Whereas a certain Robert Patterson / of Lexington, in Kentucky, by vir- / tue of pretended powers from me, has / made a conveyance to John Cockey Ow- / ings, of a certain settlement right in that / country, which I had previously sold to / Thomas Prather, deceased, I therefore / take this method to inform those whom / it may concern, that the said conveyance / is void, as said Paterson never had any / authority from me for so doing. / [signed in type] James Greer. / April 1789 (bottom portion of date torn away). [complete text].

1789. Printed broadside, 7 7/8 x 8 1/4 inches, docketed on the verso "No. 3 / Filed 19th March / 1804." Early Kentucky land broadside voiding a land transaction involving Robert Patterson and John Cockey Owings. "A printed notice from Greer, signed in print, voiding an unauthorized conveyance of a certain settlement right in the Lexington area by Robert Patterson to John Cockey Owings, which right Greer had previously sold to Thomas Prather, deceased" (Filson online). Only eight items in Jillson's "Rare Kentucky Books" predate this handbill, Pownell's "Topographical Description" (London 1776), Hutchins' "Topographical Description" (London 1778), Filson's "Discovery" (Wilmington, 1784), a piece on the Ohio River and Kentucky in 1784 by Crevecoeur published in a Louisville journal in 1879, Fitzroy's "Discovery" (London, 1786), Filson's "Adventures" (Norwich, CT, 1786), Bradford's "Kentucky Gazette'"(Lexington, 1787), Filson's "Adventures" published in the "American Museum" (Philadelphia, 1787), and Bradford's "Kentucky Almanac," the first pamphlet published west of the Alleghenies (Lexington, 1788, but no copy known). Not in Evans, Bristol, or Shipton & Mooney. OCLC locates one copy (Filson Historical Society). Untrimmed but with the lower portion torn away, taking the lower portion of the date. Still a remarkable survival for this rare 18th-century Kentucky related handbill. Folded. (9868). Item #63104

We have not been able to determine whether this handbill was printed in Kentucky (the Bradfords began publishing their "Kentucke Gazette" in Lexington in 1787), but all of the principals alive at the time of the printing were located in the Lexington area; in any case, it is an early printed record of the Lexington settlers and land transactions during its foundation (the earliest item in McMurtrie's "Bibliography of Eighteenth Century Kentucky Broadsides" was printed in 1792). Robert Patterson (1753-1827), who commanded local militia during the Revolution, and James Greer were among the small number of original settlers in Lexington in 1779, moving there from Fort Harrod to establish a more northerly fort. John Cockey Owings (1736-1810) made significant purchases of land in Bourbon and Bath Counties, Kentucky (both just east of Lexington; Owingsville is the county seat of Bath County), in the 1780s, establishing an iron smelting business in the latter county. Thomas V. Prather (1751-1786) had also lived in the settlement around Ft. Harrod before his death.

Price: $8,500.00