The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1885-03-04
NOTICE TO THE COMMON COUNCIL
OF THE CITY OF LAMBERTVILLE.

NOTICE TO THE COMMON COUNCIL
OF THE CITY OF LAMBERTVILLE.
| GENTLEMEN-I find my name publish
ed, by your authority, as delinquent
debtor for taxes. Believing as do that
you have been misinformed, and that you
have no desire to purposely do me any
injustice, hope you will, at next meet
ing of Council, cause official inquiry to
be made as to the trulhfulness of the
charge made by your Collector, that l am
delinquent debtor and if you find 1t to
be untrue, as you most certainly will, l
hope you will Immediately relieve me of
the charge of being delinquent debtor
to the city of Lambertville for unpaid
taxes.
To assist you in securing the needful
information, you will find that have for
years been most upjustly assessed for
taxes on an uhfeneed naked lot of land ON
Cottage Hill, in the First Ward, sold by
Stacy b. Bray to David Wilson about
fourteen years ago. About eight years
ago this lot of land was mortgaged by the
said David Wilson to George A. Allen,
deceased, of Pennington. Since giving
the mortgage the said Wilson claims to
have abandoned his ownership in the pro-
perty to the heirs of the said Allen and
as neither one of the above parties desires
to be recognized as the owners of this
poor, forsaken lot of land, it was most
wrongfully assessed 10 me. And l have
been advertised repeatedly, year after
year, as delinquent debtor, because 1
would not pay the taxes ON this worthless
lot that I never owned.
AS the public understand it, the object
or motive Of advertising person as a
delinquent debtor is to disgrace that per-
son in the estimation of the public, aud
by this means impair, if not destroy, such
PERSONS credit, and thereby compel them
to pay these taxes to avoid such disgrace.
We claim that you are morally bound to
exercise caution and investigate the
charges of delinquencies, before you pub
lish the list handed you for publication
by your Collector. If this had been done,
instead of assuming the report to be true,
and that this person had faithfully per-
formed his duty by carefully ascertaining
who the delinquents were before handing
you the list for publication, there would
have been no cause for complaint, and no
possible excuse for publishing year after
year the untruthful report that have
been for several years past delinquent
debtor for taxes on worthless lot that
have never owned and your Collector
was so informed liz the Summer of 1883,
when he served his tax notice, and again
in the Fall of the same year, when paid
my taxes to this same Collector, that
was wrongfully assessed, that l did not
own any property in the First Ward. |
asked him if he would not ascertain who
the real owner of the lot was, SO that he
could report to Council his proper name,
aud have my name taken from the Assess.
or's books and then to record in the books
the real owners name. He promised me
that he would do it. He said the Assess
or's books had been returned to Council,
and he would report what had told him.
Since that time l have not received any
tax notice from him to pay tax on pro.
perty assessed 10 me 10 the First Ward,
that was not the owner Of, and | sup
posed that he had faithfully kept his
promise-that he had reported to you the
name of the real owner, or that no real
owner could be found, leaving it for you
was or was not his duty to ascertain who
the real owner was. l did not suppose it
was my business to have a search made
for the real owner of the lot, and as
appeal-day had passed, do not hold my
self blameless for not appearing before
you in person, instead of trusting to the
Collector to perform this friendly service
for me, as he said he would. My purpose
is not to complain, only SO far as it may
be necessary to explain the reason why
| have not given you notice before that
am not the owner of the lot you have
sold. do this to protect innocent pur-
chasers and let the public know that
am not delinquent debtor for taxes, and
that never have been.
WILSON BRAY.
LamJertoiiEe, March 8, 1885.