Benjamin Franklin Document Signed in ink. "B. Franklin" as president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. One partially-printed vellum page, 11.5 x 14.5 inches, Know Ye, That in consideration of the services rendered by James Pettigrew, Lieutenant in the (late) army of the United States there is granted by the said commonwealth into the said James Pettigrew a certain tract or parcel of land lying in the county of Westmoreland in the sixth district of donation lands beginning at a white oak the numbered corner running north by lot #1152 seventy one degrees East one hundred and thirty perches to a post thence South by lot 1125 nineteen degrees east two hundred and sixty one perches to a post (continuing land description in ink) , This document contains a large star-shaped embossed paper seal above Franklin's signature, with two smaller seals on the verso. Countersigned by James Trumble for John Armstrong Jun. Secry. After spending nine very successful years in France as commissioner for the United States, Ben Franklin returned to America in 1785 and was revered second only to George Washington as a great champion of American independence. For the next three years, Franklin served as the president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. The year before he signed this document, Franklin became a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention, where he held an honorific position and seldom engaged in debate. However, when delegates became heated over the issue of proportional representation, Benjamin Franklin urged coolness. As the eldest delegate at the Convention, Franklin acted on several occasions to restore harmony between delegates, with the ultimate result being the creation of the Constitution of the United States. The Convention was one of the key events in the history of the United States and Franklin remains the only man to become a signatory on all four of the major documents concerning the founding of the United States: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris, the Treaty of Alliance with France, and the United States Constitution. The town would now be Cooperstown, PA, which is just south of Meadville, PA.

in good condition with original folds minimal staining and discoloration