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0834

Williamsburg Va. July 28th 1865. 

To the Superintendent of "Freedman's Bureaus" for Virginia.

I would most respectfully Submit the following - facts together with testimony in support thereof, and ask that the very Small portion of the Estate of Dr. R.P. Waller of Williamsburg Va. now cultivated by Free Negroes from birth and Freedmen (the same being less than half of the cleared land, about one third thereof) being portions of two tracts of land, known as Town Quarter & Semples, be at once restored to him. 

Dr. R.P. Waller is an Old Man, Seventy four years of age, has been for many years, at least ten, So much crippled by disease, as to be unable to walk more than a few Steps at a time. During this time he has been confined for the most part to his house & lot, riding in a close Carriage from time to time over his Farms. He was always assisted by others in getting in & out of this Carriage, nor was he able to Enter or alight from the same without Such aid. Dr. Waller is possessed of a considerable body of Land in the vicinity of Williamsburg Va. He has never resided properly Speaking on said Land, his Dwelling being within the Corporation of Williamsburg; but has always managed the Same by the agency of others. He has always been in the habit of Spending a large portion of each year away from his home, formerly near Fredericksburg Va. but latterly in Lynchburg Va. where part of his family reside. Soon after the Commencement of the War and in May 1861, he left Williamsburg and went to Lynchburg with a married daughter & remained 'till the following November. In the month of March 1862, he again accompanied his daughter to Lynchburg, from which place he could not return, as heretofore, in consequence of Williamsburg being occupied by the Federal Army. It was also imperatively necessary that under the then existing Circumstances he should remain in Lynchburg, for both then & in Richmond he had a married daughter, and also other relations who might assist him whenever he should become stripped of his means and resources by the hand of War, whereas in Williamsburg he had none such, and then everyone, it was supposed, would be in the same destitute condition. He, however, left behind, as he 

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