Name/Title
(Franklin Imprint). Know All Men By These Presents, (1735)Description
(Franklin Imprint). Know All Men By These Presents, That I...Am Held And Firmly Bound… [caption title]. [Philadelphia: Benjamin Franklin, 1730?]
MILLER 10 (ref). This partially printed mortgage bond is a very early Benjamin Franklin imprint, produced the first few years of the establishment of his printing office in Philadelphia. By this form, dated in manuscript 6 November 1735, Standish Ford, gentleman, of Moorland, Philadelphia County, borrows £120 at 5 per cent per annum from the trustees of the General Loan Office of Pennsylvania. The trustees are identified in type as Andrew Hamilton, Charles Read, Jeremiah Langhorne, Richard Hayes, and John Wright. The document is signed in manuscript by Ford (beside the wax seal), and also by Charles Brockden and John Webbe as witnesses. Brockden was Recorder of Deeds for the county of Philadelphia and Clerk of the General Loan Office. John Webbe was a Philadelphia lawyer who had contributed articles to Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette and been chosen by Franklin to represent him in his suit against fellow printer Andrew Bradford to collect accounts owing to Deputy Postmaster General Spotswood.
Franklin discussed his idea for what became the General Magazine with Webbe and offered him the post of editor. But Webbe took the concept to Bradford who started the American Mercury on 30 October 1740 with Webbe at its helm. It preceded the General Magazine by three days, thus winning the right to be called the first magazine published in America.
Miller does not list this specific printing of this mortgage form in his bibliography of Franklin's printing, but he does include an earlier example of this same form, printed in 1729. "This pair of legal forms appears to have been the usual ones signed by inhabitants of the Province of Pennsylvania in borrowing mortgage money from the General Loan Office. Franklin, and later Franklin and Hall, along with other Philadelphia printers, must have done numerous reprintings of the forms"--Miller 10. The present form gives a printed date of "One Thousand Seven Hundred and Thirty [blank], and could likely have been printed any time between 1729 and 1735.
Even identifying it as a 1733 imprint would place it within the first 100 Franklin imprints described by Miller. No copies of this form are listed on the NAIP database of pre-1801 North American Imprints. A rare and very desirable example of an extremely early Franklin imprint.Other Names and Numbers
Other Numbers
Number Type
ReferencesOther Number
Miller 10Notes
See Also Miller 10 dated 1729 for earlier printing variant.Condition
Overall Condition
ExcellentDate Examined
Feb 5, 2025Notes
12 ¾ x 8 inches, completed in manuscript and docketed on verso. Small red wax seal. A couple light spots and old fold lines, but essentially fine.