Folio letter (ca. 30x18 cm or 12 x 7 ¼ in). 1 p. Brown ink on creamy watermarked laid paper; paper seal in the left upper corner; docketed on verso. Foldmarks, paper slightly age-toned, a couple of minor splits on hinges, otherwise a very good document written in a legible hand. With a related small manuscript note ca. 6x18 cm (2 ¼ x 7 ¼ in); brown ink on laid paper.

Interesting period copy of a legal paper created by the authorities of the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio – the first organized incorporated territory of the United States. Established in 1787, the territory included all or larger portions of six future U.S. states (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and a part of Minnesota), which were admitted to the Union in 1803.

This document from 1799 was written in Chillicothe, then the seat of Ross County, which became a part of the future U.S. state of Ohio. The contents are a request to the sheriff of Ross County to arrest two African Americans on the charges laid by Rev. Robert W. Finley (1750-1840). He was educated in Princeton and served as a Presbyterian and later a Methodist missionary and preacher in the Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and later Ontario (Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography/ Ed. by J.G. Wilson & J. Fiske. Vol. II. New York, 1888, p. 460). Finley was a notable pioneer of Chillicothe, where he moved in 1796, when the town was established (Appleton’s Cyclopedia…, p. 460). The original of the document was signed by a noted Ohio politician, Edward Tiffin (1766-1829), who was then the 1st Speaker of the Northwest Territory House of Representatives (1799-1802) and later the 1st Governor of Ohio (1803-1807), U.S. Senator from Ohio (1807-1809). The text also mentions Thomas Worthington (1773-1827) - later the U.S. Senator from Ohio (1810-1814) and the 6th Governor of the state (1814-1818). Overall an interesting manuscript from the years leading to Ohio statehood.

The text of the document: “The United State to the Sheriff of our said County Greeting. We command you to take Negro Joe and Negro Sinah if they may be found in your baliwick [sic!] and them safely keep so that you have their [bodies?] before the Justice of our Court of Common Pleas at Chillicothe in our said County of Ross on the fourth Tuesday in June next to answer unto Robert W. Finley of a plea of trespass per words defamatory to his damage five hundred dollars as is paid – and have then there this writ. witness Thomas Worthington Esquire presiding Justice of our said court at Chillicothe in our said County of Ross the last day of Decr. Term 1799. Edward Tiffin, [Prothon[tar]y].”