Rare ADS, one page, 7 x 10.5, May 1, 1786. Lengthy handwritten financial document by Daniel Boone, incorporating his name three times within the text, and signing at the conclusion. In part: "Know all men by these presents that I, Daniel Boone of the County of Fayette and state of Virginia am held and firmly bound unto James Hone of North Carolina…in the just and full sum of one hundred and fifty pounds good and Lawfull money of Virginia…The Condition of the above obligation is such that if the above bound Daniel Boone his heirs, ex'trs, adm'tr or assigns shall well and truly make or cause to be made unto James Hone…a good and Lawfull Deed of Conveyance to 300 acres of good second rate land when demanded out of a survey of 4000 acres made for said Boone between the North fork of Licking and flemings Crick within 12 or 14 Miles of Limestone." Signed at the conclusion by Daniel Boone, who draws a seal beside his name, and countersigned by two witnesses. Nicely mounted and double-matted with an engraved portrait to an overall size of 20.5 x 16.5. In fine condition, with professionally restored paper loss along the top edge, impinging on the first line of text (including his first name). Accompanied by a full letter of authenticity from PSA/DNA.
As a pioneer and frontiersman, Daniel Boone was influential in extending the nation beyond the peaks of the Allegheny Mountains. With the company of his brother Squire, he explored the Kentucky wilderness from 1767 to 1769, and eventually settled his family in the territory in 1773. Two years later he extended the Wilderness Road over the Cumberland Gap through the Allegheny Mountains and erected three settlements, one of which was named ‘Boonesborough.’ In the wake of the Revolutionary War, Boone resettled in what is now Maysville, Kentucky—near Limestone Creek—and was elected to the Virginia state assembly in 1787. His military pursuits over, Boone became a local celebrity and for a period earned a profitable living as a tavern keeper, a surveyor, a horse trader, and a land speculator. The legalities of the latter soon caught up with Boone’s sense of honor and weak investment strategies, and in 1788 he moved upriver to Point Pleasant, Virginia, operating at a trading post and then occasionally as a surveyor's assistant. An interesting land document dating to the most prosperous period of Boone’s life.
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