biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1732–1800)
|
| biography:
| Merchant and land speculator, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. A prominent merchant by 1763, he was a central figure in three attempts to gain large land grants W of the Alleghenies: the Grand Illinois Venture (1764–72), Indiana Grant (1768–9), and Vandalia (1770–5). None of the projects were ultimately successful, as the start of the American Revolution in 1775 wrecked the Vandalia scheme. He served in the Continental Congress (1782–3) and was a justice of the court of common pleas in Southwark, PA (1790–1). |
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