Manuscript Legal Brief Regarding the Sale of a Slave, who Died a few Months after the Sale

One page folio sheet (8 x 12 1/2), docketed on the reverse, full page of text. Dampstained in upper and lower quarters, a 1x1 inch chip in the lower right corner affecting the signature of Gershon Lee, several small holes along the folds affecting six words of text, archival tape repairs to folds on verso. Earlier in the year 1764, during the reign of George the Third, Arthur Hanse of Mommouth County, New Jersey, sold a male slave to Gershon Lee for five hundred pounds. However, the slave died within months of the sale, and according to this agreement, Hanse had to make good on the sale. Nevertheless, as the brief indicates, the parties involved agreed to go to arbitration to settle the matter. The document is signed by Gershon Lee, Peter Wycof, and Thomas Atkinson, all from well-known colonial New Jersey families. This is a rare and unusual early New Jersey manuscript piece.