Jefferson Quotes & Family Letters

Report

Commissioners Office 15th April 1833

The Commissioner to whom has been referred the Settlement of the accounts of Thomas J Randolph Wilson C Nicholas and Robert C Nicholas administrators with the will annexed of Wilson Cary Nicholas deceased with the Estate of the Testator, makes the following report viz. That in obediance to the foregoing and annexed order of the County Court of Albemarle he proceeded on the 10th day of May last at his office in the Town of charlottesville to execute the same having before him Thomas J Randolph one of the admtrs and adjoined from time to time for vouchers and testimony until the same was complete. There being no contest about the subject matter the commissioner proceeded to state the accounts from the commencement of their administration to the close of these transactions without charging interest on their receipts or allowing any on their disbursements. This mode operates against the administrators but is done with their wish upon the ground that there is no fund out of which to recover the balance due them. The administrators produced satisfactory vouchers for the payment of all the items of debts in their accounts with the exception of the Items for Wilson C Nicholas one of the admts expenses for attending to the sales of the crops & other buisness of the Estate the item for payment made a Slave for Horse Collars &c. The Funeral Expences a Small item of freight paid a Negro and the midwifes fee to a woman of colar amounting in the whole to the sum of $131.75—which under all the circumstances the commissioner has thought it proper to pass their credits—

The Debt paid to John W Eppes appears to have been due from Wilson Cary Nicholas by bond with Thomas J Randolph one of the admts as his security which was a balance due and unpaid at the death of col Nicholas and which to the amount as charged the said Thomas J Randolph paid afterwards of which fact the Commissioner is satisfied from the letters of Mrs Eppes exhibited to him. A Judgment was obtained in the Superior court of Albemarle. execution issued and another part of the same debt made out of some property their unsold and belonging to said Nicholas Estate what remained was the amount here charged. The item is allowed as a payment by Randolph as one of the admts though if paid only as the security of Nicholas he would have a right to hold the amount against other creditors and would there for be entitled to the amount in the account, as an item of disbursment. The amount paid to the united States Bank at Richmond in March 1826 that is the last of it seems to have been a debt due from Wilson Cary Nicholas with Thomas Jefferson and Thomas J Randolph as his securities Mr Randolph claims a credit for it upon the ground that it was paid by himself and whether as admt or security this commissioner would consider him as entitled to a credit for the amount in his account unless it were in opposition to a debt of greater dignity

The Bond being lost by the Bank as Stated by Robertson the Cashier or not being to be found amongst its papers in his letter of 28th September 1830 deprives the administrator Randolph of the best evidence as to who made the payments viz the Endorsements therein but the cashier admits the payment of the Bond to the Bank by gradual reductions and also that it was finally discharged in March 1826 A farther reason on the part of the commissioner for allowing this item is the fact that Th: J. Randolph one of the admts of Wilson Cary Nicholas decd is the sole Executor of Mr Jefferson the other security, and claims no credit against that Estate for any part of the same. The Item is allowed with interest to the date of the Last payment. The Commissioner at the request of Mr Randolph the administrator reports specially for him, that Wilson Cary Nicholas in his life time executed these Deeds of Trust of record in the County Court of Albemarle viz one on the twenty ninth of July 1819 to Gamble and Wirt an other on the 9th of August 1819 to Wickham and Hay and the third to Brockenbrough & Cocke in August 1819 all of which were executed, and under which all the Effects of col Nicholas were sold or appropriated except what have been accounted for in the foregoing Statement. The result is that the admts received the sum of $10312.75 upon which a Commission is allowed of 5 per cent amounting to $515.63 which when added the debts make the sum of $39170.36 and leaving as due the admts the sum of $28857.63. All which is respectfully submitted