Between the Covers

Vellum manuscript deed. Made between William Cooper of Philadelphia and his son-in-law William Fisher on May 21, 1766, and witnessed by His Majesty’s Justice of the Peace for the County of Philadelphia, Samuel Shoemaker. One vellum sheet measuring approximately 10.5" x 18.5". Near fine. The deed is signed and sealed by Cooper and Shoemaker (each signature with their respective red wax seal), and two other witnesses: Cooper's daughter Abigail Fisher and Richard Matlack, another close relation of the Cooper family from a prominent Quaker family in Burlington, New Jersey.

William Cooper, a lineal descendant of the first settler of Camden, New Jersey, owned considerable real estate in Philadelphia along the Delaware River. The Deed is an early example of an American peppercorn lease: it sets forth the terms whereby Cooper "hath granted bargained and sold and by these presents doth grant bargain and sell unto the said William Fisher, a certain Message, Tenement and Lot or Piece of Land situate on the north side of Mulberry Street ... yielding and paying therefore the rent of one pepper corn only ... if demanded." In other words, Cooper transfered the entire lot to Fisher and his heirs.

Philadelphia Quaker Samuel Shoemaker, a successful merchant, co-founder of the Pennsylvania Hospital, and intimate friend of Benjamin West, had established close ties to Cooper when he was attorney for the Pennsylvania Land Company in London (aka, "the London Company"). He served as Justice and Mayor of Philadelphia, and was a member of the Provincial Assembly in 1771-1772. A Loyalist during the revolution, he went to New York and then to England, and returned to America in 1786, living for some time in Burlington, New Jersey, and afterwards in Philadelphia. A remarkably well-preserved Colonial Era document that reveals the close association between the Shoemaker, Cooper, and Matlack families of Philadelphia and New Jersey.

Item #385758