Viewing page 71 of 251

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Richmond, October 27 1865
Col Brown
Superintendent Freeman's Bureau
Sir,
We are the owners of a tract of land lying in the country of Gloucester in the State of Virginia.  We placed on the said land tenants to occupy the same.  We rented part of the land to six families - among them W. William's, Mrs Franny Oliver's and Mr. Thomas Kemp's.  They were to pay us $195 a year for rent.  Some of them rented for $25 a year, some for $50 a year, one of them Mr Kemp for $40 a year. Beside the three above named white families there were of colored, John Robinson, [?] S. Smith and another whose name we forget.
In addition to these six families who occupied a tract of the property, we sent to the place two colored men John Frayser and [?] Frayser and furnished them with three mules, wagon and plough.  Those men were to cultivate the remainder of the land that could be cultivated and to pay us one fourth of what they made.
We understand what this land is claimed by the Freemen's Bureau or rather that some agent of the Bureau has notified the tenants not to pay no rent.  We have never abandoned this land, we have always been claiming it and exercising on it the upkeep of owners.
The land has never been confiscated nor any proceeding of 

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-04-14 19:48:28 Not Finished