Had I not a great deal of fortitude to leave Philadelphia on Good Friday, although so much happiness was promised me if I had staid?

     I recieved a Letter from Colo. Ball a few days past, in which he requested me to inclose to you his land Warrants, in order that you may have them conveyed to the Surveyor General by Feby to entitle them to the privilidge of first location— I now send them— I am sorry that it has not been in my power to dispose of them as advantageously as Colo. Ball wished— The price which at present is given currently for them is nine pence, an offer which cannot even be listened to, unless <mutilated> who make them objects of Speculation.

Without attempting to make an apology for allowing your two last favours to remain so long unanswered, I will at once inform you my reasons for it, and submit the validity of them to your Judgment— Your first Letter came to hand whilst Colo.

     There is no one to whom I am so much indebted in the Letter way as yourself, and I'll assure there are few Debtors who take so much pleasure in discharging these accounts As I do when you are Creditor— I am not only contented with repaying you Letter for Letter, but the Bargain always turns out so much in my favor, that I think myself called upon by Gratitude to acknowledge the superior obligation You confer.

I had the happiness to recieve your last letter, and permit me to return you many thanks for the favor— I am pleased to find that you have had the goodness to admit of my apologies for my long silence, and I am determined that I will not in future give you any reason to condemn your own generosity, or to suspect my sincerity— The incertainty of your place of abode was always a discouraging circumstance, and raised in me the fears of a miscarriage, than which nothing can be more disagreable, or more destructive of a free and easy Correspondence.

After having so often neglected to write you for some time past rather from necessity than inclination, and from a sense of your goodness in forgiving me, and in admitting those excuses which one less generous would have been more tenacious of, I am determined to shew myself not entirely unworthy of your benevolent disposition towards me, by omitting to embrace any opportunity which can afford safety to my Letters— I say, safety, because I never can meet with any conveyance which goes nearer to you than Fredg where they are necessarily left to the conduct of Chance,

Yes, it is a long year indeed, and by a Son's Calendar two, since he has known the happiness resulting from the company and instructing conversation of his beloved Parents— He often sees them in idea, and their sentiments remain impressed on his mind; but ideal Pleasure is a poor substitute, for real, nor is the expression of the Pen equal to that of speech— The Prospect before me is pleasing, perhaps too much so—to attain it, I rather hurry, than make haste— A few months will alter my situation from Infancy to Manhood— I would wish that my studies should terminate with th

To anyone but yourself my first words would utter murmurs of complaint for this long, unexpected and disagreeable silence; but as I am too well acquainted with your sentiments of affection & attention to your children to concieve that anything but adverse accidents could have produced this seeming neglect, I must only lament as a misfortune what I cannot censure as a fault.

I have at length moved my Lodgings and find myself placed in the most disagreable situation that I ever expected to be— The British people whose House I have left mean to detain the articles I have there untill payment is made, and I have reason from their threats last night to apprehend the worst which my situation & the advantage it has given them over me can warrant— I have no chance to save myself from what my Sensibility abhors, but the performance of your oblidging promise— I had no way left me to appease them for a moment, but by promising to pay them to Day, ev

Your Health concerning which I have been very uneasy papa writes me he thinks is better this is a Comfort which would have been great indeed had I not too credulously prided myself up with the hopes of hearing of a total Recovery However I earnestly pray that by the greatest attention on the Doctors side & care on yours this last will be soon affected.

I Got to Wakefield last night & was very happy to find the family so much Recover'd but was particularly surpris'd to see how Hannah had mended who I believed knew me as no one else she would Go to from there the next day I arrived in Town very much fatigued.

Jerry returning from Frederick gives me an opportunity of writing to you but seems so much in haste that I must measure my letter by my time & write only for those things which I am most in want off. but I will first write all the news in Town least you should not have heard it. There is a Handbill in which there is a treaty of alliance between France & America that they declare us Independent States & are to assist us to support in that we are to aid one another in any dispute whatsoever.

The uneasiness I have suffer'd since the reception of yours can scarcely be exprest. Is it possible you can believe I could be so lost to every Idea of Gratitude as to forget my duty to the best of parents to whom I owe my being & everything else which has rais'd me above the meanest of my species? I cannot conjecture by what means you could possibly be inform'd of a Report which never had any other foundation than the busy tongues of tho<se> who seem to wish for Strife.

     The petitions of Bushrod Washington and Lawrence Lewis acting Executors of George Washington deceased respectfully sheweth that on the decree pronounced by this Honorable Court on the 22nd day of the last April Session of this Court in the cross suits of Mary D. Washington Executrix of Lawrence A. Washington decd and others against your petitioners, and your petitioners William L.

     the Memorial of the Merchants and others residing in the Counties in Virginia & Maryland which border on the Potowmack River most respectfully sheweth

     The difference between the first sales & the resales upwards of $29000. The only prin. on which the revaluation of Russels property could be made was that Colo. W. was no party to the first. If he were & the proceed. obligat. on him the resales were not because to that he did not consent. If he were not, then the value of Russels prop. Shd be consid. as of the date of the orginial val. & of course int.

     the sd Lee to convey to the said Washington with a general warranty Six Lotts of ground in Alexandria in Griffiths addtion, the said Lotts to be chosen by the sd Washington in any part of the sd addition, belonging to sd Lee & to include Jones's Lotts & Brick House if sd Washington chuses, should any of the Lotts so to be chosen by sd Washington be smaller than Lott No. 46, in the sd addition the sd deficiency to be made up in some other Lott, but should any Lott be larger it is to Cuont as a Lott & no more.