Receipt to Louis Le Guen, [15 January 1801]
Receipt to Louis Le Guen
[New York, January 15, 1801]
I acknowledge to have received of Louis Le Guen in deposit for the purposes of his marriage contract1 and the surplus for his particular use Eighteen thousand Dollars in Cash a Bond of Aaron Burr conditioned for the payment of Six thousand seven hundred and thirty Dollars and thirteen Cents2 secured by the assignment of five leases and one mortgage in Fee also two notes3 of the said Aaron Burr included in the said Bond and a conveyance of an Interest of one Eighth, in a tract of sixty four thousand Acres held be Nicholas Olive.4 Note most of these articles have been some time since deposited.
AD, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress[@LOC].
1. For this contract, see Le Guen to H, December 27, 1800, note 7; January 15, 1801.
2. For Burr’s indebtedness to Le Guen, see H to Ezra L’Hommedieu, April 4, 1799; Le Guen to H, May 1, May, December 27, 1800.
The bond, which Burr signed on January 13, 1801, reads: “Know all men by these Presents, That I Aaron Burr of the City of New York, am held and firmly bound unto Louis Le Guen at present of Morrisville in the State of Pennsylvania Gentleman in the Sum of Thirteen Thousand five hundred Dollars, to be paid to the said Louis Le Guen, or to his certain Attorney Executors, Administrators, or Assigns, to which payment well and truly to be made, I bind myself, my heirs, Executors, and Administrators firmly by these Presents, Sealed with my Seal: Dated the thirteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and one.
“The Condition of this Obligation is such, that if the above bounden Aaron Burr, his heirs Executors and Administrators, or any of them, shall and do well and truly pay or cause to be paid unto the above mentioned Louis Le Guen or to his certain Attorney Executors Administrators or Assigns the just and full Sum of Six thousand Seven hundred and thirty Dollars, and thirteen Cents on or before the first day of June next, at the Office of the Manhattan Company in the City of New York, then this Obligation to be void, or else to remain in full force and virtue.” (Copy, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California; Judgment Roll, filed October 9, 1817, Law Judgments 1817, B-177 [Hall of Records, New York City].)
3. Le Guen endorsed Burr’s bond: “I do hereby declare that the Amount of two promissory Notes made to me by Aaron Burr Esqr. the one bearing date the 1. Aug. 1798. for Two thousand Dollars, the other bearing date the 17 December. 1798, for Twelve hundred Dollars, both payable on demand & intended to be secured by ten certain Assignments made to me by the said Aaron Burr bearing date respectively on the 1. of August & 16 December 1798, are included in and constitute a part of the within mentioned Sum of Six thousand Seven hundred & thirty 13/100 Dollars, and that upon payment of that Sum, according to the Condition of the said Bond, the said Notes & Securities are to be delivered up and cancelled” (copy, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California). For these loans, see Le Guen to H, May 1, 1800, notes 7 and 8.
4. Olive was a New York City merchant who had emigrated from France to the United States in 1793. He became interested in the Castorland project to establish a French colony on land formerly owned by Alexander Macomb on the Black River in northern New York. At the end of 1801, Olive went to England and then to France.