relating to the French and Indian War, 1754-1763, in which Burd served as an officer commanding troops at Fort Augusta and elsewhere. The collection reflects all aspects of Burd's life in Pennsylvania as a merchant, soldier, and magistrate; as well as his involvement with the Shippen family professionally and personally. Intermixed with items sent to Burd are receipts to his wife Sarah Shippen Burd, and correspondence between Edward Shippen and James Hamilton regarding land matters and Indian affairs in Lancaster.

These letters and papers include ten small volumes of letterbooks (1752-1781), and ca. 100 pieces of correspondence with Joseph Shippen (1750-1778). Topics discussed are business in Philadelphia and Lancaster, provincial politics, army supply in the French and Indian War, land purchases and speculation, housebuilding, and family affairs.

In addition to family and business correspondence, the Charles Nicoll Bancker Family Papers contains various documents, such as a furniture inventory volume (30pp.); a Daybook, 1795-1800 (120pp.); and a very interesting journal (unidentified, but by one of the Banckers, and filed under "Description of a trip..."), from New York to Albany and back, between July 20-Aug. 15, 1793 (1 vol., 31 pp.). It contains detailed observations of the Hudson River and the towns along the way. Bancker was involved in business and trade prior to 1826, and in insurance after that date, so there is material relating to those topics in this collection. He owned a substantial library of the period, which was used by Charles Wilkes's Expedition after 1837 (see Reynell Coates to Bancker). This library, along with Bancker's notable scientific instrument collection, was sold after his death and there are published auction catalogues in the collection. There is much family correspondence from: Anne E. Bancker, Charles Gerard Bancker, Evert Bancker, Sarah U. Bancker, Violetta Bancker Talbot, Elizabeth Bancker Teackle, and John Teackle.