To Alexander Hamilton from Benjamin Grymes, 17 December 1789
From Benjamin Grymes
Virga. Chatham1 Decr. 17th. 89
My Dear Sir
I wrote to you some weeks past upon some interesting business to my self and desired an immediate answer, I fear my letter2 has miscarried as I have had no answer, therefore I must trouble you again on the subject. Mr. Robt. Morris has informed me that he expected, that the insurance of a Ship called the Aurora would be paid this winter in Certificates, (I suppose by you), which I wish to know the value of as soon as possible, as I have an offer made me for my proportion of sd. Ship. I would wish also to be informed what she was insured at, and what the present value of her is; including the interest. She was Chartered of J. Richards.3 Josiah Watson4 & J. Hall & J. Horner all of Virga. by Benjn. Harrison5 agent to Mr. Morris for the secret Committee of Congress and principally insured by the Publick I am told. I must beg your frienly aid in this affair, as I have been obliged to pay a large sum of money for one of the partners viz. John Horner, who has given me full power to dispose of his one sixth part to reimburse me but fear it will not be nearly sufficient. Pray write me fully on the subject and by the first Stage. Direct to me near Fredk. to the care of Wm Fitzhugh of Chatham who joins me in Compts and best wishes to you from yr. sincr &c.
Benjamin Grymes
ALS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. “Chatham” was the Fitzhugh family estate in Fairfax County, Virginia. William Fitzhugh, who had been a member of the Continental Congress, was Grymes’s uncle.
3. John Richards was Robert Morris’s clerk.
4. Josiah Watson and Company, a Virginia mercantile firm.
5. Benjamin Harrison, son of Benjamin Harrison, a signer of the Constitution, was commission agent for Robert Morris during the American Revolution. He acted through Morris for the Second Committee of Correspondence of the Continental Congress.