Contemporary Copy Of A Letter By American Steamboat Inventor John Fitch About Patents: “To Hear The Claims Of The Parties Disputing The Steam Boat”

JOHN FITCH (1743-1798). Fitch was an American inventor who created the first steamboat service in the United States. Letter. 1pg. October 30, 1787. Philadelphia. A contemporary copy of a letter sent by John Fitch to the New Jersey state legislature. It concerns a dispute regarding Fitch’s rights to a patent on the steamboat. Frustrated that British steam engine designs were not available in the States, Fitch had invented and successfully operated his own version two months earlier; the Constitutional Convention members took a break from the debates on August 22, 1787 to watch Fitch’s invention ply the Delaware River. Fitch communicated: “Sir Wednesday next having been prefixed at the last Session of the Legislature of the State of New jersey, to hear the claims of the parties disputing the steam boat. I should have attended accordingly but on waiting on Mr Levi Hollingsworth a principle & acting member of the Rumsey Company, in order to know the intentions of said company…them prosecuting their claims before your Honble House this Session, his information on that head, was, that they did not intend to attend the assembly of New Jersey the particulars of which conversation I take the liberty to inclose [sic] you at the same time praying should their company act contrary to his declarations, the hearing may be refixed to a more distant day in the Session at which time, if I know of the same, I shall attend fully prepared to defend my right derived under the laws of your Honble predecessor, & also fully evince the justice of my claims to such rights. I have the honor to be sir your very Hbl Sr John Fitch”. Levi Hollingsworth was a Philadelphia merchant from a prominent family. He was working for James Rumsey (1743-1792), Fitch’s main rival in the steamboat industry. Fitch would battle competing patent claims and other such legal challenges for his entire career. However, the Federal government granted both Fitch and Rumsey patents for their differing designs in 1791. The letter is in very good condition with toning and browning throughout. Anything by or related to Fitch is scarce.