COXE, Daniel W., merchant. Born 1769. Began career in Philadelphia firm of his brother Tench Coxe. Married, 1800, Margaret Burd. In 1791 travelled to New Orleans as agent of Philadelphia firm of Reed and Forde. While in the then Spanish-controlled city, met Daniel Clark,  who, at the age of twenty-five, was already a notable figure in the New Orleans business community. Two years later they formed a partnership which lasted until 1811. Economic reverses brought about by Coxe's inept trading had cost the firm a good deal of money but the partnership was dissolved amicably and Clark and Coxe remained good friends. Daniel Clark died in 1813 still in debt to Coxe as a result of the dissolution of the firm. In 1819 Coxe settled with Clark's other partners, the firm of Chew and Relf, taking land instead of the money which was owed him. These lands, known as the Maison Rouge Tract, some 170,000 acres, were later claimed by Clark's daughter Myra Clark Gaines when she instituted her famous suit to establish her legitimacy and claim her father's considerable estate. Daniel Coxe spent much of the rest of his life defending his land titles against the claims made by Myra Clark Gaines. Coxe also found himself in court facing the United States government for, in the 1840s, the federal government claimed that the lands had never been granted by the Spanish government in the first place. It was charged that the baron de Bastrop and the marquis de Maison Rouge had never owned the land and therefore had no right to sell it to Daniel Clark. The case went before a chain of state and federal courts; twice going before the Supreme Court. In 1848 that body handed down the final decision finding in favor of the government. Coxe died in 1852. M.W. Sources: Nolan Harmon, Jr., The Famous Case of Myra Clark Gaines (1946); Jennie O'Kelly Mitchell and Robert Dabney Calhoun, "The Marquis de Maison Rouge, the Baron de Bastrop, and Colonel Abraham Morehouse: Three Ouachita Valley Soldiers of Fortune, the Maison Rouge and Bastrop Spanish Land 'Grants'," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XX (1937).