Printed and Manuscript Americana

Philadelphia: Printed by B. Franklin, and D. Hall, ca. 1749. Single sheet, 12 1/4 x 8 1/4 in. (311 x 209 mm). Partially-printed document, being an arbitrement bond between ironmaster John Lesher, of Oley Valley, Berks County, and John Ross and John Yoder, for £1,000, dated March 5, 1749; signed at bottom; red wax and paper seal intact at bottom. Creasing from old folds. Miller 475

A rare Franklin imprint. Miller locates only two copies of this early arbitrement bond, at Yale University and the Clements Library at the University of Michigan.

John Lesher (1711-94) was a leading German emigrant and ironmaster in Pennsylvania. He settled at Spangsville in the Oley Valley, Berks County, in 1729. As a blacksmith, he built and operated Oley Forge and District Furnace, and was a wagon master in the French and Indian War. An early supporter of independence, he formed an independent militia company and served as its captain, and saw action in the New Jersey and Brandywine Campaigns. In 1776, he served briefly in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, represented Berks County in the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention, and was a Commissary that supplied General Washington's army.