FRANKLIN, Benjamin (1706-1790). Document signed ("B. Franklin") as President of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 17 January 1788.

Two pages, 305 x 193mm (integral leaf trimmed away with docket portion affixed to a mat, remnants of wax seal on second page). Framed with a portrait.

Franklin approves a petition against a bankrupt Philadelphia merchant. The petition, by James Thompson, asks for the State of Pennsylvania to authorize "such and so many well disposed and discreet Persons … Authorizing them thereby not only concerning the said Bankrupt, his Body, Lands, Tenements, Freehold and customary Goods, debts and other things whatsoever, but also concerning all other Persons who my concealment claim or otherwise or shall offend touching the Premises or any part thereof…" In granting Thompson's petition, Franklin authorized Matthew Clarkson, George Hughes, peter Boynton Richard Bache and David Lenox as commissioners. Days later an advertisement appeared in the Independent Gazetteer ordering Ferguson to meet with the commissioner on several appointed days in February to settle his debts (Philadelphia, 19 Jan. 1788, p. 3). Although we have not uncovered how the bankruptcy was ultimately settled, when Ferguson died in 1790, James Thompson was the estate's administrator (Pennsylvania Packet, Philadelphia, 12 Feb. 1790, p. 3).