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0525

Elizabeth City Co. Va. Septr. 29 of 1865.
To Col. O. Brown, Commissioner for the State of Virginia.

Your petitioner, Wm L. Jones, of the County of Eliz. City, would most respectfully submit the following case, That prior to the war, he was a farmer having recently purchased a farm of One hundred and Seventy acres, most of the purchase money being still due and unpaid to a lady who was long prior to the war and is still a widow. That at the commencement of the war, your petitioner was elected to a war commissioned officer in company organized in the said county of Elizabeth City. That your petitioner never held a commission above that of Lieutenant. That he is not worth Twenty Thousand sadly, or any approximation to it. That your petitioner is not within any of the Excepted Clauses of the President's Proclamation. That your petitioner has taken and subscribed the oaths under the Proclamations of both Presidents Lincoln + Johnson, + the same he has obtained in good faith + so intends. That the property of your petitioner has been libelled [[libeled]] and a decree of condemnation against the same been made, but the same has not been sold. That the property of your petitioner has, for this year, has been rented to one of my mother's former servants. To this [[crossed out]] servant [[/crossed out]] Freedman, I'll rent Ten (10) acres of land at $2.50 per acre which only pays the interest +taxes [[crossed out]] + which is all the land he says he wants— as he only has a wife + no children. I will also permit another one of my mother's former servants who has only family to support— to build + live in my farm at the same reasonable rates— + this, I have promised him— if my land  is restored— Io [[?]] I'll take in— instead of throwing out of homes, I one of the freedmen, In virtue of the received order from Major Genl. Howard, Commissioner of The U.S. of Abandoned lands, Freedmen + c. Your petitioner would most respectfully submit whether his property is not Embraced in the terms of said order, + if no, he would most Earnestly request of the Commissioners of Virginia, the restoration of this farm, being the only means of support to himself + family—  
W.L. Gowes     

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