This collection (21 items) contains correspondence and documents related to Dr. William Plunket of Sunbury, Pennsylvania, and his lawyer, Stephen Chambers of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The bulk of the collection (18 items) pertains to Plunket's financial and legal affairs, including 13 letters that he wrote to Chambers (June 12, 1785-May 2, 1789). In these letters, Plunket discussed his financial difficulties, powers of attorney, and a dispute with "Dr. Rush" [Benjamin Rush] regarding property ownership. Some of his later letters express his fear of being jailed or becoming destitute. Other items concerning Plunket include a list of his creditors (October 3, 1785); a power of attorney (May 28, 1787); a financial document concerning interest on a bond (October 1787); and an unsigned document about his dispute with Rush (undated). Robert King also wrote a letter to Plunket on February 19, 1789, in which he promised to explore land in the "New Purchase" when the rivers again became navigable.
The remaining 3 items are a letter from Stephen Chambers to Jasper Yeates about land surveys (December 6, 1781), a letter from Chambers to Jasper Yeates and Thomas Hartley about a man whose son had been accused of murder (May 22, 1787), and a letter to Chambers from P. Bond, who discussed finances.
William Plunket (or Plunkett), a native of Ireland, came to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in the mid-18th century and served in the French and Indian War. After the war, he was granted a tract of land near Chillisquaque Creek, where he lived in the 1770s and 1780s. He was Northumberland County's first doctor and served as a county judge from 1772-1776. Plunket and his wife, Esther Harris, had four daughters: Elizabeth (b. 1755), Isabella (b. 1760), Margaret, and Esther. William Plunket died in early 1791.
Stephen Chambers was born in Pennsylvania in 1753. He served in the Revolutionary War as a lieutenant and captain, practiced law in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and was a delegate at the Pennsylvania convention for the ratification of the Constitution in 1787. He was mortally wounded in a duel with Dr. Jacob Rieger and died in Lancaster on May 16, 1789.