Some time after receiving your letter dated in december, I wrote to E.J. Cole, of Baltimore, to forward the Journals you had deposited with him; but nothing further has been heard of them. I mentioned to Dr. Chapman, that as no agent had been appointed for this place, he might consider me as one: but finding myself totally unacquainted with such business, I have concluded it would be better to select a more suitable person. To the agent you may appoint in this city I will give the subscription in my possession, and continue to exert myself for the success of the work.

     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 received yours My dear Sir of the 12th of Decr and am happy to hear from you & your family. It is but a poor consolation to tell you, that I sympathize with you for your late distresses, and that I have a deep sense of your friend & relations Calamity. It is nevertheless all that human weakness can do; and to do any thing more we must have recourse to a superior tribunal, to one, that I feel unworthy to approach. It is to that source I am now convinced we ought to address ourselves; to the comforter of the afflicted, and the protector of the weak.

I am grieved to learn by your late letter of your continued indisposition— I heard in the autumn quite by accident of your sickness at Philadelphia; but I presumed it was temporary. I most earnestly hope & pray that a good Providence will restore you to health & enable you to attend at the February Term. I shall feel quite lost <illegible> without you; & must say in all sincerity & frankness that I know not in whose judgment I have implicit a reliance, as in yours.

I now enclose you a statement of the <mutilated>en by you on the 1st day of next month; <illegible> <mutilated>gned to <illegible> acting executors of Genl Washington <mutilated>ed by a deed of trust and Dukes bonds. <illegible> of the account is your agreement to pay the balance with interest, annually, & punctually, to me, which you will sign & have witnessed by two witnesses, and immediately enclose it back to me by post (clear of postage).

I thank you for the kind solicitude expressed in your letter of the 3d.

I had imprudently mounted a young horse who started & threw me as I was riding him to my farm. I was much hurt but no bone was broken & I shall be able to attend the court at Raleigh to which place I shall set out the day after tomorrow.

I have not recd a line from you since yours of the 7th altho I have with infinite anxiety sent to Alexa. in the hope of recieving a letter to inform me what was done on the 11th as to the adjournment of the Court. Mrs Washington has not even yet recovered her strength, but it was our intention at least to set out on our Journey & to endeavour to perform it by slow rides in case you had informed me that the adjournment was to any day in this month.

     In fulfilment of my promise I return the letters to General Washington which you were so obliging as to forward to me. I should have done it sooner but that I had hoped to return at the same time the letters expected from Richmond. Will you permit me to recall your attention to the latter portion (which I believe will comprize the letters I could most wish to obtain) that the Chief Justice may not lose the opportunity of a recess for looking them up.

I wrote you some days ago describing the Situation of Mrs W. & myself, and expressing my anxiety (which I most sincerely felt & yet feel) to attend the Phila. Court, and my doubts whether it would be practicable. I am now distressed, (as well on account of the effect as of the cause) to inform you, that I altogether despair of being able to go forward. I am yet very weak myself, although I should risk the attempt to get on, if I had myself alone to attend to. But Mrs W.

Very soon after the rect of your kind favor, whilst the Hack from Washington was here to take us to Trenton, & the night before the Journey was to commence, I was attacked by a bilious fever, which with the necessary evacuations have so prostrated my strength, that I have scarcely enough left to enable me to move, but with great difficulty, about the room. Mrs W. is equally indisposed with the same Complaint.

While at Mount Vernon I delivered you the affidavit of T. Marshall stating that he never received the certificate which you were so obliging as to obtain for him & I now enclose you mine that I have lost it. I have no doubt that they will be sufficient to obtain the renewal of the certificate; but I believe that some bond must be executed before it can issue. I do not know how this is to be filled up & suppose it must contain a description of the certificate which I cannot make.

Your favour of the 1st inst. came to hand by the last Mail. I concur in the Opinion that the question is sufficiently doubtful to warrant the parties concerned, in acceding to the compromise proposed by Mr Banks, & that the property in contest is not of sufficient value to incur expensive litigation.

     Judge Washington presents his Complts to the P—— E—— and is commanded by his lady Mistress the P.—— A. to return her thanks for the Shoes—to say they do not fit—& to request the favor of the P—— E—— to restore them to the person to whom they belong.

     Be so good as to say how Mrs Scott & the family are.

Since the rect of your favor of the 29 June, I have again examined the papers respecting the Kentucky land with a view to the fact you allude to, and find that Lees bond for a conveyance to Genl W. bears date in [17]88 long before the deed to Banks. But upon an attentive consideration of the case of Brown vs. Jackson, I am by no means satisfied that it rules this case.

     I wrote to you by the last mail enclosing the right hand halves of the notes belonging to the parts which you will find herein, and all of which I wish safe to hand. Respectully yr most obt sert

     Having no apology satisfactory to myself to offer for my long silence in relation to the subject on which you requested my opinion, I must throw myself altogether upon your indulgence to excuse it.

     Some time ago I recd from Mr Thos Griffin Prest of the Dismal Swamp Co. two drafts for dividends due the estate of Genl Washington which I have found it unpracticable to negotiate at any of the Alexandria Banks, on acct. of the Currency in which they are made payable.

     I recd your favor of the 22 May, and have endeavoured, but without success, to negotiate the orders with the bank in Alexandria where I do business. The difficulty arises from the kind of mony in which they are payable, the value of which cant be known here. Permit me to trespass upon your time by asking your advice as to the best mode I can adopt for managing this matter.

     An answer to Mr Banks' offer of a compromise, respecting the Kentucky land viz he to take one half & the heirs the other, has been delayed until you could make such enquiries as to satisfy yourself respecting his lette[r]. Something should be definitively decided upon without further delay, & I must beg the favor of you to let me hear from you on this subject as soon as possible.

     The sudden & unexpected termination of the Circuit Court in April prevented my acknowledging your favor of the 9th of that month, whilst I was in Phila., and many circumstances, unnecessary to detail, have united to postpone the performance of this duty since my return home. I beg leave now to offer you my apology, and to request you to accept my thanks for the pamphlet which accompanied your letter.

     The Dismal Swamp Land Company convened on the 15th, Inst., declared a dividend of $222 on each quarter share of stock in that Company— Enclosed you will receive your drafts for the dividend on the shares of the Estate of Genl Geo. Washington— You will perceive by the endorsement on the smaller draft, that payments have been made the Co. in various Notes of Banks, other then those of Virginia: this is unavoidable, from the manner in which sale of the lumber of the Co.

I have received your letter requesting to know whether I had formed an opinion on the case which was remanded to the circuit court of Pennsylvania. I regret that I had not formed one. It would give me pleasure to communicate it to you.

     Since my return from Washington the trunk in my possession, containing letters to & from the General, has been carefully examined, and the enclosed have been taken from the bundles found in it. Not doubting but that a much larger number of your letters are in the trunks at Richmond, I have written to the Chief Justice to request that he will in the course of the summer look over those bundles and enclose to me all that he can find from you to the General.

     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.