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Highest-ranking Jewish officer (1753-1795) to serve in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Wounded at the Battle of Brandywine and later promoted to lieutenant colonel, he received a pension from Pennsylvania in 1785 under the presidency of Benjamin Franklin. Partly-printed DS, one page, 6.5 x 5.75, June 15, 1774. Revolutionary-era penal bond, printed in Philadelphia by John Dunlap and completed in manuscript, binding John Martin of Goshen Township, New York, to pay Robert Semple of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the sum of fourteen pounds by September 1, 1774, under penalty of twenty-eight pounds for nonpayment. Signed at the conclusion by Solomon Bush as a witness, alongside fellow witness John Peel, Jr. Docketed on the reverse with a November 4, 1786, assignment transferring the bond to Captain Pierce Butler after the debt remained unpaid. Archivally cloth-matted and framed with a biographical plaque and a ‘Jewish American Patriot’ pin to an overall size of 14.5 x 25.5. In very good to fine condition.
Although signed two years before the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, the document bears the scarce signature of Solomon Bush (1753–1795), who became the highest-ranking Jewish officer to serve in the Continental Army. Joining the Pennsylvania militia in 1776, Bush was appointed deputy adjutant general in 1777 and fought at the Battle of Brandywine, where a musket ball shattered his thigh, permanently disabling him. Captured following the British occupation of Philadelphia and later released on parole, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1779 in recognition of his service. On November 5, 1785, Pennsylvania's Supreme Executive Council, under the presidency of Benjamin Franklin, awarded Bush a pension for his Revolutionary War service. Printed by John Dunlap, the celebrated Philadelphia printer whose shop produced the first broadside printing of the Declaration of Independence, this document combines the signature of a distinguished Revolutionary War officer with the imprint of one of early America's most important printers.
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