(RELIGION.) Deed selling the property of the First African Baptist Church of Philadelphia to its creditor. Document Signed by Sheriff Caleb North (with remnant of his wax seal), two witnesses, and a clerk. One page, 20 x 30 inches, on vellum, with docketing on verso; folds, minimal foxing. Philadelphia, 5 December 1822

The First African Baptist Church of Philadelphia was founded in 1809, and was located at the corner of 13th and Vine from 1817 to 1822 before losing the property to a creditor--as described in this deed. The congregation remains active today.
This deed describes a "writ of fieri facias" which was issued by the sheriff of Philadelphia, Caleb North: "I was lately commanded that of the goods and chattels, lands and tenements of the First African Baptist Church of the City of Philadelphia . . . to be levied three hundred and fifty seven dollars . . . which to Richard Peters Junior . . . adjudges for his damages which he sustained as well by occasion of the non-performance of a certain promise and assumption by the said First African Baptist Church. . . . By virtue of the said writ I have seized and taken in execution all that certain lot or piece of ground with a one-story brick messuage thereon erected (occupied as a place of worship) situate on the west side of the Delaware, Thirteenth Street." The creditor Richard Peters Jr. (1780-1848) then bought the property at a public auction for $350. This document thus officially deeds the land to Peters, who was a well-connected white Philadelphia attorney. His father had served in the Continental Congress, and he was appointed as solicitor of Philadelphia County in the same year as this deed. How exactly the church came to owe him that large sum of money, or what he did with the seized church property, we do not know.