To Alexander Hamilton from John Dunn, [25 March 1794]
From John Dunn1
[Dublin, Ireland, March 25, 1794.] “… I wish to vest a Sum of Money in America but am so circumstanced at present that it is not in my power to cross the Atlantic. The Sum is a fund for the Establishment of a beloved Family destined to be Inhabitants of the new World.… I have ventured to request Mr. John Barclay2 to whom Mr. Wilson3 has made consignments of the Fund to suffer himself to be named a Trustee.… The Nature of the Trust is specified in a writing …4 enclosed to you in a Letter of which this is a Duplicate.…”
ALS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. Dunn was a Dublin attorney.
2. Barclay was president of the Bank of Pennsylvania.
3. Joseph Wilson, the United States consul at Dublin, witnessed the execution of trust which Dunn sent to H.
4. Dunn is referring to the execution of trust, dated March 25, 1794, by which he “vested the Sum of Eight thousand pounds british or thereabouts in Alexander Hamilton Esqr. Secretary to the Treasury … and John Barclay Esqr. President of the Bank of Pennsylvania to lay out and apply four thousand pounds part of the said Sum in the purchase of Lands within the United States … and upon trust to invest the residue of the said Sum in public or private Securities…” (ADS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress).