Manuscript Group 52
JOHN FRANKLIN PAPERS
1754-1828
.5 cu. ft.
Papers of John Franklin (b. 1749, d. 1831), leader of the Connecticut settlement
in Pennsylvania beginning in 1774 and a member of the Pennsylvania legislature,
1796, 1799-1803, 1805. These papers relate mainly to the long-standing controversy
over land titles in northeastern Pennsylvania between settlers from Connecticut
encouraged by Susquehannah Company and settlers who held land under Pennsylvania
titles.
Correspondence includes:
transcripts of letters between Governor James Hamilton of Pennsylvania
and Governor Roger Wolcott of Connecticut, and between Hamilton and Deputy
Governor Thomas Finch of Connecticut, 1754
transcript of a letter from Governor Robert Morris of Pennsylvania
to Fitch, September 20, 1754
letters from individuals in Connecticut to Colonel John H. Lydius of
Albany, 1754-1755, 1764
letters from Thomas Life in London to Jonathan Trumbull, April 7 and
May 5, 1773
letter from Joseph Reed, president of the Supreme Executive Council,
Philadelphia, to Colonel Zebulon Butler, April 2, 1779
correspondence of the Wyoming Committee (" committee representing
the settlers from Connecticut at Wyoming") regarding efforts to settle
its dispute with the committee representing the landholders under Pennsylvania,
1783
transcript of letter from Alexander Patterson to John Dickinson, president
of the Supreme Executive Council, Philadelphia, October 20, 1783
correspondence between John Franklin and Roger Sherman of New Haven,
1784
letters from Franklin to the governor of Connecticut, May 10, 1784,
and to William Samuel Johnson, member of congress, 1784-85
letter by Colonel John Armstrong, Jr., September 3, 1784
letters from Franklin describing the operations at Wyoming of Colonel
John Armstrong, Jr., and his men, October 20, 1784, and February 6, 1814
requests addressed by John Franklin and others to Benjamin Franklin,
president of the Supreme Executive Council, 1786
letter to John Franklin from his son Billa regarding death of the son's
wife, April 14, 1824
comments in favor of John Q. Adams, 1827
letter from Franklin to Constant Matthewson, representative in the
General Assembly, commenting on the possible division of Bradford County
and other matters, January 14, 1828
Among the other papers are:
a copy of Governor Roger Wolcott's opinion on settlement of the Susquehanna
area, January 7, 1754
a list of members of the Susquehannah Company who took land in 1762-1763
depositions and other papers relating to Indian deeds, 1761 and undated
copies of several resolutions and other actions of the Connecticut
General Assembly, 1773-1784
abstract from the journals of the treaty made at Albany with the Six
Nations, 1775
extract from the proceedings of the Court of Commissioners held at
Trenton, New Jersey, to settle the controversy between Connecticut and
Pennsylvania settlers, November 12, 1782
petitions of Wyoming settlers to the Pennsylvania General Assembly,
1783
committee reports to the Pennsylvania General Assembly and excerpts
from the printed proceedings of the Assembly regarding the Wyoming settlement,
1783-1785
records of the proceedings at Hartford of a Court of Commissioners
appointed by the proprietors of the Susquehanna purchase, 1786-1787
commission issued to John Franklin as an agent of the Susquehannah
Company, signed at Hartford by Joel Barlow and others, May 17, 1787
printed copies of acts of the Pennsylvania General Assembly concerning
settlement and land titles in northeastern Pennsylvania, 1797, 1803
and a Pennsylvania House of Representatives report on the possible
removal of Judge Hugh Henry Brackenridge, accompanied by a copy of a letter
from the judge, 1804. There is also a paperbound index listing names under
the heading " proprietors taken in by committee" for six years
between 1768 and 1785
Index includes a list of land titles, indicating original proprietor, to
whom conveyed, and when conveyed and recorded. In many of the margins are
scribbled notes, apparently by John Franklin, some of them relating to early
nineteenth-century matters.
Correspondence and General Files, 1754-1828. (4 folders) {#52m.1}
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