MSS 0098. Delaware Miscellaneous Historical Manuscripts

One land indenture between Joseph and Sarah Snow and Silas Snow for property located in Duck Creek Hundred, Kent County, Delaware, dated June 18, 1822.

A first-day issue of the 1976 US 9-cent postal card honoring Caesar Rodney, Continental Congressman and signer of the Declaration of Independence.

The correspondence contained in this collection is addressed to William Young in regards to his papermaking business in Delaware. Notable letters are from the Treasury Department Revenue Office with orders for stationery. The shipping receipts give a good sense of the quantities of materials that William Young shipped during the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century.

Holograph receipt signed by Delegate to Continental Congress and signer of the Declaration of Independence Thomas McKean related to money received from Rev. John Ewing concerning land purchased for the Academy of Newark.

One photocopy of Minerva Spencer Handy's biographical book, "Through the years with aunt Clara," based on correspondence and conversations between Clarissa Gordon Dilworth and the author from 1928 to 1938.

One census and tax assessment book for Christiana Hundred, Delaware, for 1841, certified by Clerk of the Peace Charles H. Black, accompanied by an undated newspaper article, written by W. Emerson Wilson, describing Delaware's early attempts to establish the practice of registering and taxing dogs as personal property.

One document for a tract of land called "Denbe" on St. Jones Creek for Daniel Jones, signed by the first Governor of colonial Pennsylvania William Markham and Deputy Governor John Goodson in 1689.

One patent for a tract of land in Kent County, Delaware, for William and Elizabeth Annand signed by Colonial Secretary James Logan and politicians Isaac Norris and Richard Hill on June 6, 1716.

One autograph document by Lieutenant Governor of Colonial Pennsylvania, John Penn, certifying Caesar Rodney's role as a Colonial Supreme Court Justice in the counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex in Delaware. The lower portion of the document is missing.

Document issued by the Seary Company, acting as General Agents for the Delaware State Lotteries, soliciting the purchase of a package of lottery tickets.

Letter from John Dickinson and Thomas McKean, delegates to the Continental Congress, to Caesar Rodney, then President of Delaware. Writing at the direction of Congress, Dickinson and McKean request Rodney appoint a sufficient guard to take custody of sixty-four prisoners captured aboard the British sloop-of-war Harlem.

Diplomat, cabinet member, and Delaware politician, Louis McLane, sent this one-page signed and handwritten letter to his landlord, Pere Biddle, concerning improvements to his rental property, on December 4, 1824.

Provincial Secretary of Pennsylvania, Richard Peters, wrote this one-page handwritten and signed letter to Dover surveyor, George Stevenson, requesting a survey of land in St. Georges Hundred, New Castle County, Delaware, for Leonard Humphrys, on May 16, 1747. Includes watermark.

First pastor of Old Swedes' Church, Rev. Ericus Björk, handwrote this one-page letter indicating receipt of several hundred books from King Charles XII of Sweden. He also acknowledged setbacks faced by the Swedes as they fought Russia in the Great Northern War, in this letter dated May 3, 1711.

One photocopy typescript of an address at the Founders' Day Exercises, Academy of Newark, University of Delaware, delivered on November 21, 1982, by Delaware lawyer, Edward W. Cooch, Jr., entitled, "Francis Alison, His Life and Influence on His Times." Includes pages 1-7, 9-14.

Missionary contributions report prepared by Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church treasurer, George C. Thomas, accounting for the receipts from each parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Delaware for September 1, 1906, to May 1, 1907. Additional handwritten notes on verso.

Four autograph menus for meals at the Wilmington, Delaware, restaurant, Cobwebbs, dated February 3-8, 1932. Also included are two pieces of stationery, one containing notes.

Autograph letter from John Dickinson, Founding Father of the United States and politician, to Tench Coxe, American political economist and Pennsylvania Delegate to the Congress of Confederation, thanking him for his reply. The letter is accompanied by an etched profile portrait of Dickinson.

Letter from Thomas McKean, as President of the Continental Congress, to Governor of New York, George Clinton, as cover for two acts of Congress, dated August 31, 1781, and September 14, 1781, concerning Consular and Vice-Consular powers. The acts referred to in the letter are not present.

Autograph letter produced by George Read, lawyer, signer of the Declaration of Independence and U. S. Senator from Delaware to William and Samuel McAntier concerning litigation triggered by a will that disrupted the McAntier family. The letter refers exclusively to Read's actions as lawyer for the McAntier family.

Autograph letter from Caesar Rodney to his brother Thomas Rodney. Caesar wrote to his brother from New York, where he was attending the Stamp Act Congress as a member of the Delaware delegation, that he expected he would not be home before the Delaware Assembly, which he was also a member of, ended its session in New Castle because the Congress would "not end in less than eight or ten days."

One handwritten letter by Frances E. Coleman, on behalf of Right Reverend Leighton Coleman, Bishop of the Delaware Diocese, concerning Leighton's illness and the denial of a request by a Mr. Betts to use one of the diocese's churches.

Colonel in the Revolutionary War and American lawyer and politician from Delaware, Thomas Rodney, wrote to his daughter, Lavinia, in Dover, Delaware, concerning his health and a plague affecting Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 15, 1793.

Handwritten letter of recommendation by Cornelius P. Comegys, Governor of the state of Delaware from 1837-1841, for Theodore F. Crawford, concerning Crawford's potential abilities in the legal profession.

Land survey of Delegate for Connecticut to the Continental Congress William Williams's land, created by George Dakeyne, New Castle County, Delaware, surveyor, detailing the limitations of the property upon the branches of the Apoquinimink River in 1703.