I recd. your letter of the 22d Feby on Friday last—1 Judge Benson2 being still at Albany I could not consult him, but I called the next morning on Sir James & offered to pay him the Ballance of your Acct. deducting the £50 due on his agreement to you— He said he was willing to settle in this way & I thereupon offered gave him a Check for the Money & drew a Receipt for him to sign in these words— “Recd. New York 25 Febry. 1809 of John Jay two hundred & twenty six pounds eight Shillings & seven pence in full of the Ballance due from him to me as one of the Residuary Devisees of our Father Peter Jay decd.”3 And I wa To this Receipt he objected because it was in full— I told him it was time a final Settlement shd take place & that if he had any Objections to the Account you had rendered, they might better be discussed before than after a payment of the Ballance— He answered that he wished for a final Settlement, that he did not deny the Account wa to be correct tho for want of Vouchers with which to compare ^it^ he could not admit it to be so—That he wd give a Receipt for so much money due him as one of his fathers residuary Legatees— That he did not want the money & I might pay it or not as I pleased— I replied that the Account had been long rendered, that I understood he had consented to receive the Ballance as being all that was due upon it— That a Receipt on account always implied that more was due—And that in short I could ^only^ pay the Money upon an understanding that the Settlement was final— After these Ideas had been sufficiently pressed on both sides he persisted in refusing a Receipt in full & I to pay in refusing to pay the money without one— I therefore took back my Check— He ^then^ changed the Subject of Conversation asked about your Health, made many Inquiries about our family, & singularly enough told that he wished you to acquaint him with all you knew concerning our Ancestors at the time of their leaving France & all the Anecdotes you c[oul]d collect concerning them, together with the His[tor]y. of the Cortlandt Family— & he desired me to mention this to you—

On Monday he wrote me a note desiring me to call upon him which he I did— He said he had sent for me to make ^me^ more fully understand his Reasons for declining to give such a Receipt as I had required— after recapitulating his former objections he added this new one— That since rendering the Account you had in all probabilityly received more moneys belonging to Grandpapa’s ^your fathers^ Estate, all share in which wa he would relinquish by a Receipt in full— I answered that I had no reason to suppose you had recd such moneys but that as I was ignorant on that Subject I would be content for ^with^ a Receipt in full of the Ballance of the Account rendered. He said that he had not for a long time seen that Account, but that he wd look for & consider it. On Wednesday he wrote me that he had found it, & the next morning I called on him again when he offered & proposed & I rejected several forms of Receipts till at length we agreed that I should make an exact Copy of the Account itself & that he should write a Receipt under it in the following words—

Received in New York, March 2. 1809 of John Jay Esqr. by the hands of Peter A. Jay two hundred & twenty six pounds 8/7 in full of my share of the Balance of the above account. James Jay—

This was according executed, & I gave him a Receipt under the for the £50 under the Copy of the Agreem[en]t which you sent me, & paid him $441.07 equal to £176.8.7— I forgot to mention that at my first visit he said he wished to have the Accounts settled that related to Uncle Augustus’s Estate—4

Mary has had a fright but luckily has suffered nothing else— She caught a Cold a few Days ago which produced a swelled Breast— but by the immediate application of proper Remedies the swelling was entirely dispersed—

Mr. Munro has not yet returned. I hope your Health continues to mend— My best love to Nancy I am &c