BARCLAY, Alexander.
Part-printed commission as Comptroller of Customs in Philadelphia.
5 August, 1749.
Engraved form printed on vellum (c. 340 x 440mm), completed in manuscript, with a large initial incorporating the royal arms, three tax stamps on blue paper at head, signed at the foot by Sir John Evelyn as Commissioner of Customs, and four others, docketed on the verso as entered in the Rolls Office at Philadelphia on 27 October 1749; folded, a little dusty on the blank versos but very good.
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Part-printed commission as Comptroller of Customs in Philadelphia.
After a dissolute youth and a period in the army, Alexander Barclay (1711–1771) had been made Comptroller of Customs at Philadelphia in 1749, a position almost certainly engineered by his father David Barclay (1682–1769) – it required a significant sum (£500) advanced in security. David Barclay, son of the Quaker apologist Robert Barclay, had built up an extremely successful business as a linen draper in Cheapside, especially supplying the American colonies, and had wide influence in the Philadelphia mercantile community. Alexander Barclay seems to have settled down somewhat, marrying twice and holding this post until his death in 1771, and acquiring land on the Susquehanna River.
