Item 32: Letter from John Crittenden to Zebulon Butler, 1781 April 27
Item — Box: 10, Folder: 34
Dates
- Created: 1781 April 27
Creator
- Crittenden, John, Sr., 1754-1809 (Person)
Access:
All series and subseries within this collection are open for research, with the exception of a few files within the Academia series that are restricted. The Academia series contains financial and sensitive institutional records from Wilkes College, and financial report records from Princeton University that will remain restricted for 80 years upon creation.
Extent
1 items
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Type of Material:
Letter.
Condition Note:
Poor. The paper contains severe staining which makes some words borderline illegible, fading ink, browning of the paper, as well as some very minor folds and tears. The paper also has an unobtrusive stain left by what seems to have once been a wax seal.
Measurements:
13 ⅛ in. x 8 in.
Description:
This letter written by Revolutionary War veteran and eventual Virginia House of Delegates member John Crittenden Sr. is addressed to Zebulon Butler, and is related to seventy thousand acres of land situated around a juncture between the Tennessee River and the Ohio River.
Transcription:
Fort Pitt Ohio River 27 April 1781
Dear Sir
Agreeable to the Requisition of the Gentleman aponates on the land scheme, on my departure from the northward I have with the utmost difference made the necessary Inquiry Related to the spot of ground on which you have so Judiciously fix’d on for your abose after the happy Period of this war without making the smallest [Illegible due to damage] meaning the mouth of the Tennessee River, But to my great mortification am this day Informed with greatest authenticity by General G. R. Clark that he has made an Entry of seventy thousand acres beginning at the junction of that River & the Ohio Running down for Quantity, a copy of which Entry have seen under the authority of the principal surveyor of the County wherein that land lies, Those of nations being unquistionable [sic] a second choice must necessarily be made.
The general who intends to make the aforementioned land his residence assures me that he is Doubly Interested in promoting so laudable a design therefore most sincerely wishes for an opportunity to manifest it by procuring a tract of country Equally dureable [sic] contagious thereto sufficient for the purpose, which will in the first instance Render his prentions far more Valuable, and what is much higher in his esteem the Enjoyment of that so scarcely amongst whom alone he has the smallest hopes of solid pleasure.
I have once urg’d it as my opinion that you ought to procure a sufficient quantity of Warrants for the treaty of the whole in which should now be happy to meet your approbation. I am to be found on the Kantucky [sic] within a small distance of west’d for abode in perfect Readiness to honour the Commands of you or any of you, Having Return’d myself a few days past a supernumerary affair for that alone purpose. As being on the spot and consequently not capable of hedging give me leave to tell you that this is the time in which our matters may be accomplish’d
I have the honor to be
with sincere respect
Your Devoted Serv
John Crittenden
J Chittondon
To Col Z Butler
27 April 1781
Creator
- Crittenden, John, Sr., 1754-1809 (Person)
Repository Details
Part of the Wilkes University Archives Repository
Contact:
84 W South St.
Wilkes-Barre PA 18701 US
570-408-2000
570-408-7823 (Fax)
ask.archives@wilkes.edu
84 W South St.
Wilkes-Barre PA 18701 US
570-408-2000
570-408-7823 (Fax)
ask.archives@wilkes.edu