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State of Va.
City of Williamsburg To wit:

This day personally appeared before me, Richard. M. Bucket [[?]] an Alderman & Ex officio a Justice of the Peace, for the City aforesaid, Robert William, who being duly sworn according to Law says, that he was at the time of the breaking out of the War in 1861, in the Employment of Dr. R. P. Waller a Manager & Agent. That at that time he was living at Semples (his house being within a quarter of a mile of Fort Magruder) and had the Special Management of the two Tracts of Land, known respectively as Town Quarter & Semples, although in capacity of Chief Manager he had a Supervision & general direction over the whole Estate of Dr. Waller. That during the Summer of 1861 several Regiments of Confederate Troops were encamped upon the Farm known as Semples, and very much impeded and interfered with Farming operations, viz, by removing at different times large quantities of the fencing from one part of the Farm to another, by making a thoroughfare of both, (Town-Quarter & Semples being contiguous,) by Endangering the Farm buildings & Machinery, by various depredations upon growing Crops &c, and in time by all those practises, which are inseparable from the occupation of Troops, whether they by friend or foe. That Confederate Troops continued to occupy the premises in various numbers, until the Battle of Williamsburg in May 1862, and that the depredations &c. referred to were continued until a few days before that Battle. That all these circumstances  annoyed Dr. Waller Excessively, and determined him, together with other causes, to leave Williamsburg rather earlier than in the preceding year, and also to remove a part of his Negro-Servants from this Land where they were useless, owing to the obstruction to all farming operation, by the occupation of Confederate Troops & carry them to the upper Country , where their labor might be remunerative and where they were at that time Considered safer. That he remained at Semples with a number of the Negroes, striving to keep the place in order, and to preserve a portion of the growing Crops, until the retreating Army of Gen. J. E. Johnston destroyed all the fencing, of any consequence, on both farms, and used the same for cooking purposes & to warm with, the weather being unusually cold [[strikethrough]] warm [[/strikethrough]] for the season, Early in May. He - (Wilkins) Wilkins then removed to another Tract of Dr. Waller's, separated from Town-Quarter & Semples by a Small creek, & known as -