Rusk: The Adventures of Gilbert Imlay 
9 
By the middle of September, Imlay, who had appeared at 
Lexington in July,^^ had gone into Lincoln County, and was 
thinking of making a journey to the eastward;^® and on the 
27th of September he authorized Dr. Alexander Skinner to 
act for him with power of attorney during his absence.^^ A 
letter which he wrote from Danville on the tenth of the fol- 
lowing month shows that he planned definitely to set out for 
the East within a few days — apparently by the Wilderness 
Road to the old part of Virginia — and that he intended to 
return by Christmas.^® What was the object of this difficult 
journey and whether he carried out his intention to return by 
the end of the year, it is not possible to say. It is certain, 
however, that up to December 9 he had failed to obey the 
summons of the court at Louisville to answer Cleveland’s 
plea of debt, so that it was then ordered that unless he ap- 
peared at the next session judgment would be given against 
him.2^ Apparently he had returned to Kentucky before April 
9 of the following year, at which time, at any rate, bail was 
supplied on his behalf by Dr. Alexander Skinner, and a plea 
alleging that the bond to Cleveland was corruptly bargained 
was entered by Benjamin Sebastian as Imlay ’s attorney. 
This action served to postpone further prosecution of the case 
until after the defendant’s final departure from Kentucky.^^ 
About the end of May, 1785, Imlay was at Danville, from 
which place he wrote-^ that General Wilkinson had agreed to 
care for his interests in Fayette County. Early in November 
he was again (or still) in Danville;^® and on the second day 
See Imlay to Triplet, July 15, 1784, as cited above. 
Imlay to Henry Lee, September 14, 1784, in Draper MSS., Wisconsin Historical 
Society. 
Imlay to Skinner, September 27, 1784, in Vol. 32, Innes MSS., Library of Congress. 
20 Imlay to Henry Lee, October 10, 1784, in Draper MSS., Wisconsin Historical 
Society. 
21 Order Book, Jefferson Circuit Court, for 1784-1785, p. 211. That Imlay was, in 
the meantime, deeply involved in debt in another quarter, and that he was probably 
on the brink of financial ruin, is shown by a letter from General James Wilkinson to 
Mathew Irvine, dated Carlisle, September 28, 1784 (Emmet Collection, New York Public 
Library ; printed in J. W. Townsend’s Kentuckians in History and Literature) . I 
have been unable to determine whether Imlay ever redeemed his bonds to Irvine. 
22 Order Book, Jefferson Circuit Court, for 1784-1785, p. 287. See also Imlay’s plea 
by Sebastian, File 5746, Old Circuit and Comm.on Law Courts, as cited above. 
22 After Imlay had left the country, this trial continued to drag on year after 
year, until September of 1793, when it was dismissed because of no prosecution. Not 
quite four years later Cleveland asked and received possession of the original bond. 
2“* Imlay to Henry Lee, May 28, 1785, in Draper MSS., Wisconsin Historical Society. 
2" Imlay’s memorandum to James Marshall, November 6, 1785, in Vol. 32, Innes 
MSS., Library of Congress. 
