(27.) Gentlemen: Land Office, Lancaster, August 26, 1802. I have the pleasure herewith to enclose you a number of Official Copies and other papers relative to the object of your Commission, as p'. List at foot. For a Copy of the Submission formerly made by Mr. Samuel Franklin, you will please to turn to No. 469 of those already furnished. A certified copy of the Submission of Hamilton Grant has also been transmitted to you, but no notice whatever has been taken of the old certificate annexed to the original by the Board of Property. The Submission of Jacob Smithers, dated the 20th of July, 1802, and received at the Land Office on the 7th of this Inst., is held under advisement by the Board of Property, with several others subsequently received. You will receive likewise an orignal Submission, executed by Mehitable Munroe and Charles Gaylord, Administrator on the Estate of Nathan Munroe, dec., which has been rejected, and is now returned for the same reason as those in the names of Tuttle and Vandemark were, and not on the account of the omission of the recital of the Act of April 6, 1802. You will please to observe in this Submission, as well as in those, that the only objection to its being accepted is the Date it bears, viz, the 27 December, 1800. I am, Gentlemen, Your obedient Servant, ANDREW ELLICOTT. Thomas Cooper, Esq., Gen'. John Steele & William Wilson, Esq'. Enclosures in the foregoing Letter: No. 1, Bundle of Connecticut Submissions. 46 2, original Submission of Munroe's. 3, Copies of returns of Survey. One bundle containing 10 Drafts from Surveyor General's Office. Copy of a release of John B. Wallace. Do. of Richard Manning and Wife. D. of George Armstrong and Wife. Do. of Thomas Palmer, W. Bell and Ephraim Blain. Do. Thomas Lukens. Do. David McKinney et al. Do. Daniel Bussard. Do. Jacob Good and wife. (28.) Lancaster, May 7th, 1803. Sir: At the time of removing our Office the two papers enclosed were mislaid, so that it was out of my power to return them to you previous to your departure from this place. I therefore, as soon as they were found, have taken the 1st opportunity of transmitting them to you. I am, respectfully, Your obedient, Hble Servant, Thomas Cooper, Esqr. (29.) SAM' COCHRAN. Lancaster, June 22, 1803. Sir: Yours of the 18th Instant came to hand last night. In answer thereto, would observe that upon examining the account and vouchers, handed me by you last Spring, the items now in dispute, altho' regularly vouched, appeared to be such as I could not admit; but before I would make any deduction I wished to obtain further information on the Subject. If my recollection is correct, I think it was the Sunday after I received the papers, I met Gen'. Steele on the street; in the course of conversation I mentioned the charges alluded to, and the same day shewed him the account; his opinion coinciding with my own, and he being one of the Commissioners, .confirmed me the more. When I met you at the Comptroller's office, agreeably to your request, after some conversation you proposed (I think) to leave the matter to the other two Commissioners, to which Mr. Bryan and myself agreed, at this time M'. Wells had not been mentioned by you, nor did at that time know that General Steele had left the Borough. Upon your calling with Mr. Wells, I mentioned that as you had proposed to refer the Difference to the two other Commissioners it would be better to let them determine the Business. Mr. Wilson is now dead, nor would I wish to cast a cloud over his memory (for I held him in high estimation as a man of honor), but am surprized that he should insinuate that Mr. Bryan & myself, or either of us, had any unfair or cunning design in view to injure you. I feel perfectly easy on the Subject, as my own heart does not charge me with improper conduct in the Business. I consider those charges in your acet. suspended until some report is made upon them; this cannot possibly be done now by the parties originally mentioned. I would, therefore, propose a mode of Settlement much more expeditious and less troublesome than by appealing, which is that the Business be left to the Commissioner who fills the place of Mr. Wilson, M'. Wells and some other reputable person, or to any two or three respectable characters those who are acquainted with the Subject (a Copy of the papers you have). They approving and you forwarding a Cert. thereof, would be in my opinion satisfactory to the department, and enable them to settle the business. The Comptroller is not in town, but I have no doubt but he will agree to the above mode. Sir: Your letter of the 18th June last did not come to my hand till Wednesday last, having been absent from home for several weeks attending the Supreme Court. I must confess I was very much surprized at the contents of your Letter, for my conduc was perfectly ingenuous. When the account came from the Register General's I was fully impressed with the opinion that you had been apprised of the deductions and had acquiesced in their propriety; but when I was informed you had had no opportunity to offer your objections, and to shew the justice of the full charge, I agreed without hesitation to a revision. When Mr. Duffield made the proposition relative to General Steele, &c., I was not acquainted with his ideas or impressions on the subject of your account. Mr. Duffield may have been, as there subsists a cordial and very frequent intercourse between those Gentlemen. Mr. Duffield informed me that he had made a new proposition to you, which was to refer the Business to the other two Commissioners, or to any three respectable and disinterested men, to which I freely agree. I am, Sir, Your most obedient Servt., Thomas Cooper, Esqr., Commissioner. SAM BRYAN. Thomas Cooper, Esq'. : (31.) Register Gen's Office, July 4, 1803. Sir: Yours of the 2nd Inst, came to hand yesterday. The Comptroller General was absent when I last wrote and has not yet returned. What his opinion may be I cannot say certainly, but have no reason to doubt of his agreeing to the mode proposed to you by myself. At the request of Mr. Aaron Levi, I enclose to you certified copies of Six returns of Survey, for Lands said to be released to the State, under his release, of which I presume you have a copy. I am, with respect, Gentlemen, Your mo. obt. Servant, ANDREW ELLICOTT, Secretary of Land Office. Thomas Cooper, Esq., Gen'. John Steele, William Wilson, Esq., Comm'rs. Gentlemen: (33.) Land Office, Lancaster, Jany 2, 1804. Herewith you will receive a certified Copy of a release from Antoine Nicholas Goddard, by his Atty., to the Commonwealth, made under and in pursuance of the Act of Assembly, of the 4th of April, 1799, together with a certified copy of the return of Survey of the tract of Land therein conveyed. You will observe by the Deposition on the aforesaid Copy, that the Grantor was absent from the United States at the time the law passed, and continued absent until the 15 Aug last, when he returned and executed his Deed in due form of law, and forwarded to me on the 14 Nov. last. Thomas Cooper, &^. ANDREW ELLICOTT, |