To Alexander Hamilton from Henry A. Williams, 31 March 1798
From Henry A. Williams1
New York, March 31, 1798. “I am again necessitated to write you from this gloomy place (Viz. the Goal) where a trifling sum … holds me. You will therefore I hope excuse me for Troubling you and as Imediately as possible take the Necessary Steps to Recover that Money.…”
ALS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. When he was not in jail, Williams was a grocer at 102 Broad Street in New York City (David Longworth, Longworth’s American Almanack, New-York Register, and City Directory for the Twenty-Third Year of American Independence … [New York, 1798]).
H was Williams’s attorney in the suit of John Schenck, Hendrick Schenck, Abraham Schenck, Letty Schenck, and Margaret Schenck by Frederick Froelinghuysen her next Friend v Paul Schenck and Henry A. Williams (MS Minutes of the New York Court of Chancery, under the date of December 14, 1797 [Hall of Records, New York City]).
For H’s earlier service as Williams’s attorney in matters involving the Schencks, see H’s “Cash Book,” March 1, 1782–1791.