Liquor License New York City 1792 signed by Mayor, Richard Varwick

Early License to operate a saloon in New York City issued in 1792. This historic document is hand signed by Richard Varwick as Mayor of New York City and is over 210 years old. Minor seperation at fold, otherwise XF+. This document provides a license that says “Franscis Fitner hath obtained a license to keep an inn or tavern for retailing strong or spirituous liquors in his dwelling-house from the date of said license until the first day of March next. Conditions of this license include that the tavern owner must not keep “a disorderly Inn or Tavern, or suffer or permit cock fighting, gaming, or playing with cards or dice, or keep any billiard-table, or other gaming table or shuffle board, within Inn or Tavern”...... , signed by George Washington’s Aide de Camp Richard Varick. This size of this document is approximately 8" x 14”. Richard Varick was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, on 25th March 1753 and Died 30th July 1851. He studied law and was practicing in New York City, Revolutionary War Broke out and he became a Captain. He was inspector-general at West Point after 1780 and an aide-de-camp to Benedict Arnold at West Point. Varick was suspected of complicity in Arnold’s treasonous schemes. After a court of inquiry cleared Varick’s name, he became George Washington’s private secretary. After the war, but prior to becoming mayor, Varick served as New York City recorder. He was also speaker of the state assembly and state attorney general. Shortly afterward he became a member of Washington's military family, acting as his recording secretary till near the close of the war, and taking charge of his confidential papers. From the evacuation of New York by the British in 1783 till 1789 he was recorder of that city. In the latter year he became attorney-general of the state, and from 1791 till 1801 he was mayor of New York. In 1786 he and Samuel Jones were appointed revisers of the state laws, and they published the result of their labors in a volume (1789). On the organization of the state militia he was made colonel of one of the regiments. Colonel Varick was speaker of the assembly in 1787, for many years president of the Merchants' bank, and a founder and liberal benefactor of the American Bible society, of which he was president from the resignation of John Jay till his death. In New York City, Varick was named after him. Varick Street runs in a north-south direction from Tribeca in lower Manhattan to Houston Street, where it becomes Seventh Avenue. Varick owned the property the street originally cut through. In 1882, another New York City mayor,Fiorello LaGuardia, was born on Varick Street. Today Varick Street is a pre-dominantly commercial thoroughfare.