Brief of Title to the Willington Estate, Late of Simon Gratz, Deceased; Situate in the City of Philadelphia, Belonging to the Farmers and Mechanics Land & Building Association [A RARE ITEM UNLOCATED IN THE STANDARD REFERENCES]

Philadelphia: Bicking & Guilbert, 1855. First edition. Softcover. Very good. Octavo. 43, [1, blank]pp; 2 maps (1 folding). Contemporary blue title wrappers (lightly chipped at extremities), lettered in black. Stain, limited to top margin, throughout latter half, else a very good copy, text clean and crisp.

First edition of this rare Brief of Title. The Gratz family of merchants and community leaders in Philadelphia was founded by Barnard Gratz (1738-1801). As a young man he emigrated from Germany to London, where he was briefly employed as a clerk. Shortly after relocating to Philadelphia in 1754 he went into business as a merchant in the coastal and West Indian trade and formed around 1760 a lasting partnership with his brother Michael, who was involved in the Indian and fur trade, as well as land speculation. The two brothers helped found the first synagogue in Philadelphia. Two of Michael's sons, Simon Gratz (1773-1839) and his brother, Hyman (1776-1857) carried on the family business. Apart from his ongoing involvement with the Jewish Congregation Mikveh Israel, "Simon was among the founders of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts" (Morais) and "a director of the Pennsylvania Botanical Garden" (Rosenbloom). Includes a three-page extract from the will of Simon Gratz (dated February 16, 1839), with his instructions for the disposition of the 71 acres of his estate contained in "the four tracts of land mentioned at the beginning of this Brief." As noted in the present brief (p. 28), The Farmers and Mechanics Land and Building Association received its Charter of Encorporation on March 17, 1852, acquiring by purchase the Willington Estate from Louisa Gratz, Edward Gratz, David Gratz and Elizabeth Gratz on April 16, 1852.

Provenance: The business card of Henry Tunison, Jr. "Real Estate Agent and Collector of House and Ground Rents. S. E. Corner 18th & Spruce Streets, Philadelphia" has been mounted at the bottom of the front wrapper; Mr. Tunison's manuscript entry appears at the top.

A rare item, not indexed in OCLC, which does, however, locate two copies of an 1871 edition at Hebrew Union College and the University of Michigan; Singerman is also only aware of the 1871 printing, noting copies at the American Jewish Historical Society and the Library Company of Philadelphia. References: Cf. Singerman, Judaica Americana, no. 2256 (ed. 1871). For the Graz family see: H.S. Morais, The Jews of Philadelphia (1894), p. 25. J.R. Rosenbloom, A Biographical Dictionary of Early American Jews (1960), pp. 47-48.