Letter from Edmund Randolph, Richmond, to John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, 1788 March 10 : autograph manuscript signed.

Informing Muhlenberg that, "upon receipt of your late favor concerning the negro, now in the gaol of Philadelphia, I communicated it to Mr. Stephen Tankard, his supposed owner"; writing "That gentleman lost thirteen negroes during the British invasion, and from every conjecture, which he can make on the lights, which he has received, he is satisfied of his title. My acquaintance with him enables me to say that he is an honest man, and that great reliance may be put in his assertions"; saying that he has advised Tankard to go to Philadelphia as soon as possible, "promising at the same time to write to you, in order that the negro may be detained until arrival"; adding that "[t]he situation of his family-matters will not suffer him to go off, until the latter end of the present, or the beginning of the next month"; in a postscript, including the following: "Mr. Tankard describes the negro, as well as his memory serves, in the following manner. He is about 5 feet, 8 or 9 inches high.--broad over the breast--his colour somewhat inclined to a mulatto, [speaks thick?], is about 36 years of age, and has rather small legs."