Letter from George Corlis to John Corlis, 14 April 1816

Farm Bourbon, Sunday, 14th, April 1816

Dear Father

The last eve I recd yours of 19. 22. & 26. March containing plan of the house &c_ I have purchaisd the negro man, and given Mr. Prentiss a draft on you including the first draft for 268,$ 37 cents, dated 5th March, the Negro cost 525.$ 75 cents so thats the amt. of this draft is $794,,02- it is dated 12th March 1816 payable 75 days after date, at the count.g room Messrs. Gilman & Ammidon Philadel in current bank notes of that city, of this I have advised you in letters dated 14th & 26 March which I hope you have recd_ This man has three trades as I have stated and is the smartest negro I have seen. Mr. Prentiss said when I purchased him if I did not like him he would take him, himself, were he put up for sale I have no doubt he would bring $700_ as far as I have had an opportunity of judging he is honest, which cant be said of many (Wilson was a great thief) he has a wife & boy about 6 years old living near Lexington, whom he is very anxious you should purchais, as he wishes to live on the same plantation with his wife, this is uncommon also among the negroes who will hardly ever live together that they many have an excuse for visiting_ he says she is a good cook, & understands house work well, it iwll be far prefferable to purchase her & her boy, to Charlotte & hers, for from what I have seen of Charlotte I am not pleas'd with her, she is quite lazy & I suspect not very honest - in the mean time I shall if I can hire, Charles (our negros wife for I am obliged to let him go to see her every fortnight, which makes it inconvenient, If I should succeed in hireing her & should not have employment for both shall not retain Charlotte - but expect I shall be obliged to employ her in light work outdoors, for it is almost impossible to procure men or boys, wether it is owing to our being strangers or that their masters have full employment for them I know not, - it is customary to give security for the payment, & I do not feel at liberty to ask this, lest I may be call'd on to

reciprocate - If I had rec^d these letters before I purchas'd I should not have bought Charles, tho' we should have been almost entirely without help as I have but one black man beside. Wilson having been taking a taken away a month since & sold - so that now we have but 3 men in all, the black man I hired of M^r J Prentiss at 80 Doll^r. p^r annum, our help is as follows

M^r Young - $15 p^r m^o Charles, (our man) Charlott - $40 p^r an. I believe Maurice a black man 80 p^r an from M^r S Prentiss

a girl 13 years old $12 till Christmass, this girl will do very well to work among the tobacco, &c -

I am promis'd a black man this week ^at $10 p: month whom if I get shall set to work immediately digging the clay for brick, & shall get others soon as I can & have the brick made, the brick makers in Paris are just throwing up their clay, it is not too late tho' the it would have been better for the frost- I wrote you respecting the price of brick making & laying, viz $1 p^r 1000 for making, & ten & six p^r 1000 for laying- I do not see how you can make it advantageous to send out a Mason, but you can judge best- I told M^r Canada whom I spoke to to make the brick to try to hire some hands for me but he has as yet been unable to procure any one black man is a good molder, & I shall try to begin directly some how or other- we shall be able to assist M^r Young in planting &c ourselves so that the negroes can be employ'd in getting materials for the house. our sand for the brick must come from the blue licks, two loads will be sufficient. the timber must be carried soon to be saw'd on acct of the water- M^r Newman a carpenter living about a mile from here is coming to morrow to pick out the timber which we shall have saw'd directly- they ask 1 Doll^r p^r 100 feet for sawing ^the joice, the rafters 20 ft & 11. sticks 30 ft are so long they cannot saw them, we must therefore hue & plain them 600 300 ft oak plank for partitions 7/6 p^r hundred, these we shall try to purchase ready saw'd, the post baths we can split out ourselves, the 1200 ft 1 in. boards for roof 7/6 p^r - the carpenters do not work by the day. M^r

Newman gave me a list of the folowing prices for which he woud do the wood work. no having then rec^d the plan of the house, I gave him your dimensions, allowing three rooms on lower floor & four chambers, a roof like that in cranston

Framing 27 square of joist @ 75. cts - $20.25 27 square flooring @ $3 p^r square 81.00 19 window frames @ 6 p^r frame 114. 2. outside door frames @ 10. 20. - 8. door frames 2.50 - 20. - 11. doors 3.50 each - 38.50 255. sash lights @12 1/2 cts - 31.87 600 feet base & sur base - @ 12 1/2 cts 75.00 120 ft cornice @ 25 cts - 30.00 12 square of thingling - @ 9/p^r squ 18. Tuning up stair case - 80.00 2. chimney pieces - $15. each 30.00 6. " " $5 - 30.00 $588.12

the [page damaged] was done the other day that you might form some [damage - idea?] [damage - entirely?] of the cost, the house was allowd to stand [set?] above from the old one, the plan & workmanship similar to [damage - the one?] in Cranston, at least the work to be handsomely & well done the plan which you have sent out will cost considerably less, as there is but one outside door that will beat the above price fewer windows, beside, the lower rooms which were calculated to be best finish'd will be left 'till you come out, & the stair case much less, not so many chimney pieces the roof much cheaper &c,

Our sublime mansion has two stone chimneys, one at each end, but no fireplaces above the chimneys are outside and about and occupy rather more than one third the end of the building so that a good part of the north chimney will stand in the pantry - it is 5 ft from the corner withinside to the edge of the chimney, & you have put the door leading from the old house into the pantry in chimney place below, and a door against the wall of the chimney above, but I suppose you intend to pull down the north chimney which will be the best way I think. -

Will you have the chimney at north end of the New house flush with the wall or outside Kentuck fashion

[drawing of house labelled 'N. end']

I will shew your plan to Newman when he comes & ascertain the difference of price, you will be able to form a pretty accurate calculation, & determine wether you will employ him or not, as he wishes to know soon as possible. I do not see how you can send a carpenter out either proffitably.- if they come will they board out, or stay with us, we have but three beds-

27 Ap^l anno [?] 9 may

John Corlis Esq^r To go by way Marietta & Washington City Providence Rhode Island

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GWRC 14 April 1816