HISTORY OF MESSENGER. 229 



have been perhaps half a dozen stories about his killing his 

 keepers, but we are not able to say whether any one of them is 

 true. It is known with certainty, however, that he was willful 

 and vicious and would tolerate no familiarity from strangers." 



The ownership of Messenger, after he was transferred from 

 Philadelphia to New York, like his earlier history, seems to be 

 very much muddled. Henry Astor, a New York butcher, cer- 

 tainly bought him in the fall of 1793, and located him at Philip 

 Platt's, four miles from Jamaica, on Long Island. In the spring 

 of 1796 Mr. Cornelius W. Van Ranst bought one-third interest 

 in him and removed him to Pine Plains in Dutchess County, New 

 York, and, without specifying the time, he says he afterward 

 purchased the remaining two-thirds, for which he paid two thou- 

 sand seven hundred and fifty dollars. There appears to have 

 been some mistake about this, for in 1802 we find Henry Astor, of 

 New York, conveying one-third interest in the horse to Benjamin 

 B. Cooper, of Camden, New Jersey. Some other parties also 

 claim to have owned an interest in the horse, and I heard that 

 there was a lawsuit about him between Astor and Van Ranst. 

 The latter claims to have owned an interest in him till the time 

 of his death, in 1808. It is not known how much Mr. Astor paid 

 for him when he bought him, nor have I any data from which to 

 determine the probable market value of the horse except that 

 Mr. Van Ranst says he paid two thousand seven hundred and 

 fifty dollars for two-thirds of him. If we accept this as a basis, 

 he must have been valued at about four thousand one hundred 

 .and twenty-five dollars. It is true, beyond doubt, that for several 

 years he brought to his owners a net annual rental of one thousand 

 dollars. This would indicate a very large patronage at very high 

 prices for those times. For the twenty years of his stud services 

 in this country, we find him located as follows: 



1788, at Alexander Clay's, Market Street, Philadelphia, at $15 

 the season and $1 to the groom, privilege of returning. 



1789, at Thomas Clayton's, Lombard Street, Philadelphia, at 

 $10 the season and 81 to the groom. 



1790, at Noah Hunt's, in the Jersies, near Pennington, at $8. 



1791, at "Mount Benger," two miles from Bristol, Bucks Co., 

 Pa., at $16. 



1792, at the same place and the same price. 



1793, at the same place and the same price. 



