George Washington Papers
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Indenture with John Cowper, 17 May 1791

Indenture with John Cowper

17 May 1791

[Gates County, N.C., 17 May 1791]. John Lewis as GW’s attorney conveys to John Cowper four tracts (approximately 1,093½ acres) of land at White Oaks Spring, Gates County, N.C., originally purchased by GW and Fielding Lewis from Marmaduke Norfleet on 26 April 1766. Signed and sealed by Lewis and witnessed by Dempsey Copeland, Riddick Hunter, Thomas Mann, and Arthur Jones.1

Typescript, NcU: Southern Historical Collection (Richard Green Cowper Papers).

1For the background to this land transaction, see particularly Deed from Marmaduke Norfleet, 26 April 1766, John Lewis to GW, 15 Dec. 1787, 7 Dec. 1788, and George Augustine Washington to GW, 7 Dec. 1790 and note 7. On 18 May 1791 Lewis and Cowper signed another indenture before the same witnesses, by which Cowper paid Lewis five shillings and promised to remit at least £600 Virginia currency in the following manner: £200 interest free to be paid on or before 1 Sept. 1791, £200 and one year’s interest to be paid on or before 18 May 1792, and the balance of £200 plus interest due by 18 May 1793. If Cowper did not meet the terms, Lewis would be at liberty to sell the land at public auction (Richard Green Cowper Papers, NcU). For correspondence concerning Cowper’s difficulty in meeting the terms of the sale, see GW to Cowper, 3 Oct. 1792, 26 Oct. 1793, and 27 Jan., 9 Mar., 30 July, and 4 Sept. 1794.

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