Sargent, Winthrop (1753-1820) to Henry Knox
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.10210 Author/Creator: Sargent, Winthrop (1753-1820) Place Written: Boston, Massachusetts Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 8 February 1787 Pagination: 2 p. : docket ; 39.1 x 23.8 cm. Order a Copy
Writes to Knox concerning territory in the Ohio valley region and mentions surveys he took of the land. Entrusts Knox with his papers. States that he sent a copy of his papers to the Board of Treasury as well and is possibly negotiating the sale of a tract of western land. Feels the need to defend his actions by stating "I have the Satisfaction to know that no Injury can have accrued to the Public from my mode of Conduct, & that my Townships (such as they are) are absolutely in addition to what was expected & intended should have been surveyed in the last Season, & that, but For my inclosed address...I would have been employ'd with [Sprout ?] in the 4th Range which would, indisputably, Then have been the Exterior Survey." Watermarked "E & A" and a hunting horn inside a crest with "GR" underneath.
Sargent was an agent for the directors of the New England Ohio Company of associates. In 1787 the New England Ohio Company bought a tract of land. In the spring of 1788, settlement of this purchase began at Marietta, Ohio, at the mouth of the Muskingum River. This was the first settlement formed within the limits of Ohio. In October 1787, Congress appointed Winthrop Sargent Secretary in, and over the territory.
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