This volume consists chiefly of deeds, but also includes agreements, lists of property and proprietors, Maryland and District of Columbia court decrees, reports, and several letters. A few of the documents are copies or drafts. Included are an agreement of October 13, 1790, signed by several landowners in the vicinity of Georgetown willing to relinquish their land for the use of the Federal City; an agreement dated February 21, 1791, by proprietors of Hamburgh to sell their lots to the President so that Hamburgh could be included in the Federal City; a copy of the Original Proprietors' agreement of March 30, 1791, to convey the land for the Federal City; and a draft of the deed conveying the Washington City property from the trustees to the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, November 20, 1796.
Records concerning Carrollsburgh, a part of what was to become the City of Washington in the District of Columbia, include lists of the proprietors in 1771; a description of the streets, alleys, and lots as recorded in 1773; schedules of lot numbers, proprietors, and their allotments on redivision in 1793 - 1794; lists of proprietors and the numbers of lots owned by each; lists of deeds sent the proprietors; and a certificate of allotment and assignment of lots completed June 26, 1794.
For the town of Hamburgh, a part of what was to become the City of Washington in the District of Columbia, there are "Divisions of Hamburgh," 1793 - 1794, similar to the schedules for Carrollsburgh; lists of unsubscribed lots; and a certificate of allotment and assignments of lots completed June 26, 1794.
The operations of the firm Greenleaf and Morris and Nicholson in Washington are represented by documents including James Greenleaf's agreement of July 9, 1794, with the Commissioners of the District of Columbia to mortgage 1,000 public lots as security for a loan to be negotiated in Holland and two deeds of 1794 and 1795 in which these lots were reconveyed to the Commissioners; the agreement of December 4, 1794, in which Robert Morris and John Nicholson promised to convey 2.4 million square feet of their property in Washington to Thomas Law; and court decrees and injunctions of 1799, 1809, and 1820 resulting from Morris and Nicholson's forfeiture of lots.
Included are deeds and reports on land donated by the United States to St. Vincents's Orphan Asylum in 1832, Columbian College (now George Washington University) in 1834, and Georgetown College in 1835; a report on land donated to the Department of Agriculture in 1889; records on the U.S. reservations in the city and their conditions, 1835, 1844, 1850, 1858, and 1868; and documents on land sold or given to the United States. Two deeds of 1856 entitled the United States to select 500 burial lots in Washington Cemetery (now Congressional Cemetery), Washington Parish (Christ Church) of the Protestant Episcopal Church. There are many deeds to lots in Square 249 for the assemblage of Franklin Park (Reservation 9), 1823 - 1833; a 1793 agreement concerning Blodget's Hotel lottery; a 1794 deed pledging the Blodget property as security for the payment of prizes; an 1810 deed from owners of Square 430 conveying to the United States the land and the "large brick building," Blodget's Hotel; and deeds to the Potomac or Long Bridge, the Anacostia Bridge, and the Navy Yard Bridge, purchased from private corporations. Several documents relate to the United States purchase of rooms in and the District of Columbia's interest in the City Hall building during 1849 and the 1870s.
The series also includes records concerning Wiggington's Island, one of the properties bought by the United States, which was located outside the District in Aquia Creek, Virginia, to provide sandstone for the Capitol and other public buildings. There are bond and deeds of 1791 and 1792 conveying the island to the United States; a patent for 12 acres in Stafford County, Virginia, including Wiggington's Island, to Robert Hall and Edward Thomason, November 20, 1678; a deed from Margaret Lady Culpeper, Thomas Lord Fairfax, Catherine his wife, and Alexander Culpeper, Esquire, to George Brent for the same 12 acres on January 30, 1694; and a deed dated May 8, 1786, from a later George Brent to Robert Stewart of Baltimore for one acre of "Brent's" Island on Aquia Creek.
There are also a draft of a 1798 memorial of the Commissioners to Congress seeking an advance of funds; a 1799 order of the Maryland House of Delegates concerning the State's loan to the Commissioners of $50,000 in U.S. 6 percent stock; several bills of complaint to the Chancellor of Maryland pertaining to the assignment of and payment for certain city lots; and a reproduction of a letter to President Thomas Jefferson from William Thornton about changes in his design for the Capitol.
