Signer of the Declaration Independence James Wilson Sells a Large Plot of Land for Use of the Asylum Company, Which Offered Safe Haven to French Refugees

James Wilson was, along with James Madison, an important force in the crafting of the U.S. Constitution. He was also a Signer of the Declaration of Independence from Pennsylvania and twice represented his state at the Continental Congress. His was a noted legal scholar and was one of the six original justices appointed by George Washington to the Supreme Court.

During his term as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Wilson invested heavily in land, notably involving himself with Theophilus Cazenove, agent of the Holland Land Company, who invested his clients' money in large, undeveloped tracts of land in western NY and PA. His dealings were rarely successful and his land purchases for James Wilson were notable failures.  

Louis Marc Antoine de Noailles, or Louis-Marie, vicomte de Noailles, had a distinguished military career on both sides of the Atlantic. He served brilliantly under Lafayette in America, and was the officer who concluded the capitulation of Yorktown in 1781. He was elected to the Estates-General in 1789. On August 4, 1789, during the French Revolution, he began the famous "orgy", as Mirabeau called it, when feudalism was to be abolished, and proposed the abolition of titles in June 1790.

When the French Revolution became more extreme he emigrated to the United States and became a partner in William Bingham's Bank of North America in Philadelphia. He also became a principal in the Asylum Company. The men behind the Asylum Company hoped to sell the land to French émigrés seeking refuge in America from the French and Haitian revolutions, and which did establish a colony for French refugees on the Susquehanna River.

That company's articles of agreement outlined a business plan for this purpose and allowed for the purchasing of additional tracts of land so that the company’s total holdings would equal one million acres. To achieve the one million acre mark, the company expanded its operations into present day Bedford, Bradford, and Lycoming counties in Pennsylvania.

Document signed, Philadelphia, February 9, 1797, being an agreement between "James Wilson of the city of Philadelphia Esquire and Hannah his wife of the one part and Louis Marie de Noailles of the said city Gentleman of the other part…  the said James Wilson and Hannah his wife for and in consideration of the sum of five shillings per acre secured to be paid to them by the said Louis Marie de Noailles have granted bargained and sold… all his the said James Wilson's lands lying and being in the county of Lycoming and State of Pennsylvania amounting to about one hundred and eighty thousand acres."

This document is also signed by both Wilson's sons and his wife, as well as Thomas Smith, Associated Justice of the PA State Court.

This sale would not solve Wilson's financial problems.  Just months after signing this document, he left his judicial circuit duty and fled to the South to get a handle on his finances.  He would serve jail time at the hands of his creditors and eventually die at the age of 55 from an illness he contracted.