From Alexander Hamilton to James Bowne, 17 June 1784
To James Bowne1
[New York] June 17, 1784. “Let me know if you please Whether Philip Palmer and Joseph Palmer2 are both alive or not, and whether Mr. Leonard Lawrence3 is Executor or Administrator to his father, if the former whether there are any other Executors named in his will and now alive.…”4
ALS, Mr. Samuel A. Mehlman, New York City.
1. In , III, 565–66, this letter is listed as a “letter not found.”
Bowne, a resident of Flushing, New York, was a member of the firm of Bowne and Company of New York City, stationers and printers, founded by Daniel Bowne in 1775.
For H’s account with Bowne, see his “Cash Book,” March 1, 1782–1791 (, III, 24).
This letter concerns the suit of Leonard Lawrence executor of Stephen Lawrence deceased v Philip Palmer, which was brought in the January, 1785, term of the New York Supreme Court to recover on a bond of one hundred pounds (Narrative and Oyer [two copies, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress]; Bond, August 16, 1774 (DS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress). Upon the defendant’s default, judgment was entered for the plaintiff on October 19, 1786 (MS Minutes of the New York Supreme Court, 1786 [Hall of Records, New York City]).
2. Philip and Joseph Palmer lived at Throgs (Frogs) Neck in what was at that time the town and county of Westchester, New York.
3. Lawrence, a resident of Flushing, New York, had been a Loyalist during the American Revolution.
4. At the bottom of this letter is written:
“Philop Palmer is living
Jos: do: is Dead
Leonard Lawrence is Executor.”