Alexander Hamilton Papers

To Alexander Hamilton from John Lowell, Junior, 19 December 1795

From John Lowell, Junior1

Boston, December 19, 1795. “I … enclose to you two notes of hand against two Gentlemen in New York for 750 dollars each.2 The money you perceive ought to have been long since paid and I am informed that the nonpayment has not been occasioned by inability. The notes were put into my hands to collect under the expectation that ye parties would have been in this place some time since. Having no acquaintance with any profissional Gentlemen in your City, I have taken ye liberty to forward them to you.…”3

ALS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.

1Lowell, a Boston attorney, was the son of John Lowell, the United States judge for the District of Massachusetts.

2Lowell’s letter concerns the collection of two notes signed by Edward and Elias Parker. An entry in H’s Law Register, 1795–1804, on this case reads:

“Sup. Court } No Retainer
£800 upon Promise
Isaac Parker
& Oliver Mann
v
Edward Parker
& Elias Parker
June 14th [1796] Capias
June 20
requested Sheriff not to serve writ at request of
Plaintiff Isaac Parker
See Letter Lowel June 15 P. Hole
returned papers ended”

(D, partially in H’s handwriting, New York Law Institute, New York City; also in Goebel, Law Practice description begins Julius Goebel, Jr., ed., The Law Practice of Alexander Hamilton: Documents and Commentary (New York and London, 1964–). description ends , forthcoming volumes). Isaac Parker, a lawyer in Castine, District of Maine, was a member of the House of Representatives from 1797 to 1799. Oliver Mann was a Boston physician. Edward Parker is listed in the New York City directories from 1791 to 1796 as a merchant. Elias Parker is probably the same Elias Parker who during the American Revolution was first a cadet in the Third Continental Artillery and then a lieutenant in the First Massachusetts Regiment. After the war, he served as a captain in the Virginia militia. See Benjamin Goodhue to H, December 8, 1798. The capias, dated May 7, 1796, is in the Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress. Lowell’s letter to H, dated June 15, 1796, has not been found.

3H endorsed this letter: “John Lowel Jun with two Notes of hand. See Rect for Notes within.”

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