To Alexander Hamilton from Barbara Moland, 19 June 1797
From Barbara Moland1
St. Vincent [Windward Islands] June 19, 1797. “I hope you will excuse the liberty I take in addressing this to you, but … your former attention to the late M Joseph Moland in the business between Mr John Stephens and him on a Bond Sent by Sir John St Clair to Mr Moland—Induces me to hope you will let me know; if by the last treaty with Great Britain, whether I can get the lands that was made Over to Mr Moland by his Nephew Sir John St Clair, Situated on the East Side of Lake Champlain in the County of Albany granted to Sir J: St Clairs Father …2 As Mr Moland has left a Son and two Daughters and I being nearest of Kin to them I would esteem it a very great favor if you Sir woud Act for them and See if you could get Possession of this land or Even a Compensation for them.…”
ALS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. This letter concerns the estate of Sir John St. Clair, who was deputy quartermaster general in America from 1755 to 1767. In 1762 he married Betsey Moland, the oldest daughter of John Moland, a lawyer in Philadelphia. St. Clair purchased a country seat near Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he lived until his death in 1767. He was survived by one son, who became Sir John St. Clair, fourth Baronet. See Charles R. Hildeburn, “Sir John St. Clair, Baronet, Quarter-Master General in America, 1755 to 1767,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, IX (1885), 12–13.
2. The land in question consisted of two tracts—one of five thousand acres and the other of ten thousand acres—in what is now Addison County, Vermont. The statement made by Barbara Moland that the property was in “the County of Albany” arose from the fact that when the grants were made before the American Revolution, the land east of Lake Champlain was claimed by the province of New York. See , 334, 393, 402, 527, 529.