To Alexander Hamilton from Philip Schuyler, [31 August 1795]
From Philip Schuyler
Albany Monday August 31st: 1795
My Dear Sir
I thank for you[r] favor of the 27th Instant.21 Inclose you a line to Mr Nicholas Low22 who will pay you what money you may want to discharge my proportion of the purchase money,23 in case a compromise or purchase should be made of the Cosby manor lands.
Caty and her Niece24 arrived here this morning at five O’Clock. I most sincerely wish that My Eliza and the Children had Accompanied them. I dread the Sickly months of September, especially Its baneful effects on Children at New York. Pray intreat my Eliza to send them up Whether you & she can Accompany them or not.
I continue so exceedingly weak that I can but barely walk across my room once or twice in a day, It is to be imputed to a profuse and constant perspiration, which has hitherto yielded little to medicine.
The Negro boy & woman are engaged for you. I understand Mr. Witbeck25 has written you on the Subject and that he waits Your Answer finally to conclude the bargain.
We all Join in love, adieu Yours most Affectionately &c
Ph: Schuyler
Alexander Hamilton Esqr.
ALS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. Bleecker was an Albany merchant and land speculator. Goold and Greene were New York City merchants.
For the claim by Schuyler and his associates, see their statement in the [New York] Daily Advertiser, April 24, September 7, 1795. See also Peter Goelet to Robert Morris, April 20, 1795 (copy, Miscellaneous Chancery Papers, American Iron Company, Clerk of the Court of Appeals, Albany, on deposit at Queens College, New York City).
2. Cosby (or Cosby’s) Manor, or the Cosby Patent, comprised two tracts on either side of the Mohawk River. One tract consisted of “20,000 acres of land, on both sides of the Mohawk river, (Schuyler, and Frankfort, Herkimer Co.,)” and the other of “22,000 acres of land, on both sides of the Mohawk river, (Deerfield, Marcy, Utica and New Hartford, Oneida Co.,)” (Calendar of N.Y. Colonial Manuscripts: Indorsed Land Papers; in the Office of the Secretary of State of New York. 1643–1803 [Albany, 1864], 1003).
3. [New York] Daily Advertiser, April 24, 1795.
4. For information on the American Iron Company, see Charles S. Boyer, Early Forges & Furnaces in New Jersey (Philadelphia, 1931), 12–22.
5. For information on Hasenclever, a native of Westphalia, and his management of the American Iron Company, see Irene D. Neu, “The Iron Plantations of Colonial New York,” New York History, XXXIII (January, 1952), 11–19; Gerhard Spieler, “Peter Hasenclever, Industrialist,” Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, LIX (October, 1941), 231–54; and Peter Hasenclever, The Remarkable Case of Peter Hasenclever … (London, 1773).
6. Lawrence Reade and Richard Yates to the American Iron Company, February 3, 1773 (ALS, Miscellaneous Chancery Papers, American Iron Company, Clerk of the Court of Appeals, Albany, on deposit at Queens College, New York City); undated statement describing “the Manor of Cosby” (D, Miscellaneous Chancery Papers, American Iron Company, Clerk of the Court of Appeals, Albany, on deposit at Queens College, New York City); [New York] Daily Advertiser, September 7, 1795.
7. [New York] Daily Advertiser, September 7, 1795; The [New York] Herald, A Gazette for the Country, November 24, 1794, July 15, 1795.
Goelet was a New York City merchant. Robert Morris, who should not be confused with the “financier” of the same name, was a United States judge of the District of New Jersey and the former chief justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey. Popham, a resident of Scarsdale in Westchester County, New York, was clerk of the New York Court of Exchequer from its founding in 1786 until its abolition in 1828. This court, which was a division of the state Supreme Court, had jurisdiction over all matters “concerning Fines, Forfeitures, Issues, Amerciaments, and Debts due to the People of this State” (New York Laws, 9th Sess., Ch. IX [February 9, 1786]).
8. [New York] Daily Advertiser, September 7, 1795; The [New York] Herald, A Gazette for the Country, November 24, 1794, July 15, 1795.
9. Boyer, Early Forges & Furnaces in New Jersey, 22.
Bond had served in the United States as a representative of the British government since 1786. His first appointment was as British consul for the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. In addition, he was commissary for commercial affairs of all the states. The Continental Congress, however, recognized him only as British consul for Philadelphia. From February, 1793, until 1812 or 1813, Bond was British consul general for the middle and southern states, and from August, 1795, until March, 1796, he served as Britain’s chargé d’affaires.
10. H to Bond, September 1, 1795; Morris to Goelet and Popham, May 31, 1794 (ALS, Miscellaneous Chancery Papers, American Iron Company, Clerk of the Court of Appeals, Albany, on deposit at Queens College, New York City).
12. For the trustees’ advertisements for the land sales, see The [New York] Herald, A Gazette for the Country, July 15, November 11, 1795; [New York] Daily Advertiser, September 7, 1795.
13. This figure has been taken from the undated statement describing “the Manor of Cosby” (D, Miscellaneous Chancery Papers, American Iron Company, Clerk of the Court of Appeals, Albany, on deposit at Queens College, New York City). In H to Bleecker, March 20, 1796, H puts the number of acres at 6,761.
14. The quotation is from the undated statement describing “the Manor of Cosby” (D, Miscellaneous Chancery Papers, American Iron Company, Clerk of the Court of Appeals, Albany, on deposit at Queens College, New York City). All other information in this and the following paragraph, unless otherwise indicated, has been taken from H to Bleecker, March 20, 1796, April 5, 1797; Goelet to H, June 25, 27, 1796, May 30, August 21, September 21, 1799, May 16, 1800; “Receipt from Peter Goelet,” October 4, 1796; Goelet, Morris, and Popham to H, December 18, 1798; and the undated “Acct. of Money Received on Sales of Land of American Iron Company both principal & interest,” enclosed in Goelet to H, May 16–18, 1800.
15. This is the figure given in the enclosure to Goelet to H, May 16–18, 1800. In Goelet to H, June 27, 1796, the figure is £605.13.4, and the equivalent in dollars is put at $1,514.18.
16. For these collections, see entries in H’s Cash Book, 1795–1804 (AD, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress; also in , forthcoming volumes), under the following dates: December 16, 17, 19, 1795; January 8, March 23, April 6, September 14, October 11, November 5, 1796; April 14, May 17, 1797. H never did receive all the money which was owed by Greene. In a document which he drew up shortly before his duel with Aaron Burr and which he entitled “Statement of my property and Debts July 1. 1804,” H made the following entry under the heading of “Good Debts”: “Due me from W Greene on account of a Purchase of Trustees of Ringwood Company on the Guaranty of P. Schuyler & others say principal & interest abt … [$]500.”
17. These payments are listed in Goelet to H, May 16–18, 1800.
19. Peter P. Goelet to Robert Morris, May 15, 1800 (ALS, Miscellaneous Chancery Papers, American Iron Company, Clerk of the Court of Appeals, Albany, on deposit at Queens College, New York City). Subsequently Peter Goelet stated that the amount still owed on December 24, 1799, was $126.94. See Goelet’s note written on Morris to Goelet, January 6, 1801 (AL, Miscellaneous Chancery Papers, American Iron Company, Clerk of the Court of Appeals, Albany, on deposit at Queens College, New York City).
20. Goelet to Morris, April 20, 1802 (ALS, Miscellaneous Chancery Papers, American Iron Company, Clerk of the Court of Appeals, Albany, on deposit at Queens College, New York City).
Shortly before his duel with Burr, H estimated in the “Statement of my property and Debts July 1. 1804” that the “sum still unpaid to the Trustees [was] ab. [$]250.”
21. Letter not found.
22. Nicholas Low was a New York City merchant and a director of the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures.
23. For Low’s payment, see the entry under December 19, 1795, in H’s Cash Book, 1795–1804 (AD, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress; also in , forthcoming volumes).
24. Schuyler is referring to his wife, Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler, and to one of Robert Van Rensselaer’s daughters.
25. Thomas L. Witbeck was an estate manager for Stephen Van Rensselaer.