Dear Ger

I have deferred answering your letter of the 20th January until Mr. Marlins business was so far accomplished as to enable me to send down the money, which was effected on the 30th, but not having a direct and safe opportunity before, this I did not think of so much importance that the money should be sent, as to warrany any risk in the conveyance. At bottom you will find a copy of the Receipt I gave to Martin, he wishes to have a Deed sent up as soon as possible and will secure the future payments by a mortage on the Lot, together with usual Bond.

Sunday last was both a gloomy and a joyful Day to myself and family. The suspense which the account of the capture of the president Frigate occasioned as it regarded the fate of our dear Antill was so painful to us all, that you can better conceived than I described the gloomy dependency, which pervaded my family, but heavy in mercy sent us unlook'd for relief for at nine OClock at night we had a letter by the Mail from Antill himself, dated at Sea on board the xx

...then was gratitude and joy, and we must be forgiven if we had not patriotism enough about us to think any more of the national loss than if one of Mr. Jefferson's Gun Boats has gone to the bottom of the Ocean without a Man in her. We even, for a moment, forgot that our poor Boy was a prisoner of War, although he emphatically mentions that circumstance in his Letter, yet no part of it indicates a depression of spirits, indeed I think, I may without making the customary allowances for the partiality of a parent, say that he evinces a manly firmness far beyond what might in similar circumstances be expected from a Boy of his Age. How he will be disposed of when the Frigate arrives at Bermuda I cannot say and hope that Commodore Decatur will have influence enough with the British (by whom we have reason to suppose him to be respected) to obtain a Cartel to bring home himself and crew on Parole.

The following is a Copy of the receipt above alluded to Viz:

"Received 30: 1815 of Calvin Martin Eight hundred & Fifty Dollars, which I am to pay to Abraham G. Lansing Esq. Albany, it being the first payment on the purchase of Lot Number Seven in the Subdivision of Lot Number five in the fourth Allotment of the Oriskany Patent, the property of said Abraham G. Lansing and which said Lot Number Seven the aforesaid Calvin Martin has agreed to purchase at and after the rate of Twenty Dollars pr Acre and making payment therefor in the following manner, to wit, Eight hundred and Fifty Dollars (the sum mentioned) down, Six Hundred and Fifty Dollars together with the Interest on the whole sum remaining due in One Year from the date hereof, and the residue in Annual payments of xx Hundred Dollars as near as may be, together with the Interest on the whole Sum remaining due in each Year until the whole is paid"

I have thus to word the receipt because I did not exactly know the Number of Acres in the Lot and have only to add that I think the sale so good that I would not hesitate to sell all my property here on the same erms that is taking the relative value into consideration.

Remember me with affection to your Helen, to Your Father and Mother, if you write to them, & best wishes to all our Friends.

Yours truly

G.G. Lansing

Notes:
The Capture of the U.S.S. President:
His Britannic Majesty`s ship Endymion, at Sea, Jan. 18, 1815. SIR, The painful duty of detailing to you the particular causes which preceded and led to the capture of the late United States frigate President, by a squadron of His Britannic Majesty`s ships (Majestic (razee), Endymion, Pomone, Tenedos, and Dispatch brig.) has devolved upon me. In my communication of the 14th, I made known to you my intention to sail on that evening...

Commodore Stephen Decatur, USN, (1779-1820)
The strong British blockade kept Decatur in port for most of the rest of the War of 1812, but he was able to break out of New York in the frigate President on 15 January 1815. Captain Decatur was wounded when his ship was captured the next day by a superior enemy force, but he soon recovered and was given command of a powerful squadron.

Stephen Decatur
In January 1815, while in command of the frigate President, he encountered a squadron of British ships. He defeated one of them, the Endymion, but after losing a large part of his crew was forced to surrender to the British commander of the squadron.

War of 1812:
1815. January 16.--The frigate President, Captain Decatur, was captured by a British squadron. She had sailed on that day from New York, in leaving which port, she grounded on a bar, by a mistake of the pilot, and was considerably injured. The Endymion, one of the British squadron was engaged by the President, and silenced before her final capture. The President lost 24 killed, 65 wounded.