1. See H to Cazenove, January 12, 1795, note 1.

2. Gerrit Boon, a native of the Netherlands, was an agent of the six Dutch banking firms which formed the Holland Land Company on February 13, 1796.

3. On August 4, 1768, New York Surveyor General Alexander Colden completed a survey of twenty-five thousand acres of land on the north side of the Mohawk River in Albany County for Peter Servis and others (Mix, Catalogue: Maps and Surveys description begins David E. E. Mix, ed., Catalogue: Maps and Surveys, in the Offices of the Secretary of State, State Engineer and Surveyor, and Comptroller, and the New York State Library (Albany, 1859). description ends , 172). In 1791 the tract was included in the newly formed Herkimer County. Boon purchased the land for the six firms in 1792, and after the completion of a second survey in the summer of 1795, he announced that the lands would be open for sale on July 18, 1795.

An entry in H’s Cash Book, 1795–1804, for June 1, 1795, reads: “Theophilus Cazenove Dr. For advice in writing to Mr. Boome concerning land in Herkimer County depending on a Patent to Peter Service and others” (AD, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress; also in Goebel, Law Practice description begins Julius Goebel, Jr., ed., The Law Practice of Alexander Hamilton: Documents and Commentary (New York and London, 1964– ) description ends , forthcoming volumes).

The Holland Land Company’s title to the tract was challenged in 1796 in the case of Herman LeRoy, William Bayard, and Gerrit Boon v Peter Servis and others. The company’s claims were difficult to substantiate, as Dutch ownership depended upon the title of Sir William Johnson, many of whose papers were destroyed during the American Revolution.

Johnson, a native of Ireland, emigrated to British North America in the seventeen-thirties. By 1738 he had settled in New York’s Mohawk River valley, a region he was to dominate until his death in 1774. He was distinguished by the vast landed estates which he acquired, his service as Superintendent of Indian affairs, his role as a military leader during the French and Indian War, and the manorial splendor of his life on New York’s frontier.

Soon after his arrival in New York, Johnson married Catharine Weisenberg, by whom he had a son and two daughters. After his wife’s death, Molly Brant, a Mohawk Indian and a sister of the chief Joseph Brant, lived with him and bore him eight children.

In connection with the case of LeRoy, Bayard, and Boon v Peter Servis and others, H prepared the following opinion, dated January 25, 1796, on Johnson’s will: “I have examined that clause of the will of Sir William Johnson which contains a devise to his natural son, Peter Johnson, and also a subsequent clause which respects a devise over in case of the death of any of his eight natural children without issue, in connection with the fact stated to me that the said Peter died under age, unmarried and without issue, and there-upon I am of opinion that the survivors of the eight children were entitled to an estate of inheritance in the primisses before devised to the said Peter” (Hamilton, Intimate Life description begins Allan McLane Hamilton, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton (New York, 1910). description ends , 184).

For Johnson’s will, see Milton W. Hamilton, ed., The Papers of Sir William Johnson, XII (Albany, 1957), 1062–75. The relevant clauses of the will are on pages 1064, 1068, 1070.

There is some confusion about just when Peter Johnson died. See Hamilton, ed., The Papers of Sir William Johnson, XIII (Albany, 1962), 1025.

For the case of LeRoy, Bayard, and Boon v Peter Servis and others, see H’s Law Register, 1795–1804, (D, partially in H’s handwriting, New York Law Institute, New York City; also in Goebel, Law Practice description begins Julius Goebel, Jr., ed., The Law Practice of Alexander Hamilton: Documents and Commentary (New York and London, 1964– ) description ends , forthcoming volumes). See also an affidavit of Caleb Riggs, solicitor for the complainants, July 7, 1797 (DS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress).

An entry in H’s Cash Book, 1795–1804, for May, 1800, reads: “Sundries Dr. to Costs & Fees Cash Boon & others for my services in their suit in Chancery respecting lands of Sr. Wm. Johnson, various consultations arguing several collateral questions, arguing at final hearing & in appeal &c. 500” (AD, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress; also in Goebel, Law Practice description begins Julius Goebel, Jr., ed., The Law Practice of Alexander Hamilton: Documents and Commentary (New York and London, 1964– ) description ends , forthcoming volumes). The suit was settled in the Chancery Court in 1800 in favor of the Dutch proprietors. For additional information on the Holland Land Company and the Servis Patent, see Paul Demund Evans, The Holland Land Company (Buffalo, 1924), 18–19, 66–69, and forthcoming Goebel, Law Practice description begins Julius Goebel, Jr., ed., The Law Practice of Alexander Hamilton: Documents and Commentary (New York and London, 1964– ) description ends , III.