PRESIDENT MARTIN VAN BUREN - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED 08/06/1807 CO-SIGNED BY: M. JENKINS, WILLIAM WILSON - HFSID 4830

MARTIN VAN BUREN
Civil warrant filled out and signed twice by the 26-year-old future President in his first public office.
Early Partly Printed ADS: "M V Buren/Atty" as Surrogate of Columbia County, 1p, 7¾x6. Hudson, New York, 1809 September 15. Filled out and signed twice by Van Buren. In part: "The People of the State of New-York, by the Grace of God Free and Independent; To the Sheriff of Columbia County, Greeting; we command you, that you take Robert Goez, if he shall be found within your bailiwick, and him safely keep, so that you may have his body before our Judges and Assistant-Justices, at our next Court of Common Pleas...to satisfy Daniel Ludlow-seventy two Dollars of debt, which the said Daniel lately in our Court, before our Judges and Assistant-Judges aforesaid, at the City of Hudson, recovered against him...." Signed: "M. Jenkins Junr" as Clerk and, at the lower left: "M.V.Buren/Atty" by the future eighth U.S. President. Related notes on verso, including: "Interest on Debt from/August 6th 1807 till/paid" penned and signed by the 26-year-old in his first public office. Van Buren had become a law clerk at the age of 14 and was admitted to the bar in 1803 at the age of 20. He established his practice in Kinderhook, N.Y., his birthplace. In 1808, New York Governor Daniel D. Tompkins appointed him Surrogate of Columbia County and, in 1809, Van Buren moved to Hudson, New York. Tanned, lightly soiled, nicked at edges with some separation at upper and lower vertical folds, lightly browned at folds. Fold touches the "B" in signature on front. 1½-inch diameter paper seal at upper left.