ACCOUNTS OF COMPENSATION COLLECTED BY THE COMMISSIONERS JOY & BRISTOL OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK AND PAID TO THE NIAGARA SUFFERERS RELATED TO THEIR PROPERTY LOSSES DURING THE BURNING OF BUFFALO IN THE WAR OF 1812

Four manuscript documents, [4] pp., each approx. 31 cm., each docketed on verso. All in very good condition, legible, one document more toned. A record of moneys collected by Joy and Bristol as Commissioners for the State of New York for distribution to the Niagara Sufferers. The documents include: 1) "Amts collected including what is due & collectable." [caption title]. This document, signed by J[oseph] Clary and M[oses] Bristol, Dec. 31, 1830, records amounts collected by the commissioners, plus the costs for the state, less assignments sent to the comptroller, dividends due Joy and Bristol, etc., a "statement of the affairs of the Niagara Sufferers in a/c with the Comms. J & B." 2) "Statement of the affairs of the Niagara Suffers with Joy & Bristol." [caption title]. Calculations on the second document, signed by Clary and Bristol on Dec. 16, 1833, record the total amount collected by Joy and Bristol to be $69,205.30, with cash paid out to the sufferers amounting to $62,913.69, plus expenses of $350. Left in the hands of Joy was $2511.30; Bristol $1649.72; Clary $1396.36; plus smaller amounts to three other people. 3) "Statement of the affairs of the Niagara Suffers with Joy & Bristol." [caption title]. Document, dated Buffalo, Feb. 1, 1836, and signed by Clary and Joy. The total amount collected by Bristol and Joy amounted to $69,281.39, including $42,464.60 assigned to the comptroller Nov. 30, 1825; plus $16,955.40 on Dec. 27, 1833; and $2900.50 on March 28, 1835. Additional amounts were left to be distributed, or recorded as expenses, or paid in commissions to Joy & Bristol. A detailed breakdown of how the "Niagara suffer business stands between T. Joy, M. Bristol & J. Clary" is also given. 4) "Statement of the affairs of the Niagara Sufferers with Joy & Bristol." [caption title]. This fourth document is a neater copy of the Feb. 1, 1836 document, docketed on verso: "copied from J. Clary's statement, M[ar]ch 7, 1842," and signed by M. Bristol. During the War of 1812, incursions by the British on American soil had resulted in the burning of towns, the loss of property, and the impoverishment of citizens. On the Niagara frontier, this included the village of Buffalo which was nearly burned to the ground on Dec. 30, 1813. In a letter written by members of the Committee of Safety and Relief at Canandaigua on Jan. 8, 1814, it was reported that "Niagara county, and that part of Genesee which lies west of Batavia, are completely depopulated. All the settlements in a section of country forty miles square and which contained more than twelve thousand souls, are effectually broken up. Our roads are filled with people, many of whom have been reduced from a state of competence and good prospects, to the last degree of want and sorrow." [see: Louis Babcock's book "The War of 1812 on the Niagara Frontier," (Buffalo, NY: 1927), pp.253-4] These "Niagara sufferers" were among the citizens of several states, who petitioned the federal government for redress of losses suffered during the conflict. President Madison and Congress responded by establishing an Office of Claims in 1816, with Richard Bland Lee as its adminstrator "to solicit claims, appraise lost property, adjudicate cases, and award restitution." According to a "Report of the Committee of Claims on the petition of the inhabitants of Niagara county, New York, sufferers by the enemy during the last war," dated Jan. 15, 1821, and submitted to Congress, these same "sufferers," in anticipation of federal relief, began in 1816 to apply for loans from a newly established bank in the village of Buffalo. These citizens "being at that time in great want of means to rebuild their houses, and repair their devastated estates, were induced to apply to this bank for loans of money for that purpose, and which loans they generally obtained, by giving mortgages on their farms, accompanied by honorary engagements that they should be repaid out of the moneys received by them under the law for thei.…