Sully[1] July 31, 1801
Dear Sir,
Indeed you will receive the letter of the Clerk of Westmoreland on the Subject of the transcripts, from which you will discover that he has sent copies of all the papers found in his office. It may have happened that Mr. Lee’s attorney may have taken out of the office on some pretext or other the original declarations, and for the very purpose of suppressing them. If that be not the case I presume Mr. Swarm will not repose to let you see them. I will however write to the Clerk by the present post desiring him to find me a more perfect word, if such on one can be made out.
Mr. Collins writes to me that Doctor Shippen frequently calls to inquire how Mrs. C Lee is. If you will enable me I will put it in his power to inform the Doctor.
Yr obt svt,
R B Lee
Charles Lee, Esquire
Source: The Archives of the Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation, Papers of the Lee Family, Box 2, M2009.105, Jessie Ball duPont Library, Stratford Hall
Transcribed by Colin Woodward, 2016 April 16
[1] Sully Plantation in Chantilly in Fairfax County, Virginia. From 1725 to 1839, it was owned by the Lee family. Richard Bland Lee built the main house in 1794.
