Enclosure: Executive Order to Thomas Beall and John Mackall Gantt, 10 November 1796
Enclosure
Executive Order to Thomas Beall and John Mackall Gantt
[10 Nov. 1796]
To Thomas Beall of George, and John M. Gantt, greeting—
Whereas in and by certain Deeds executed by Amos Smith and others, whereby the whole Land of the Said Amos Smith and others, situated in the Town of Carrollsburgh and also of Hamburgh (now included in the City of Washington) is vested in you, subject to the Trusts in the said Deeds mentioned;1 and whereas all the Lands belonging to Minors, persons absent out of the State, married women, or persons non compos mentis,2 or Lands the property of the State, are, by an Act of the Assembly of the State of Maryland, intituled, “An Act concerning the Territory of Columbia and the City of Washington” subjected to the terms and conditions recited in the before-mentioned Deeds from Amos Smith and others;3 and whereas all the other Lands, belonging as aforesaid, within the limits of the said City of Washington are subjected to the same terms and conditions as Notley Young, Daniel Carroll of Duddington and others, have subjected their Lands to, by their Deeds of trust,4 respectively, and where no conveyances have been made, the legal Estate and Trust are, by the said Act of Assembly, vested in you, in the same manner as if each proprietor had been competent to make, and had made a legal conveyance of his or her Land, according to the form of those already mentioned, with proper acknowledgement of the execution thereof and where necessary for the release of Dower;5 and whereas it is provided in and by the several Deeds of trust mentioned in the before in part recited Act of Assembly, that you shall on the request of the President of the United-States for the time being, convey all or any part of the Land which shall not then be conveyed, in execution of the Trusts aforesaid to such person or persons as he shall appoint, in fee-Simple—I do therefore in order to prevent any difficulties which may arise in the execution of the said Trusts, request you to convey all the Lands in the Towns of Carrollsburgh and Hamburgh vested in you by the said Deeds from Amos Smith and others; and also, all Land in the said City of Washington vested in you by virtue of the before in part recited Act of Assembly, to Gustavus Scott, William Thornton and Alexander White; Commissioners appointed under the Act of Congress, intituled, “an Act for establishing the temporary and permanent Seat of the Government of the United States”6 in fee-Simple, subject to the Trusts yet remaining to be executed; and you are further requested to convey, in like manner, to the said Gustavus Scott, William Thornton and Alexander White, a certain Island or part of an Island situate in Aquia Creek, in the County of Stafford and Commonwealth of Virginia, conveyed to you by George Brent, subject to the Trusts in the Deed of the said George Brent yet remaining to be executed.7 Given under my hand, this tenth day of November in the Year One thousand seven hundred and ninety Six.
Go: Washington
DS, DLC: U.S. Commissioners of the City of Washington records; copy, DLC: Presidential MSS—General: Letters of the Presidents of the United States. The cover of the DS contains the following note: “This is advised to be cancelled.” A note on the copy indicates that the “True Copy” was “Recorded the 1st day of December 1796.” The commissioners had sent GW this document and requested his approval and signature (see Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 3 Nov., and n.3 to that document). GW submitted this order to Attorney General Charles Lee to solicit his views on its contents (see GW to Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 26 Dec., and n.3 to that document). This document pertains to the commissioners’ request that land appropriated for public use be conveyed to them by the trustees (see their first letter to GW of 1 Oct.).
1. The original federal district proprietors, with the exception of those with property within the small unofficial municipalities of Hamburgh and Carrollsburg, had agreed in March 1791 to convey in trust their land to trustees Beall and Gantt for the development of the Federal City. In February and March 1791, proprietors of Hamburgh and Carrollsburgh lots consented to convey their land to the federal government in exchange for either compensation or lots in the Federal City (see Agreement of the Proprietors of the Federal District, 30 March 1791, and the source note to that document; see also Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 3 Nov. 1796, and n.1).
According to a “List of squares and lots assigned to the original proprietors … as per terms of agreement between the commissioners of public buildings and the original proprietors, March 30, 1791,” Amos Smith was assigned lot three in squares eighty-eight and eighty-nine in exchange “for lot 163 in Hamburgh” (U.S. Senate, Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 57th Cong., 1st sess. [Washington, D.C., 1901–2], 5–6). The entry “Amos Smith lot 3 sq 88 lot 3 sq 89” appeared on an 1804 list “of Lands and Lots” in the “County of Washington, In the District of Columbia,” on which “there is no personal property to pay the said taxes” (National Intelligencer, and Washington Advertiser, 19 Sept. 1804). Smith was an “Insolvent Debtor” in a Washington, D.C., jail in 1805 (see Washington Federalist [Georgetown], 26 June 1805).
2. This Latin legal phrase is used to characterize the insane or persons of unsound mind.
3. The Maryland “ACT concerning the territory of Columbia and the city of Washington,” 19 Dec. 1791, had required that all land belonging to minors, married women, and other persons “within the limits of Carrollsburgh and Hamburgh,” be “subjected to the terms” of other property conveyed by proprietors. For other contents of the law, which required landholders in Carrollsburg or Hamburgh to “execute deeds in trust … of all their lots,” see , 2: Nov. 1791 Session, chap. 45; see also Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 3 Nov., and n.1 to that document.
4. Notley Young and Daniel Carroll of Duddington owned extensive tracts in the federal district extending from Carrollsburg. Both had signed the agreement of 30 March 1791 to convey their property to the United States (see Commission, 22 Jan. 1791; see also Agreement of Proprietors of the Federal District, 30 March 1791, and the source note to that document). The 1791 Maryland act (see n.3 above) noted that “Notley Young, Daniel Carroll … came into an agreement, and have conveyed their lands in trust to Thomas Beall … and John Mackall Gantt.”
5. This phrasing is taken from Article III of the 1791 Maryland act.
6. For this act, see 130.
7. George Brent had owned Higginston Island near the mouth of Aquia Creek, a tributary of the Potomac River in Stafford County, Virginia. Pierre Charles L’Enfant and the commissioners negotiated with him for the purchase of his property because of its sandstone quarry (see Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 21 Dec. 1791, and n.3 to that document; see also L’Enfant to GW, 17 Jan. 1792, and its enclosure; and , 1:169).
George Brent (c.1762–1804) of Stafford County had served as an officer in the Revolutionary War and was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1789.