Baring Alexander

Alexander Baring, Future 1st Baron Ashburton, U.S./Canada Border Treaty Negotiator

1p ALS inscribed overall and signed by Alexander Baring, the future 1st Baron Ashburton (1774-1848), as "Alex Baring" at lower right. Dated August 4, 1801. On watermarked cream paper. Expected paper folds, wrinkles, and a few minor chipped edges. With faint ghost ink impressions. A later collector's pencil inscriptions found at top. 8" x 9.75".

In full, with unchanged spelling and grammar:

"Gentlemen,

In the hurry of my departure I find I have omitted making a remittance to Jeffrey + Bussel (?) of Boston for £1814:82 I take the liberty of troubling you with an open letter for I ask in which I request you will inclose a post note for said sum + forward it debiting me the amount. - I am truly

Gentlemen Your mst ob Sert

Alex Baring

ye Aug 4 1801."

In 1801, Baring was working for the Dutch banking firm Hope & Company. Apparently, he forgot to pay a bill the equivalent of $171,133 in 2019 currency! A few years later, in 1807, he would become a partner in his family's firm, renamed Baring Brothers & Company.

Some 40 years later, in 1842, Baring, then 1st Baron Ashburton, negotiated the famous treaty that bears his name. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty, signed between Great Britain and the United States, resolved several significant boundary disputes affecting the U.S./Canada border as far east as Maine and as far west to the Rocky Mountains. At the conclusion of the ten-month-long Treaty negotiations, U.S. Secretary of State Daniel Webster and 1st Baron Ashburton also resolved which crimes merited extradition, and how to quell the slave trade on the high seas.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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