al Estate of which Thomas Moss died seized in ____ was the tract
of land on which he resided at the time of his death situated on both
sides of the Little River Turnpike Road about Six miles from
Alexandria containing about 320 Acres. This tract of land is the only
real Estate to which the Heirs at Law of said Thomas Moss are entitled
in the said County of Fairfax or Elsewhere--This tract of land is
naturally a thin soil but from a careful course of husbandry for a
number of years, is now in a good state of cultivation, the fields
well enclosed by good and substantial fencing, the land not in
cultivation well taken with grass (clover and timothy) and that in
cultivation just sown down in winter grass, and the buildings in a
good state of repair, the barn and stables having been Erected in the
last two or three years--

Your orators have been advised by persons in the neighbourhood with
whom they have conversed, with the view of getting the best advice and
information on the subject that the tract of land would not now rent
for more than ____ per annum, which would give to each of the Heirs in
the shape of rent Twenty five or Thirty dollars annually--while on the
other hand owing as your Orators believe to the Convenient distance
thence to Alexandria, George Town and Washington and the improved
state of the farm in other respects, it would sell upon the usual
terms of Sales of land for Twenty five dollars per Acre and thus
afford an interest on the sale nearly double the annual rent--In
addition to the fact that the rent would greatly fall short of the
interest on the sale your orators have been advised that the property
in the hands of tenants would in the course of a few years be
excessively injured and lessened in value, the soil impoverished, the
buildings and fencing neglected and suffered to delapidate perhaps
destroyed.

It is obvious that the land cannot be advantageously divided among the
heirs Eight in number it would give about forty acres to each heir,
and this without regard to improvements--And the consideration deeply
affecting the interests of the infant is that this farm must be rented
out all the shares together manifestly--if therefore those now of age
and those that soon will be of age should sell their shares each share
thus sold off, will not only proportionally lessen in value the shares
of the other remaining unsold, but will place the younger children as
they come of age in the power and at the