To Alexander Hamilton from John Ross, [29 November 1791]
From John Ross1
[Philadelphia, November 29, 1791]
Dear Sir
The inclosed2 is Sent for your peruseal, and the letter Sketched for Mr Flint3 for your consideration, and to be altered by you if necessary. If however approved to be Sent in its present form, be pleased to Sign it, and I shall, convey it to be signed by the Other Commissioners,4 at N York & delivered. Excuse my troubling you.
With much Respect I am Yours &ca
J: Ross
Nov. 29th. 1791.
Alexander Hamilton Esqr.
LS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. Ross was a Philadelphia merchant.
This letter deals with the complicated negotiations that attended the liquidation of Daniel Parker and Company. In 1788 Andrew Craigie, who was Parker’s agent, concluded an agreement with Parker’s Philadelphia creditors. Under this agreement a board of trustees or arbitrators, on which the creditors were to be represented, was to be established to settle the various claims. As trustees Craigie wished to have H, William Seton, John Murray, Jonathan Burrall, John Ross, and John Holker. It is not possible to ascertain whether all these men agreed to serve as commissioners, but Ross’s letter to H indicates that both were trustees. The trustees’ efforts to satisfy Parker’s Philadelphia creditors are described briefly in , I, 254–59.
2. See enclosure, Royal Flint to Ross, November 15, 1791.
Originally a resident of Connecticut, Flint became a prominent New York businessman. In the seventeen-eighties he had been closely associated in several business ventures with William Duer and Jeremiah Wadsworth.
3. See enclosure, Trustees for Daniel Parker and Company to Flint, November 30, 1791.
4. I.e., the trustees. See note 1.