To Alexander Hamilton from Philip Schuyler, [17 July 1800]
From Philip Schuyler
[Rhinebeck, New York, July 17, 1800]
My Dear Sir
I wrote you from Albany early in the present Month,21 and inclosed copy of a writ served on my brother one of the Executors of My late nephew John C. Schuyler, and intreated of you to enter his appearance at the ensuing term of the Supreme Court.22 The plaintiff is John R. Van Rensselaer who married the Wid⟨ow⟩ of John C. Schuyler and to whom the latter ⟨left⟩ £1000. You will recollect that there ⟨was⟩ a Marriage contract between my brother Cortlandt Schuyler & his wife, which rendered It doubtful If the Executors of John C. Schuyler were authorized to pay the Legacy, and I Intreated you to take such measures as the case required, to Obtain a decision in Chancery on the Effect of the Marriage contract—be pleased to Attend to this business. I remind you of this lest my former letter might have miscarried.
You have forgot to send me the plans of your intended house, with the bill of Scantling. And an Account of what boards and planks will be required for I propo⟨se⟩ to have the boards & plank put into ⟨water⟩ for two months, then taken out, Stacked ⟨and⟩ properly covered, that they may be well Seasoned before they are worked up, because boards purchased at NYork are generally green, and the work made them liable to Shrink.
Mrs. Schuyler & Catherine23 are here with me. They & Philip24 Join In Love to you and my Eliza & the Children
I am My Dear Sir Ever most affectionately yours &ca
Ph: Schuyler
Honl M: G: Hamilton
ALS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
3. Eric Sloane and Edward Anthony, Mr. Daniels and the Grange (New York, 1968), 44; ; II, 500.
4. Certified copy, recorded under the date of April 5, 1827, Conveyances in the Office of the Register, City of New York, Liber 218, 223–26, Hall of Records, New York City.
5. Certified copy, recorded under the date of April 5, 1827, Conveyances in the Office of the Register, City of New York, Liber 218, 226–29, Hall of Records, New York City.
6. Certified copy, recorded under the date of January 7, 1805, Conveyances in the Office of the Register, City of New York, Liber 71, 347–49, Hall of Records, New York City. This conveyance is dated July 6, 1804.
7. Certified copy, recorded under the date of April 5, 1827, Conveyances in the Office of the Register, City of New York, Liber 218, 229–32, Hall of Records, New York City. This conveyance contains a map of H’s second purchase from Bradhurst.
In the Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress, is a bill and a receipt from Bradhurst, which reads:
| the Estate of Genl Alexr. Hamilton deceased Dr. to Doctr. Saml Bradhurst | |
| Sixteen acres two roods & twenty two of Land @ $200. per acre | $3355. |
| to one year & three monts Ins. due commencing the 10th Jany. 1804 to Apl. 11th 1805 | 293.56 |
| 3648.56 |
“Received of Mr John B. Church three thousand Six hundred & forty Eight Dollars & fifty Six Cents being in full for Principal & Interest, for Land Sold the late Genl. Alexander Hamilton.
Saml Bradhurst.”
This document is endorsed: “Gave a Check for this jointly with Mr. C.”
8. For a description of H’s land, see Conveyance from Gouverneur Morris, Rufus King, Egbert Benson, Oliver Wolcott, Jr., and Charles Wilkes to Elizabeth Hamilton, July 6, 1805 (certified copy, recorded under the date of April 5, 1827, Conveyances in the Office of the Register, City of New York, Liber 218, 232–34, Hall of Records, New York City). This conveyance does not mention the three-acre purchase which H made in September, 1800, and only accounts for thirty-two acres. However, an advertisement for the sale of the Grange, which appeared in the New-York Evening Post on December 14, 1804, describes the estate as containing thirty-four acres.
For a description of H’s estate and a map showing the boundaries of his land in relation to present-day Manhattan, see the Seventeenth Annual Report, 1912, of the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society (Albany, 1912), 146–48, Plate 17.
9. McComb to H, October 25, 1800, which is an itemized bill for repair of the farmhouse.
13. See To ———, October 1, 1800, December 8, 1802, March 23, 1804. See also H’s Cash Book, 1795–1804, under the dates of April, May, 1802; June 1, 1804 (AD, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress).
14. See Ezra Weeks’s statement to Elizabeth Hamilton, April 8, 1805 (ADS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress). See also , 185; Weeks’s receipts, January 9, December 2, 1801, April 10, May 1, October 21, 1802, in H’s Cash Book, 1795–1804 (AD, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress); and H’s Cash Book, 1795–1804, under the dates of February, May 12, 27, July 18, 1802, January 6, 1803, April, 1804.
Weeks was the brother of Levi Weeks, whom H had defended in a murder trial early in 1800 (, 185). For the case of the People v Levi Weeks, see , I, 693–774.
15. For itemized costs, see H’s Cash Book, 1795–1804, for entries under the dates of January, 1802, to June 14, 1804 (AD, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress).
17. For reconstructed floor plans of the Grange, see Sloane and Anthony, Mr. Daniels and the Grange, 33–37.
18. Angelica Hamilton was born on September 25, 1784.
19. William Kent, ed., Memoirs and Letters of James Kent, L.L.D (Boston, 1898), 143.
20. , 338.
21. Letter not found.
22. This sentence and the remainder of the paragraph concern the settlement of the estate of John C. Schuyler, the son of Cortlandt Schuyler, who was Philip Schuyler’s deceased brother. John C. Schuyler married Angelica Van Rensselaer, the niece of Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler, Philip Schuyler’s wife. John C. Schuyler died in December, 1793, and his widow married her first cousin, John R. Van Rensselaer, who was the son of Mrs. Philip Schuyler’s brother Robert. John R. Van Rensselaer subsequently instituted a suit against the executors of John C. Schuyler’s estate. H wrote two opinions, dated June 30, 1796, and December 29, 1796, in which he suggested that the case be settled in Chancery (copies, Van Vechten Papers, New York State Library, Albany). Stephen Schuyler, one of Philip Schuyler’s brothers, and Henry J. Van Rensselaer, brother of Mrs. Philip Schuyler and father of Mrs. John R. Van Rensselaer, who were the executors of John C. Schuyler’s estate, began proceedings in Chancery against John R. Van Rensselaer, but as late as May, 1802, the case had not been settled (John R. Van Rensselaer to Philip Schuyler, February 18, 1799 [copy, Schuyler Papers, Box 37, MS Division, New York Public Library]; Thomas L. Ogden to Philip Schuyler, August 12, October 3, December 6, 1800, May 6, 1802 [copies, Schuyler Papers, Box 34, MS Division, New York Public Library]).
23. Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler, Philip Schuyler’s youngest daughter.
24. Philip Jeremiah Schuyler, Philip Schuyler’s youngest surviving son.