Beschreibung:

Partly-printed loan certificate, accomplished in manuscript, binding Weckhard Livering of Germantown to Thomas Hill for £20.
Philadelphia: William Bradford c.1686-1690]. 1 p., small folio (295 x 185 mm). Signed by Livering with his mark, signed by three witnesses Arnoh Cassell, John Griffith and Thomas Herris. Docketing on verso. On watermarked laid paper. Condition : staining, separations at folds, tears with minor losses. among the earliest examples of printing in the middle colonies. “Born in the parish of Barwell, Leicestershire, on May 20, 1663, of humble folk of the Established Church, [William Bradford] first came into notice as the apprentice of Andrew Sowle, the principal London Quaker publisher of his day, and a proselyte to his master’s religion” (Hildeburn, Sketches of Printers and Printing). He made his first visit to America in company with William Penn in the fall of 1682. He returned to England, and in 1685 came back to Pennsylvania with a printing press and a recommendation from George Fox to the Quakers of Philadelphia. He set up the first press in the Middle Colonies in 1685, and remained active in Philadelphia until, by siding with George Keith in a controversy with the Friends’ Meeting, he jeopardized his printing privileges and moved to New York in the spring of 1693. The “first fruit” from Bradford’s Philadelphia press was an almanac for the year 1686 titled Kalendarium Pennsilvaniense published in December 1685. That work included a notice “to the Readers” by Bradford concerning the establishment of his press and apologizing for typographical errors. Also included in that statement is the following annoucement concerning this partly-printed bond: “As for the ease of Clerks, Scriveners, &c. I propose to print blank Bills, Bonds, Letters of Attourney, Indentures, Warrants, &c. and what else presents itself, wherein I shall be ready to serve you.” Thus, this form was likely printed by Bradford between 1686 and 1691. Indeed, it could be argued that the printing of this form precedes 1690, as if it was at that date or after, Bradford would have inserted a “9” in the date, as opposed to leaving blanks following “16” (it being the final decade of the century). The printed text of the form begins: “Know all Men, by these Presents, That I [blank] do Owe, stand justly Indebted and firmly Bound unto [blank] in the Paenal Sum of [blank] currant lawful Money of Pennsilvania, to be paid to the said [blank] or his certain Attorney, their Heirs, Executors, Administrators or Assigns.” Of the parties involved in this loan, Weckhard Livering (alt. sp. Wigard Levering) emigrated as part of the Frankfort Company led by Francis Daniel Pastorius. Initially settling in Germantown, in 1691 he purchased from Thomas Hill a 200-acre tract along the Schuylkill in Roxborough. This loan certificate is related to that land purchase. See Jones, The Levering Family, Or, A Genealogical Account of Wigard Levering and Gerhard Levering (Philadelphia: 1858). Hill is identified on the form as a “Philadelphia Merchant.” Not in Hildeburn.