Benjamin Walker correspondence

1782-1820

Benjamin Walker (born 1753 in London) was an American soldier, land agent, and U.S. representative from New York, 1801-1803. He served as aide-de-camp to Friederich Wilhelm von Steuben and George Washington during the Revolutionary War, and was appointed Naval Officer of Customs for the port of New York in 1789. Walker also worked as a land agent for William Duer and for the Pulteney Estate. He moved to Utica, New York in 1797 where he died in 1818. Letters to and from Benjamin Walker, in chronological order, pertain mostly to land transactions and commissions. Correspondents include Patrick Colquhoun of London and William Duer, referring in part to funding German settlers for Genesee lands in New York. Wartime communications, 1782-1783, include two letters to Captain Pierre-Etienne Du Ponceau. An undated letter in French from Baron von Steuben asks Walker to write a letter in English to the Governor of New Jersey for his signature, and mentions efforts to influence Haring, probably Cornelius Haring, agent of confiscated land in Bergen County. Former Army officer William North advises Walker of the death of a friend, 1806, and an 1820 letter concerns Walker's estate. Other items include a certificate of customs duties paid by the Brig Caroline, signed by Walker in 1795, and a letter from Rufus King concerning the documentation of imports, 1796.