Official Publication from the 35th US Congress – Petition by Jacob Serapion Murad Requesting Compensation for His ...

Official Publication from the 35th US Congress – Petition by Jacob Serapion Murad Requesting Compensation for His Services as the United States Consular Agent in Jaffa – 1859
Letter from the Secretary of State, communicating information touching the application for compensation of the late consular agent of the United States at Jaffa. [Washington, 1859]. English.
Official publication from the 35th United States congress dealing with the petition of Jacob Serapion Murad, the United States consular agent in Jaffa, requesting compensation for consular expenditures and services. It features the three letters of recommendation submitted with the petition and the rejection letter by the US Secretary of State.
Jacob Serapion was born to an Armenian family in Jerusalem. He was the secretary of the Armenian merchant Artuin Murad who served as the US consular agent in Jaffa and Jerusalem since 1835. Murad adopted Serapion into his family and even married him to his niece. After Murad's death, Serapion succeeded him as consular agent (adding the name Murad to his own). Over the years, Serapion became one of the richest people in Palestine, owning houses and land in Bethlehem, Jaffa and Ramla.
During the late 1850s, Serapion petitioned the US Secretary of State for financial compensation to cover the expenses he incurred as consular agent; this, presumably, due to a new American law which determined that only US citizens could hold consular positions. Three letters of recommendation were enclosed with his petition, by the American consuls in Jerusalem and Syria and by a group of American citizens who lived in Palestine and Syria (including Warder Cresson. About him see Kedem catalog 66, item no. 100). The letters of recommendation emphasized the important role Serapion had played in bringing to justice five members of the Sawalima family, who had, in 1858, attacked the Dickson family in the American colony Mount Hope in Jaffa (the attack led to the settlers abandoning the colony). Serapion died in 1858, before receiving the rejection.
4 pp, 22.5 cm. Good condition. Dampstains. Small tears and glue traces to seam between the two leaves.
Literature: American Consuls in the Holy Land, 1832-1914, by Ruth Kark. Detroit-Jerusalem, 1994. pp. 102-108.