[COLONIAL NEW HAMPSHIRE] Col. Joseph Whipple [1737/8 - 1816] brother and business partner with William Whipple [Signer of Declaration of Indep. from NH] in a wide ranging import-export business before the war. He later pioneered in the interior of New Hampshire and became a landowner with an exceedingly large estate. He was an early and major benefactor of Darthmouth College. Not only was he a colonel in the N.H. militia, he served in the legislature along side William after William left the Continental Congress. He was named collector of customs at Portsmouth by President Geo. Washington and later by President Thomas Jefferson who he named a town after. Like his two brothers did not have any children. He lived into his 80s and was a major influence in the state until his dying day. Autograph Document Signed, 1801, 2-pages, 6-1/2 x 8 in. Concerns taxes in Britton Woods, New Hampshire. Ironically, Joseph Whipple would come into opposition with his benefactor, when, in 1796, one of President Washington's slaves escaped and settled in Portsmouth.† When Washington learned of the whereabouts of his slave, Oney Judge, he sent a person to Portsmouth to retrieve her.† Whipple, however, refused to allow her to be taken out of state unless Washington first agreed to emancipate Oney upon his death.† President Washington would later write Whipple and express his displeasure at Whipple's decision, writing him:† "...I regret that the attempt you made to restore the Girl (Oney Judge as she called herself while with us, and who, without the least provocation absconded from her Mistress) should have been attended with so little Success. To enter into such a compromise with her, as she suggested to you, is totally inadmissible, for reasons that must strike at first view: for however well disposed I might be to a gradual abolition, or even to an entire emancipation of that description of††People (if the latter was in itself practicable at this moment) it would neither be politic or just to reward unfaithfulness with a premature preference [of freedom]; and thereby discontent before hand the minds of all her fellow-servants who by their steady attachments are far more deserving than herself of favor..." Very good condition.

VG