Having recd from the debtor legatees during the winter & this summer pretty respectable payments we are enabled to make a dividend of which I now notify the Creditor legatees. your dividend & share of Commissions, as well as mine, amounts to $772.10 for which I can send you a check on the Charlestown on recieving from you a letter stating your return to Audley from below. We leave this tomorrow for Bath. I wrote to cousin Carter about her dividend, which you no doubt will attend to. Believe me truly & affectly your

     I will look over & consider Doctr Masons letter & then write to you on the subject. It is probable that I can decide upon nothing positively until I have seen Mr Whipple, who is at the head of the Free Mason plan, & this will be early next month.

     You will please add your name to the letters to Mrs Tod, Robt Lewis, Samuel Washington, to which you will also give the proper direction— W. L. M. Spotswood— and Washington Thornton— These you will please Seal & forward by post or otherwise— If you can give a more precise direction to the last of these letters, I will thank you to do so.— The two letters to Mr Carter and Mrs E. Lewis are sent merely that you may give them the proper direction, and then to Seal & forward.

I wrote to Mr Moore for his statement of Ransoms debt, & recieved for answer that Ransoms statement was correct provided he is entitled to $897 paid the commissioners. This is quite a new item to me which I do not understand. Will you be so good as to send me that Statement by the bearer that I may examine it? I am anxious to know what sum to debit you with on that account, & also affix the value of the bank stock that we must do tomorrow in town, <illegible> I can make the transfers <mutilated> you. yrs affectly

I send you the only letter from Doct Jenifer which I can find. But before you take the trouble of a ride to Port Tobacco, will it not be well to enquire whether the debt is not so clearly barred by the act of limitations as to render the case desperate? I do not know the nature of it— In great haste I am most sincerely & affectly yrs

I intended this morning to give you an early call & take my breakfast at Woodlawn, partly with a view to talk with you on the subject of the Dismal Swamp Share, but the heat was so oppressive, that I put on my roundabout intending to stop at my meadow, & then recollecting that you had company I declined fulfilling my first intention on that account.

Your circular of the 3d January past, requesting my consent to an amicable suit for the settlement of your accounts as Executors of the Estate of General Washington, is before me.

I have settled fully with Mr Herbert on the Terms you mention except that I have made the interest on his bond for the $1086 due on the McLeans business to run from 1st July 1822 somewhat later perhaps than the day he recd the mony, but before which he shd not have invested it—  The difference at most is trifling— The $2 is a mistake as I paid it in 1821 &; have detailed it in my acct.

     The arrangement I have made with Doctor Peake to which the release accompanying this relates is intended SWth further to secure Walkers debt & places it beyond all question— you will please put your signature opposite to the lower Seal & acknowledge in the presence of two Witnesses & return it to me— Having Company I wrote in great haste. Affectly yrs

     Above is a check for $90 for the 30 bbs Corn for Bushrod.

     you proposed sharing with me in furnishing the bearer with clothes. These I have provided for her amounting to about $4.66.— If you can conveniently furnish her this year or 'till she can be got under the care of the overseers of the poor, with meal or Corn as your mill it will be about equal to the clothes. I propose this on account of her wandering life & my long absences from home to prevent her from suffering from her allowance not being regularly sent for.

     Altho much too unwell to attend to business of any intricacy or which requires a reference to papers, there can be little difficulty in making the necessary observations upon Mr Hammonds claim. In the first place I do not believe that in the contract with H. we engaged to assign Ashtons Mortgage, for if we had, I presume he would have called for it. Neither do I think that if it had been assigned, it would have entitled Mr H.

     I got nearly as far as your mill today to take leave of you & Mrs L. before our departure from home, and also to see you on the business to which the accompanying letter relates; but was informed by your ditchers that you & Mrs L. had not returned from Georgetown, but were expected today. as I shall leave home on Saturday and shall be very much employed in the mean time in making my preparations, I am not sure that I can visit W.L.

     I recd your letter & now, she much hurried, sit down to acknowledge it.

     I enclose you the Copy of my letter to Mr Lee & his answer recieved yesterday, for your information in settling with Alexander. You will see what were my propositions, which, as I understand Mr Lee, are accepted. As you are not much acquainted with business of this kind, I think it will be best for you to meet Mr Alexander in Alexandria, if your health will permit, and get Mr Hewett, the lawyer I employed to sue Alexander, to draw the necessary writings.

     It has been my intention for some days past to dine at Woodlawn, provided the weather should be such as to render it not imprudent to turn out with a bad cold on me— Instead of being allowed this gratification, I have been confined to the house for at least a fortnight, and now the time has just come when I must take my departure for Washington— You & my friend Mrs L. must therefore take the will & the wish for the deed.

     I have endeavoured to read and to understand Mr Diggs facetious letter but I must acknowledge that I very indistinctly comprehend it. Mr Stones, I do, and I clearly agree with him that we ought to refer the suit, and I would advise you to write to him to that effect, and to have the reference made a rule of Court. We can have no objection to either of the gentlemen he mentions, or to any other man of character in Alexandria.

     I purchased 10 barrels of Corn the other day, out of which I will supply the free Negroes with the quantity you mention, that is a bushel per month to each. I shall have to purchase more to last Bushrod & myself to the end of the year & will at the same time lay in for the free people. I presume they carry it themselves to the mill— if they cant do this, I must send it for them. Affectly yrs

     I have stated the accounts of the purchasing legatees, as far as the papers in my possession will permit. I am satisfied that they are very imperfect & in some instances perhaps erroneous, but I hope your papers will enable you to supply omissions & to correct mistakes. In going over them, I wish you to compare them with the Commissioners former account, from which my statement differs in some instances beyond my capacity to explain.

     I did not sufficiently understand the business stated in your letter to return you an immediate answer. I now perceive that the money is deposited to your credit in the valley Bank at Charlestown, and as it is all to be paid to persons residing near the Bank, I think it best for us not to negotiate the Check in Alexandria, but for you to enclose to Bushrod C.

     As the money paid by Ransom ought to be appropriated without delay to pay debts so as to stop interest, I have out the statement underneath to show how much is to be paid to Mr Turner out of Saml Washingtons half of the sum you are about to distribute— The residue of that half is to be paid to Doctr Scholly & the other half to Thornton Washington. I think the sooner this is done the better. I am very sincerely & affectly yrs

     I have recieved the paper sent me & will correct Mrs Custis’ account in the way you suggest.

I yesterday recd your letter of the 28th Ulto which I hasten to acknowledge. your conduct in relation to the sale of Rock hall meets my entire approbation, and entitles you, in my opinion to the thanks instead of the complaints of mr Alexander. your right to bid cannot as I think be questioned, and if, by doing so, you have raised the price of the land, I can easily concieve why other bidders should feel displeased, but I am altogether at a loss to imagine upon what ground the heir of Colo. Lee can be disatisfied at such a result.

     I have Just recd a letter from Mr Ludwell Lee in which he requests that we will agree to postpone the sale of Rock hall to about the middle of November, and to agree to sell for one fourth of the purchase money down, he & Mr Alexander agreeing to give the bond which will accompany this letter. To the first proposition I have agreed but not to the last, & have drawn the bond for him & Mr A. to execute.

     The sale of the Rock hall estate is, I am pretty sure, fixed for the 15th next month. I have looked in the Alexa. paper for the advertisement but can’t find it. You will however see it in the Winchester paper.