Benjamin Franklin Signed 1787 Land Patent – Constitutional Convention. Auto JSA

The impressive 15½" x 13¼" parchment patent grants Ambrose Rameleigh clear title to 20⅞ acres of land, a tract known as "Ramillies," in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley. The document retains its original period seals and is countersigned by James Trimble, Assistant Secretary of Pennsylvania's Supreme Executive Council.

It is difficult to imagine a more evocative date for a Franklin document. That same day in Philadelphia, the 81-year-old Franklin was sitting among, speaking, negotiating, and debating with George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and the other Founders then creating the United States Constitution. Franklin was simultaneously governing Pennsylvania and helping design the government of a new nation.

Remarkably, the land itself tells a smaller version of the American story. The Rameleigh family first claimed and surveyed the tract in 1766, when Pennsylvania was still a British colony. Colonists could own land, but ownership came with constant reminders that ultimate authority still rested elsewhere. Under Pennsylvania's proprietary system, land could carry an annual quitrent—essentially an additional charge simply for holding the property. At the same time, British policies surrounding taxation, searches, seizures, and the quartering of troops increasingly fueled fears that a man's home, possessions, and property were never entirely beyond government intrusion. It was about more than money or land—it was about who truly controlled your property and who had the right to take from it. That struggle became inseparable from the revolutionary cry: "No taxation without representation."

Then came the American Revolution.

Over the next 21 years, Americans rejected British rule, fought for independence, and created a government of their own. The Rameleigh family appears in Pennsylvania's Revolutionary militia records, while Pennsylvania dismantled the old proprietary land system. By 1787, the world surrounding those same 20 acres had been transformed: the British had been defeated, the old quitrent system was gone, Pennsylvania was an independent Commonwealth, and the protection of private property had become an expressly declared right.

And so, a parcel first claimed under King George III finally received clear American title under the signature of Benjamin Franklin.

At 81, Franklin was completing the final great chapter of one of the most extraordinary lives in American history. He had helped draft and sign the Declaration of Independence, secured the French alliance crucial to winning the Revolution, helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris ending the war, and now sat alongside Washington, Madison, Hamilton, and his fellow Founders creating the Constitution.

Signed in the middle of that extraordinary summer—and on the day the idea that would become the Electoral College took shape—this nearly 240-year-old document captures both Franklin and America at a remarkable moment: a Revolution won, a nation taking shape, and an old colonial land claim finally becoming American property.

Comes with a Letter of Authenticity from JSA, as well as Grad Authentication.

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