Richard Caswell Estate 1840 Petitions  

These papers are the last petition made by Dallam Caswell concerning his attempt at saving his father's last remaining property.

To the Honorable the General Assembly

 

Gentlemen,

 

                        As I am going out of office it is my wish to settle all my public transactions, particularly those respecting money matters, so as to leave no kind of room for complaint. I have an account of some monies which have come to my hands as a public officer, and must show the application of the same; I have also a bond in the hands of the Treasurer for the purchase of confiscated property, which I mean to discharge agreeably to a resolution upon my memorial to the General Assembly, in their last session at Fayetteville. But in justice to myself and family, who everyone knows (who was acquainted with my business) I have much injured in interest by serving the public, and as I flatter myself that my public services were effected with as much zeal and attention to the Interest and advantage of the State as those of any other officer I hope I shall be considered to be entitled to the same justice that the other public officers have received from the hands of the Legislature; I mean such as have had the depreciation of the of the paper money made good to them, to wit, Delegates to Congress, former Governor, Judges and others under this expectation I take the liberty of mentioning my having been in the executive of Government in the years 1777, 1778 and 1779, when the depreciation was rapid, particularly the last year, as at the commencement money was at  ten for one, when in order to make my salary equal to one thousand pounds (specie) the allowance was ten thousand pounds, at the end of six months the money was at twenty five for one, and at twelve months end fifty for one, so that supposing that one half to be paid at the end of the first period, and the other half the latter the whole amount in value to three hundred pounds only.

 

(Second page)

Having this states matters as they really were, I humbly submit to the General Assembly the propriety of their directing the Comptroller on the settlement on my Accounts, to allow me the depreciation of my salaries in the years 1777, 1778 and 1779, in doing which I shall receive that justice in common with others which I conceive I am entitled to.

                                                                                   

Richard Caswell

 

December 15th 1787

 

 

 

 

 

To the Honorable the General Assembly now sitting

The Memorial of Richard W Caswell respectfully sheweth_

 

That your memorial is the only child and son of William Caswell deceased who was the only son of Mary Mackilwean to whom a Grant did issue under the seal of crown dated the 15th of November 1743 for 200 Acres of land situate then in Craven County, now Lenoir County. That the said land has decended by heirship to your memorialist the patent or Grant for which is in his possession and appears by the endorsement on the back thereof to have been recorded in the Secretaryıs Office but so it is that in searching in that office it cannot be found on any of the Records. Therefore to the end the title nay be preserved, your Memorialist prays the Honorable the Legislature to direct the Secretary of the State to place the same on the Records in that office.

 

Richard W Caswell

 

No Record can be found in the Secretaryıs Office of the Grant mentioned in the above Memorial.

Will White Sec. 10 Dec 1804

 

(Reverse side of letter reads)

Richard W Caswell

Secty to Record a Patent

Mary Macilwean, Memorial

Resolution rcd W Bruton

By J Hunt Clerk

 

 

 

 

 

 

To the Honorable the General Assembly of the

State of North Carolina

 

                        Dallam Caswell, the only surviving son and Executor of the late Richard Caswell, by this his Memorial and petition respectfully sheweth,

                        That Richard Caswell, your petitioners father was Governor of this State in the years 1777, 1778 and 1779 and that he was again Governor in 1785, 1786 and 1787, that in course of the time of his being last called to the executive business of the state he became accountable, as your petitioner, who was then an infant, is since told, for a certain sum of money belonging to the public but by what means and in what way he knows not. Those monies were in the first place charged by Mr Child, the then Comptroller, to Winston Caswell, as private Secretary to the Governor, and a judgment was had on the account so raised- This judgment was afterwards reversed for error, as being taken against the wrong person, and the vouchers in charge against Winston Caswell, were therefore charged to Richard Caswell, then late Governor, and judgment and Execution were had and levied on the real and personal estate of the said Richard who had some time before died:- All the personal estate of your petitioners father has been sold by this and other Executions. One or more stays of this Execution, so far as respects the real estate, have been granted by the Legislature, but at whose insistence your petitioner is not well informed. An account of some irregularity in the proceedings or Judgment, this Execution has not yet been satisfied and lately your petitioner and all others the Heirs of Richard Caswell have been called into the Court of Equity for the District of Hillsborough in regards to the unsatisfied part of this Execution. 

Your petitioner, as is above stated, had no knowledge of the origin of this debt, but as the money is demanded and saught by the State, he has reason to believe it justly due and very sincerely wishes it were in his power to pay it, but unfortunately for him as well as for others of the Heirs, the Estate of his father has been wasted and distroyed, and there now remains naught to him or to them save a small share each in the tract of land lived on as aforesaid.  Sell this tract, and your petitioner as well as others who live with him will not only be deprived of the remnant of that patrimony to which, in more prosperous days, they looked for a competency, but will, literally speaking, be left without the means of subsistence. 

Your petitioner has however no wish to excite the commiseration of the General Assembly, but would respectfully ask as a matter of justice, that this claim of the state may be set off by one which he hopes and believes it will be admitted by all is equally just, and due to the Estate of his father for and on account of the depreciation of the salary allowed him when first Governor of the State.

To shew the amount of his fathers claim on the state in this regard, he herewith submits an account stated. To shew that he claimed the depreciation charged, he takes the liberty of enclosing the copy of a message sent by his father to the assembly at Tarborough in 1787 on that subject and to shew that he did not relinquish his claim, because that assembly did not finally act on it, your petitioner begs have to refer to the certificate of the public Treasurer herewith likewise submitted.  It will seem by the account stated that the claim for depreciation, which might indeed be properly charged at a much higher rate, amounts even as it is charged by the sum of Fifteen hundred and fifty three pounds eight shillings and six pence-and it may be seen also by the Comptrollers books that the same in charge against the petitioners father is nine hundred and twenty eight pounds six shillings and ten pence.

As the Legislature thought proper to make good the depreciation of salary to the Delegates in Congress ­to the Judges-and to the former Governors of the State as your petitioner finds it is expressly stated they did in the message sent them by his father last above mentioned and submitted, he hopes with confidence and indeed assured himself your Honorable Body will determine that the same measure of Justice is due to all.

His prospects of fortune, through patrimony, have long since ceased and he feels no wish to make money at the expense of the public, if it were in his power. He does not therefore ask, even for the depreciation charged in the account rendered and which he conceives to be justly due, because if it were paid it would amount to a mere pittance when divided among those who have a right to claim a share. All he therefore would ask of this General Assembly is that the one claim may be ballanced by the other, and that the state will order the cost of suit commenced by them to be paid making this request only and asking no more, he, with the confidence, submits himself and the reasonableness and Justice of his petition to the General Assembly.

 

Raleigh Dec 1804                                                                                 D Caswell

 

(On reverse of last page)

The Memorial and

Petition of Dallam

Caswell

 

In Senate December 7th 1804

Read & refered to the Committee of

Propositions and grievances

By order

M Stokes Clk

 

Dec 4, 1804

 

The Commissioner of Proposition and Grievances to whom was referred the memorial and petition of Dallam Caswell, of Lenoir County, Report,

That they have examined and considered the said Memorial and petition together with the account and Documents accompanying the same, and find the facts stated therein are true- That is the say, they find that the late Richard Caswell was Governor of this state in the years 1777, 1778 and 1779. They find also that during those years the salary of the Governor was fixed at one thousand pounds of specie value.- They find likewise that Mr Caswell, the petitioner, in making out his account estimated the Governor salary at eight hundred pounds and not at one thousand pounds, which he might rightfully have charged.‹They find the depreciation of the money of those days to have been as is stated and charged in the amount rendered and that it leaves a balance calculating an annual salary of eight hundred pounds only, after _ _iting all sums received of Fifteen hundred and fifty three pounds, eight shillings and six pence £1553.8.6

 

They find further, that North Carolina has a balance of claim in the Estate of the said Richard Caswell, to amount of Nine hundred and twenty eight pounds six shillings and ten pence £928.6.10 which being deducted from the sum due in depreciation of salary as aforesaid, leaves six hundred and twenty five pounds one shilling and eight pence £625.1.8.

 

The above are the facts as they appear to your Committee. Had the full amount of salary been charged and the consequent depreciation your Committee sees no just cause wherefore the whole should not have been allowed. However, the account rendered being as is above the stated and the petitioner having thought proper to request only that the one claim might be balanced and set off by the other, and that the costs which have accrued in consequences of suits commenced in this regard be paid by the state, Your Committee unanimously agree in reporting the following Resolution towit,

Resolved, that the Treasury officers be and they are hereby directed to balance the account in charge against the estate of Richard Caswell formerly Governor of this State and that the public Treasurer be and he is hereby directed to pay out of the public chest all costs which have accrued and remain payable, in consequence of the suits in Law or Equity commenced for the recovery of the sum so in charge against the estate of the said Richard Caswell as aforesaid.

 

Alex Martin

 

In Senate Dec 14th 1804

Read & resolved that this House do concur therewith.

By Order  Jo (unreadable signature)

M Stokes Clerk

 

In the House of Commons 15 Dec 1804

Read and concurred with  N Cabarrus

By Order  J. Hunt

 

On opposite of paper

Report on the Petition of Dallam Caswell

£928.6.10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

North Carolina

                                                                                                Treasury Office 7th Dec 1804

 

                        On the application of Mr Dallam Caswell and in compliance with his request I hereby certify, that some time in the year 1789, as well as I now recollect, a letter was addressed to me as Treasurer, by the late Governor Caswell, the prospect of which was to request, that suit might not be commenced against his son Winston Caswell for the recovery of a sum of money with which he stood charged, by Mr Child the Comptroller, as private Secretary to his Father when Gov of the State: In this letter, Governor Caswell stated as the ground of the request he made, that the state of North Carolina was indebted to him for the depreciation of his salary when and during the time he was first appointed Governor of the State. That at the Assembly, the next after the date of his letter and which was about to convene at Fayetteville, he would apply for the said depreciation, with which, if allowed, he would pay off the sum in charge against his son and secretary: he added that if the Legislature, contrary to his expectations, would refuse to make his sons allowances, that there and as such case, he would provide for the payment of the monies charged to his son from other sources.

He died at the commencement of the session of the assembly above referred to, and of course had it not in his power to comply with the promise made as aforesaid.

 

                                                                                                John Haywood

                                                                                                Dec 7th 1804

 

 

 

 

 

North Carolina

Treasury Office 13th Dec 1804

 

On a second application of Mr Dallam Caswell I certify, that there has not been any payment of any kind whatsoever made out of the publick Treasury on account of or towards the depreciation of the salary of the late Governor Caswell, since the commencement of the year 1787, the time I came into office; nor have I any reason to believe that any such payment has at any time therefore made; on the contrary, from the Governors application to the assembly at Tarbourough for the depreciation of his salary and from his subsequent letter to me on the same subject, I have every reason to believe that no payment or allowance of this nature ever has been made to him or to his representatives.

 

John Haywood Treasurer 

 

 

 

 

 

NORTH CAROLINA

 

In Senate December 17th 1804

 

Mr Speaker,

                        We propose that the rule heretofore entered into requiring that all reports and resolves the object of which being to draw money out of the Treasury shall be read three times in each House, before they are allowed; shall be dispensed with so far as it relates to the reports of the Committee of Claims; and also to the report on the petitions of Dallam Caswell.

 

By order                                                                                               Jo Riddick

 

M Stokes Clk

 

In House of Commons 17th December 1804

Read and concurred with                       S. Cabarrus Spkr

By Order

J Hunt

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