Autographs
1746 Henry Holland Paid In "current money of New York"
HENRY HOLLAND Jr., (1704 - 1782). Colonial Sheriff of Albany, New York, Colonial Merchant and Privateer. Also... Signed by New York Ship Captain Peter Van Bergen.
July 10, 1746-Dated Colonial America, Manuscript Document Signed, "Henry Holland," at [New York], and by Captain Peter Van Bergen, Fine. It has moderate folds with slight edge tears reinforced long ago on the blank reverse with clear rich brown ink text and signatures. This original Document is a Promissory Note and Receipt which reads, in full:
"I promise to pay Henry Holland, or order the sum of forty four pounds six shillings current money of New York on or before the first day of November next for Value received this 10th of July 1746. ---- (Signed) Peter Van Bergen -- Received Dec. 1, 1746 the above sum of forty four Pounds - (Signed) Henry Holland". Endorsed on the blank reverse, "Capt. P. V. Bergen - 44" as having received the funds.
Henry was the son of Garrison Officer and Sheriff, Henry Holland (1661-1736). He served in his father's military company until 1719, when he was apprenticed to a N.Y. Merchant. Returning to Albany after his apprenticeship, he was elected an Assistant Alderman in Albany in 1727. Over the next 20 years he received Royal Appointments as Justice of the Peace, Master of the Chancery Court, and Sheriff of Albany County. He served as Sheriff from 1739-46. Dabbling in frontier land patents, he acquired valuable land in the Mohawk Country and to the north of Albany. During this same period he began to ship cargoes out to frontier developer Sir William Johnson. During the British troubles with the French and Indians in the period 1744-48, Holland served as a commissary - procuring provisions and supplies on behalf of the British war effort. Still sheriff, he came under fire in Albany for his tactics in securing materials from Albany storehouses and was replaced as sheriff in September 1746. He moved to New York City and became a merchant, owned two privateers, and an estate on Staten Island where he represented Richmond County in the provincial Assembly from 1761-69. He was also a Slave owner. He died sometime before 1782.
Peter Van Bergen (sometime called "Petrus") was a Captain in an Albany Militia company in 1767, and like Holland was also a Slave holder. In 1775, he contributed for the relief of Fort Ticonderoga, and after the Revolutionary War he was accorded a land bounty right for his services with the Albany militia regiment. In 1785 he was appointed Assessor for the first ward of Albany and in 1789 served as Election Inspector.