Edgar, John vs. John Holker

Description:	The file contained the complaint that John Edgar a fur trader filed against John Holker a business partner in response to the complaint Holker filed against Edgar. One document is a sixteen page complaint/ response filed by John Rice Jones for Edgar, the second document is the summons for Holker. The suit concerned a business partnership between European funding sources, John Edgar, John Holker and Nicholas Victor Muhlburger that planned to conduct the trade of merchandise from Europe or America in the Illinois Country for beaver skins or other peltry and then sell the pelts in the European market in 1784-1787. The suit was filed in the Chancellery Court in Vincennes in 1808. According to the complaint, to the honorable Walker Taylor , Esquire Chancellor of the Indiana Territory by John Edgar; it stated that Holker had filed a complaint against Edgar and he was making a complaint against Holker. That on the ninth day January 1784, Edgar, Nicholas Victor Muhlburger and John Holker entered into a business partnership for three years or successive seasons. Edgar and Muhlburger were to procure in each year in Europe or American on their own credit and with their own funds, merchandise which should be furnished to the amount of 3,000 pounds sterling to be forwarded to New York or Philadelphia. Holker was to receive the merchandise and was to take charge of and carry it to Post Detroit or the Illinois Country. The merchandise was to be sold for beaver skins or other furs to the best advantage of the Company according to the advice and direction which should be transmitted to him from time to time by the funding partners in Europe. The defendant, Holker, was to make remittances in the proper season to New York for all the furs he procured for the goods. That all expenses incurred by the trade, house and store rent, clerk and servant hired to be born by the Company. That Edgar in all cases was to have for his troubles in conducting and managing the business, one-fourth part of all the net proceeds which arose from the sale of the goods in the Indian Country and of the peltry in Europe and the Company was to notify the defendant to what house he might consign his return at New Orleans. That at the end of the partnership the defendant was to go back to Philadelphia to settle his account with his partners or their attorney. That the death of either of the parties should be dissolution of the partnership and in case the partners should not think proper to continue that trade, the partnership might at anytime be dissolved upon the partners withdrawing giving one years notice previous to the dissolution. According to the complaint, Muhlburger procured and furnished the defendant with goods and merchandise in the Spring of 1784 to the amount in pounds of 6413..8..111/2., Pennsylvania currency which he carried to the Illinois Country and there dispose of at a great profit. Louis G. Tournier was hired as the clerk for the trade from the first day of May 1784 until the first day of May 1787 at the rate of 1,600 livres per annum. That in the later part of the year 1785, the defendant sent some of the goods of the Company not suited to the Illinois, by William Taitt, to Cumberland who sold them for $9,447. That Muhlburger became bankrupt and died shortly aft the partnership was entered into which events were sufficient to exonerate him from furnishing other goods to the defendant, but he was justifiable in refusing so to do, had the defendant dishonesty in not remitting to Edgar any monies or peltry for rewards of two years after the receipt of the first goods and then in so small quantity that the net proceeds amounted only to six hundred eighty-nine pounds six shillings, seven pence, and half penny Pennsylvania currency. That on the 7th day of October 1786, he by his agent, Michael Lacassagne, since deceased, received of the defendant at New Orleans peltries which were to be shipped to France at the cost and risk of the said Company and cosigned to to Val and P French and Nephew of Bourdeau subject to the disposal of Mm. Burrel of the city of Borron. He continued that in the month of May 1786, about 12 months after his arrival in Illinois, by direction of Holker and Muhlburger forward to his agent in New Orleans under the care of Tournier, peltry and other articles to the amount of 50,039 livres and 10 sols. He also paid for the boatmens wages, and other expenses, and a barge or batteau to carry the peltry from Kaskaskia to New Orleans. The peltries went to the Narcisse Alva the agent of Holker and Muhlburger. The batteau was sold at Natchez for $550 and advanced to Michael Lacassagne and M. Remig clerks. The complaint also stated that the defendant, Holker ordered a large proportion of the peltries to be forwarded to him in Philadelphia, a well known bad market for those articles where they were sacrificed at a loss of at least 200% less then they would have netted in a European market and that the unnecessary extravagant charge cost by the shipping and transportation between New Orleans to Philadelphia nearly wiped out the proceeds.
Origin:	2019-02-06
Created By:	Indiana Territory. Circuit Court (Knox County);
Contributor(s):	McCall, James; Polke, William;
Source:	http://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/ving/id/27547
Collection:	Early Vincennes, 1732-1835
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/
Copyright:	No Copyright - United States
Subjects:	Indiana Territory Illinois Territory Accounts -- Indiana Territory Boats and boating -- Indiana Territory Circuit courts -- Indiana Territory Contracts for work and labor -- Indiana Territory Court records -- Indiana Territory -- Knox County Damages -- Indiana Territory Fur traders -- Northwest Territory Gunpowder -- Indiana Territory Hides and skins -- Indiana Territory Judges -- Indiana Territory Personal debt -- Indiana Territory Summons -- Indiana Territory Bankruptcy New Orleans Kaskaskia Batteau Court Records

Further information on this record can be found at its source.