Robert Morris Document Signed

Partly-printed DS, signed “Rob't Morris,” one page, 12.25 x 9.75, March 15, 1795. Stock certificate issued to Bird, Savage & Bird of London for five shares in the entire property of the North American Land Company. Signed boldly at the conclusion by Robert Morris as president, and countersigned by the company's secretary, James Marshall, the brother of Chief Justice and Secretary of State John Marshall. In fine condition. The office of the North American Land Company was located at 230 Market Street, Philadelphia. Morris was eventually bankrupted by land speculations and served a few years in the Prune Street prison until released by the passage of the national bankruptcy law in 1802.

Bird, Savage & Bird, was a firm of London merchants transacting business with North America from about 1782. Manufactured goods were exported to America in exchange for semi-tropical crops, grown in locations such as South Carolina. Later Bird, Savage & Bird became the banking agents in Britain for the U.S. Government.