To James Madison from John Baylor, 20 February 1790

From John Baylor

Virginia Newmarket Feb: 20th 1790

Dr Sir

I have taken the Liberty of requesting the favour of you to transact an affair of the greatest consequence to my poor Brother George’s Estate, his Acct with united States as an Officer of the 3d Regiment of Light Dragoon, is yet unsettled, a Statement of which by Capt: Barret1 one of his officers and also his Deposition respecting the Accts: are in Mr. Pearce’s2 office, or with the Commissioners at New-York appointed for the purpose of settling the military Acct. What I have to request [is] that his accts may be settled agreeable to Capt. Barret’s Deposition, and exonerated by Congress. In consequence of the accts being unsettle [d] we cannot get My Brother’s final Settlements as well as three or four Hundred Dollars due his Estate. You will confer a singular favour on me for your attention to this Business. I am Dr Sir Yrs.

John Baylor3

RC (DLC). Docketed by JM. A few words, perhaps a portion of the complimentary closing, have been trimmed from the bottom of the one-page letter.

1. William Barret (1756–1815) was born in Louisa County, married Dorothy Winston, and later moved to Kentucky (VMHB description begins Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. description ends , XX [1912], 208; Heitman, Historical Register Continental description begins F. B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution (Washington, 1914). description ends , p. 89).

2. John Pierce.

3. John Baylor (1750–1808) of Newmarket, Caroline County, attended Caius College, Cambridge, and married Frances Norton (Meade, Old Churches, II, 465; VMHB description begins Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. description ends , XXV [1917], 319). Since 1786 George Baylor’s executors had been trying to settle his account. John Baylor’s petition on the subject was submitted to Congress on 22 Mar. 1790, but Secretary Knox’s report on the petition was eventually tabled. The account was not finally settled until the 1830s (JCC description begins Worthington C. Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXXI, 667 n.; DHFC description begins Linda Grant De Pauw et al., eds., Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America (3 vols. to date; Baltimore, 1972—). description ends , III, 337, 338, 485, 488, 515, 522, 728; Resolutions on Revolutionary Claims, pp. 73, 97, 184–85, 232–33).

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Source Project: Madison Papers
Title: To James Madison from John Baylor, 20 February 1790
Author: Baylor, John
Recipient: Madison, James
Date: 20 February 1790

Reference

Cite as: “To James Madison from John Baylor, 20 February 1790,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-13-02-0041. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, vol. 13, 20 January 1790 – 31 March 1791, ed. Charles F. Hobson and Robert A. Rutland. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1981, pp. 59–60.]

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