safely to hand
in the month of June last. Unluckily you forgot to sign it, and your
handwriting is so Protean, that one cannot be sure it is yours. To
increase the causes of incertitude, it was dated _Pen-park_, a name
which I only know, as the seat of John Harmer. The handwriting, too,
being somewhat in his style, made me ascribe it hastily to him, indorse
it with his name, and let it lie in my bundle to be answered at
leisure. That moment of leisure arriving, I set down to answer it to
John Harmer, and now, for the first time, discover marks of its being
yours, and particularly those expressions of friendship to myself and
family, which you have ever been so good as to entertain, and which are
to me among the most precious possessions. I wish my sense of this, and
my desires of seeing you rich and happy, may not prevent my seeing any
difficulty in the case you state of George Harmer's wills; which as you
state them, are thus:

1. A will, dated December the 26th, 1779, written in his own hand, and
devising to his brother the estates he had received from him.

2. Another will, dated June the 25th, 1782, written also in his own
hand, devising his estate to trustees, to be conveyed to such of his
relations. I. H. I. L. or H. L. as should become capable of acquiring
property, or, on failure of that, to be sold and the money remitted
them.

3. A third will, dated September the 12th, 1786, devising all his
estate at Marrowbone, and his tracts at Horse-pasture and Poison-field
to you; which will is admitted to record, and of course, has been duly
executed.

You say the learned are divided on these wills. Yet I see no cause of
division, as it requires little learning to decide, that "the first
deed and last will must always prevail." I am afraid, therefore, the
difficulty may arise on the want of words of inheritance in the devise
to you; for you state it as a devise to "George Gilmer" (without adding
"and to his heirs,") of "all the _estate_ called Marrowbone," "the
_tract_ called Horse-pasture," and "the _tract_ called Poison-field."
If the question is on this point, and you have copied the words of the
will exactly, I suppose you take an estate in fee simple in Marrowbone,
and for life only in Horse-pasture and Poison-field; the want of words
of inheritance in the two last cases, being supplied as to the first,
by the word "estate," which has been repeatedly decided to be
descriptive of the quantum of interest devised