Revolutionary War

Member of Continental Congress Signs Philadelphia Legal Document



JONATHAN BAYARD SMITH, Autograph Document Signed, September 6, 1785, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. 1 p., 8.25" x 10". Expected folds; some loss at edges not affecting text; intact embossed seal. Ex: Charles I. Forbes.



Complete Transcript

In the Common Pleas Philadelphia County

September Term 1784




Wilson / Susannah Medford
v dsc
Samuel Shoben
Wilson / Susannah Medford
v dsc
Samuel Shoben

And now the Defendant by his Attorney comes and confesses Judgment to the plaintiff for Two hundred and Twenty eight pounds debt besides Costs &c.






Judgmt Novr 20th 1784.



Wilson / Susannah Medford
v dsc
Samuel Shoben
Wilson / Susannah Medford
v dsc
Samuel Shoben

Septemr Term 1785
Fi: Fa:







[Seal

I Jonathan Bayard Smith Esquire Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County do hereby certify that the above are true Transcripts from the Records of the Said Court.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the Seal of the said Court this sixth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty five.
I Jonathan Bayard Smith Esquire Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County do hereby certify that the above are true Transcripts from the Records of the Said Court.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the Seal of the said Court this sixth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty five.









JB Smith



Historical Background

Susannah Medford was a widow in Philadelphia, and by her attorney James Wilson, she sued Samuel Shoben in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas to recover a debt. Shoben confessed that he owed the debt in November 1784, but a year later, Shoben had still not paid the debt, and Medford obtained a writ of fieri facias for the sheriff to seize Shoben’s property to satisfy the debt. Prothonotary Jonathan Bayard Smith made this copy of the court record in September 1785, likely as part of Medford’s ongoing efforts to obtain payment.



Jonathan Bayard Smith (1742-1812) was born in Philadelphia and graduated from the College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1760. He joined his father in the mercantile business and was an early advocate of independence. From 1775 to 1777, he served as secretary for the Philadelphia Committee of Safety. He represented Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress from April 1777 to November 1778 and signed the Articles of Confederation. He also served as prothonotary of the court of common pleas and after 1778, one of its justices. In 1779, he was one of the founders of one of the schools that merged into the University of Pennsylvania in 1795, and he served as a trustee of both the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University.



James Wilson (1742-1798) was born in Scotland and immigrated to Philadelphia in 1776, where he became a teacher at the College of Philadelphia. He later established a law practice at Reading, Pennsylvania. He served as president of the Illinois-Wabash Company, a land speculation venture. In 1778, he moved his family to Philadelphia. Wilson represented Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress from 1775 to 1777, and signed the Declaration of Independence. He served in the Confederation Congress from 1782 to 1783 and from 1785 to 1787. Later elected to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, he was a member of the Committee of Detail that drafted the United States Constitution, which he later signed and helped convince Pennsylvania to ratify. Wilson served as one of the first associate justices of the United States Supreme Court from 1789 until his death in 1798. He also served as a founder of the University of Pennsylvania Law School.





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