Two Signatures, Two Duels: Alexander and Philip Hamilton’s Copy of the Bankrupt Laws.

Books from the library of Alexander Hamilton are scarce, and those signed by both Hamilton and his eldest son, Philip, are scarcer still. Both father and son died of wounds received in a duel—Philip in 1801, at the age of nineteen, and Alexander himself in 1804, less than three years later. This copy of the third edition of William Cooke’s The Bankrupt Laws (London, 1793) is signed twice by Alexander Hamilton and additionally twice by his son Philip.

The Treatise

William Cooke’s The Bankrupt Laws was a standard English authority on the subject. This third edition includes the cases to the end of Trinity term 1792, together with the orders of Lord Chancellor Loughborough regulating the issuing, superseding, and prosecuting of commissions of bankrupt. Hamilton, who had returned to private practice in New York after leaving the Treasury in 1795, worked extensively in commercial and financial law, and a treatise of this kind belonged to the ordinary reference of a practitioner at the bar.

The Signatures

Hamilton signed the volume twice: “A. Hamilton” at the head of the title page, and “Alexander Hamilton” on the final leaf. His eldest son, Philip Hamilton, signed twice on the verso of the front board, so that the signatures of both father and son appear together in the same book.

Two Duels

Philip Hamilton (1782–1801) was a recent graduate of Columbia College who had begun the study of law. In November 1801, at the age of nineteen, he was killed in a duel with the New York attorney George Eacker. The quarrel had arisen from remarks Eacker made disparaging Alexander Hamilton, which Philip took it upon himself to answer; he died of his wound the following day. Less than three years later, on 11 July 1804, Alexander Hamilton met Vice President Aaron Burr on the duelling ground at Weehawken, New Jersey. He was mortally wounded and died the following afternoon.

Rarity

Books bearing Alexander Hamilton’s signature are known; examples bearing Philip Hamilton’s signature are markedly uncommon, owing to his early death. Volumes containing the signatures of both father and son together are of the utmost scarcity. View the present copy of The Bankrupt Laws, signed by both Alexander and Philip Hamilton, in our collection.

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