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Murfreesboro 12^th October 1826

Sir

In obedience to your instructions I went into the State of
South Carolina, where I arrived in June last - On my arrival in
Marlboro' district, where Mason Lee died, I possessed myself of
all the papers in relation to his bequest to the State of Tennessee;
and obtained all the information necessary with regard to his Estate
both real and personal. I procured a copy of his Will, the inventory
and appeasement, which are herewith transmitted.

First then as to the testators real Estate. Lee owned at his death
about twenty thousand Acres of land, lying in Orres, Marion, Darlington
and Marlboro' districts. But a small portion of this Land has as yet
been reclaimed from the Forests and swamps; and the greater part of it
is pure barren land and of little value. The whole may be estimated
from the best information I could obtain at $25,000. It has been
almost entirely unproductive, the rents amounting to about forty dollars
per annam since the death of the testator.

The negroes are ^were valuable at the death of the testator, and are
daily becoming more so by their increase and payments made of
negroes to the executor under contracts of the testators before his death.
The negroes are now nineteen in number, and are worth $7.000. They
have been hired out annually since the death of Lee, and the whole hire
amounts to the sum of $3.500. The executor has not collected the hire
for the years 1824 and 1825, the notes being on solvent men, he thought
proper to let the money remain in their hands on interest. He has
collected