From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, [3 September 1798]
To Timothy Pickering
[New York, September 3, 1798]
Dr. Sir
As I imagine you are acquainted with the Inhabitants of Wilkesburgh or Wilksborough in Pensylvania & the neighbouring Country,1 I take the liberty to request information of some trusty, intelligent, active young lawyer in that quarter to be entrusted with the management of some land concerns of importance in which my Brother in law Mr Church is interested.2 You will of course suppose that in suits which may occur, able Counsel in Philadelphia will be added. But it is desireable to have near the scene a clever fellow to be entrusted with the formal parts, with the detection of intrusions, with negotiations &c. Your answer as early as convenient will oblige
Yrs. truly
A Hamilton
T Pickering Esqr.
ALS, Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
1. In 1787 Pickering had been appointed the agent of the state of Pennsylvania to organize the new county of Luzerne located in the Wyoming Valley, and to settle disputes between Connecticut settlers in the Wyoming Valley and the state of Pennsylvania. On August 12, 1791, he was appointed Postmaster General of the United States and moved to Philadelphia.
2. For these lands and John B. Church’s interest in them, see the introductory note to Tench Coxe to H, February 13, 1795.