In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this fifteenth day of August, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three.
Teste: William Maxwell, William Craig, Alex. Martin."
Four children.
1. James Allen McClure, 1st., b. in Augusta Co., Va., Nov. 20, 1783; went to Kentucky with his parents in 1786; thence to Illinois in 1833, settling on a farm near Carlinville. The last years of his life were spent in Washington, D. C, in the employ of the government, where he died July 28, 1849. He is buried in the Congressional Cemetery, where a stone marks his grave. He married, about 1806, Frances Dickerson, dau. of Martin and Rebecca Dickerson, of Jessamine County, Ky. She died in Illinois March 13, 1844.
The following letters, furnished by Mr. Edward Frazer, of Lexington, are of interest:
Dear Sister.
I promised you when I left your house last that I would write pretty soon to you after my arrival at this place. Well, as an excuse for not writing sooner I have no very good reason except laziness to give. You know well that I have all my life been sorely afflicted with that cause. I now write you and thank God that my health and strength and unprofitable life are preserved, and that I am in the land of the living and in the state of repentance. I arrived here safely on the last of November and swore in, and entered upon the duties of my office on the 2nd of December last, and have never missed a day in the discharge of my official duties. I am on a salary of a $1000 per annum, paid monthly. Expenses in this city are high. Board cannot be had in decent families for less than $4 per week, besides your washing and other expenses. I am boarding with Col. Laughlin, the second officer (Recorder) in the General Land Office. He is a Tennesseean with
