Richard [Nicholls] Harison / Harrison - Onondaga and Oswego ...

equitable yours may be, will be the popular one; in a Country where the Claims of Loyalty are considered by the vulgar as
usurpation.
You may perhaps think I write in strong terms, and that my apprehensions are unreasonable. The greater part of what I have stated
will inevitably come to pass, and the remainder is founded on probabilities approaching to certainties. I have measured all these on
the Scale of your Interest, and by opposing the one to the other, have no hesitation in saying, that a Sum far short of what might
fairly be calculated from the rents of the Estate, admitting solvent tenants could be procured, will be preferable to the uncertain
amount you will receive in consequence of being unable to obtain tenants, and the losses incurred by many of them being unable to
pay their rents—With regard to lots on which there are no buildings it will be difficult to find Persons who would even be at the
expense of inclosing them, when they know their possession depends on your life. Was the property situate in a valuable part of the
City and vested in decent houses, the annual rents might be calculated to almost a fraction—But your lots are in the Suburbs, which
may be said to be half town half Country.1 It is impossible to say what the State may allow you: but at the lowest valuation I should
suppose not less than 25,000 Dollars, and possibly more than double that Sum. On this occasion I should strive to get the most for
you. But every thing considered I really think even 25,000 dollars in hand, better than a general litigation.
Mr. Harison differs in Sentiment with me; and thinks you will advance your interest by applying to or prosecuting the Individual
Proprietors. Having his opinion and mine, it remains for you to decide and to send me your orders without loss of time, providing
duplicates and triplicates of letters.
If we are to prosecute it will be indispensibly necessary for you to send me out all the Title deeds for any part of the Estate, not only
in the Bowery, but in broadway opposite the Estate Mr. DeLancey gave to his brother John.2 I think there was also property in other
parts of the State. Let regular and correct copies of them be made and taken to the Lord Mayor of London to examine and certify,
and leave them with him until the Event is known, whether the originals have come safe to my hands or not. Should a treaty of
Peace be entered into between the States and France, it will be most safe to send the papers out in some good safe American Ship,
delivered to a Gentleman Passenger, or to the Master, if a decent Man. It may be necessary also to prove Mr. DeLancey's death.
Furnish me, therefore, with the name of the Parson who can attest to his person and demise. It will be best to have this testimony
also taken by the Lord Mayor of London. Inform me if the Witness can attend before him. Proof of your Marriage will be required and
of your being alive at the time that proof was taken. Was your Brother, Mr Andrew Allen, present at your marriage, or who was.
I have employed Beverly Robinson, Grandson of the late Col. Robinson, a young Gentleman of merit and abilities, recommended to
me by Mr Hanson as your Attorney. And I think it will be most for your Interest to engage Mr. Cadwallader Colden, the Assistant
Attorney General of the district,1 as Council with Mr. Harison, he having prosecuted several claims for dower and compounded to
great advantage with the State. He informs me of what Mr Harison was ignorant, that the State will agree in settling of the Sum to be
paid you, to my nominating two; and the Commissioners, one Appraiser, who will value the property at what it is at present worth;
from whence, after making a small deduction of ten or at the utmost fifteen per Cent., they will calculate the Sum total by the London
tables on Lives and allow you whatever sum these tables direct. Mr. Harison told me the Commissioners would only take the Sum
for which the Estate sold, which was about £100,000 this Currency. Now I suppose the Estate fairly valued could not come short of
£500,000; of course your compensation, allowing the Commissioners deducted even a fifth, would be far above what I have stated
it.
1 They lay east of the Bowery, 2 These lots were at the corner of between Division and Stanton street. Broadway and Little Queen
(Cedar) streets, in what is now perhaps the most densely populated spot in the world. Brother John was John Peter De Lancey, of
Mamaroneck, father of the Bishop.
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http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/bios/b/wmbenson7332.html
William Benson probably was a British businessman who settled in Albany after the Seven Years War. He may have come to
Albany as the representative of New York-based trading interests with which William Benson was connected as early as 1759.
By the mid-1760s, he had settled in as his first ward holdings were assessed with the top five percent of the city's householders. In
1766, he signed the constitution of the Albany Sons of Liberty. In 1767, he belonged to an Albany militia company.
He was a member and officer of St. Peter's Anglican church. He also was a prominent member and the secretary of the Albany
Masonic lodge.
During the 1760s, he was identified as one of the petitioners for a tract of frontier land in the Schoharie valley. In 1771, he was listed
with the petitioners for a tract that became "Bayard's Patent." In June 1772, he was referenced in a land transaction for property
along the Hosack Road. At that time, the notation was to "creditors of William Benson late of the City of Albany.
The Albany group applied to the provincial Grand Master and received a charter as "Union Lodge No. 1" dated February 21, 1765.
Cartwright was named Master, William Benson senior warden, and John Visscher junior warden. No records of its early meetings
have been found and the lodge was thought to have met at Cartwright's Southside tavern.
http://www.fort-plank.com/Additional_Partisans_A_G.html
JELLIS FONDA, Esquire. In 1758, he paid unto Thomas Dun the sum of £0-8-0 for damages to a saddle used by a mohok Indian
going to the Senneca Contry (Jacob Abbott Collection Mss #189. On November 21, 1768 he received title to Lowland Lot One and
Woodland Lot 10 of the Captain Harmanus Van Slyck/Abraham De Peyster Patent from John Cruger, Philip Livingston, Leonard
Lispenard, Henry Holland, and William Bayard Esquires of New York City, New York Trustees of the Estate of Abraham De
Peyster; the deed contains valuable information on the bounds of the aforesaid patent and on the heirs of Colonel Abraham De
Peyster, the former Treasure of the Colony of New York (S. L. Frey Papers Box 5:102). On July 31, 1777, Jacob Cuyler wrote a
letter to Major Jellis Fonda complaining of the high prices he was demanding for supplying at Johnstown, yet on December 19, 1777
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