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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Letter from Jean Baptiste Petry to Richard Caswell
Petry, Jean Baptiste
July 27, 1786
Volume 18, Pages 693-695

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MR. PETRY TO GOV. CASWELL.
[From Executive Letter Book.]

Charleston, 27th July, 1786.

Sir:

I have the Honor to enclose you a copy of our Sentence in the affair between Frederick Rheinsward & Xavier Martin, concerning the French horse of J. J. Coulougnac, residing at New York, by which Xavier Martin has been condemned to pay to the said Frederick Rheinsward the sum of £589 14/ 11d with Carolina currency, Balance of his own current account sent to J. J. Coulougnac, at New York, the Copy of which is also enclosed hereto, and the said Frederick Rheinsward was to receive from the said Xavier Martin a bill of Exum of £88 5/, and to pay to him the said amount eight days after the delivery of the whole, with one sum of £47 17/ for his expences and another of £7 5/ 9d for payment of duties made to the State, allowed to him by the aforesaid sentence, in deducting from those Sums 27 pounds due by Messrs Ogden and J. J. Coulougnac which has been left to the account of the said Martin.

By that sentence we have preserved the right to the said Martin to prosecute the said Coulougnac for the payment of his Salaries at the rate of fifty Guineas a Year, which Sum was promised him, or to give us sufficient proof that such a sum has been granted to him.

The said Martin has refused till now to comply to the execution of our sentence & but a small part of the produce announced in his current Account has been found, the rest having been employed by him, as it appears, to his Benefit. I beg your Excellency to give immediate Orders to any officer of the State to Execute, Aid and Assist to put into execution our sentence against the said Martin by any mode you will think proper. He claims some salaries, but I have in my own hands a copy of a Memorandum written by said Coulougnac on the 29th December, 1785, that he was to give to the said Martin only his Table and Lodging, and is indebted to him in the sum of 44 pounds, New York Currency, which Sum must be brought against him and added to the £589 14/ 11d if he has a letter of the said Coulougnac fixing or granting him Salaries I will

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make no difficulties to pay them to him when he will have complied with our Sentence, as I wrote to him myself.

Moreover, the said Martin has to furnish an Account of the Sale of the following Articles, viz:

2 ps Cambrick (£1 /120) French Livres.
3 do Muslin (£1 /230) prime cost.
1 ps Rateen.
1 do flannel.

I hope your Excellency will be so good as to enforce, at the same time, the said Martin to give an Account of the Sale of those Articles and to make the immediate payment of the price they have been sold for.

T. T. Coulougnac died some time in March & by my Office I am the Administrator of any French Estates when they die abintestate, in consequence of which I let it be known to Frederick Rheinsward that his powers as Attorney were Null and Void by the Death of the said Coulougnac, & to bring his accounts and deliver to me the Sums or bills he had Received for the said Estate. He has done neither. While he brought in an account to me since, though I have forbidden him to sell or dispose of anything belonging to said Estate, it appears by his letters and by a protest made at New Bern on the Eleventh of this Month, which I have received, that he has sold the Bill of Ben Exum at the loss of 40 per Cent. and he intends to Sell some more Articles, if I don't send him 70 pounds in six days from the date of his protest. Your Excellency is so sensible of the impropriety, irregularity of such proceedings, and such a conduct as to stop the Effects of it in any Matter whatsoever is, is allowed to a power of attorney not to give an Account of his Expences; only I want such sum of money, &c. I dare say it is not the Opinion of your Excellency the said Rheinsward should have brought to me his account at Wilmington or deposited it at New Bern in the hands of Mr. Henrion, that I Authorize to give you a proper discharge and should have returned to New York in April or May, when I paid his Expences. Such is the Meaning of all my Letters to him; I will Submit to your Opinion whether the Expences made by the said Rheinsward since the day that I paid them off at a trifle less must be reimbursed to him or not. His delays are of his own fault & of Martin; on no point of view the Estate of T. T. Coulougnac should pay the Expences attending them.

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I shall have the honor to observe to your Excellency that the said Martin, if he has disposed of any produce announced in his current Account, cannot be required to give or buy some of the same kind, & he must pay them at the price fixed in the said current Account. It is a breach of trust which the Law of every Nation punishes Most Severely. The Account enclosed hereto will Shew the amount of the Sum due by Xavier Martin, that of the Sale of other Articles mentioned in this Letter excepted.

Messrs. Henrion & Constanten, French Merchants at New Bern, will give a proper discharge to the Officer of the State Ordered by You to Execute our Sentence for anything given to them, as I give them power by this so to do.

I am with the greatest regard, Sir,
Your Excellency's mo. humbl. & mo. ob. Servt.,
PETRY.