The Diaries of
GEORGE WASHINGTON
Volume I
1748--65
ASSISTANT EDITORS
Beverly H. Runge, Frederick Hall Schmidt,
and Philander D. Chase
George H. Reese, CONSULTING EDITOR
Joan Paterson Kerr, PICTURE EDITOR
DONALD JACKSON, EDITOR
DOROTHY TWOHIG, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF VIRGINIA
CHARLOTTESVILLE
This edition has been prepared by the staff of
The Papers of George Washington,
sponsored by
The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union and the University of Virginia.
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF VIRGINIA
Copyright © 1976 by the Rector and Visitors
of the University of Virginia
First published 1976
Frontispiece: George Washington, by Charles Willson Peale.
(Washington and Lee University, Washington-Custis-Lee Collection)
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Washington, George, Pres. U. S., 1732--1799.
The diaries of George Washington.
Bibliography: p. 349
Includes index.
1. Washington, George, Pres. U. S., 1732--1799.
I. Jackson, Donald Dean, 1919- II. Twohig, Dorothy. III. Title.
E312.8 1976 973.4'1'0924 [B] 75-41365 ISBN 0-8139-0643-1 (v. 1)
Printed in the United States of America
Administrative Board
Advisory Committee
Contents
Illustrations
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Acknowledgments
The editors' first obligation is to the sponsors and agencies whose financial support and enthusiastic backing made our work possible. The cosponsors of The Papers of George Washington are the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union and the University of Virginia. Our principal governmental support has come from the National Endowment for the Humanities, with strong additional funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. An annual grant from the William Stamps Farish Fund has been most appreciated.
Of the many colleagues at the University of Virginia who assisted in the formation and encouragement of The Papers of George Washington, the editors are particularly indebted to former president of the University, Edgar F. Shannon, Jr., and his special assistant Francis L. Berkeley, Jr. All the many others who gave us assistance with the countless details of planning, financing, and day-to-day operation are perhaps best represented by one person, Charles L. Flanders of the Office of the Associate Provost for Research at the University of Virginia.
We are grateful for the interest and encouragement of the Regent of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, and of her predecessor, the late Mrs. Francis F. Bierne. The editors also owe a debt of gratitude to the Mount Vernon staff, especially Charles C. Wall, resident director; John A. Castellani, librarian; Frank E. Morse, librarian emeritus; Robert B. Fisher, horticulturist, and Christine Meadows, curator.
For assistance in research on Washington's diaries, we would like to thank the staff of the Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, the research staff of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and members of the Virginia Division of Parks. The Alderman Library at the University of Virginia has housed our editorial offices and its staff has graciously and efficiently performed all the library services essential to an editorial project.
The reproduction of Washington's diaries in these volumes has
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been made possible by the cooperation of the following repositories and individuals who own the original manuscript material: the Library of Congress, Columbia University Libraries, the Detroit Public Library, Mount Vernon, John K. Paulding, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Public Record Office, London.
Our typographic consultant for general design is P. J. Conkwright, of Princeton, N.J.
The editors acknowledge with appreciation the industry and competence of the following members of the research and clerical staff who over a period of several years were directly involved in the laborious task of transcribing and checking the Washington diaries: Lynne Crane, Dana K. Levy, Patricia Waddell, Corinne Poole, Jessie Shelar, Kathleen Howard, Patricia De Berry, Roger Lund, Barbara Morris, Cynthia S. Miller, Christine Hughes, Nancy Morris, and Karen Whitehill.
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This edition of the Washington diaries has been prepared by the staff of The Papers of George Washington, an enterprise jointly sponsored by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union and the University of Virginia. The future labors of the staff will be devoted to the vast body of letters, military records, financial accounts, and other documents that comprise one of the nation's finest historical treasures. In the introductory pages that follow, the editors present their own views of the nature of the diaries, something of their history, and a brief discussion of the present edition.
Washington as a Diarist
The diaries of George Washington are not those of a literary diarist in the conventional sense. No one holding the long-prevailing view of Washington as pragmatic and lusterless, a self-made farmer and soldier-statesman, would expect him to commit to paper the kind of personal testament that we associate with notable diarists. Even when familiarity modifies our view of the man, and we find him warmer and more intense than we knew, given to wry humor and sometimes towering rage--even then we do not find in these pages what we have come to expect of a diary.
But let us not be unfair to a man who had his own definition of a diary: "Where & How my Time is Spent." The phrase runs the whole record through. He accounts for his time because, like his lands, his time is a usable resource. It can be tallied and its usefulness appraised. Perhaps it was more than mere convenience that caused Washington to set down his earliest diary entries in interleaved copies of an almanac, for an almanac, too, is an accounting of time.
That his diaries were important to him there is no doubt. When in the spring of 1787 he journeyed to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and discovered that he would be
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away from Mount Vernon many weeks, he wrote home for the diary he had accidentally left behind. "It will be found, I presume, on my writing table," he said. "Put it under a good strong paper cover, sealed up as a letter" (GW to George A. Washington, 27 May 1787, CSmH).
We can be unfair to Washington in another way by calling this collection of diaries uneven, mixed, or erratic. That is not his fault but ours, for it is we--his biographers, editors, and archivists--who have brought these items together since his death and given them a common label. It would surprise Washington as often as it does his readers to find between the same boards his "where and how" diaries, weather records, agricultural notations, tours of the North and South during his presidency, together with such documents as a travel journal published in 1754 under the title, The Journal of Major George Washington, Sent by the Hon. Robert Dinwiddie, Esq;... Commander in Chief of Virginia, to the Commandant of the French Forces on Ohio (Williamsburg, 1754).
Even when his preoccupation with other matters reduces Washington to a mere chronicling of dinner guests, the record is noteworthy, although at times the reader may feel he has got hold of an eighteenth-century guest book rather than a diary. What a diarist chooses to set down, and what not to bother with after a busy day, can be worthy of scrutiny: the number of "respectable ladies" who constantly turned out to pay Washington homage during his southern tour in 1791, tallied so precisely that one suspects Washington of counting heads; his passion for fruits and flowers and the resulting diary notes that very nearly constitute a synopsis of eighteenth-century horticulture; his daily horseback rides, necessary to any large-scale Virginia farmer but clearly a ritual with him; his notices of the dalliance, both planned and impromptu, of his male and female foxhounds--a vital record if canine bloodlines were to be kept pure.
The Washington of the diaries is not the Washington who penned hundreds of letters to neighbors dealing for farm produce and to foreign potentates attending to the affairs of the eighteenth-century world. He is not on guard here, for he seems unaware that any other eyes will see, or need to see, what he is writing.
"At home all day. About five oclock poor Patcy Custis Died Suddenly," runs the complete entry for 19 June 1773. Good
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enough for his purposes; it was what happened on that day. His curt entry would serve to remind him of his devotion to his ill-fated stepdaughter, dead in her teens after a life made wretched by epilepsy. The place for sorrow was in communications to friends, not in the unresponsive pages of a memorandum book, and so it was to Burwell Bassett that he wrote of his grief for the "Sweet Innocent Girl" who had entered into "a more happy, & peaceful abode than any she has met with in the afflicted Path she hitherto has trod" (20 June 1773, WRITINGS, 3:138).
Reading these diaries from beginning to end can become a tedious exercise, though rewarding. Sampling them in brief sessions can become an equally rewarding way to probe the depths, those uneven depths, of a man who has come to personify the spirit of America in his time. John C. Fitzpatrick realized this essential value of the diaries in the 1920s when he undertook to issue the first compilation, the edition which the present one is intended to supersede. Writing to a committee of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union in 1924, he said: "Now that I have read every word of these Diaries, from the earliest to the last one, it is impossible to consider them in any other light than that of a most marvelous record. It is absolutely impossible for anyone to arrive at a true understanding or comprehension of George Washington without reading this Diary record."
The Worlds of Washington
As he rode about Mount Vernon on his daily inspection trips, Washington could turn his eyes frequently to the shipping traffic on the Potomac, his principal link with the great outside world. Vessels with such names as the Fair American, the Betsy, and the Charming Polly plied the river, some trading with the ports of Virginia and Maryland and some bound for far more distant anchorages in North America, the West Indies, or Europe. Most of the schooners, brigs, and ships that Washington watched come upriver were bound for Alexandria's docks and warehouses, and often their cargoes included goods for him: fine clothing and fabrics, bridles and saddles, books and surveying instruments, tools and nails, delicate chinaware and jewelry, fruits and spices, and great wines from France and the Madeiras. Outward bound,
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they carried the tobacco--and in later years the wheat or flour--that were sent to pay for his imports.
Now and then his commercial representatives in London, Robert Cary & Co., would err and place his shipment aboard a vessel bound for another Virginia river, such as the Rappahannock, and he must endure not only the inconvenience of further transportation but also the risk of loss. On one occasion he warned the Cary company never to ship by any vessel not bound for the Potomac, for when a recent cargo via the Rappahannock finally reached him, he found "The Porter entirely Drank out" (10 Aug. 1760, DLC:GW).
Moving along the growing network of roads that ran from New England to Georgia were more goods and the all-important packets of letters and newspapers that kept Washington in touch with an expanding nation in a restless world. Besides the English journals that came to him, he regularly read American newspapers and periodicals from Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Annapolis, and Williamsburg.
There was little isolation from the world at any time during his life. His diary for 1751--52 relates a voyage to Barbados when he was nineteen, with his dying half brother Lawrence. The next two accounts concern the early phases of the French and Indian War, the momentous struggle for control of the North American continent in which he commanded a Virginia regiment. By the 1760s, when Washington's diaries resume, young George III was on the British throne, and the American colonists were beginning to feel an ominous sense of discontent that during the 1770s grew into rebellion and placed Washington in command of a revolutionary army.
After the War of Independence, Washington never again fought on a field of battle, but military matters and political affairs of national and international import continued to engage his attention. In 1787 he journeyed to Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention, which he chaired. During his two terms as president of the new nation there were no wars, but serious diplomatic problems arose with Great Britain, France, and Spain in 1793 and 1794. Even in retirement near the end of his life, Washington could not escape the turmoil among nations. When in 1798 relations with France deteriorated to the Point that a sea war was developing, old General Washington was placed at the head of a nominal land force that never took the field.
Washington's Extended Neighborhood
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In such a world, Washington felt happiest within a much smaller region bounded on the south by the James River and on the north by the Potomac. This was his neighborhood, somewhat extended, a world of very different responsibilities and pleasures that is best revealed in his diaries.
At the heart of this world lay Mount Vernon, the Potomac River plantation that Washington's father Augustine had established in the 1730s on an old family patent and which his half brother Lawrence had inherited and built up before his death in 1752. It was to Mount Vernon that young Colonel Washington came when, in 1758, his involvement in the French and Indian War was finished, for the plantation was now his home, Lawrence's widow having leased it to him four years earlier. It would become permanently his by right of inheritance when she died in 1761. In the meantime, Washington settled at Mount Vernon, thinking that his military career had ended forever. He was prepared for country living, a bit of politics, and plenty of riding to the hounds. The good life truly began for him in January 1759 with his marriage to Martha Dandridge Custis, a sensible young widow with a handsome dowry and two small children nicknamed Patsy and Jacky.
Washington was passionately devoted to Mount Vernon, eagerly extending its borders during the next three decades with numerous purchases of surrounding lands and striving constantly to improve its buildings, fields, and furnishings. But he did not neglect his immediate neighbors in Fairfax County nor did they disregard him. He became a vestryman of the local parish, a magistrate of the county court, a trustee of Alexandria, and one of Fairfax's two burgesses in Virginia's legislature, a position that he held from 1765 to 1775. In the course of carrying out the duties of those offices and of conducting the daily business of his plantation, he came to know well a host of local merchants, craftsmen, farmers, and planters. One of the most notable was George Mason of Gunston Hall, with whom Washington traded horticultural specimens and with whom he sometimes disagreed politically.
But Washington's closest ties, both of friendship and personal interest, were with the Fairfax family, members of the British aristocracy, whose principal American seat was at Belvoir only a few miles down the Potomac from Mount Vernon. There until 1773 lived George William Fairfax, member of the governor's
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Council and collector of customs for the south Potomac Naval District. His influence was derived from his father's cousin, Thomas Fairfax, sixth Baron Fairfax of Cameron, proprietor of all the land between the Potomac and the Rappahannock rivers from their mouths to their headwaters, the area that was known as the North Neck of Virginia in Washington's time. Lord Fairfax had the exclusive power to grant lands in the Northern Neck and the right to collect annual quitrents of two shillings per one hundred acres on lands the he granted, privileges that he retained until the Revolution.
The proprietor's home was a hunting lodge called Greenway Court, west of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Frederick County. It too was an area that Washington knew well, for as a youth he surveyed dozen's of Lord Fairfax's grants in the Shenandoah
Washington made this survey of land in Frederick County, Va., for Thomas Loftan in 1751. (Smithsonian Institution photo no. 49445)
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Valley and the valleys beyond. He himself acquired lands along Bullskin Run, a tributary of the Shenandoah River, lands which he retained until his death. During the French and Indian War he was charged for a while with the defense of this region, and for seven years before he was elected a burgess from Fairfax, the freeholders of Frederick sent him to Williamsburg as one of their representatives. In the 1770s and 1780s two of Washington's three younger brothers, Samuel and Charles, also found opportunities west of the Blue Ridge, settling on lands of their own within a few miles of Bullskin.
At the other end of the Northern Neck, south and east of Mount Vernon, lay another part of Washington's extended neighborhood, a region of concern to him mainly because of family ties. Westmoreland County, stretching for about forty miles along the Potomac, was the first home of the Washington family in the New World. There lived Washington's half brother Augustine and his favorite younger brother, Jack, and it was there, on the bank of Pope's Creek, that Washington was born. Farther up the Potomac, about halfway between Westmoreland County and Mount Vernon, was the Chotank area, part of Stafford County until 1776 and then of King George County. In that locality lived a number of Washingtons: brother Sam until 1770, and many distant cousins, some of whom Washington had known from his childhood. Several miles west of Chotank, at Fredericksburg on the south bank of the Rappahannock, was the home of Fielding Lewis, husband of Washington's sister Betty, and before 1780, the home of brother Charles. Across the river from Fredericksburg was the Ferry Farm, where Washington lived as a boy and where his mother, Mary Ball Washington, resided until old age obliged her in 1771 to retire to a house in the town, there to spend the last eighteen years of her life.
At the southern extremity of Washington's extended neighborhood was the provincial capital of Williamsburg and near it, on the York and Pamunkey rivers, were the principal lands of the Custis family and the homes of their relations, the Dandridges and the Bassetts. For Washington this was an area to which he came to fulfill his duties as a burgess, to settle accounts with merchants, and to see that the affairs of his Custis stepchildren were properly managed. But it was also the place in which he attended the theater and balls, dined with men of note, and began to move into
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the role of an American leader, which eventually took him away from his beloved neighborhood again. Indeed, the network of interconnecting regions between the Potomac and the James that made up that neighborhood helped to develop in Washington that broad feeling of kinship and responsibility for men of differing experience and outlook which enabled him to enter the larger world beyond with ease.
But seldom was his home on the Potomac far from his thoughts, and never did he fail to return there when he could, for it was at Mount Vernon that all his worlds came together. From both inside and outside his extended neighborhood came a galaxy of people from all walks of life to visit him. Some were friends and relatives who came for a holiday, to play cards, to ride to the hounds, or to shoot ducks. Others came on business, to discuss politics and land transactions, to deal in wheat, flour, fish, and other commodities, to bring their mares for breeding, to call at his mill and, in the last years, at his distillery, or sometimes just to ask for help in solving their problems.
After the Revolution he wrote his mother, who had suggested that she might wish to move to Mount Vernon, that "in truth it may be compared to a well resorted tavern, as scarcely any strangers who are going from north to south, or from south to north, do not spend a day or two at it. . . . What with the sitting up of Company; the noise and bustle of servants, and many other things you would not be able to enjoy that calmness and serenity of mind, which... you ought now to prefer" (15 Feb. 1787, DLC:GW).
With this endless flow of friends, neighbors, and the idly curious coming to his home, Washington must have thought it an unusual day indeed when on 30 June 1785, at a time when he truly believed that he was done with service to his country, he wrote in his diary that he "dined with only Mrs. Washington which I believe is the first instance of it since my retirement from public life."
Washington and the New Agriculture
No theme appears more frequently in the writings of Washington than his love for the land--more precisely, his own land. From the ordered beauty of the mansion house grounds to the muddiest
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fields on Bullskin plantation in the Shenandoah Valley, his estate and those who inhabited it were his constant concern. The diaries are a monument to that concern.
In his letters he referred often, as an expression of this devotion and its resulting contentment, to an Old Testament passage. After the Revolution, when he had returned to Mount Vernon, he wrote the marquis de Lafayette 1 Feb. 1784: "At length my Dear Marquis I am become a private citizen on the banks of the Potomac, & under the shadow of my own Vine & my own Fig-tree" (DLC:GW). On the occasion of another joyous homecoming after his two terms as president, the phrase came back to him. He wrote to Oliver Wolcott, Jr., 15 May 1797, that if he ever were to see distant friends again, "it must be under my own Vine and Fig tree as I do not think it probable that I shall go beyond the radius of 20 miles from them" (DLC:GW).1
Maintaining the mansion house and its grounds, which required constant attention from carpenters and gardeners, was in part a diversion; farming, on the other hand, was a profession in which he took immense pride. "I shall begrudge no reasonable expence that will contribute to the improvement & neatness of my Farms," he wrote manager William Pearce on 6 Oct. 1793, "for nothing pleases me better than to see them in good order, and every thing trim, handsome, & thriving about them; nor nothing hurts me more than to find them otherwise" (NBLiHi).
The surviving diaries which deal with agriculture begin in 1760, a year sometimes used to denote the beginning of a new agriculture in England. It was also the year of the ascension of George III, a monarch so fond of farming that he maintained experimental plots at Windsor and submitted articles for publication under the name of his farm overseer. The influence of English agriculture on Washington and others in this country--Jefferson included--was indeed great.
Before the agricultural revolution in England, farmers there
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Jethro Tull's Horse-Hoeing Husbandry, London, 1733, influenced Washington's early attempts at scientific farming. (Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University)
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had relied upon a three-year crop rotation: winter grain, a spring crop, and a year of fallow. The revolution brought forage crops, roots, and "artificial," or nonnative, grasses, an entire new system of cultivation pioneered by Jethro Tull. Tull mistakenly believed that plants were fed by tiny particles of soil and that the secret of good farming was to keep the soil well pulverized so the roots might take up the particles. To accomplish this he devised "horse-hoeing," or deep plowing, with crops drilled in rows so that the cultivating implements could pass between them. Although his theory about soil particles was wrong, his cultivating practices marked the beginning of mechanization. But the science of agriculture was changing rapidly. In 1760 Washington was a practitioner of Tull's horse-hoeing husbandry. At his death in 1799 he was devoted to the more sophisticated experiments and writings of Arthur Young and practiced a seven-year rotation.
The period extending from his return after the Revolution until his death was a time of intensive scientific agriculture for Washington. He was faced with the prospect of rebuilding his very large farms after the years of neglect they had suffered while he was the commanding general. He also faced the realization, with many of his fellow Virginians, that soil exhaustion and the evils of a one-crop agriculture were, together with slavery, edging them toward disaster. A general agricultural depression in the United States added to the problem. Washington wrote to George William Fairfax 10 Nov. 1785 that he never rode to his plantations "without seeing something which makes me regret having [continued] so long in the ruinous mode of farming which we are in" (DLC:GW).
At this point, Arthur Young (1741--1820) came into Washington's life. The English agriculturist had read a letter which Washington had written extolling the virtues of manure.2 Young then began a correspondence which was to last for many years, saying he thought it possible that Washington was as good a farmer as he was a general. Sending the first four volumes of his Annals of Agriculture (1784--1808), Young also offered to obtain grain seeds, farm implements, and other items for Washington.
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On 6 Aug. 1786 Washington sent him a grateful response. "Agriculture has never been amongst the most favorite amusements of my life, though I never possessed much skill in art, and nine years' total inattention to it, has added nothing to a knowledge which is best understood from practice; but with the means you have been so obliging as to furnish me, I shall return to it (though rather late in the day) with hope & confidence" (PPRF). Washington ask Young to sent him two plows with extra shares and coulters and the best varieties of cabbage, turnip, sainfoin, winter vetch, and ryegrass seeds, as well as any other grasses which might seem valuable.
One of Washington's great preoccupations, during his whole
A drag harrow, sketched by Washington from a contemporary work on agriculture. (Library of Congress)
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career in agriculture, was finding the right crops for the soil, climate, and practical needs of his Mount Vernon establishment. His determination to throw off the bondage of single-crop farming seemed at times almost too dogged. The number of field crops he raised, attempted to raise, or at least experimented with on a small scale is well above sixty. In a set of "Notes & Observations" he kept for 1785--86 (DLC:GW) he mentions planting barley, clover, corn, carrots, cabbage, flax, millet, oats, orchard grass, peas, potatoes, pumpkins, rye, spelt, turnips, timothy, and wheat.
His experience with tobacco typifies the change in his thinking. Early in the diaries it is his all-important cash crop--the shipment he sends to England every year to exchange for goods he cannot obtain in America. When he drastically reduced his tobacco production he became, in the terminology of the day, no longer a planter but a farmer. One English observer wrote that Washington had no land left which would bring in a good crop of tobacco without appropriating woodland badly needed as a source of firewood for his family and slaves. Also, it required more manure to raise tobacco than his farms could produce (PARKINSON, 2:423--24) By 1766 he was saying that he raised no tobacco at all except at his dower plantations on the York River, and in 1768 he repeated this assertion. He said he raised no tobacco at all on the Potomac.
He could never give up tobacco entirely, however; it was still being raised in 1790 on the Mount Vernon farms. George Augustine Washington's farm report for 20 Aug. reveals that for the preceding week twenty man-days were spent at Muddy Hole in weeding, topping, and suckering tobacco, and similar work was being done at Dogue Run, River Farm, and Union Farm.
Washington raised alfalfa from 1760 to 1795, then gave it up in favor of chicory. He tried the horsebean, as did Jefferson, but it could not thrive in the hot Virginia summers. He tried buckwheat with enthusiasm, both as a feed for livestock and as a green manure, and finally concluded that it depleted as much as it enriched the soil. He raised burnet, sainfoin, ryegrass, hop clover, tick trefoil, guinea grass, hemp, Jerusalem artichoke, Siberian melilot, field peas, and potatoes. He kept on with flax even after Arthur Young had chided him for wasting his time and lands on it; it was essential for his spinning and weaving operations. He even hoped to give up most of his corn crop late in life and buy
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what he needed, because the hard substratum of clay on his farms made it difficult to till the crop properly without serious erosion. He needed corn because he believed that his slaves did not thrive as well on wheat as on cornmeal, and because he was fond of it himself. "General Washington had so habituated himself to eating the Indian corn bread, that I know some instances of tavern-keepers having to send several miles for it, for his breakfast" (PARKINSON, 2:632).
Experimentation with all these many crops was one of Washington's chief delights as a farmer. He tried drill culture instead of broadcasting the seed; he varied the distance between rows; he planted potatoes and peas between the corn rows. He tried different rates of seeding, carefully noting them in his diaries and other memoranda. In Sept. 1764 he sowed oats on the Dogue Run farm to see if it could endure the winter as his wheat did. Apparently the crop failed. Learning of his interest in experimental agriculture, admirers at home and abroad were eager to assist him. If tabulated, Washington's experiments in agronomy might not appear too different from those of agronomists in the twentieth century.
His experiments with manures extended to animal dung, marl, green crops plowed under, and in at least one instance mud from the Potomac River bottom. In Oct. 1785 he borrowed a scow from Col. George Gilpin to use in collecting mud "to try the efficacy of it as a manure" (GW to Gilpin, 29 Oct. 1785, ViMtV).
The growing shortage of timber with which to make rail fences caused him to turn to live hedges for fencing. He tried honey locust, Lombardy poplar, cedar, and some of the hundreds of species of thorned trees and shrubs. His plan was to start such fences with the fast-growing willows and poplars (which he then thought would turn back any farm animal but a hog), while the slower cedars and locusts were coming up to thicken the hedge. He told manager William Pearce 22 Nov. 1795 that nothing concerning his farms--even the crops--made him so solicitous as his desire to get all his fields enclosed with hedge fences. And the following year, when his crop of honey locust died, he lamented to Pearce that "it would seem I think as if I never should get forward in my plan of hedging" (22 May 1796, NBLiHi). By then he had become resigned to the fact that no live hedge would turn back a hog, but that any tree which would tolerate close planting
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Cultivating tools from an eighteenth-century work, La Nouvelle Maison rustique, Paris, 1798. (Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union)
could be used to fence in other livestock. Another decade was to pass before Lewis and Clark would send back to Jefferson specimens of the Osage orange, Maclura pomifera, from the West--one of the most successful of all hedge plants in restraining livestock. Except hogs, of course.
Improved cropping calls for improved machinery, as Washington knew, and he shared Jefferson's interest in the mechanical aspects of agriculture. The two men visited the farm of Samuel Powel, near Philadelphia, in 1791 to see the operation of a new threshing machine. It was a primitive device harvesting only six bushels an hour "fit for the miller," but Powel felt that a larger unit might produce 100 to 130 bushels a day (ANNALS, 17 [ 1792 ], 206--8). Five years later Jefferson built a similar thresher, and Washington was enthusiastic about it. He wrote Jefferson 6 July 1796: "If you can bring a moveable threshing Machine, constructed upon simple principles to perfection, it will be among the most valuable institutions in this Country" (DLC: Jefferson
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Papers). When the farms of the Mount Vernon estate were inventoried in 1800, the listing for the River Farm included one threshing machine, probably a stationary one (ViMtV).3
Like most farmers through the ages, Washington was most fascinated by the plow and its potential for advancing agriculture. He ordered a Rotheram patent plow from England 6 Mar. 1765, instructing the firm of Crosbies & Trafford that it ought to be made extremely light, "as our Lands are not so stiff as yours nor our Horses so strong" (DLC:GW). The Rotheram, dating from 1730, was a swing plow of compact design, lighter of frame and with a better moldboard than earlier designs. Made in Rotheram, Yorkshire, it had a coulter and plowshare of iron and a breast covered with iron plate. Farmers in England and Scotland liked its light draft and low cost of manufacture.
Years later, at Washington's request, Arthur Young sent two plows with extra shares and coulters, capable of a nine-inch furrow from four to eight inches deep--depending upon the friability of the soil. Young thought it should be drawn by two stout oxen or horses (Young to GW, 1 Feb. 1787, DLC:GW). By 1788 Washington had found another model he liked so well that he told Thomas Snowden 3 Oct., "I mean to get into the use of them generally" (DLC:GW). In the end, however, it was the old reliable Rotheram which pleased him most. He told Benjamin Latrobe in 1796 that he preferred it over all other plows but had found replacement parts impossible to get (LATROBE, 60--61).
Livestock was another vital interest of Washington's, though it is not as apparent--either in the diaries or the letters--as his preoccupation with crops. He was fully aware of the breeding required to prosper with livestock and equally aware of the shortcomings of American farmers in that regard. "The fact is," he wrote Arthur Young 18 June 1792, "we have, in a manner, everything to learn that respects neat & profitable husbandry" (DLC: GW). And to Sir John Sinclair he said 20 Oct. 1792, "we have been so little in the habit of attending either to the breed or improvement of our Stock" (British Museum: Add. Ms. 5757).
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His own self-confessed failures in husbandry were due more to his long absences from home than to a lack of good intentions; his letters to his farm managers are filled with exhortations about the care, culling, and breeding of his stock--especially sheep and swine. "At Shearing time . . . let there be a thorough culling out, of all the old, and indifferent sheep from the flocks, that they may be disposed of, & thereby save me the mortification of hearing every week of their death!" he wrote William Pearce 6 April 1794 (NBLiHi).
Washington customarily culled his flock of unthrifty lambs, wethers, and ewes and took care to withhold from market the ram lambs with the best conformation and most wool. He wrote Sir John Sinclair 15 Mar. 1793 that he normally raised from 600 to 1,000 head of sheep and that if he could always be at home to attend to their management he could produce five pounds of wool from each animal and from eighteen to twenty-two pounds of mutton per quarter. He attributed this success in part to the choice of good rams from English stock which he occasionally could obtain, "notwithstanding your prohibitary Laws, or customs" (DLC:GW). The best wool he produced was, he thought, equal to the finest Kentish wool.
Cattle were raised both to serve as oxen and to provide meat. At a time when most Virginians kept cattle in open pens the year around, Washington housed his in sheds from November until May, instructing his managers that they were to be well fed and carefully watered, the ice being regularly broken in cold weather to give them access to clean water. When 300 head of cattle brought him only 30 calves, he decided that "old and debilitated bulls" must be to blame. Despite the rarity of imported stock, some did find its way to America. Washington told manager James Anderson 8 Jan. 1797 to see if he could buy a bull from Henry Gough of Baltimore, even if the price was high. "I should not stand so much upon the price, provided the breed is to be depended upon" (DLC:GW).
Of milk and butter production we learn little from his papers, although he expressed to Pearce 2 Nov. 1794 a desire to get into the dairy business--thinking it might be profitable because of his proximity to Alexandria, Georgetown, and the Federal City (NBLiHi). He sometimes supplemented his own butter production by purchases.
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Washington's own copy of Thomas Hale's Compleat Body of Husbandry, London, 1758. (Boston Athenaeum)
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His swine ran loose in fenced woodlands until it was time to select the best for fattening in pens. They rooted and shoved their way through his hedges and eluded any attempt to count them. In listing his livestock on the various farms he could only say, in effect, "plus an uncertain number of hogs." He once directed his manager to put a dozen young shoats in a sty and keep an exact account of the cost of raising them for a year. Later he brought up the possibility of raising hogs in pens from birth, at least experimentally. But, as most of his swine must always run at large, he insisted that none be brought from the woodlands to be fattened until they reached sufficient size and age. "I had rather have a little good, than much bad, Porke," he told Anthony Whitting 4 Nov. 1792 (DLC:GW).
The records speak little about poultry. The weekly reports from Washington's manager faithfully record the number of chickens, ducks, and geese on each farm, but the flocks were not large. At a time when wildfowl was abundant, no extensive work with domestic fowls was necessary.
A few days before his death in Dec. 1799, Washington was hard at work on a plan for his future farming operations. He drew up a scheme for each of the farms at Mount Vernon, setting forth in minute detail such matters as crop rotation, the handling of pasture lands and meadows, and use of manures (including the systematic penning of cattle and sheep on regularly shifted temporary enclosures to fertilize the land). His instructions for the River Farm, written 10 Dec. 1799, closed with a characteristic statement: "There is one thing however I cannot forbear to add, and in strong terms; it is, that whenever I order a thing to be done, it must be done; or a reason given at the time, or as soon as the impracticability is discovered, why it cannot; which will produce a countermand, or change." Any other course of action was disagreeable to him, he said, "having been accustomed all my life to more regularity, and punctuality, and know that nothing but system and method is required to accomplish all reasonable requests" (DLC:GW).
Four days later he was dead, and system and method began to disappear from the farms of Mount Vernon. It would be more than fifty years before the mansion house, eventually bereft of most outlying farmland, was restored to beauty and order. Meanwhile, time and neglect diminished much of what Washington had longed to improve and preserve.
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In 1834 a writer from Fairfax County, signing himself "F," wrote a letter to the editor of the Farmers' Register. He had recently ridden across the farms. "Any, curious to mark the operation of time upon human affairs, would find much for contemplation by riding through the extensive domains of the late General Washington. A more widespread and perfect agricultural ruin could not be imagined; yet the monuments of the great mind that once ruled, are seen throughout. The ruins of capacious barns, and long extended hedges, seem proudly to boast that their master looked to the future" (1:552).
The Weather Watch
Washington's preoccupation with the weather was clearly an extension of his needs and interests as a farmer. He was not a scientific observer, as was Jefferson, and his weather records are
This recording thermometer now at Mount Vernon is similar to those used by Washington.
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irregular in scope and content. In editing the diaries for the 1925 edition, Fitzpatrick abandoned the weather record midway in his first volume except when it could not be sorted from other matters recorded, calling the weather entries "unessential" (DIARIES 1:288n). Our view is that because we cannot and should not attempt to predict the use which readers will be making of the diaries, the weather material should remain. Records for the study of eighteenth-century meteorology are not so plentiful that Washington's may be ignored.
It is difficult to separate him from the weather because so much Washington lore is weather-connected. Seasick days during a stormy voyage to Barbados; the cruel winters at Valley Forge and Morristown; the dust and mud of carriage roads during a lifetime of travel; and, at least in the minds of his family and friends, the probability that an ill-advised horseback ride in a December storm contributed to his death.
His instruments for recording the weather were few, but one in particular is notable. His prized weather vane has survived the changing winds and still serves atop the cupola at Mount Vernon. The vane is in the shape of a dove of peace, the copper body bound with iron strips and the bill with olive branch fashioned from a piece of iron. The bird is forty inches long, and the wing from tip to tip measures thirty-five inches. The vane was made in Philadelphia, by Joseph Rakestraw, in July or Aug. 1787, and was sent immediately to Mount Vernon. Washington wrote his nephew George Augustine Washington, 12 Aug. 1787, that the bill of the dove was to be painted black and the olive branch green. This color scheme is no longer maintained today, the vane having been covered with gold leaf to deter corrosion of the copper body.
Washington made no attempt to measure barometric pressure (though he mentions "falling weather" now and then), and his references to humidity are subjective assessments, not readings from an instrument. Aside from the weather vane, his only known weather instrument was the thermometer. Writing to farm manager William Pearce, from Philadelphia 22 Dec. 1793, he said, "And as it is not only satisfactory, but may be of real utility to know the state of the weather as to heat & cold, but drought or moisture, prefix, as usual, at the head of every weeks report a meteorological account of these. The Thermomiter which is at Mount Vernon will enable you to do the first" (NBLiHi).
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Two barometer-thermometers now at Mount Vernon, one in Washington's study and the other in the central hall of the mansion, are connected with Washington by family tradition only. A third instrument is probably one mentioned in an inventory of his effects not long after his death. While the inventory accords it a place in the Washingtons' bedroom, where it hangs today in restored form, it may have been located originally in the east hall outside the study. It is a registering thermometer designed to record high and low temperatures for the day, and bears the name of Joseph Gatty, a New York instrument maker.
One of Washington's comments about temperature leads to the speculation that at least some of his readings were made inside the mansion house. "Thermometer at 52 in the Morning & 59 at Noon," he writes in the diary on 7 Dec. 1785, "but removing it afterwards out of the room where the fire was, into the East Entry leading in to my Study, this circumstance with the encrease of the cold fell the Mercury to 42." Meteorologists might charge that Washington was ill advised if not actually foolish for recording indoor readings, and certainly such readings would be of little use today in studying eighteenth-century weather. And ill advised he may have been, by Dr. James Jurin, secretary of the Royal Society of London. Publishing a set of recommendations for keeping a meteorological register, Jurin advocated placing the thermometer "in a room which faces the north, where there is very seldom if ever any fire in the fireplace" (Royal Society, Philosophical Transactions, 32 [1723], 425).
In Europe, Jurin's fellow scientists objected to this recommendation, but in English-speaking countries the practice continued through the end of the century. New York and Philadelphia scientists carried on a debate about the practice of thermometer location, and at least one Philadelphia record carries one column for indoor and another for outdoor readings. Jefferson, however, was not a disciple of Jurin. When he discovered that his thermometer in the northeast portico was being affected by an unknown source of heat, perhaps a mound of earth, he changed its location and rejected eighteen months of readings in his weather record (weather diary, MHi; transcript, ViU). For a brief discussion of early views on the correct location of the thermometer, see MIDDLETON (1), 208--13.
Washington's temperature records begin Jan. 1785. It may never be possible to determine which readings were made indoors
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Dove of peace weathervane atop the cupola at Mount Vernon
and which outdoors, although there are hints in the records themselves. In 1785, during a period when he was recording three readings daily--morning, noon, and sunset--there is very little variation in the day's temperature from reading to reading. For example, on 19 Jan. he records a reading of 48° Fahrenheit in the morning, 48° at noon, and 48° at sunset. On occasion there seems to be a discrepancy between his temperatures and what he says the weather is doing. He wrote on 26 May that the weather was warm until about 5:00 P. M. when clouds and high wind brought about a marked change in the temperature of the air. Yet his three readings for the day are 65°, 68°, and 67°.
Some of his extremely cold readings may indicate that the thermometer was outdoors. He wrote on 5 Feb. 1788 of weather so cold that the mercury did not rise out of the bulb of the thermometer all day. But he was writing about one of the coldest days of the century, when near Philadelphia the temperature registered--17° F.
If he was not scientifically accurate, he was at least persistent. See his entry for 30 April 1785 when, unable to record the weather personally because of a trip to Richmond, he had put Mrs. Washington in charge of the thermometer. "Mercury (by Mrs. W's acct.) in the Morning at 68--at Noon 69 and at Night 62." Even on great occasions in his life, the weather was on his mind. On 9 Mar. 1797 he left Philadelphia for the last time, after a lifetime of public service in which he longed always to return
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to Mount Vernon. "Wind changed to No. Wt. blew very hard & turned very cold," he wrote in his diary. "Mer. at 28. Left Phila. on my return to Mt. Vernon--dined at Chester & lodged at Wilmington."
History of the Diary Manuscripts
Except for special occasions, such as his mission to the French commandant and his voyage to Barbados, Washington apparently kept no daily record until 1760. Even then, his dairy-keeping was erratic until 1768, when he settled down to a program that he was to continue faithfully until he became commander in chief in 1775.
Washington kept no diary during most of the Revolution. The rigor of his activities would have made it difficult to do so, and the full record of the period which accumulated in his official letterbooks and general orders rendered the custom less necessary. He tried to resume his old habit in 1781, but it was not until he had resigned his command and returned home that he became a confirmed diarist again.
It seems likely that diaries were kept for the presidential years 1789--97, and the fact that so few have survived is particularly vexing to historians. "The Journal of the Proceedings of the President (1793--97)," a daily account of Washington's official activities and correspondence, written in the first person but kept by his secretaries, will be published later. An entry for 16 April 1789, recounting his departure from Mount Vernon to assume office, appears only in SPARKS, 1:441--42. The entry for 23 April 1789, remarking on the enthusiasm with which the public received him, is from IRVING, 4:511. So at least we know that Jared Sparks and Washington Irving had access to material indicating that Washington began his presidency with a determination to continue the record. Diaries are extant for the period covering his tours of the northern and southern states and a brief one kept during the Whisky Rebellion of 1794. Apart from an unrewarding record for 1795, all else is lost for the presidential years.
The earliest diaries were kept in notebooks of various sizes and shapes, but when Washington began in earnest to make daily entries he chose to make them in interleaved copies of the Virginia
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Almanack, a Williamsburg publication. By the end of the Revolution he had grown accustomed to the blank memorandum books used in the army, and he adopted a similar notebook for his civilian record. By 1795 he had gone back to his interleaved almanacs.
As Fitzpatrick observes, ruled paper was not available to Washington, and he obtained regularly spaced lines by using a ruled guide-sheet beneath his writing paper. "This practice gives us evidence of his failing vision, as the diaries, after the Presidency, show frequent examples of his pen running off the outer edge of the small diary page, and whole words, written on the ruled guide-sheet beneath, escaped notice of not being on the diary page itself" (DIARIES, 1:X).
Upon Washington's death in 1799, most of his papers still in his hands became the property of his nephew Bushrod Washington, an associate justice of the U. S. Supreme Court. We shall have more to say about the fate of these invaluable documents in the Introduction to Volume I of The Papers of George Washington.
Destruction and dispersal of the papers began very early when Mrs. Washington reportedly burned all the correspondence she had exchanged with Washington during his lifetime--overlooking only two letters, we believe. There followed long years of careless handling by Bushrod, biographer John Marshall, and editor Jared Sparks. Indeed, what is most important in the story of Washington's papers is not such natural processes as fire, flood, mildew, and the tendency of paper to fall into dust. Rather, there has been an overabundance of stewardship by misguided caretakers, persons who thought they knew what was important and what was trivial, what should be saved and what given away to friends and autograph collectors.
The editor who laments the disappearance of so many Washington diaries can only sink into despondency upon learning that Bushrod gave many away. To diplomat Christopher Hughes, in 1825, he gave the 1797 diary and a sheaf of Washington's notes on agriculture; Hughes dispersed these among his friends in the United States and Europe. Two years later, Bushrod gave the diaries for 1795 and 1798 to Margaret and Robert Adams, of Philadelphia. Then he presented the 1767 diary to Dr. James W. Wallace, of Warrenton. These and certain other diaries once in
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Editor Jared Sparks gave away this page from a Washington diary in 1832. (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Dreer Collection)
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private hands have been preserved; others apparently have not.
Jared Sparks's turn to mishandle the papers came in 1827, when he persuaded Bushrod to let him take large quantities to Boston, where he was to prepare his twelve-volume edition, The Writings of George Washington (Boston, 1837). Sparks decided that carefully excising a Washington signature from a document, and sending it to a friend, did not really damage the manuscript as a piece of history; that a page torn from a Washington diary, or an entire Washington letter, could safely be given away if he, Sparks, judged it to be of no historical value. It was Sparks who cut Washington's draft of his first inaugural address into small pieces and so thoroughly disseminated this document of more than sixty pages that the efforts of several collectors have failed to reassemble more than a third of it. Even after he had supposedly returned all the papers to the Washington family, Sparks retained a supply to distribute. He was still mailing out snippets in 1861.
The pillage stopped in 1834 when the Washington family sold the basic collection to the U. S. government. This corpus, together with a later, smaller sale, forms the basis of the principal Washington archive at the Library of Congress. Other acquisitions have been made throughout the years.
In the following list, the present location of all known diaries and diary fragments is shown. The Regents' Numbers are numbers assigned by Fitzpatrick in the 1920s and used since as a cataloguing device. The diaries without Regents' Numbers were not published by Fitzpatrick, nor were several to which he assigned numbers but could not locate. His number 54, which he believed to have been kept but did not locate, is partially represented by the next diary in the series.
Previous Editions
During most of the nineteenth century, publication of Washington diaries was sporadic and limited. Sparks used extracts from certain diaries in an appendix to his second volume of Writings, edited as to grammar and spelling in the usual Sparks manner. Benson J. Lossing edited and published two small editions at
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mid-century, Diary of Washington from the First Day of October, 1789, to the Tenth Day of March, 1790 (New York, 1858), and The Diary of George Washington from 1789 to 1791 (New York, 1860). Another edition of the latter, published in Richmond in 1861, included Washington's 1753--54 journal of his mission to the French.
A quarter century after Lossing's editions, two men found that each had been preparing more extensive collections of the diaries, unknown to one another. Their work marked the beginning of a series of events that would culminate in the publication of the first comprehensive edition in 1925.
Dr. Joseph Meredith Toner (1825--1896), a physician, writer, and collector, began the practice of medicine in Washington, D. C., in 1855 and later became president of the American Medical Association. His practice was nearly overshadowed by two hobbies, the collecting of books and ephemera in the field of medicine and the study of George Washington. By 1888 he had employed a copyist to begin transcribing Washington's diaries (at seven cents per hundred words) and had begun to approach publishers. A rejection letter of 31 May 1888 from Houghton Mifflin Co. explains that a particular Washington diary probably would not be suitable for publication because it was available in other forms (DLC: Toner Collection). But Toner did achieve publication of a pamphlet entitled George Washington's Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior (Washington, D. C., 1888).
A. C. McClurg & Co. rejected a diary manuscript in a letter of 15 Feb. 1889, explaining that it would not be a profitable venture (DLC: Toner Collection); but the doctor's determination to go ahead was becoming known. At this point his work came to the attention of Worthington Chauncey Ford (1858--1941), an archivist and a historical editor who was preparing the first multi-volume edition of Washington's papers in more than half a century. Apprehensive that he and Toner were duplicating work, he asked for an appointment in a letter of 23 Jan. 1889, seeking a consultation for their "mutual advantage" (DLC: Toner Collection).
If the two men did confer at this time, Ford must have explained that he already had in press the first volume of his Writings of George Washington (New York, 1889--93) and that the first two volumes would contain the diaries of 1747/48, 1753--54,
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and 1754 with extracts from later diaries through 1774. The entire work would contain fourteen volumes.
Toner was determined to proceed despite this competition from an industrious man more than thirty years younger than he. On 9 June 1890 the publishing house of Joel Munsell's Sons, in Albany, N.Y., accepted a manuscript from Toner, offering him terms which required him to advance $200 for publication costs. By 23 June the publisher was planning to issue an entire set of diaries in volumes of about 500 pages each. And by 3 Dec. Toner was receiving galley proof of the 1747/48 journal (DLC: Toner Collection).
The Munsell firm published three works for Toner, the diaries of 1747/48, 1753--54, and 1754, the first two issued in 1892 and the third the following year. Even before these books appeared in print, however, it had become apparent to Munsell's that the venture was unprofitable. Toner began to solicit other publishers, writing 27 May 1891 to C. L. Webster & Co., of New York, offering about 3,000 pages of foolscap transcriptions with footnotes. The file contains a similar letter, undated, to Harper & Brothers, of New York (DLC: Toner Collection, letters sent, 1849--96). No replies have survived. Except for an annotated abstract of the 1774 diary, covering Washington's attendance at the First Continental Congress, which appeared in the Annual Report for 1892 of the American Historical Association, Toner published no more of the diaries upon which he and his copyist, Mary Stevens Beall, had labored for so many years.
There remains in the Library of Congress, however, the complete and carefully made transcript, valuable now because it was written at a time when the manuscripts were in a somewhat more readable condition. Toner's copious notes are useful mainly as an incentive to further research, for he gave no sources for the thousands of annotations that he made.
Diary publication during the ensuing three decades was sporadic. Archer B. Hulbert produced Washington and the West: Being George Washington's Diary of September, 1784 (New York, 1905). In the same year, Worthington C. Ford returned to the scene with extracts from the diaries of 1785 and 1786 in Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. That society was to issue his remaining work on the 1786 diary in its publications of 1915 and 1917.
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The Regent and Vice-Regents of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union began to move toward a comprehensive edition in 1914, unaware that shortages and other pressures of World War I would soon bring disappointing delays. Some of the impetus for the Regents' campaign for publication came from Charles Sprague Sargent (1841--1927), director of the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University. As counsel to the Association since 1901 on horticultural matters, he began in 1914 to make annual visits to Mount Vernon. Because the diaries are so rich in horticultural lore, he studied them thoroughly. Apparently as a result of his first visit to the mansion house and grounds, he suggested to Regent Harriet Clayton Comegys that her Association ought to sponsor a complete edition. The following discussion of ensuing events is based upon correspondence and reports in the Regents' files at Mount Vernon.
A diary committee was formed in 1915, consisting of ViceRegents Harriet L. Huntress of New Hampshire and Alice M. Longfellow of Massachusetts. By the end of the year they were seeking an editor. The Regent had suggested Owen Wister, "who writes so well about Washington and understands him so well." Others considered included Clarence H. Brigham, librarian of the American Antiquarian Society, and Mark Howe, editor of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin.
There was an obvious choice, of course, and the committee soon got around to him. Worthington C. Ford was invited to assume the task and at first declined, suggesting instead Professors Max Farrand of Yale, Sidney Fiske Kimball of Smith College, or William MacDonald of Brown University. But when the diary committee submitted its annual report for 1916, it declared that Ford himself had at last agreed to edit the diaries. Having served for several years as chief of the manuscripts division at the Library of Congress, Ford was now in his seventh year as editor of publications for the Massachusetts Historical Society. (For an excellent memoir of Ford's vast career as an editor and historian, SEE BUTTERFIELD [2].)
Printer's copy for the text of the diaries was nearly ready in March 1917, Ford told Miss Huntress. He said the annotation was "well in hand." In November he again reported the work going well but voiced a complaint familiar to anyone who has attempted to edit the diaries: the myriad names of persons to be
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identified. "To name generation after generation the same is an evil habit," he wrote.
By now the United States was at war with Germany, and normal routines were interrupted. Ford, however, reported in April 1918 that he was still forging ahead and thought he would be ready for the printer "on the return of peace." Peace came, but new trials developed. On 5 May 1919 he wrote Miss Huntress, "Judging from the current prices of printing and the situation of the book market, which is entirely unsatisfactory, I should recommend the postponement of the publication for another year." Besides, he was planning a trip to England and would not be available to read galleys. What he did not say was that his optimism about the completion of his editorial chores was utterly unjustified. He was not nearly ready for the printer.
By May 1921 the diary committee was reporting to the council of the Association that Ford's work was nearing completion but that a printers' strike as well as high production costs would delay publication. In Feb. 1923 Ford seemed to realize that he was never going to finish his work. He wrote the diary committee, the chairman of which was then Annie B. Jennings of Connecticut, that he wanted to be relieved of his assignment because of illness.
When John C. Fitzpatrick (1876--1941) entered the scene, he was on the staff of the manuscripts division of the Library of Congress. He had been a journalist until joining the library staff soon after the appointment in 1897 of his uncle-in-law, John Russell Young, as librarian of Congress. Since then he had become a respected curator, responsible for a number of calendars and guides issued by the library. Two of these dealt with Washington: calendars of his correspondence with the Continental Congress (1906) and with his officers of the Continental Army (1915). Fitzpatrick also had produced a facsimile edition of Washington's expense account while commander in chief (Boston, 1917) and was a frequent contributor of historical articles to the Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine.
Fitzpatrick's work was known to Fairfax Harrison (1869--1938), a Virginia railroad magnate, writer, and patron of many historical projects. Harrison had begun a movement to publish the Washington diaries privately, edited by Fitzpatrick, when he learned that the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union
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had revived its hope of sponsoring an "official" edition. The plan for a privately sponsored edition was dropped, and on 22 May 1923 Fitzpatrick was told by Eleanor Tyrell, secretary of the Regent, that he had been chosen to edit the Regents' own edition.
As his later thirty-nine volumes of the Writings of George Washington would attest, Fitzpatrick was a prodigious worker. Because of his energy and perhaps some previous work on the diaries for Harrison, and aided by materials from Toner and Ford, he was able to advise the council 20 June 1924 that he had completed his editorial work on the manuscript. All that remained was to find a publisher (Houghton Mifflin was to become the majority choice, but the presses of Harvard and Yale were still under discussion) and to settle on the costs of production and distribution.
The four-volume edition, The Diaries of George Washington, 1748--1799, came off the press in Oct. 1925. Houghton Mifflin had agreed on a mutual sharing of the costs, the Association to pay for composition and plates, the publisher to assume the expense of printing, paper, binding, and advertising. There were three printings in the fall of 1925. The publisher reported sales to 1 April 1926 of 3,096 copies. From their royalties, the Ladies paid Fitzpatrick $1,500 for his editorial work and an additional $350 for preparing the index.
The Present Edition
Although in a generic sense the diaries in this edition are part of Washington's "papers," they are published separately from the forthcoming series, The Papers of George Washington. This decision seems fitting because the diaries span Washington's entire career in relatively few volumes and are thus a complete work in themselves. There are lamentable gaps, but the reader may savor the man's words and works as they evolved from the day he set out as a boy of sixteen, to survey for Lord Fairfax, until that day before his death when, always conscious of the weather, he wrote a final entry: "Mer[cury] at 28 at Night."
Another persuasive reason to issue the diaries before the Papers has been the time required to assemble, from repositories and private owners all over the world, the letters and documents that
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will comprise the main series. While these thousands of manuscripts were being located, catalogued, and transcribed by some members of our staff, others proceeded with the editorial work on the diaries. The fact that as these diaries go to press we are still receiving substantial numbers of manuscripts for inclusion in the Papers provides further justification for our decision.
The present text of the diaries varies but slightly from that of the 1995 edition. Fitzpatrick missed the 1762 diary (not a significant one) and a few other fragments. His reading of the tattered manuscripts often differs from ours. He did some rearranging, and he omitted much of the weather data. But in general his transcription of the diaries is substantially the same as ours.
What differs is the editing. The re-editing of a historical document is much like the cleaning of an old and well-loved painting. The design, the basic theme, remains unchanged; but the colors brighten and reveal forgotten nuances of brushstroke and pigment. Occasionally, figures emerge from the background that have long been concealed, and suddenly new meanings are there; new interpretations are possible.
Succeeding generations of editors have always gone about their work in ways that differ from those of their predecessors, hoping that in the process they are improving upon the craft. They have an inevitable advantage in the vast quantity of historical research turned out by every generation of historians. Many of our manuscript sources, as well as large numbers of printed books used in our work, were unavailable to earlier editors. Washington's diaries present a peculiar problem to the modern editor in that some of the daily entries are long, detailed, and informative; others are perfunctory and, to be frank, often dull. This has brought about a variation in the length and nature of our annotation that is not accidental. When Washington feels talkative, we let him talk. When he grows laconic and uninformative, we feel a greater urge to let the reader know what is going on. Yet we must avoid the temptation to overshadow his brief entries with extended editorial statements better left for our edition of the Papers.
The principal aims of the editorial staff have been these:
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Preparing these short biographical statements about obscure eighteenth-century figures has proved to be the most difficult part of the editorial process. The urge to follow the example of Dr. Toner has been great. In his notes on the Washington diaries he identifies one Private John Doe simply as "a soldier." Our system, however, is to remain silent if we have no useful biographical information to offer. People and places have generally been identified at first appearance in the diaries. Washington commonly refers to individuals only by surname. In cases where the person has been previously identified the full name will be found in the index.
Editorial Procedures and Symbols
Transcription of the diaries has remained as faithful as possible to the original manuscript. Because of the nature of GW's diary entries, absolute consistency in punctuation has been virtually impossible. Where feasible, the punctuation has generally been retained as written. However, in cases where sentences are separated by dashes, a common device in the eighteenth century, the
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dash has been changed to a period and the following word capitalized. Dashes which appear after periods have been dropped. Periods have been inserted at points which are clearly the ends of sentences. In many of the diaries, particularly those dealing with planting and the weather, entries consist of phrases separated by dashes rather than sentences. Generally if the phrase appears to stand alone, a period has been substituted for the dash.
Spelling of all words is retained as it appears in manuscript. Errors in spelling of geographic locations and proper names have been corrected in notes or in brackets only if the spelling in the text makes the word incomprehensible. Washington occasionally, especially in the diaries, placed above an incorrectly written word a symbol sometimes resembling a tilde, sometimes an infinity sign, to indicate an error in orthography. When this device is used the editors have silently corrected the word.
The ampersand has been retained. The thorn has been transcribed as "th." The symbol for per has been written out. When a tilde is used to indicate either a double letter or missing letters, the correction has been made silently or the word has been transcribed as an abbreviation. Capitalization is retained as it appears in the manuscript; if the writer's intention is not clear, modern usage is followed.
Contractions and abbreviations are retained as written; a period is inserted after abbreviations. When an apostrophe has been used in contractions it is retained. Superscripts have been lowered, and if the word is an abbreviation a period has been added. When the meaning of an abbreviation is not obvious, it has been expanded in square brackets: H[unting] C[reek]; so[uther]ly.
Other editorial insertions or corrections in the text also appear in square brackets. Missing dates are supplied in square brackets in diary entries. Angle brackets (< >) are used to indicate mutilated material. If it is clear from the context what word or words are missing, or missing material has been filled in from other sources, the words are inserted between the angle brackets.
A space left blank by Washington in the manuscript of the diaries is indicated by a bracketed gap in the text. In cases where Washington has crossed out words or phrases, the deletions have not been noted. If a deletion contains substantive material it appears in a footnote. Words inadvertently repeated or repeated at the bottom of a page of manuscript have been dropped.
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If the intended location of marginal notations is clear, they have been inserted in the proper place without comment; otherwise, insertions appear in footnotes.
In cases where the date is repeated for several entries on the same day, the repetitive date has been omitted and the succeeding entries have been paragraphed.
Because Washington used the blank pages of the Virginia Almanack or occasionally small notebooks to keep his diaries, lack of space sometimes forced him to make entries and memoranda out of order in the volume. The correct position of such entries is often open to question, and the editors have not always agreed with earlier editors of the diaries on this matter. Such divergence of opinion, however, has not been annotated.
Bibliographical references are cited by one or two words, usually the author's last name, in small capitals. If two or more works by authors with the same surname have been used, numbers are assigned: HARRISON [2]. Full publication information is included in the bibliography for each volume. The symbols used to identify repositories in the footnotes precede the bibliography.
Surveying notes and dated memoranda kept in diary form have not been included in this edition of Washington's diaries, although the information contained in them has often been used in annotation.
The Diaries of
GEORGE WASHINGTON
Volume I
1748--65
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Editorial Note. During the spring of 1748 GW undertook a journey that introduced him for the first time to an area which was to play an important part in his career. In March of that year he had an opportunity to join a party engaged by Lord Fairfax1 to survey his properties on the South Branch of the Potomac River. Fairfax was the proprietor of the Northern Neck of Virginia, which encompassed the area between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers from the Chesapeake Bay to the headwaters of the two rivers. The grant for the proprietorship of the Northern Neck was originally made in 1649 by the exiled Charles II to John Culpeper, first Baron Culpeper of Thoreaway, and others as a reward for their support. No effort was made to implement the grant during the period of Cromwell's rule, but it was revived in 1660 when Charles II returned to England. The Culpeper interest in the proprietary passed to Lord Culpeper's son Thomas and to other relatives. By 1662 there was evident opposition in Virginia to the grant because of its interference with headright grants made by the colony. But by 1689, Thomas, Lord Culpeper, after serving for a time as governor of Virginia, had obtained a crown renewal of the grant and had secured the rights of all the
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The Fairfax coat of arms. (Trustees of the British Museum)
Thomas Fairfax, sixth Baron Fairfax of Cameron, an early influence on the young Washington. (Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22, A.F. & A. M., Alexandria, Va.)
proprietors except those of other members of the Culpeper family. Upon his death in 1689 the Northern Neck proprietorship was left to his wife and his only legitimate child, Catherine.
In 1690 Catherine married Thomas Fairfax, fifth Baron Fairfax of Cameron, bringing the Northern Neck into the possession of the Fairfax family. The deaths of the fifth baron in 1710 and of Lady Culpeper in 1719 left Thomas Fairfax, sixth Baron Fairfax, the sole proprietor of the Northern Neck.2 By the time Lord Fairfax had settled in Virginia in 1745, there had been extensive occupation of his lands, with ensuing uneasiness on the part of the settlers concerning the validity of their claims and a desire on the part of Lord Fairfax to confirm title to his property in the area. In 1746 the western boundary of the proprietary had been surveyed, under conditions of great difficulty, and with the confirmation of the boundary the settlers began to request valid grants from the proprietor.3 By 1747 surveyors for Fairfax were active
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An early map of the Northern Neck of Virginia. (Map Division. Library of Congress)
in the area of the Rappahannock, the Shenandoah, and the South Branch of the Potomac.
GW's association with the powerful Fairfax family grew out of the marriage of his half brother Lawrence, owner of Mount Vernon, to Ann Fairfax, daughter of Col. William Fairfax.4 Whenever
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possible GW escaped from the austerity of his mother's home at Ferry Farm to the pleasant plantation life of his brother's house. While he was staying with Lawrence at Mount Vernon, GW was a frequent visitor at Belvoir, the beautiful estate of William Fairfax some four miles from Mount Vernon. He soon became an intimate of the family and formed in particular a warm friendship with George William Fairfax,5 Colonel Fairfax's son. It was natural, therefore, when George William was sent as Lord Fairfax's agent on a surveying trip, that GW should be asked to accompany him.
It is uncertain when GW's interest in surveying as a career began. For a time in 1746 he had considered the possibility of going to sea, but the determined opposition of his mother and her family had compelled him to seek a career closer to home.6 Surveying in eighteenth-century Virginia promised a respectable and lucrative
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career to a young man without a large estate. As early as Aug. 1745, in his "School Exercise Book," GW had made notes on "Surveying or Measuring of Land," including examples of plats with fields, trees, and streams.7 It is probable that he received some instruction in surveying, possibly from James Genn,8 before the journey over the mountains, but in any case the chance to acquire practical experience under the supervision of a skilled surveyor was not to be missed. On 11 Mar. 1748, with George William Fairfax and the rest of the surveying party, he set out for the South Branch of the Potomac. The group was led by experienced surveyor James Genn, with Henry Ashby and Richard Taylor as chainmen, Robert Ashby as marker, and William Lindsey as pilot.
GW's journal of the trip was kept in a small notebook measuring 6 × 3¼ inches. Together with the entries for the "Journey over the Mountains," GW kept in this book accounts of the group's surveying activities for the period. Because of changes in the terrain, most of the surveying entries are now meaningless and will be omitted from the diary.9 However, in each case the name of the person for whom the survey was made will be noted. Also contained in the notebook, but obviously dating from a somewhat later period, are random notes and memoranda, copies of correspondence, and even one poem. This material will be considered in the chronological series of the Papers.
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[March]
Fryday March 11th. 1747/8. Began my Journey in Company with George Fairfax Esqr.; we travell'd this day 40 Miles to Mr. George Neavels in Prince William County.
The two dates used by GW are explained by the difference between New Style and Old Style dating. Until 1752 England, Ireland, and the colonies followed the Julian Calendar (Old Style). Under England's interpretation of the Julian Calendar the new year began on 25 Mar. Because the year under the Julian Calendar was 365 days 6 hours, by the sixteenth century a considerable surplus had accumulated, moving the vernal equinox from 21 to 11 Mar. The error was corrected in 1582 by the Gregorian Calendar (New Style), adopted by most European countries. By 1752, when Great Britain adopted the Gregorian Calendar, the displacement was 11 days.
George Neville (Neavil) (d. 1774), a planter and land speculator, had settled on Cedar Run, then in Prince William County (now in Fauquier County), as early as 1730. Although Neville was not licensed to keep an ordinary until 1759, the location of his house at the juncture of the Carolina Road and a branch of the Dumfries Road made it a convenient stopping place for travelers. As early as 1743, Neville had acquired a tract of 181 acres in Prince William and had also made extensive purchases of land in Frederick County. In 1750 GW was engaged to survey for him some 400 acres of "Waste & ungranted Land" in Frederick belonging to the Fairfax proprietary and adjoining George William Fairfax's property (warrant for survey, 13 Oct. 1750, DLC:GW; survey, 30 Oct. 1750, owned by Mr. Sol Feinstone, Washington Crossing, Pa.). The deed to Neville from Lord Fairfax is dated 20 Nov. 1750 (Mr. Sol Feinstone).
Saturday March 12th. This Morning Mr. James Genn the surveyor came to us. We travel'd over the Blue Ridge to Capt. Ashbys on Shannondoa River. Nothing remarkable happen'd.
John Ashby (1707--1789) was a member of a prominent frontier family. His father, Thomas Ashby, had settled in Stafford County in 1710 and moved to what is now Fauquier County before 1748. In 1741 John Ashby married Jean Combs of Maryland and moved with his father to the banks of the Shenandoah, where the Ashby Tract lay along the river just below the mouth of Howell's Run. He was widely known as an Indian fighter, serving as captain in the 2d Virginia Rangers which from 1752 to 1754 maintained headquarters at Fort Ashby at the juncture of the Potomac River and Patterson's Creek. In 1752 he was elected to the Frederick Parish vestry. After Braddock's Defeat in July 1755 Ashby carried news of the disaster to Williamsburg. He participated in the Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774 and shortly after went to Kentucky, where he spent several years locating and improving a grant of 2,000 acres he had received from Virginia for his services in the Indian wars. He died in Virginia in 1797.
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George William Fairfax, painted by an unknown artist after his return to England in 1773. (Mrs. Charles Baird, Jr.)
Sunday March 13. Rode to his Lordships Quarter about 4 Miles higher up the River we went through most beautiful Groves of Sugar Trees & spent the best part of the Day in admiring the Trees & richness of the Land.
It has usually been suggested that the party proceeded on 13 Mar. to Fairfax's land across the Shenandoah--the area known as Greenway Court (FREEMAN, 1:212--13; WRITINGS, 1:6). It is more likely that GW was referring to land owned by Lord Fairfax on the east side of the river in the vicinity of Howell's Run (see DICKINSON [1], 48--55).
Monday 14th. We sent our Baggage to Capt. Hites (near Frederick Town) went ourselves down the River about 16 Miles to Capt. Isaac Penningtons (the Land exceeding Rich & Fertile all the way produces abundance of Grain Hemp Tobacco &c.) in order to Lay of some Lands on Cates Marsh & Long Marsh.
Jost Hite (d. 1760) was born in Strasbourg, Alsace, and emigrated to America about 1710, settling first in the vicinity of Kingston, N.Y. About 1716 he moved to Pennsylvania and in 1731 purchased a tract of nearly 40,000 acres from John and Isaac Van Meter in what soon became Frederick County, Va. In 1732 he moved to his Virginia lands with 16 other families of settlers. He was a member of the first Frederick Parish vestry. Hite was one of the leading land speculators and developers in Frederick, eventually settling families on a tract amounting to 94,000 acres. His land purchases involved him in a dispute with Lord Fairfax over ownership of his grants. The case continued in the courts for 50 years and was settled in Hite's favor in 1786, 26 years after his death.
Washington's Potomac Neighborhood above the Falls
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Map Key: The Formation of Counties in the Upper Potomac Region, 1738--89
Frederick Town is now Winchester, Va.
Isaac Pennington came to the Shenandoah Valley, probably from New Jersey, about 1734 and settled a tract of some 600 acres on the south bank of Buck Marsh Run, near present-day Berryville, Va. He was a member of the first grand jury empaneled in Frederick County in May 1744 (CARTMELL, 23). In 1750 GW surveyed a tract of land for him in Frederick County (survey for Pennington, 23 Oct. 1750, NN: George Washington Newspaper and Catalogue Clippings Box). Pennington sold his holdings in Frederick County, including most of the site of Berryville, to Gabriel Jones of Augusta County and John Hite of Frederick County in 1754 and moved to South Carolina in the fall of that year (CHAPPELEAR [1], 17--18).
Tuesday 15th. We set out early with Intent to Run round the sd. Land but being taken in a Rain & it Increasing very fast obliged us to return. It clearing about one oClock & our time being too Precious to Loose we a second time ventured out & Worked hard till Night & then returnd to Penningtons we got our Suppers & was Lighted in to a Room & I not being so good a Woodsman as the rest of my Company striped my self very orderly
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Greenway Court, Lord Fairfax's western seat of operation, as depicted in Woodrow Wilson, George Washington, New York, 1897. (University of Virginia Library)
& went in to the Bed as they call'd it when to my Surprize I found it to be nothing but a Little Straw--Matted together without Sheets or any thing else but only one Thread Bear blanket with double its Weight of Vermin such as Lice Fleas &c. I was glad to get up (as soon as the Light was carried from us) & put on my Cloths & Lay as my Companions. Had we not have been very tired, I am sure we should not have slep'd much that night. I made a Promise not to Sleep so from that time forward chusing rather to sleep in the open Air before a fire as will Appear hereafter.
On this day the party surveyed a tract of land for George William Fairfax on Cates Marsh and Long Marsh, the "names of small streams which flow from the foothill of North mountain to the Shenandoah river and have along their course considerable meadow or marshy land" (TONER [1], 26).
Wednesday 16th. We set out early & finish'd about one oClock & then Travell'd up to Frederick Town where our Baggage came
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Young Washington, the surveyor. (American Antiquarian Society)
to us. We cleaned ourselves (to get Rid of the Game we had catched the Night before) & took a Review of the Town & then return'd to our Lodgings where we had a good Dinner prepar'd for us Wine & Rum Punch in Plenty & a good Feather Bed with clean Sheets which was a very agreeable regale.
Thursday 17th. Rain'd till Ten oClock & then clearing we reached as far as Major Campbells one of there Burgesses about 25 Miles from Town. Nothing Remarkable this day nor Night but that we had a Tolerable good Bed [to] lay on.
Andrew Campbell, who lived northwest of Winchester, was one of Frederick County's most prominent residents. He served as one of the county's first justices, as a member of the House of Burgesses from Frederick in 1745--47, and as the third sheriff of the county. On 2 Jan. 1744 the Frederick County court licensed Campbell and several other residents to keep ordinaries "at their respective houses" and to "furnish lodgings and food and Liquors at prices fixed by the court" (CARTMELL, 21). Campbell appears to have had a puritanical interest in preserving decorum in Frederick County. The long list of charges laid by him against various citizens range from breaking the Sabbath to "raising a riot" (see NORRIS [1], 83, 85). Retribution finally overtook him. He had served as a vestryman for Frederick Parish since 1745 but in the latter part of the decade charges were laid against him for collecting and appropriating for himself the funds collected for the use of the parish. That there was indeed chicanery afoot in the management of the parish finances is indicated in legislation passed by the House of Burgesses in Feb. 1752. "An Act for dissolving the Vestry of Frederick parish, in Frederick county" charged that the Frederick vestry had collected £1,570 on pretense of building churches in the parish and had "misapplied or converted the same to their own use, and refuse to render any account . . . to the great
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impoverishment of the people" (HENING, 6:258--60). Campbell eventually "had to run away to Carolina" (MEADE [2]).
Fryday 18th. We Travell'd up about 35 Miles to Thomas Barwicks on Potomack where we found the River so excessively high by Reason of the Great Rains that had fallen up about the Allegany Mountains as they told us which was then bringing down the melted Snow & that it would not be fordable for severall Days it was then above Six foot Higher than usual & was Rising. We agreed to stay till Monday. We this day call'd to see the Fam'd Warm Springs. We camped out in the field this Night. Nothing Remarkable happen'd till sunday the 20th.
Thomas Barwick (Berwick?) was settled in Frederick County as early as 1744 and served as a juror in the county court in February of that year (CARTMELL, 23).
Warm Springs is now Bath, or Berkeley Springs, Morgan County, W.Va.
Sunday 20th. Finding the River not much abated we in the Evening Swam our horses over & carried them to Charles Polks in Maryland for Pasturage till the next Morning.
Charles Polk had land under cultivation in the area as early as 1748 (NORRIS [1], 68).
Monday 21st. We went over in a Canoe & Travell'd up Maryland side all the Day in a Continued Rain to Collo. Cresaps right against the Mouth of the South Branch about 40 Miles from Polks I believe the Worst Road that ever was trod by Man or Beast.
Thomas Cresap (1694--1790) was horn at Skipton, Yorkshire, Eng., and emigrated to America about 1719, settling first in Maryland and later moving to the area of present-day Wrightsville, Pa. There he became a leader of the Maryland forces in the boundary dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania, 1730--36. His Pennsylvania establishment was burned by Pennsylvanians in 1736, and he moved to the vicinity of Shawnee Old Town (now Oldtown, Md.), where he built a fortified trading post at the crossroads of a series of trails much traveled by Indians and whites. By 1749, when he was one of the organizers of the Ohio Company, Gresap was widely known throughout the frontier as a trader and land speculator, and Shawnee Old Town had become one of the leading frontier trading posts. Gresap acted as a surveyor and agent for the Ohio Company and helped lay out the company's road from Wills Greek to the Monongahela. He supported the Patriot cause during the American Revolution, in which his more famous son Michael played a leading role on the frontier.
Tuesday 22d. Continued Rain and the Freshes kept us at Cresaps.
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A hut near Berryville, Va., thought to have been used by Washington while surveying for Lord Fairfax. From Henry Howe, Historical Collections of Virginia, Charleston, S.C., 1845. (Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University)
Wednesday 23d. Rain'd till about two oClock & Clear'd when we were agreeably surpris'd at the sight of thirty odd Indians coming from War with only one Scalp. We had some Liquor with us of which we gave them Part it elevating there Spirits put them in the Humour of Dauncing of whom we had a War Daunce. There Manner of Dauncing is as follows Viz. They clear a Large Circle & make a great Fire in the Middle then seats themselves around it the Speaker makes a grand Speech telling them in what Manner they are to Daunce after he has finish'd the best Dauncer Jumps up as one awaked out of a Sleep & Runs & Jumps about the Ring in a most comicle Manner he is followd by the Rest then begins there Musicians to Play the Musick is a Pot half of Water with a Deerskin Streched over it as tight as it can & a goard with some Short in it to Rattle & a Piece of an horses Tail tied to it to make it look fine the one keeps Rattling and the other Drumming all the While the others is Dauncing.
Washington's drafting instruments, Century Magazine, May 1890. (University of Virginia Library)
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Among his papers in the Library of Congress is this page from the young Washington's copybook of 1745.
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Fryday 25th. 1748. Nothing Remarkable on thursday but only being with the Indians all day so shall slip it. This day left Cresaps & went up to the Mouth of Patersons Creek & there swum our Horses over got over ourselves in a Canoe & travel'd up the following Part of the Day to Abram Johnstones 15 miles from the Mouth where we camped.
Patterson's Creek flows into the Potomac about 12 miles below Cumberland, Md. It rises in Hampshire County, W.Va.
Abram Johnson received a deed to 309 acres on Patterson's Creek on 26 Oct. 1748 (Northern Neck Deeds and Grants, Book G, 141, Vi Microfilm).
Saterday 26. Travelld up the Creek to Solomon Hedges Esqr. one of his Majestys Justices of the Peace for the County of Frederick where we camped. When we came to Supper there was neither a Cloth upon the Table nor a Knife to eat with but as good luck would have it we had Knives of [our] own.
Solomon Hedges. usually called Squire Hedges, a justice of the peace for Frederick County, was a member of a Quaker family from Maryland who were early settlers in Frederick. Hedges was living in the county as early as 1744, when he served on the first grand jury for Frederick in May of that year.
Sunday 27th. Travell'd over to the South Branch (attended with the Esqr.) to Henry Vanmetriss in order to go about Intended Work of Lots.
The Van Meter family was among the earliest settlers in the Shenandoah Valley. John Van Meter, a New York state Indian trader who carried on an extensive trade among the Delaware Indians, visited Virginia about 1725. With his encouragement his sons Isaac and John obtained extensive grants of land on the South Branch of the Potomac and in the lower Shenandoah Valley in 1730 and brought in a number of settlers. It was their sale of a portion of their lands to Jost Hite in 1731 which precipitated the latter's legal entanglements with Lord Fairfax. Henry Van Meter, who died about 1759, was a son of Isaac and a nephew of John. He received a deed for 405 acres on the South Branch on 7 June 1749 (Northern Neck Deeds and Grants, Book G, 187, Vi Microfilm). For an account of the Van Meter family, see W. Va. Hist. Mag., 2, no. 2 (April 1902), 5--18.
Monday 28th. Travell'd up the Branch about 30 Miles to Mr. James Rutlidge's Horse Jockey & about 70 Miles from the Mouth.
Tuesday 29th. This Morning went out & Survey'd five Hundred Acres of Land & went down to one Michael Stumps on the So. Fork of the Branch. On our way Shot two Wild Turkies.
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Chain, compass, and scale drawn by the young Washington. (Cornell University)
On 29 Mar. the party surveyed a tract of land for James Rutledge (surveying notes, DLC:GW). Rutledge acquired 500 acres in Frederick County in May 1748 (Northern Neck Deeds and Grants, Book G, 56, Vi Microfilm). He was presumably a member of the family that had settled on the South Branch as early as 1734 or 1735.
Michael Stump, Sr. (1709--1768), received a grant for Lot No. 3, on the South Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac, on 8 Sept. 1749 (Northern Neck Deeds and Grants, Book G, 227, Vi Microfilm).
Wednesday 30th. This Morning began our Intended Business of Laying of Lots. We began at the Boundary Line of the Northern 10 Miles above Stumps & run of two Lots & returnd to Stumps.
On this day the party surveyed tracts for Peter Reid, Anthony Regar, Harmon Shoker, and Elias Cellars (surveying notes, DLC:GW).
Thursday 31st. Early this Morning one of our Men went out with the Gun & soon Returnd with two Wild Turkies. We then went to our Business. Run of three Lots & returnd to our Camping place at Stumps.
[April]
Fryday April the 1st. 1748. This Morning Shot twice at Wild Turkies but killd none. Run of three Lots & returnd to Camp.
Saterday April 2d. Last Night was a blowing & Rainy night. Our Straw catch'd a Fire that we were laying upon & was luckily Preserv'd
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An early Washington survey done for his half brother Lawrence. (Library of Congress)
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by one of our Mens awaking when it was in a < > We run of four Lots this day which Reached below Stumps.
From 2 to 5 April the party surveyed tracts for Michael Calb. Liveron (?), Leonard Nass, Michael Stump, James Simpson, Philip Moore, the Widow Wolf, Henry Shepler, and Jeremiah Osborne (surveying notes, DLC:GW).
Sunday 3d. Last Night was a much more blostering night than the former. We had our Tent Carried Quite of with the Wind and was obliged to Lie the Latter part of the Night without covering. There came several Persons to see us this day one of our Men Shot a Wild Turkie.
Monday 4th. This morning Mr. Fairfax left us with Intent to go down to the Mouth of the Branch. We did two Lots & was
David Rittenhouse of Philadelphia made this surveying compass for Washington. (Smithsonian Institution photo no. P65774)
attended by a great Company of People Men Women & Children that attended us through the Woods as we went shewing there Antick tricks. I really think they seem to be as Ignorant a Set of People as the Indians. They would never speak English but when spoken to they speak all Dutch. This day our Tent was blown down by the Violentness of the Wind.
Fairfax borrowed 5s. from GW before he left (miscellaneous accounts, entry for 5 April 1748, DLC:GW).
Tuesday 5th. We went out & did 4 Lots. We were attended by the same Company of People that we had the clay before.
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Wednesday 6th. Last Night was so Intolerably smoaky that we were obliged all hands to leave the Tent to the Mercy of the Wind and Fire this day was attended by our aforesd. Company untill about 12 oClock when we finish'd we travell'd down the Branch to Henry Vanmetris's. On our Journey was catch'd in a very heavy Rain. We got under a Straw House untill the Worst of it was over & then continued our Journy.
Thursday 7th. Rain'd Successively all Last Night. This Morning one of our men Killed a Wild Turky that weight 20 Pounds. We went & Surveyd 15 Hundred Acres of Land & Returnd to Vanmetris's about 1 oClock. About two I heard that Mr. Fairfax was come up & at 1 Peter Casseys about 2 Miles of in the same Old Field. I then took my Horse & went up to see him. We eat our Dinners & Walked down to Vanmetris's. We stayed about two Hours & Walked back again and slept in Casseys House which was the first Night I had slept in a House since I came to the Branch.
Peter Casey acquired 356 acres of land on the South Branch on 14 Aug. 1749 (Northern Neck Deeds and Grants, Book G, 271, Vi Microfilm).
Fryday 8th. We breakfasted at Casseys & Rode down to Vanmetris's to get all our Company together which when we had accomplished we Rode down below the Trough in order to Lay of Lots there. We laid of one this day. The Trough is couple of Ledges of Mountain Impassable running side & side together for above 7 or 8 Miles & the River down between them. You must Ride Round the back of the Mountain for to get below them. We Camped this Night in the Woods near a Wild Meadow where was a Large Stack of Hay. After we had Pitched our Tent & made a very Large Fire we pull'd out our Knapsack in order to Recruit ourselves. Every[one] was his own Cook. Our Spits was Forked Sticks our Plates was a Large Chip as for Dishes we had none.
Saterday 9th. Set the Surveyors to work whilst Mr. Fairfax & myself stayed at the Tent our Provision being all exhausted & the Person that was to bring us a Recruit disappointing us we were obliged to go without untill we could get some from the Neighbours which was not till about 4 or 5 oClock in the Evening. We then took our Leaves of the Rest of our Company Road Down to John Colins in order to set off next Day homewards.
John Collins, a member of a pioneer Shenandoah Valley family, had settled near present-day Moorefield, Hardy County, W.Va.
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George William Fairfax commissions Washington to make a survey in 1750. (Library of Congress)
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A sketch of a portion of the Mount Vernon estate near the Mansion House and Little Hunting Creek, about 1747. (Library of Congress)
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Sunday 10th. We took our farewell of the Branch & travelld over Hills and Mountains to 1 Coddys on Great Cacapehon about 40 Miles.
James Caundy (Coddy) owned some 98 acres of land in Frederick County. On 19 Mar. 1752 GW noted that "Pursuant to a Warrant from the Proprietors Office I have Surveyed for James Caudy of Great Cacapehon a certain tract of waste & ungranted Land on the So. Fork of Dillans commonly call'd & known by the Name of the Little Meadows" (survey for Caudy, Vi).
Monday 11th. We Travell'd from Coddys down to Frederick Town where we Reached about 12 oClock. We dined in Town and then went to Capt. Hites & Lodged.
Belhaven, later to become Alexandria, Va., was surveyed by Washington about 1748. (Library of Congress)
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Tuesday 12th. We set of from Capt. Hites in order to go over Wms. Gap about 20 Miles and after Riding about 20 Miles we had 20 to go for we had lost ourselves & got up as High as Ashbys Bent. We did get over Wms. Gap that Night and as low as Wm. Wests in Fairfax County 18 Miles from the Top of the Ridge. This day see a Rattled Snake the first we had seen in all our Journey.
Williams' Gap was a pass through the Blue Ridge Mountains on a line east from Winchester. It was later known as Snickers' Gap.
Ashby's Bent, or Ashby's Gap, is a pass into the Shenandoah Valley through the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was presumably named for Thomas Ashby, father of John and Thomas Ashby, who settled in the area in the 1740s.
West's ordinary was at the junction of the Carolina Road and the Colchester Road near Bull Run, slightly east of the beginning of the Bull Run Mountains. It was operated by William West, who died between 1762 and 1765. As early as 1740 West had acquired grants of land in the area (Northern Neck Deeds and Grants, Book E, Vi Microfilm). He may have been the William West who was a brother of Hugh and John West of Alexandria, although the evidence is only conjectural (see HARRISON [1], 139, 494--95). The ordinary was operated after the Revolution under the name Lacey's and was located at the present site of Aldie, in what is now Loudoun County.
Wednesday the 13th. of April 1748. Mr. Fairfax got safe home and I myself safe to my Brothers which concludes my Journal.
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Editorial Note. GW's older half brother Lawrence had been in poor health during the decade following the British assault upon Spanish bases in the Caribbean, an encounter commonly termed the War of Jenkins' Ear. He had led a Virginia military company in the 1741 attack on Cartagena, becoming so fond of Vice Admiral Edward Vernon, naval commander of the expedition, that he later named his own home Mount Vernon. Now his lung ailment was worse, and his life had been further burdened by the deaths since 1745 of three children, Janet, Fairfax, and Mildred. In 1751 he decided to sail for Barbados in search of a healing climate, accompanied by young GW.
Barbados was a logical choice. Not only were there strong commercial ties between Virginia and the Leeward Islands, but there also were family connections. Gedney Clarke, a prominent Barbados merchant and planter, was the brother of William Fairfax's second wife; he was from Salem, Mass., and owned property along Goose Greek in Virginia. The Clarkes and their Barbadian friends would be the principal hosts of the two Washingtons during their stay on the island. There is no evidence that families named Washington living in the British West Indies about 1750 were related to or even acquainted with Lawrence and GW, and none is mentioned in the diary. The name appears frequently in early burial records of Barbados, and the will of a man named George Washington was proved in Barbados in 1769.1
To prepare themselves for the voyage, Lawrence and GW could turn to a new work by Rev. Griffith Hughes, The Natural History of Barbados (London, 1750). A folio volume issued serially in ten parts, it was heavily laden with botanical lore but contained enough general information to make useful reading for GW (see his comments, p. 87). He may have seen the book in the home
1 WESSEL, 6--8. See also HOPPIN, 143--50.
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Lawrence Washington, whose poor health took him and his half brother George to Barbados in the fall of 1751. (Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union)
of one of the Fairfaxes, for both--Thomas, Lord Fairfax, and his cousin William--were among the thirty-three Virginia subscribers to the publication. Another subscriber was Hon. James Carter, in whose home the Washingtons stayed briefly upon their arrival in Barbados; GW may have studied the book there.
After learning that George Muse would be appointed to serve
Bridgetown, capital of Barbados, as Washington saw it and as depicted in Griffith Hughes's The Natural History of Barbados, London, 1750. (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University)
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in his stead as adjutant of Virginia,2 Lawrence set sail with his brother about 28 Sept. 1751. Because the first few pages of GW's diary are missing, we cannot know for certain the date, the port of embarkation, or the vessel upon which the two took passage. Jared Sparks wrote that the ship sailed 28 Sept. J. M. Toner reported the voyage as originating in the Potomac, as did John C. Fitzpatrick and Douglas S. Freeman, none citing the source of his information.3 We have found no primary source.
If the vessel did sail from the Potomac, it was the Success, Jeremiah Cranston, 40 tons, 8 men, carrying a cargo of 4,480 barrel staves, 7,627 feet of plank, 984 bushels of corn, and 31 barrels of herring. Cranston gave bond for his square-sterned sloop at the customs office of the South Potomac district either on 23 Aug. or 23 Sept.--the surviving report is not clear. If August, the delay between the date of clearing the port and leaving the river was not unusual. Washington himself remarked in later life that masters of vessels never sail on time.4 Only one other vessel bound for Barbados, other than the Success, cleared any Virginia port at a time that would place it at sea on 28 Sept. For a note on the Fredericksburg, a sloop that might possibly have carried the Washingtons, see p. 35.
Two elements of ocean travel fascinated GW most: the daily progress as indicated in the captain's log and the variable and often violent weather. He kept his own log as part of his diary, very probably basing it upon the captain's and introducing such nautical acronyms as RMTS, reefed main topsail; DRTS, double-reefed topsail; HFS, hauled foresail. His amazement at the stormy weather seems justified. There had been severe hurricanes in the West Indies in September, resulting in heavy shipping losses. Though the heaviest losses were in the Jamaica area, merchants in the Leewards reported considerable loss in their letters to American shippers, and on 18 Oct. when GW was noting in his
3 TONER [2], 5; DIARIES, 1:16n; FREEMAN, 1:248.
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log the occurrence of heavy seas and high winds, there was a strong earthquake in the Santo Domingo area.5
Biographical Data
Information in the person mentioned by GW during his stay on the island is in most instances scant. What follows is data obtained both from standard biographical references and from documents in the Barbados Department of Archives at Black Rock. The archives have suffered much from the ravages of time and climate, and identifications are made more difficult by GW's customary use of surnames only and by his phonetic spelling of those names.
BARWICK, WILLIAM (d. 1756). A member of the colonial council and owner of Pine Plantation in st. Michaels Parish.6
CARTER, JAMES (d. 1753), of St. Thomas Parish.7 Member of the council in the 1740s and chief justice of grand sessions, appointed 1749.
CHARNOCK, BENJAMIN (1698--1783), of St. James Parish--a tentative identification. At his death he left what remained of his "oppulent fortune" to a friend, Dowding Thornhill.8 There is no surviving record of the criminal proceedings against him a for "committing a rape on his servant maid."
CLARKE, GEDNEY (1711--1764). Member of the council, collector of customs at Barbados, merchant, and planter with holdings in America--including 3,000 acres on Goose Creek in northern Virginia. Clarke's sister Deborah was William Fairfax's wife and his connection with the Fairfaxes. Because of this link not only did
6 Barbados Department of Archives, hereafter BDA, RB6/35:180.
Washington was especially fond of the "Pine-Apple" of Barbados. From Griffith Hughes, Barbados, London, 1750. (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University)
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GW and Lawrence depend much upon the Clarkes, but Bryan Fairfax, son of William and a lifelong friend of GW, also spent time with the Clarkes in 1752--54. In his will, recorded 4 Sept. 1764, Clarke left property to his wife, his niece Hannah Fairfax, and his sons, Peter, Francis, and Gedney Jr. The bulk of the estate went to Gedney, including the Goose Creek lands.9 During the 1750s Clarke dealt extensively with Henry Laurens, of South Carolina, purchasing slaves for resale in America by Laurens. Many of his letters appear in Laurens's letterbooks (ScHi), where his name is always entered as "Gidney" Clarke.
CLARKE, MARY. Gedney Clarke's wife.
CROFTAN (Crofton), CAPT. --. The officer commanding James Fort who rented a house to the Washingtons. GW wrote his name "Crawford" twice, then corrected it. He was probably a militia officer. Although the Thirty-eighth Foot was the regiment assigned to the Leewards at this time, there are no extant records associating this unit with service on Barbados; no Captain Croftan or Crofton appears on the manuscript or printed army lists of the period in the Public Record Office, London.
FINLAY, THOMAS. A native of Scotland whose will was recorded in Barbados 27 May 1762, after his return to his Scottish estate called Balkirsty. He served as clerk of the General Assembly of Barbados in 1743--44.10
GASKIN, JOHN (d. 1779), of St. Michaels Parish.11 At his death he owned the schooner Success, apparently not the vessel which may have transported GW to Barbados.
GRAEME, GEORGE (d. 1755), a judge and member of the General Assembly representing Christ Church Parish.12 Brother of John Graeme.
GRAEME, JOHN (d. 1755). Onetime professor of natural philosophy and mathematics at the College of William and Mary, succeeding Joshua Fry. He had come from England in 1725 to take over the ironworks and plantation of Alexander Spotswood, an assignment in which he was not very successful. Spotswood complained that he should have known better than to commit such a venture to a mathematician. Graeme joined the college faculty Aug. 1737. Although not an experienced surveyor, he apparently
10 BDA, RB6/30:440, and Jl. of Barbados Museum and Hist. Soc., 13 (1946), 86.
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was in charge of the licensing of surveyors in Virginia, a privilege assigned to the college by the crown. There is nothing in the scant record to connect him with GW before their meeting in Barbados, although GW had been surveying for Lord Fairfax and others.13
GRENVILLE, HENRY (1717--1784), governor of Barbados 1746--56.
HILLARY, DR. WILLIAM (1697--1763), a physician trained at Leyden and newly arrived in Barbados. He became Lawrence's doctor.
HAGGATT, OTHNIEL (d. 1761). Probably the man mentioned by GW, although Nathaniel Haggatt was living at the same time. One of the plantations on Barbados is called Haggatt Hall.
HOLBURNE, COMMODORE FRANCIS (1704--1771). Arrived in the Leewards about Sept. 1748 aboard the Tavistock, "a worn-out 50-gun ship," as commodore and commander in chief. He returned to England in 1752, then went to Halifax as vice admiral, July 1757, to attempt the reduction of French-held Louisbourg. French reinforcements and bad weather thwarted the plan.14
JENKINS, EDMUND. No new information except his first name, supplied from BDA records.
LANAHAN, DR. JOHN (1699--1762). A physician and third-generation resident of Barbados. It is not clear why he was called to attend GW during his illness with smallpox while Lawrence was being treated by Dr. Hillary, unless it was because he was a friend of the Clarkes. Gedney was executor of his estate when he died in 1769.15
MAYNARD, WILLIAM. Member of the General Assembly for many years, from St. Thomas Parish, and owner of Black Rock Plantation.
PATTERSON, WILLIAM. Surveyor general of customs whom Gedney Clarke succeeded in 1759.
PETRIE, CAPT. --. Commander of Charles Fort, frequently called Needham's fort, on the southern point of the entrance to Carlisle Bay and Bridgetown. The many forts on the west coast of Barbados were garrisoned largely by militia. An officer named John Petrie appears in the army List for 1745 as a lieutenant
14 DNB; VA. EXEC. JLS., 6:61, 77.
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in the Thirty-sixth Foot and was a major by 1746 according to the Gentleman's Magazine, March 1746, 165. The Barbados captain was probably a militia officer, perhaps George John Petrie, who gave a power of attorney to Jonas and John Maynard 9 June 1753 and died in Middlesex, Eng., the same year.16
PURCELL, JOHN. Lieutenant governor of the British Virgin Islands with headquarters in Tortola.
ROBERTS, ELIZABETH. Mary Clarke's niece, who by 1787 was the widow of Thomas Beard, according to the will of her brother William.17
ROBERTSON, CORNELIUS. Master of the Fredericksburg.
SANDARS, JOHN. Master of the Industry.
STEVENSON, THOMAS & SONS. Thomas Stevenson (d. 1763) owned Pool Plantation in St. Johns Parish and engaged in mercantile activities with his sons on other islands of the Leeward group.
WARREN, ROBERT. Onetime clerk of the General Assembly.
The Washingtons in Barbados
The arrival at Bridgetown, on Carlisle Bay, is not well documented because pages are missing from the diary at this point. There are no collateral data such as newspaper listings of shipping arrivals, for not a single copy of the Barbados Gazette for 1751 is known to exist. The first two diary entries after the Washingtons disembarked are supplied by Jared Sparks, who obviously saw them while he was preparing his edition of GW's papers. He may indeed be responsible for the fact that the originals are missing, considering his penchant for distributing sample pages from GW manuscripts.
After dining with the Clarkes and taking up temporary lodging with James Carter, the travelers confronted the matter of prime importance--Lawrence's physical condition. Then, assured by Dr. Hillary that the disease was "not so fixed but that a cure might be effectually made," they looked for a place to live.
Although they thought it extravagant at £15 a month, they chose a house owned by Captain Croftan, or Crofton, overlooking Carlisle Bay. The little house which Barbadian taxi drivers now show to tourists as the Washington home is merely the object of
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An island scene from Griffith Hughes's Barbados, London, 1750. (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University)
a legend. Located on Bay Street at Chelsea Road not far from St. Ann's Garrison, it bears no resemblance to the architecture of the mid-1700s. Even if it had been standing in GW's time, it could not have survived the devastating hurricanes of 1780 and 1831, which nearly destroyed Bridgetown and brought havoc to the entire island. Some credence was given the legend when an official historic sites committee in 1910 referred to the building as Crofton's House and associated it with GW. Tourist literature still designates the place "the Washington House," but the question of its authenticity has been disposed of by local historians.18
The brothers had a busy social life, and those who entertained
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The coconut, another tropical plant seen by Washington for the first time in Barbados. From Griffith Hughes, Barbados, London, 1750. (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University)
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them were prominent in commercial, political, and military circles. GW delighted in the novelty of his surroundings. He developed a taste for the "avagado pair," the "Pine Apple," and other tropical fruits. He indulged his emerging taste for the theater by attending a performance of George Lillo's The London Merchant, or the History of George Barnwell, which was also playing in Drury Lane that season. Lillo's play may have been the first stage production which GW had ever seen, other than amateur performances.
While Lawrence's health was still failing, illness struck GW. On 16 Nov. he developed smallpox and Dr. Lanahan was sent for. It may have been fortunate for GW that smallpox caught up with him in Barbados rather than in Virginia. The practice of inoculation--not vaccination--was common in Barbados but frowned upon in Virginia.19 Rev. Griffith Hughes reported that although the island was seldom free of the disease, the practice of inoculation had lowered the death rate to a very small percentage.20 It is conceivable that GW had been inoculated sometime before his trip to Barbados, causing his attack to be a relatively mild one. The practice of vaccination with cowpox vaccine did not begin until the end of the century.
That a kind of ennui was affecting the two brothers, as well as apprehension about Lawrence's pulmonary condition, is shown in a letter that Lawrence wrote to his father-in-law, William Fairfax: "This climate has not afforded the relief I expected from it, so that I have almost determined to try the Bermudas on my return, and, if it does not do, the dry air of Frederic. This is the finest island of the West Indies, but I own no place can please me without a change of seasons. We soon tire of the same prospect. Our bodies are too much relaxed. . . . We have no kind of bodily diversions but dancing. . . . I am obliged to ride out by the first dawn of the day, for by the time the sun is half an hour high, it is as hot as at any time of the day. The gentlemen are very polite and hospitable."21
It was decided that Lawrence would try Bermuda and that GW would return to Virginia. Lawrence wrote a friend from Bermuda 6 April 1752, despairing over his health and expressing the wish
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that his wife Anne would come to him--accompanied by GW.22 As his condition worsened, however, he returned hastily to Mount Vernon and died there 26 July.
By 19 Dec. 1751 GW had booked passage out of Barbados on the Industry. He spent Christmas at sea, dining on beef and "Irish Goose," and settled down to an uneventful though frequently stormy homeward voyage, content to maintain a terse diary rather than a ship's log.
At the end of January the Industry cleared the Virginia capes and made a landfall in the lower York River. Proceeding by land to Williamsburg, GW paid a call on Gov. Robert Dinwiddie, gave him some letters, and was invited to dine. It may have been a crucial moment in GW's career, providing Dinwiddie an opportunity to evaluate the young man. The governor, only recently appointed, had lived in America for several years and may already have known the Washingtons; certainly he knew the Fairfaxes. He was no stranger to Barbados, either, having investigated customs affairs there as early as 1738 while serving as surveyor general of customs for the Southern District of America. He must have queried GW about the Gedney Clarkes and mentioned the occasions upon which he had been a guest in their home.23
Within a few years, disquieting differences would arise to mar GW's relationship with Dinwiddie, but the young man's immediate prospects brightened after his dinner with the governor. Later in 1752, when the colony was divided into four military districts, Dinwiddie appointed him one of the district adjutants; and in 1753, upon dispatching GW with a message to the French on the Ohio River, Dinwiddie would refer to him as "a person of distinction."
The Manuscript
The Barbados diary had deteriorated seriously before it was silked and mounted at the Library of Congress; there is evidence
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that some of the preliminary pages were already missing when Jared Sparks used it in the early nineteenth century. Transcribing it according to conventional standards would result in a confusing array of blank spaces enclosed by brackets and many speculative footnotes. The editors feel it can best be presented in facsimile, accompanied by the gloss that follows.
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Fragments of what apparently are two of the first leaves in the blank book that GW used for his diary. They are in about the same condition as they were when Toner's publisher set them in type in 1892.
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REMARKS FOR SATERDAY 28TH: Assuming this to be the first entry in GW's log and that he began the log on his first day out, we have an accurate date for the beginning of the voyage, 28 Sept. 1751. The second fragment, on the reverse side of the leaf is for 29 Sept.
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I SUPPOSE THIS TO ME A FRAGMENT: A comment in the hand of Jared Sparks, as is the date of Oct. 1751. If Sparks wrote on the first full page available to him. it is likely that the earlier pages were mutilated when he saw them about 1827.
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For the first time, GW's labels for the bottom line of data are readable, including departure, course, distance, difference of latitude, latitude, meridian distance, difference of longitude, and longitude. His indication of the mariner's term departure is usually mutilated but would always be a two-digit figure expressing nautical miles.
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With a landfall on the morning of [2] Nov., GW terminates his log. One or more leaves are missing at this point; presumably 2 Nov. was spent in entering Carlisle Bay and getting ashore at Bridgetown.
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The entries for 4 and 5 Nov. are from SPARKS, 2:424, and are misdated. Correct dates are 3 and 4 Nov. The Gedney Clarke town house where the Washingtons dined was on the north bank of a creek that emptied into the careenage, near the old bridge which gave the town its name (SHILSTONE, 2n).
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TUESDAY 6TH: He means the 5th. GW's use of dates is erratic during his stay on the island; he will be one day ahead of the calendar until the temporary interruption of his entries on "17th" Nov., actually the 16th. THE [S]CHOONER FREDERICKSBURG, CAPTN. ROBINSON: The square-sterned sloop Fredericksburg, Cornelius Robertson, 80 tons, 6 guns, 8 men, registered at Williamsburg Oct. 1750; owner John Champe & Co. Lading: 3,300 bushels of corn, 70 bushels of oats, 17,000 shingles. The vessel cleared the port of Rappahannock 2 Sept. 1751 (P.R.O., C.O.5/1444, f. 118, Naval Office Accounts). While it is possible that the Washingtons went to Barbados aboard this vessel, there are two reasons for doubt. GW probably would not have listed it so formally, including
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the captain's name, if he had just debarked from it after several weeks on the "fickle & Mirciless Ocean" (p. 69). Also, it is not likely that a vessel arriving in port on 2 Oct. would be preparing to sail by 6 Oct. MRS. CLARKE & MISS ROBTS.: Mrs. Mary Clarke, wife of Gedney Clarke, and her niece Elizabeth Roberts. TO COME & SEE THE SERPTS. FIR'D: Serpents, or fireworks discharged in commemoration of Guy Fawkes Day, 5 Nov. This remark enables us to correct the dating of the diary entries made during this period.
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THE SURVEYOR GENL.: William Patterson. JUDGES FINLEY & HACKET: Thomas Finlay and Othniel Haggatt. JAMES FORT: A fortification on the northern point of the entrance to Carlisle Bay and Bridgetown.
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GW has extended his entry for "Fryday 9th," actually 8 Nov., to cover the following Saturday.
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MR. GRAEME . . . OF THE MASTER'S OF THE COLLEGE OF VIRGINIA: John Graeme. STRONGLY ATTACKED WITH THE SMALL POX: On 16 Nov., GW suspended his
A West Indies farmyard from Charles de Rochefort's Histoire naturelle des Iles Antilles de l'Amérique, Rotterdam, 1658. (Arents Collections, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations)
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diary entries for the duration of his illness. The wording indicates that he made the 16 Nov. entry after recovering on 12 Dec.
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DECEMBER 12TH: GW's dates will square with the calendar until he assigns both Monday and Tuesday the date of 16 Dec.: then, by skipping from 19 to 21 Dec., he will again be correct, MAJR. CASKETS: John Gaskin. COLO. CHAUNACK: Benjamin Charnock.
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GENERAL BARRACK: William Barwick. MESSRS. STEPHENSON'S MERCHT.: Thomas Stevenson g: Sons. THE INDUSTRY CAPTN. JOHN SAUNDERS: The Industry, John Sandars, a square-sterned brig of 50 tons, 7 men, of Bristol registry and owned by Sandars. Lading: 1,230 gallons of rum. Sandars gave bond at the Barbados customs office 19 Nov. 1751 and entered the York River of Virginia 30 Jan. 1755 (P.R.O., C.O.5/1444, f. 43).
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THE GOVERNOR OF BARBADO'S: Henry Grenville.
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40 To 70 POLLS: Both "polls" and "bolls" have been used as units of measure, but it is likely that GW neglected to cross his t's and here means "potts." In the literature of the West Indies sugar industry, a pot is often used to denote a batch or boiling-down of sugar and also may mean a quantity equaling a hogshead.
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GUNIA CORN: Guinea corn, a grain sorghum. HUGHES, 254, says it was mainly used to feed slaves, each receiving from a pint to a quart a day.
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A SLOOP CALLD THE GLASGOW: The Glasgow, Matthew Stroud, a square-sterned sloop of 40 tons, 7 men, built in Virginia in 1750, owner Andrew Sprowle. She cleared Port Hampton 18 Oct. 1751, bound for St. Kitts (P.R.O., C.O.5/1446, f. 53).
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MOUTH OF YORK RIVER: 59 Jan. 1755. The Naval Office record showing the arrival 30 Jan. was probably made when the captain checked in with the customs officer in Yorktown the next day.
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GREAT MAIN: Refers to a cockfight in Yorktown, where GW returned after his interview with Governor Dinwiddie. Colonel Lewis is John Lewis of Warner Hall.
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MONDAY 3D: He went to Hobbs Hole, now Tappahannock. TUESDAY 4TH: Layton's ferry was on the Rappahannock about 20 miles above Tappahannock. This crossing would have placed him in Westmoreland County, not far from the old family home at Pope's Creek where his brother Augustine then lived. TONER (2), 77n, says that GW "rested there that day and night, and procuring a horse, proceeded in the morning to his mother's, near Fredericksburg. Here he tarried one night, and rode the next day to Mount Vernon." That is probably what happened, but Toner's source is not known.
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Voyage to Barbados
1751--52
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November 4 th, 1751.--This morning received a card from Major Clarke, welcoming us to Barbadoes, with an invitation to breakfast and dine with him. We went,--myself with some reluctance, as the smallpox was in his family. We were received in the most kind and friendly manner by him. Mrs. Clarke was much indisposed, insomuch that we had not the pleasure of her company, but in her place officiated Miss Roberts, her niece, and an agreeable young lady. After drinking tea we were again invited to Mr. Carter's, and desired to make his house ours till we could provide lodgings agreeable to our wishes, which offer we accepted.
5 th.--Early this morning came Dr. Hilary, an eminent physician recommended by Major Clarke, to pass his opinion on my brother's disorder, which he did in a favorable light, giving great assurances that it was not so fixed but that a cure might be effectually made. In the cool of the evening we rode out accompanied by Mr. Carter to seek lodgings in the country, as the Doctor advised, and were perfectly enraptured with the beautiful prospects, which every side presented to our view,--the fields of cane, corn, fruit-trees, &c. in a delightful green. We returned without accomplishing our intentions.
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Editorial Note. In the two years between his return from Barbados and the outbreak of the French and Indian War, GW steadily advanced his position in the Virginia community. He already owned some two thousand acres of land in the Shenandoah Valley, with additional holdings at Ferry Farm and Deep Run. His half brother Lawrence's death in July 1752 brought expectations of more property.1 In Feb. 1753, at the age of twenty-one, he was appointed adjutant of the Southern District of Virginia with the rank of major by Gov. Robert Dinwiddie.2 His military duties were light, leaving him ample time to pursue his flourishing career as a surveyor.
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Lawrence Washington's marriage into the Fairfax family had introduced his young brother to the most influential segment of Virginia society. He was well on his way to becoming a respected member of Virginia's ruling class, and his attention was turning increasingly to public affairs. It was natural, therefore, that he should offer his services to Gov. Robert Dinwiddie when, in the fall of 1753, it became apparent that French forces from Canada were moving into the Ohio Valley and posing a threat to Virginia's ambitions in the area.
The Ohio country had attracted both British and French explorers and traders during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The ownership of the region, however, was not seriously contested until the middle years of the eighteenth century By the 1730s and 1740s the British coastal colonies had discovered the profits to be made from a vigorous trade with the Indians and the area's potential as a gateway to the West. The expeditions of the baron de Longueuil in 1739 and Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville in 1749 had proved to the French the strategic importance of the Ohio as a link between Canada and the Mississippi. Possession of the Ohio Valley became crucial to both powers. If the British colonies were to expand beyond the eastern seaboard, they must control the gateway to the West. If they did, France was almost certain to lose its control over Louisiana. And both coveted the immensely lucrative fur trade.
Before the early 1750s the contest between England and France
Robert Dinwiddie, governor of Virginia from 1751 to 1758. From a miniature by C. Dixon. (Colonial Williamsburg Photograph)
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in America had been chiefly over control of the Indians in the region. The French claimed the Ohio Valley largely on the basis of La Salle's explorations in 1669--70. The British contended that the territory had been included in the original Virginia grant of 1609 and that their traders had established a firm foothold in the area. Furthermore, they rested their claims heavily on the concessions wrung from the Iroquois in the Treaty of Lancaster in 1744, when Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania met with the chiefs of the Six Nations at Lancaster, Pa., and signed a treaty in which the Iroquois surrendered much of their land in present-day Virginia and recognized British control in the Ohio country. The Indians almost immediately disputed the treaty, however, claiming they had by no means intended to relinquish claim to so large a portion of their Virginia lands.3
Settlement beyond the mountains would dearly benefit British ambitions in the Ohio country. As a result the Privy Council regarded favorably a petition to the king by the newly organized Ohio Company of Virginia for a grant of more than a half-million acres in the vicinity of the Ohio Valley. The company offered the inducement of providing an impetus to the fur trade and instituting a lucrative trade with the Indians; in return the members petitioned that "two hundred Thousand Acres . . . may be granted immediately without Rights on Condition of Your Petitioners Seating at their proper expence a hundred Familys upon the Land in Seven Years the Lands to be Granted Free of Quit Rent for Ten Years on Condition of their Erecting a Fort and Maintaining a Garrison for protection of the Settlement for that time."4 In Mar. 1749 the Privy Council recommended
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that a grant be made on terms most favorable to the company, and Gov. William Gooch was instructed to transfer to the company "Two hundred Thousand Acres of Land lying betwixt Ramanettos and Buffalo's Creek on the South Side of the River Alligane otherwise the Ohio, and betwixt the two Creeks and the Yellow Creek on the North Side of the River, to the Westward of the great Mountains within the Colony of Virginia." The grant was made by Gooch on 12 July 1749.5
The Ohio Company moved quickly to fulfill the terms of its grant. Wills Creek, near the present site of Cumberland, Md., was selected as the company's headquarters on the frontier, and in the winter of 1749--50 a storehouse was built on the Virginia side. In 1750 the company sent out Thomas Cresap, Hugh Parker, and other traders to locate tentative sites for settlement and commissioned Christopher Gist to make a complete survey of the area. On 11 Sept. 1750 Gist signed a contract with the company to arrange for the settlement of some one hundred fifty families on the company's Ohio lands. Gist made a second survey of the area in 1751--52.6
In 1752 the Ohio Company erected a second store on the right bank of Red Stone Creek, soon known as Red Stone Old Fort. Led by Governor Dinwiddie, the colony of Virginia gave vigorous support to the company's efforts. From 1 through 13 June 1752 Virginia commissioners held meetings with chiefs from the Ohio tribes at Logstown, and in return for a promise of cheaper trading goods and protection against the French, they obtained Indian consent to construction of a fort at the Forks of the Ohio and the Monongahela rivers.7
The French government in Canada was by no means indifferent to British advances. Since the 1720s judicious observers had been urging the establishment of French settlements on the Ohio frontier as a barrier to British encroachment.8 As a countermove to the Treaty of Lancaster, the French in 1748 held a council with
8 See "Memoir on the French Colonies in America," N.Y. COL. DOCS., 10:220.
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the Iroquois at the Castle of Saint Louis of Quebec, warning them against becoming English "vassals." The Indians claimed that although "the English had continually solicited them to take up the hatchet against the French, which they constantly refused to do," they had "not ceded to anyone their lands, which they hold only of Heaven." On the strength of this assurance the French proceeded to move south into the Ohio country.9
In June 1749 the comte de La Galissonničre, governor of New France, commissioned Céloron de Blainville to undertake an exploratory expedition down the Ohio to the Miami River and thence north to Quebec, warning Indians and English traders along the way that the French would not tolerate further British advances into the Ohio country. Céloron buried at intervals along his route a series of lead plates reiterating the claim of the French to the territory. Within the next few years a trading post was established at Logstown on the Ohio to serve as a center for the increasing number of French traders operating in the area; after the arrival of the marquis Duquesne, the new governor, in the summer of 1752, a vigorous policy of fort building was undertaken.
Early in 1753 Duquesne developed a plan to send a force of some two thousand men under the command of Pierre Paul de La Malgue, sieur de Marin, to establish an effective occupation of the Ohio frontier. An advance party, led by Charles Deschamps de Boishébert, left Montreal 1 Feb. 1753. By early May Boishébert had constructed a fort at Presque Isle portage, and by the end of the month Marin's force was ready to move south from Niagara. Using Presque Isle as a base, the French constructed a road south to a new post at Le Boeuf. By midsummer of 1753 an effective French army was operating at various sites in the Ohio country.10
The French had thus far been plagued with bad weather, labor troubles with their Indian workmen, lack of supplies, and dissension among the officers. They had not as yet met any opposition from the British or the Indians in the Ohio Valley. As they moved farther south, however, they confronted the pro-English Seneca chief, the Half-King, who warned them at a council at
9 N.Y. COL. DOCS., 10:186--88.
10 For a discussion of the French expedition, see KENT, 24--26.
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Presque Isle in September that the Iroquois tribes were in treaty with the English, who had agreed not to occupy the valley. "With this belt we . . . ask you to have them cease setting up the establishments you want to make. All the tribes have always called upon us not to allow it. We have told our brothers the English to withdraw. They have done so, too." Marin dismissed the Half-King's claims contemptuously, retorting, with some truth, that he was not speaking for all the Iroquois.11 The Indians were clearly impressed by the French advance.
English traders on the frontier had even more reason to be apprehensive. The warning delivered by one Ohio Company trader to Governor Dinwiddie was typical: "The French have already built a Fort on Lake Erie, and another is partly finished. . . . By the last account I can get the French Army consists of about fifteen hundred Souldiers besides Battoe Men. The French told the Indians their Army when collected will make up 15,000 Men, that that Part of their Army which is on their way from Mississippi have built two Forts down the Ohio, that the Country belongs to them & that they will build when they like. Now is our Time, if we manage well all the Indians may be brought to join against the French, otherwise they will join the French against the English."12
During the winter and spring of 1752--53, Dinwiddie and the other colonial governors were in constant correspondence concerning the French threat. In May 1753 Dinwiddie informed James Glen, governor of South Carolina, that the French from Canada had marched out a large force of regular troops and Indians to the Ohio to prevent British settlement and "to take Possession of these Lands, & to build Forts on that river, a Step not precedented in the Time of confirm'd peace."13 On 22 May he
Washington's West
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wrote to James Hamilton, governor of Pennsylvania, concerning "the French Designs to settle the Ohio. I have sometime ago heard of their Robberies & Murders, & if they are allow'd a peaceable Settlemt. on the Ohio, I think the Consequence will be attend'd with the Ruin of our Trade with the Indians & also in Time will be Destruction to all our Settlemts. on the Continent . . . And We further think it wou'd be absolutely necessary, for all the Colonies to join together, in raising a proper Force to prevent the French settling on the Lands of the Ohio."14
On 16 June 1753 Dinwiddie wrote to the Board of Trade transmitting reports received by the colonial governors of French encroachments on the frontier. "I hope you will think it necessary to prevent the French taking Possession of the Lands on the Ohio, so Contiguous to Our Settlements, or indeed in my private Opinion they ought to be prevented making any Settlements to the Westward of Our present Possessions."15 Dinwiddie's letter was received by the Board of Trade 11 Aug. 1753. On 18 Aug. the information was sent to the king, and on 28 Aug. the earl of Holderness, secretary of state, wrote to Dinwiddie, transmitting the crown's instructions to verify the rumors of the French invasion and, "if You shall find, that any Number of Persons, whether Indians, or Europeans, shall presume to erect any Fort or Forts within the Limits of Our Province of Virginia. . . . You are to require of Them peaceably to depart, and not to persist in such unlawfull Proceedings, & if, notwithstanding Your Admonitions, They do still endeavour to carry on any such unlawfull and unjustifiable Designs, We do herby strictly charge, & command You, to drive them off by Force of Arms." Dinwiddie received the instructions in mid-November and on 17 Nov. informed the Board of Trade that he had "sent one of the Adjutants of the Militia here, out to the Commander of the French Forces, to know their Intentions, & by what Authority they presume to invade His Majesty's Dominions in the Time of tranquil Peace; when he returns I shall transmit you an Account of his Proceedings, & the French Commander's answer."16
The adjutant sent by Dinwiddie was, of course, GW. An entry
14 Dinwiddie to Hamilton, 22 May 1753, P.R.O., C.O.5/1327, ff. 306--7.
15 P.R.O., C.O.5/1327, ff. 292--94.
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for 27 Oct. 1753 in the journals of the council reads: "The Governor acquainted the Board that George Washington Esqr. Adjutant General for the Southern District, had offered himself to go properly commissioned to the Commandant of the French Forces, to learn by what Authority he presumes to make Incroachments on his Majesty's Lands on the Ohio." The council approved the appointment, and a committee of the council prepared a letter to be taken to the French commandant.17 The instructions drawn up bye committee and presented to GW by Dinwiddie read:
Whereas I have receiv'd Information of a Body of French Forces being assembled in an hostile Manner on the River Ohio, intending by force of Arms to erect certain Forts on the said River, within this Territory, & contrary to the Peace & Dignity of our Sovereign the King of Great Britain.
These are therefore to require & direct You, the said George Washington, Esqr., forthwith to repair to the Logstown on the said River
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Ohio; & having there inform'd Your Self where the said French Forces have posted themselves, thereupon to proceed to such Place, & being there arriv'd to present Your Credentials, together with my Letter, to the chief commanding Officer, & in the Name of His Britanic Majesty, to demand an Answer from him thereto.
On Your Arrival at the Logstown, You are to address Yourself to the Half King, to Monacatoocha & [the] other . . . Sachems of the Six Nations; acquainting them with Your Orders to visit & deliver my Letter to the French commanding Officer; & desiring the said Chiefs to appoint You a sufficient Number of their Warriors to be Your Safeguard, as near the French as You may desire, & to wait Your further Direction.
You are diligently to enquire into the Numbers & Force of the French on the Ohio, & the adjacent Country; how they are like to be assisted from Canada; & what are the Difficulties & Conveniencies of that Comunication, & the Time requir'd for it.
You are to take care to be truly inform'd what Forts the French have erected, g: where; How they are Garrison'd & appointed, & what is their Distance from each other, & from Logstown: And from the best Intelligence You can procure, You are to learn what gave Occasion to this Expedition of the French: How they are like to be supported, & what their Pretentions are.
When the French Commandant has given You the requir'd & necessary Dispatches, You are to desire of him that, agreeable to the Law of Nations, he wou'd grant You a proper Guard, to protect You as far on Your return, as You may judge for Your Safety, against any stragling Indians, or Hunters, that may be ignorant of Yr. Character, & molest YOU.18
Dinwiddie also issued the following commission to GW: "I reposing especial Trust & Confidence in the Ability, Conduct, & Fidelity, of You the said George Washington have appointed You my express Messenger; and You are hereby authoriz'd & impowered to proceed hence with all convenient & possible Dispatch, to that Part, or Place, on the River Ohio, where the French have lately erected a Fort, or Forts, or where the Commandant of the French Forces resides, in order to deliver my Letter & Message to Him; & after waiting not exceeding one Week for an Answer, You are to take Your Leave & return immediately back."19
At the same time the following passport was issued to GW by Dinwiddie:
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Whereas I have appointed George Washington Esqr., by Commission under the Great Seal, My express Messenger to the Commandant of the French Forces on the River Ohio, & as he is charg'd with Business of great Importance to his Majesty & this Dominion.
I do hereby Command all His Majesty's Subjects, & particularly require ALL IN ALLIANCE AND AMITY WITH THE CROWN OF GREAT BRITAIN, & all OTHERS to whom this PASSPORT may come, agreeable to the Law of Nations, to be aiding & assisting as a Safeguard to the said George Washington & his Attendants . . . in his present [passage] . . . to & from the River Ohio as aforesaid.20
On 31 Oct. 1753 GW set out for Fredericksburg on the first stage of his journey.
The text for this diary has been taken from a copy in P.R.O., C.O. 5/1328, ff. 51--58.
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On Wednesday the 31st. of October 1753 I was Commission'd & appointed by the Honble. Robert Dinwiddie Esqr. Governor &ca. of Virginia
To visit & deliver a Letter to the Commandant of the French Forces on the Ohio, & set out on the intended Journey the same Day. The next I arriv'd at Fredericksburg, & engag'd Mr. Jacob Vanbraam, Interpreter,21 & proceeded with him to Alexandria where we provided Necessaries. From thence we went to Winchester & got Baggage Horses &ca. & from there we pursued the new Road to Wills Creek,22 where we arriv'd the 14th: of November.
Here I engag'd Mr. Gist23 to Pilot us out, & also hired four others as Servitors (vizt.) Barnaby Currin, & John McGuier (Indian Traders) Henry Steward, g: William Jenkins;24 in Company with those Persons I left the Inhabitants the Day following. The excessive Rains & vast Quantity of Snow that had fallen prevented our reaching Mr. Frazer's, an Indian Trader at the Mouth of Turtle Creek, on Monongehela, 'til Thursday.25
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Robert Dinwiddie's orders send Washington to the Ohio Valley. (Public Record Office, London, Crown Copyright)
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22d: We were inform'd here, that Expresses were sent a few Day's ago to the Traders down the River to acquaint them with the General's Death,26 & return of Major Part of the French Army into Winter Quarters. The Waters were quite impassable, without Swimming our Horses, which oblig'd us to get the loan of a Canoe from Mr. Frazer, & to send Barnaby Currin & Henry Steward down Monongehela, with our Baggage to meet us at the Forks of Ohio, about 10 Miles to cross Allegany.
As I got down before the Canoe, I spent some Time in viewing the Rivers, & the Land in the Fork, which I think extreamly well situated for a Fort; as it has the absolute Command of both Rivers. The Land at the Point is 20 or 25 Feet above the common Surface of the Water; & a considerable Bottom of flat well timber'd Land all around it, very convenient for Building. The Rivers are each a quarter of a Mile, or more, across, & run here very nigh at Right Angles; Allegany bearing N: E: & Monongehela S: E: The former of these two is a very rapid swift running Water the other deep & still, with scarce any perceptable Fall. About two Miles from this, on the S: E: Side of the River, at the Place where the Ohio Company intended to erect a Fort; lives Singess, King of the Delawars; We call'd upon him to invite him to Council at the Logstown.27
As I had taken a good deal of Notice Yesterday of the Situation at the Forks; my Curiosity led me to examine this more particularly; & my Judgement [is] to think it greatly inferior, either for Defence or Advantages, especially the latter; For a Fort at the Forks wou'd be equally well situated on Ohio, & have the entire
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Command of Monongehela, which runs up to our Settlements & is extreamly well design'd for Water Carriage, as it is of a deep still Nature; besides a Fort at the Fork might be built at a much less Expence, than at the other Place. Nature has well contriv'd the lower Place for Water Defence, but the Hill whereon it must stand, being a quarter of a Mile in Length, & then descending gradually on the Land Side, will render it difficult & very expensive making a sufficient Fortification there. The whole Flat upon the Hill must be taken in, or the Side next the Descent made extreamly high; or else the Hill cut away: otherwise the Enemy will raise Batteries within that Distance, without being expos'd to a single Shot from the Fort.
Singess attended us to Logstown, where we arriv'd between Sunsetting & Dark, the 25th: Day after I left Williamsburg. We travel'd over some extream good & bad Land to get to this Place. As soon as I came into Town, I went to Monacatoocha28 (as the Half King29 was out at his hunting Cabbin on little Bever Creek, about 15 Miles off) & inform'd him, by John Davison Interpreter30 that I was sent a Messenger to the French General, & was ordered to call upon the Sachems of the Six Nations, to acquaint them with it. I gave him a String of Wampum, & a twist of Tobacco, & desir'd him to send for the Half King; which he promis'd to do by a Runner in the Morning, & for other Sachems. I invited him & the other Great Men present to my Tent, where they stay'd an Hour & return'd.
According to the best Observations I cou'd make, Mr. Gist's
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new Settlement (which we pass'd by) bears about W: N: W: 70 Miles from Wills Creek, Shanapins,31 or the Forks N: B[y]: W: or N: N: W: about 50 Miles from that; & from thence to the Logstown, the Course is nearly West, about 18 or 20 Miles; so that the whole Distance, as we went & computed it, is at least 135 or 40 Miles from our back Settlements.32
25th: Came to Town four of ten French Men that Deserted from a Company at the Cuscusas, which lies at the Mouth of this
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River; I got the following Account from them. They were sent from New Orlians with 100 Men, & 8 Canoe load of Provisions, to this Place; where they expected to have met the same Number of Men, from the Forts this Side Lake Erie to convoy them, & the Horses up, but were not arriv'd when they ran off.33 I enquir'd into the Situation of the French on the Mississippi, their Number, & what Forts they had Built: They inform'd me that there were four small Forts between New Orlians, & the Black Islands,34 Garrison'd with about 30 or 40 Men, & a few small Pieces of Cannon in each. That at New Orlians, which is near the Mouth of the Mississippi, there is 35 Companies of 40 Men each, with a pretty strong Fort, mounting 8 large Carriage Guns; & at the Black Islands there is several Companies, & a Fort with 6 Guns. The Black Islands is about 130 Leagues above the Mouth of the Ohio, which is 150 above New Orlians: They also acquainted me, that there was a small Palisadoed Fort on the Ohio, at the Mouth of the Obaish,35 about 60 Leagues from the Mississippi: the Obaish heads near the West End of Lake Erie, & affords the Communication between the French on Mississippi, & those on the Lakes. These Deserters came up from the lower Shawnesse Town, with one Brown an Indian Trader, & were going to Philadelphia.36
About 3 o'Clock this Evening the Half King came to Town; I went up & invited him & Davison privately to my Tent, & desir'd him to relate some of the Particulars of his Journey to the French
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Paul Revere made this engraving showing a typical council with the Indians for the Royal American Magazine, 1774. (Spencer Collection, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations)
Commandant, & reception there, & to give me an Account of the Way & Distance.37 He told me that the nearest & levelest Way was now impassable, by reason of the many large miry Savannas; that we must be oblig'd to go by Venango,38 & shou'd not get to the near Fort under 5 or 6 Nights Sleep, good Traveling. When he went to the Fort he said he was receiv'd in a very stern Manner by the late Commander, who ask'd him very abruptly, what he had come about, & to declare his Business; which he says he did in the following Speech.
FATHERS I am come to tell you your own Speeches, what your own Mouths have declar'd. FATHERS You in former Days set a Silver Bason before us wherein there was the Leg of a Beaver, and desir'd of all Nations to come & eat of it; to eat in Peace & Plenty, & not to be Churlish to one another; & that if any such Person shou'd be found to be a Disturber; I here lay down by the Edge
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of the Dish a rod, which you must Scourge them with; & if Me your Father shou'd get Foolish in my old Days, I desire you may use it upon me as well as others.
NOW FATHERS it is you that is the Disturber in this Land, by coming & building your Towns, and taking it away unknown to us & by Force. FATHERS We kindled a Fire a long Time ago at a Place call'd Morail,39 where we desir'd you to stay, & not to come & intrude upon our Land. I now desire you may dispatch to that Place; for be it known to you Fathers, this is our Land, & not yours. FATHERS I desire you may hear me in Civilness; if not, We must handle that rod which was laid down for the Use of the obstropulous. If you had come in a peaceable Manner like our Brothers the English, We shou'd not have been against your trading with us as they do, but to come Fathers, & build great Houses upon our Land, & to take it by Force, is what we cannot submit to.
FATHERS Both you & the English are White. We live in a Country between, therefore the Land does not belong either to one or the other; but the GREAT BEING above allow'd it to be a Place of residence for us; so Fathers, I desire you to withdraw, as I have done our Brothers the English, for I will keep you at Arm's length. I lay this down as a Tryal for both, to see which will have the greatest regard to it, & that Side we will stand by, & make equal Sharers with us: Our Brothers the English have heard this, & I come now to tell it to you, for I am not affraid to discharge you off this Land. This, he said, was the Substance of what he said to the General, who made this Reply.
NOW MY CHILD I have heard your Speech. You spoke first, but it is my Time to speak now. Where is my Wampum that you took away, with the Marks of Towns in it? This Wampum I do not know, which you have discharg'd me off the Land with; but you need not put yourself to the Trouble of Speaking for I will not hear you: I am not affraid of Flies or Musquito's; for Indians are such as those; I tell you down that River I will go, & will build upon it according to my Command: If the River was ever so block'd up, I have Forces sufficient to burst it open, & tread under my Feet all that stand in Opposition together with their Alliances; for my Force is as the Sand upon the Sea Shoar: therefore here is your Wampum, I fling it at you. Child, you talk foolish; you say this Land belongs to you, but there is not the
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Black of my Nail yours, I saw that Land sooner than you did, before the Shawnesse & you were at War: Lead40 was the Man that went down, & took Possession of that River; it is my Land, & I will have it let who will stand up for, or say against it. I'll buy sell with the English (mockingly). If People will be rul'd by me they may expect Kindness but not else.
The Half King told me, he enquir'd of the General after two English Men that were made Prisoners,41 & receiv'd this Answer.
CHILD You think it is a very great Hardship that I made Prisoners of those two People at Venango, don't you concern yourself with it we took & carried them to Canada to get Intelligence of what the English were doing in Virginia.
He inform'd me that they had built two Forts, one on Lake Erie, & another on French Creek,42 near a small Lake about 15 Miles asunder, & a large Waggon Road between; they are both built after the same Model, but different in the Size; that on the Lake the largest; he gave me a Plan of them of his own drawing. The Indians enquir'd very particularly after their Brothers in
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Carolina Goal.43 They also ask'd what sort of a Boy it was that was taken from the South Branch; for they had, by some Indians heard, that a Party of French Indians had carried a White Boy by the Cuscusa Town, towards the Lakes.44
26th: We met in council at the Long House, about 9 o'Clock, where I spoke to them as follows,
BROTHERS I have call'd you together in Council, by Order of your Brother the Governor of Virginia, to acquaint you that I am sent with all possible Dispatch to visit PC deliver a Letter to the French Commandant of very great Importance to your Brothers the English: & I dare say to you their Friends & Allies. I was desir'd Brothers, by your Brother the Governor, to call upon you, the Sachems of the Six Nations, to inform you of it, & to ask your Advice & Assistance to proceed the nearest & best Road to the French. You see Brothers I have got thus far on my Journey. His Honour likewise desir'd me to apply to you for some of your young Men to conduct and provide Provisions for us on our Way: & to be a Safeguard against those French Indians, that have taken up the Hatchet against us. I have spoke this particularly to you Brothers, because His Hon. our Governor, treats you as good
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Friends & Allies, & holds you in great Esteem. To confirm what I have said I give you this String of Wampum.
After they had considered some Time on the above, the Half King got up & spoke.
NOW MY BROTHERS. In Regard to what my Brother the Governor has desir'd of me, I return you this Answer. I rely upon you as a Brother ought to do, as you say we are Brothers, & one People. We shall put Heart in Hand, & speak to our Fathers the French, concerning the Speech they made to me, & you may depend that we will endeavour to be your Guard.
BROTHER, as you have ask'd my Advice, I hope you will be ruled by it, & stay 'til I can provide a Company to go with you. The French Speech Belt is not here, I have it to go for to my hunting Cabbin likewise the People I have order'd are not yet come, nor can 'til the third Night from this, 'till which Time Brother I must beg you to stay. I intend to send a Guard of Mingoes, Shawnesse, & Delawar's, that our Brothers may see the Love and Loyalty We bear them.
As I had Orders to make all possible Dispatch, & waiting here very contrary to my Inclinations; I thank'd him in the most suitable Manner I cou'd, & told that my Business requir'd the greatest Expedition, & wou'd not admit of that Delay: He was not well pleas'd that I shou'd offer to go before the Time he had appointed, told me that he cou'd not consent to our going without a Guard, for fear some Accident shou'd befall us, & draw a reflection upon him-besides says he, this is a Matter of no small Moment, & must not be enter'd into without due Consideration, for I now intend to deliver up the French Speech Belt, & make the Shawnesse & Delawars do the same, & accordingly gave Orders to King Singess, who was present, to attend on Wednesday Night with the Wampum, & two Men of their Nation to be in readiness to set off with us next Morning. As I found it impossible to get off without affronting them in the most egregious Manner, I consented to stay.
I gave them back a String of Wampum that I met with at Mr. Frazer's, which they had sent with a Speech to his Honour the Governor, to inform him, that three Nations of French Indians, (vizt.) Chippaway's, Ottaway's, & Arundacks, had taken up the Hatchet against the English, & desired them to repeat it over again; which they postpon'd doing 'til they met in full Council with the Shawnesse, & Delawar Chiefs.
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27th: Runners were dispatch'd very early for the Shawness Chiefs, the Half King set out himself to fetch the French Speech Belt from his hunting Cabbin.45
28th: He return'd this Evening, & came with Monacatoocha & two other Sachems to my Tent, & beg'd (as they had comply'd with his Honour the Governor's Request in providing Men, &ca.) to know what Business we were going to the French about? This was a Question I all along expected, & had provided as satisfactory Answers as I cou'd, which allay'd their Curiosity a little. Monacatoocha Informed me, that an Indian from Venango brought News a few Days ago; that the French had call'd all the Mingo's, Delawar's &ca. together at that Place, & told them that they intended to have been down the River this Fall, but the Waters were geting Cold, & the Winter advancing, which obliged them to go into Quarters; but they might assuredly expect them in the Spring, with a far greater Number; & desired that they might be quite Passive, & not intermeddle, unless they had a mind to draw all their Force upon them; for that they expected to fight the English three Years, (as they suppos'd there would be some Attempts made to stop them) in which Time they shou'd Conquer, but if they shou'd prove equally strong, that they & the English wou'd join to cut them off, & divide the Land between them: that though they had lost their General, & some few of their Soldiers, yet there was Men enough to reinforce, & make them Masters of the Ohio. This Speech, he said, was deliver'd to them by an Captn. Joncaire, their Interpreter in Chief, living at Venango, & a Man of Note in the Army.46
29th: The Half King and Monacatoocha came very early &
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beg'd me to stay one Day more, for notwithstanding they had used all the Diligence in their Power, the Shawnesse Chiefs had not brought the Wampum they order'd, but wou'd certainly be in to Night, if not they wou'd delay me no longer, but send it after us as soon as they arriv'd: When I found them so pressing in their request; & knew that returning of Wampum, was the abolishing of Agreements; & giving this up was shaking of all Dependence upon the French, I consented to stay, as I believ'd an Offence offer'd at this Crisis, might have been attended with greater ill Consequence than another Day's Delay.
They also inform'd me that Singess cou'd not get in his Men, & was prevented from coming himself by His Wife's Sickness, (I believe by fear of the French) but that the Wampum of that Nation was lodg'd with Custaloga, one of their Chiefs at Venango.47 In the Evening they came again, & acquainted me that the Shawnesse were not yet come, but it shou'd not retard the Prosecution of our Journey. He deliver'd in my Hearing the Speeches that were to be made to the French by Jeskakake, one of their old Chiefs,48 which was giving up the Belt the late Commandant had ask'd for, & repeating near the same Speech he himself had done before. He also deliver'd a String of Wampum to this Chief, which was sent by King Singess to be given to Custaloga, with Orders to repair to, & deliver up the French Wampum. He likewise gave a very large String of black & white Wampum, which was to be sent immediately up to the Six Nations, if the French refus'd to quit the Land at this Warning, which was the third & last Time, & was the right of this Jeskakake to deliver.
30th: Last Night the great Men assembled to their Council House to consult further about this Journey, & who were to go; the result of which was, that only three of their Chiefs, with one of their best Hunters shou'd be our Convoy: the reason they gave for not sending more, after what had been propos'd in Council the 26th. was, that a greater Number might give the French Suspicion of some bad Design, & cause them to be treated rudely; but I rather think they cou'd not get their Hunters in.
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Christopher Gist's 1750 map of the Ohio River and tributaries. (Public Record Office, London. Crown Copyright)
We set out about 9 o'Clock, with the Half King, Jeskakake, White Thunder, & the Hunter;49 & travel'd on the road to Venango, where we arriv'd the 4th: of December, without any Thing remarkably happening, but a continued Series of bad
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Weather.50 This is an old Indian Town, situated on the Mouth of French Creek on Ohio, & lies near No. about 60 Miles from the Logstown, but more than 70 the Way we were oblig'd to come. We found the French Colours hoisted at a House where they drove Mr. John Frazer an English Subject from: I immediately repair'd to it, to know where the Commander resided: There was three Officers, one of which, Capt. Joncaire, inform'd me, that he had the Command of the Ohio, but that there was a General Officer at the next Fort, which he advis'd me to for an Answer.
He invited us to Sup with them, & treated with the greatest Complaisance. The Wine, as they dos'd themselves pretty plentifully with it, soon banish'd the restraint which at first appear'd in their Conversation, & gave license to their Tongues to reveal their Sentiments more freely. They told me it was their absolute Design to take Possession of the Ohio, & by G-- they wou'd do it, for tho' they were sensible, that the English cou'd raise two Men for their one; yet they knew their Motions were too slow & dilatory to prevent any Undertaking of theirs. They pretended to have an undoubted right to the river from a Discovery made by one La Sol 60 Years ago, & the use of this Expedition is to prevent our Settling on the River or Waters of it, as they have heard of some Families moving out in order thereto.
From the best Intelligence I cou'd get, there has been 1,500 Men this Side Oswago Lake, but upon the Death of the General, all were recall'd to about 6 or 7 Hundred, which were left to Garrison four Forts, 150 or thereabouts in each, the first of which is on French Creek, near a small Lake, about 60 Miles from Venango near N: N: W: the next lies on Lake Erie, where the greatest Part of their Stores are kept about 15 Miles from the other; from that it is 120 Miles from the Carrying Place, at the
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Fall of Lake Erie, where there is a small Fort, which they lodge their Goods at, in bringing them from Morail, the Place that all their Stores come from; the next Fort lies about 20 Miles from this, on Oswago Lake; between this Fort & Morail there are three others; the first of which is near the English Fort Oswago. From the Fort on Lake Erie to Morail is about 600 Miles, which they say if good Weather, requires no more than 4 Weeks Voyage, if they go in Barks or large Vessells that they can cross the Lake; but if they come in Canoes, it will require five or six Weeks for they are oblig'd to keep under the Shoar.
5th: Rain'd successively all Day, which prevented our traveling. Capt. Joncaire sent for the half King, as he had but just heard
Washington and Gist crossing the Allegheny River. From Columbian Magazine, Nov. 1844. (George Washington Masonic National Memorial Association)
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that he came with me: He affected to be much Concern'd that I did not make free to bring him in before; I excused it in the best Manner I was capable, & told him I did not think their Company agreeable, as I had heard him say a good deal in dispraise of Indians in General. But another Motive prevented my bringing them into his Company: I knew that he was Interpreter, & a Person of very great Influence among the Indians, & had lately used all possible means to draw them over to their Interest; therefore I was desirous of giving no more Opportunity than cou'd be avoided. When they came in there was great Pleasure express'd at seeing them, he wonder'd how they cou'd be so near without coming to visit him, made several trifling Presents, & applied Liquors so fast, that they were soon render'd incapable of the Business they came about notwithstanding the Caution that was given.51
6th: The Half King came to my Tent quite Sober, & insisted very much that I shou'd stay & hear what he had to say to the French. I fain wou'd have prevented his speaking any Thing 'til he came to the Commandant, but cou'd not prevail. He told me that at this Place Council Fire was kindled, where all their Business with these People were to be transacted, & that the Management of the Indian Affairs was left solely to Monsieur Joncaire. As I was desirous of knowing the Issue of this, I agreed to stay, but sent our Horses a little Way up French Creek, to raft over & Camp, which I knew wou'd make it near Night.
About 10 oClock they met in Council, the King spoke much the same as he had done to the General, & offer'd the French Speech Belt which had before been demanded, with the Marks of four Towns in it, which Monsieur Joncaire refused to receive; but desired him to carry it to the Fort to the Commander.
7th: Monsieur La Force, Commissary of the French Stores,52
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three other Soldiers came over to accompany us up. We found it extreamly difficult getting the Indians off to Day; as every Stratagem had been used to prevent their going up with me. I had last Night left John Davison (the Indian Interpreter that I brought from Logstown with me) strictly charg'd not to be out of their Company, as I cou'd not get them over to my Tent (they having some Business with Custaloga, to know the reason why he did not deliver up the French Belt, which he had in keeping,) but was oblig'd to send Mr. Gist over to Day to fetch them, which he did with great Perswasion.
At 11 o'Clock we set out for the Fort, & was prevented from arriving there 'till the 11th: by excessive rains, Snows, & bad traveling, through many Mires & Swamps, which we were oblig'd to pass to avoid crossing the Creek, which was impassible either by Fording or Rafting, the Water was so high & rapid. We pass'd over much good Land since we left Venango, & through several extensive & very rich Meadows, one of which was near 4 Miles in length, & considerably wide in some Places.53
12th: I prepar'd early to wait upon the Commander, & was receiv'd & conducted to him by the 2d. Officer in Command; I
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acquainted him with my Business, & offer'd my Commission Letter, both of which he desir'd me to keep 'til the Arrival of Monsieur Riparti, Capt. at the next Fort, who was sent for expected every Hour.54
This Commander is a Knight of the Military Order of St: Lewis, & named Legadieur St. Piere, he is an elderly Gentleman, & has much the Air of a Soldier; he was sent over to take the Command immediately upon the Death of the late General, arriv'd here about 7 Days before me. At 2 o'Clock the Gentleman that was sent for arriv'd, when I offer'd the Letters &ca. again, which they receiv'd, & adjourn'd into a private Appartment for the Captain to translate, who understood a little English, after he had done it, the Captain desir'd I wou'd walk in & bring my Interpreter to peruse & correct it, which I did.55
13th: The chief Officer retired to hold a Council of War, which gave me an Opportunity of taking the Dimensions of the Fort, & making what Observations I cou'd. It is situated on the South or West Fork of French Creek, near the Water, & is almost surrounded by the Creek, & a small Branch of it which forms a Kind of an Island, as may be seen by a Plan I have here annexed,56 it is
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Rushed into print at Williamsburg, Washington's report was widely discussed. (Rare Book Division, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations)
built exactly in that Manner & of that Dimensions. 4 Houses compose the Sides; the Bastions are made of Piles drove into the Ground, & about 12 Feet above sharpe at Top, with Port Holes cut for Cannon & Small Arms to fire through; there are Eight 6 lb. Pieces Mounted, two in each Bastion, & one of 4 lb. before the Gate: In the Bastions are a Guard House, Chapel, Doctor's Lodgings, & the Commander's private Store, round which is laid Platforms for the Cannon & Men to stand on: there is several Barracks without the Fort for the Soldiers dwelling, cover'd some with Bark, & some with Boards, & made chiefly of Logs, there is also several other Houses such as Stables, Smiths Shop &ca: all of which I have laid down exactly as they stand, & shall refer to the Plan for Explanation.
I cou'd get no certain Account of the Number of Men here; but according to the best Judgement I cou'd form, there is an Hundred exclusive of Officers, which are pretty many. I also gave Orders to the People that were with me, to take an exact Account of the Canoes that were haled up, to convey their Forces down in the Spring, which they did, and told 50 of Birch Bark, & 170 of Pine; besides many others that were block'd out, in Readiness to make.57
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14th: As the Snow increased very fast, & our Horses daily got weaker, I sent them off unloaded, under the Care of Barnaby Currin & two others, to make all convenient Dispatch to Venango, & there wait our Arrival, if there was a Prospect of the Rivers Freezing, if not, then to continue down to Shanapin's Town at the Forks of Ohio, & there wait 'till we came to cross Allegany; intending my Self to go down by Water, as I had the Offer of a Canoe or two.
As I found many Plots concerted to retard the Indians Business, & prevent their returning with me, I endeavour'd all in my Power to frustrate their Schemes, & hurry them on to execute their intended Design. They accordingly pressed for admittance this Evening, which at length was granted them privately with the Commander, & one or two other Officers. The Half King told me that he offer'd the Wampum to the Commander, who evaded taking it, & made many fair Promises of Love & Friendship; said he wanted to live in Peace & trade amicably with them; as a Proof of which, he wou'd send some Goods immediately down to the Logstown for them, but I rather think the Design of that is to bring away all of our stragling traders that they may meet with; as I privately understood they intended to carry an Officer, &ca. with them; & what rather confirms this Opinion, I was enquiring of the Commander by what Authority he had taken & made Prisoners of several of our English Subjects. He told me the Country belong'd to them, that no English Man had a right to trade upon them Waters; & that he had Orders to make every Person Prisoner that attempted it on the Ohio or the Waters of it.
I enquir'd of Capt. Riparti about the Boy that was carried by, as it was done while the Command devolved upon him, between the Death of the late General & the Arrival of the Present. He acknowledg'd that a Boy had been carried past, & that the Indians had two or three white Scalps, (I was told by some of the Indians at Venango 8) but pretended to have forgot the Name of the Place that the Boy came from, & all the Particulars, tho' he Question'd him for some Hours as they were carrying him past. I likewise enquired where & what they had done with John Trotter, & James McClocklan, two Pensylvania Traders, which they had
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taken with all their Goods: they told me that they had been sent to Canada, but were now return'd Home.58
This Evening I receiv'd an Answer to His Honour the Governor's Letter from the Commandant.59
15th: The Commander order'd a plentiful Store of Liquor, Provisions & ca. to be put on board our Canoe, & appear'd to be extreamly complaisant, though he was ploting every Scheme that the Devil & Man cou'd invent, to set our Indians at Variance with us, to prevent their going 'till after our Departure. Presents, rewards, & every Thing that cou'd be suggested by him or his
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Officers was not neglected to do. I can't say that ever in my Life I suffer'd so much Anxiety as I did in this affair: I saw that every Stratagem that the most fruitful Brain cou'd invent: was practis'd to get the Half King won to their Interest, & that leaving of him here, was giving them the Opportunity they aimed at: I went to the Half King and press'd him in the strongest Terms to go. He told me the Commander wou'd not discharge him 'till the Morning; I then went to the Commander & desired him to do their Business, & complain'd of ill Treatment; for keeping them, as they were Part of my Company was detaining me, which he promis'd not to do, but to forward my Journey as much as he cou'd: He protested he did not keep them but was innocent of the Cause of their Stay; though I soon found it out. He had promis'd them a Present of Guns, &ca. if they wou'd wait 'till the Morning. As I was very much press'd by the Indians to wait this Day for them; I consented on a Promise that Nothing shou'd hinder them in the Morning.
16th: The French were not slack in their Inventions to keep the Indians this Day also; but as they were obligated, according to promise, to give the Present: they then endeavour'd to try the Power of Liquor; which I doubt not wou'd have prevail'd at any other Time than this, but I tax'd the King so close upon his Word that he refrain'd, & set off with us as he had engag'd. We had a tedious & very fatiguing Passage down the Creek, several Times we had like to have stove against Rocks, & many Times were oblig'd all Hands to get out, & remain in the Water Half an Hour or more, getting her over the Shoals: on one Place the Ice had lodg'd & made it impassable by Water; therefore we were oblig'd to carry our Canoe across a neck Land a quarter of a Mile over. We did not reach Venango 'till the 22d: where we met with our Horses. This Creek is extreamly crooked, I dare say the Distance between the Fort & Venango can't be less than 130 Miles to follow the Meanders.60
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Washington's map of the Ohio country accompanied his report to Governor Dinwiddie. (Public Record Office, London. Crown Copyright)
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23d: When I got Things ready to set off I sent for the Half King, to know whether they intended to go with us, or by Water. He told me that the White Thunder had hurt himself much, & was Sick & unable to walk, therefore he was oblig'd to carry him down in a Canoe: As I found he intended to stay a Day or two here, & knew that Monsieur Joncaire wou'd employ every Scheme to set him against the English, as he had before done; I told him I hoped he wou'd guard against his Flattery, & let no fine Speeches Influence Him in their Favour: He desired I might not be concern'd, for he knew the French too well, for any Thing to engage him in their Behalf, & though he cou'd not go down with us, he wou'd endeavour to meet at the Forks with Joseph Campbell,61 to deliver a Speech for me to carry to his Honour the Governor. He told me he wou'd order the young Hunter to attend us, & get Provision &ca. if wanted. Our Horses were now so weak & feeble, & the Baggage heavy; as we were oblig'd to provide all the Necessaries the Journey wou'd require, that we doubted much their performing it; therefore my Self & others (except the Drivers which were oblig'd to ride) gave up our Horses for Packs, to assist along with the Baggage; & put my Self into an Indian walking Dress, & continue'd with them three Day's, 'till I found there
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was no Probability of their getting in, in any reasonable Time; the Horses grew less able to travel every Day. The Cold increas'd very fast, & the Roads were geting much worse by a deep Snow continually Freezing; And as I was uneasy to get back to make a report of my Proceedings to his Honour the Governor; I determin'd to prosecute my Journey the nearest way through the Woods on Foot. Accordingly I left Mr. Vanbraam in Charge of our Baggage, with Money and Directions to provide Necessaries from Place to Place for themselves & Horses & to make the most convenient Dispatch in. I took my necessary Papers, pull'd off my Cloths; tied My Self up in a Match Coat; & with my Pack at my back, with my Papers & Provisions in it, & a Gun, set out with Mr. Gist, fitted in the same Manner, on Wednesday the 26th.
The Day following, just after we had pass'd a Place call'd the Murdering Town62 where we intended to quit the Path & steer across the Country for Shanapins Town, we fell in with a Party of French Indians, which had laid in wait for us, one of them fired at Mr. Gist or me, not 15 Steps, but fortunately missed. We took this Fellow into Custody, & kept him 'till about 9 o'Clock at Night, & then let him go, & then walked all the remaining Part of the Night without making any Stop; that we might get the start, so far as to be out of the reach of their Pursuit next Day, as were well assur'd they wou'd follow upon our Tract as soon as it was Light: The next Day we continued traveling 'till it was quite Dark, & got to the River about two Miles above Shanapins; we expected to have found the River Froze, but it was not, only about 50 Yards from each Shoar; the Ice I suppose had broke up above, for it was driving in vast Quantities.
There was no way for us to get over but upon a Raft, which we set about with but one poor Hatchet, & got finish'd just after Sunsetting, after a whole days Work: We got it launch'd, & on board of it, & sett off; but before we got half over, we were jamed in the Ice in such a Manner, that we expected every Moment our Raft wou'd sink, & we Perish; I put out my seting Pole, to try to stop the Raft, that the Ice might pass by, when the Rapidity of the Stream through it with so much Violence against the Pole, that it Jirk'd me into 10 Feet Water, but I fortunately saved my Self by catching hold of one of the Raft Logs. Notwithstanding all our Efforts we cou'd not get the Raft to either Shoar, but were oblig'd, as we were pretty near an Island, to quit our Raft &
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wade to it. The Cold was so extream severe, that Mr. Gist got all his Fingers, & some of his Toes Froze, & the Water was shut up so hard, that We found no Difficulty in getting off the Island on the Ice in the Morning, & went to Mr. Frazers. We met here with 20 Warriors that had been going to the Southward to War, but coming to a Place upon the Head of the Great Cunnaway, where they found People kill'd & Scalpt, all but one Woman with very Light Hair, they turn'd about; & ran back, for fear of the Inhabitants rising & takeing them as the Authors of the Murder: They report that the People were lying about the House, & some of them much torn & eat by Hogs; by the Marks that were left, they say they were French Indians of the Ottaway Nation, &ca. that did it.63
As we intended to take Horse here, & it requir'd some Time to hunt them; I went up about 3 Miles to the Mouth of Yaughyaughgane to visit Queen Aliquippa,64 who had express'd great Concern that we pass'd her in going to the Fort. I made her a Present of a Match Coat; & a Bottle of rum, which was thought much the best Present of the two.65
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Tuesday 1st: Day of Jany: We left Mr. Frazers House, & arriv'd at Mr. Gists at Monangahela the 2d. where I bought Horse Saddle &ca. The 6th: We met 17 Horses loaded with Materials & Stores for a Fort at the Forks; & the Day after, a Family or two going out
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to settle; this Day we arriv'd at Wills Creek, after as fatiguing a Journey as it is possible to conceive, rendered so by excessive bad Weather: From the first Day of December 'till the 15th. there was but one Day, but what it rain'd or snow'd incessantly & throughout the whole Journey we met with nothing but one continued Series of cold wet Weather; which occasioned very uncumfortable Lodgings, especially after we had left our Tent; which was some Screen from the Inclemency of it.66
On the 11th. I got to Belvoir,67 where I stop'd one Day to take necessary rest; & then set out for, & arrived at Williamsburg, the 16th. & waited upon His Honour the Governor with the Letter I had brought from the French Commandant, & to give an Account of the Proceedures of my Journey. Which I beg leave to do by offering the Foregoing, as it contains the most remarkable Occurrences that happen'd to me.
I hope it will be sufficient to satisfy your Honour with my Proceedings; for that was my Aim in undertaking the Journey: & chief Study throughout the Prosecution of it.
67 Belvoir was the estate of Col. William Fairfax on the southern shore of the Potomac.
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A clerk's copy of the report to Dinwiddie. (Public Record Office, London. Crown Copyright)
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With the Assurance, & Hope of doing it, I with infinite Pleasure subscribe my Self Yr. Honour's most Obedt. & very Hble. Servant.
Go: Washington68
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did in the least conceive, when I wrote this for his Honour's Perusal, that it ever would be published, or even have more than a cursory Reading; till I was informed, at the Meeting of the present General Assembly, that it was already in the Press.
"There is nothing can recommend it to the Public, but this. Those Things which came under the Notice of my own Observation, I have been explicit and just in a Recital of:--Those which I have gathered from Report, I have been particularly cautious not to augment, but collected the Opinions of the several Intelligencers, and selected from the whole, the most probable and consistent Account.
G. Washington.
The journal was printed in various colonial newspapers (see, for example, Md. Gaz., 21 & 28 Mar. 1754; Boston Gaz., 16 April-21 May 1754). On 15 Feb. 1754 the journal was delivered to the House of Burgesses, and on 21 Feb. the burgesses voted the sum of £50 to GW "to testify our Approbation of his Proceedings on his Journey to the Ohio" (H.B.J., 1752--58, 182, 185).
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Editorial Note. In the weeks after GW's return from his journey to the French commandant, reports of further French infiltration into the Ohio Valley continued to reach Williamsburg and Gov. Robert Dinwiddie made preparations to resist. He appealed to other colonial governors for aid in repelling the French.1 Capt. William Trent2 was ordered to raise a force of 100 men and march them to the Ohio to construct a fort at the Forks. Dinwiddie had already sent ten cannon and a supply of ammunition to Alexandria for transportation to the Ohio.3 GW, now adjutant of the Northern Neck, was instructed to raise 50 men from Frederick County and 50 men from Augusta County, then "Having all Things in readiness You are to use all Expedition in proceeding to the Fork of Ohio with the Men under Com'd and there you are to finish and compleat in the best Manner and as soon as You possibly can, the Fort w'ch I expect is there already begun by the Ohio Comp'a. You are to act on the Defensive, but in Case any Attempts are made to obstruct the Works or interrupt our Settlem'ts by any Persons whatsoever You are to
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This engraving of Washington at twenty-five is after a miniature by Charles Wilson Peale. (New-York Historical Society)
restrain all such Offenders, and in Case of resistance to make Prisoners of or kill and destroy them." However, neither Augusta nor Frederick complied with the request for men, and in mid-February GW returned to Williamsburg.4 To encourage enlistments Dinwiddie issued a proclamation on 19 Feb. promising that a grant of 200,000 acres on the east side of the Ohio would be distributed among those who volunteered for service in the army.5
When the House of Burgesses met in February, Dinwiddie immediately informed it of the French threat. The burgesses proved less cooperative than Dinwiddie had hoped. An inadequate grant of £10,000 for protecting the frontier was hedged with restrictions as to the terms under which the money could be spent.6 By
4 DINWIDDIE, 1:59, 82; VA. EXEC. JLS., 5:460.
5 The proclamation is in VA. EXEC. JLS., 5:499--500.
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this time Dinwiddie realized the futility of relying on the counties to raise enough militia for the campaign and decided to use the funds voted by the Assembly to raise a force of six companies composed of 50 men each. "I am in hopes they will soon meet at Alexandria . . . and that they will be on their March to the Ohio the latter End of this Mo. or early in April."7 Both New York and South Carolina were to send independent companies of regular troops, and it was hoped that contributions would be forthcoming from the other colonies.
GW was definitely interested in a command for the campaign against the French. In a letter to Richard Corbin, a member of the Council, he stated: "In a conversation with you at Green Spring, you gave me some room to hope for a commission above that of major, and to be ranked among the chief officers of this expedition. The command of the whole forces is what I neither look for, expect, nor desire; for I must be impartial enough to confess, it is a charge too great for my youth and inexperience to be entrusted with. . . . But if I could entertain hopes, that you thought me worthy of the post of lieutenant-colonel, and would favor me so far as to mention it at the appointment of officers, I could not but entertain a true sense of the kindness." Corbin, and probably others, apparently spoke for GW, since he did indeed receive the appointment he sought--forwarded to him by Corbin. General command of the Virginia forces was given to Joshua Fry, who was ordered to march first to Alexandria and then on to Wills Creek to aid in construction of a fort at the Forks of the Ohio.8
7 Dinwiddie to James De Lancey, 1 Mar. 1754 (DINWIDDIE, 1:83--85).
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One of the most important maps of Virginia was drawn by Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson in 1751. The above cartouche is taken from the revised map of 1755. (Rare Book Department, University of Virginia Library)
Even before the receipt of his commission as lieutenant colonel, GW had established headquarters at Alexandria and was actively engaged in recruiting and preparations for the campaign. Dinwiddie wrote GW on 15 Mar. that the French were moving down
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the Ohio more rapidly than expected, "w'ch, I think, makes it necessary for You to march what Soldiers You have enlisted, imediately to the Ohio, and escort some Waggons with the necessary Provisions. Colo. Fry to march w'th the others as soon as possible."9 GW's diary of the campaign begins 31 Mar. 1754 and includes the march from Alexandria to the frontier, the defeat of a party of French troops under the command of Joseph Coulon de Villiers, sieur de Jumonville, and the construction of Fort Necessity in the Great Meadows. The last entry is for 27 June 1754, with GW's force planning to move to erect a fort on Red Stone Creek. On 28 June word was received from Chief Monacatoocha that the French at the Forks were preparing to send out "800 of their own men & 400 Indians" under the command of Louis Coulon de Villiers.10 It was clear that the Indians with GW's troops would leave unless he returned to Great Meadows. Accordingly, the retreat was ordered, and after a backbreaking march over a mountainous terrain, the Virginia troops and Capt. James Mackay's Independent Company of regulars arrived at little Fort Necessity on Great Meadows 1 July. There they found almost no provisions--but the exhausted men were in no condition to retreat farther. GW ordered them to dig in. Their Indian allies quietly disappeared. On 1 July scouts informed GW that the French had advanced as far as Red Stone, and about 11:00 A.M. on 3 July the French command approached the fort. After a day of fighting, faced by a greatly superior force, GW was compelled to surrender. On 3 July he and Captain Mackay signed the articles of capitulation including the controversial admission that they had "assassinated" Jumonville.
The diary was among the papers lost by GW at the surrender of Fort Necessity. Retrieved by the French, it became part of a pamphlet published in Paris in 1756 under the title Mémoire contenant le précis des faits, avec leurs pičces justificatives pour servir de réponse aux observations envoyées par les ministres d'Angleterre, dans les cours de l'Europe.
In addition to GW's journal which appeared as document No. VIII in the first part of the pamphlet, numerous other letters and journals were included with editorial notes justifying French activities in the Ohio Valley. In 1757 a copy of the pamphlet was
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The capitulation at Fort Necessity was signed on 3 July 1754. (Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto)
captured on board a French ship taken as a prize, and was translated and published by Hugh Gaine in New York under the title A Memorial Containing a Summary View of Facts with Their Authorities, in Answer to the Observations Sent by the English Ministry to the Courts of Europe. This translation is hereafter referred to as MEMOIR and has been used in this volume as the source for the text of the 1754 diary. Two additional printings, one by J. Parker in New York and one by James Chattin in Philadelphia, appeared also in 1757. Two English editions were published.11
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The first American publication of Washington's campaign against the French in 1753--54. (Tracy W. McGregor Library, University of Virginia)
As the original of GW's journal has not been found, the accuracy of the version published in the MEMOIR must remain questionable. The authenticity of at least one of the documents in the MEMOIR was disputed in England in 1756 before an English translation appeared in print. Document No. XII of the first part of the MEMOIR is a letter, purportedly from Col. Robert Napier to Gen. Edward Braddock, 25 Nov. 1754, containing the duke of Cumberland's orders for the 1755 campaign against the French in the Ohio country. In 1756 a pamphlet, Reasons Humbly Offered, to Prove That the Letter Printed at the End of the French Memorial of Justification, Is a French Forgery, and Falsely Ascribed to His R--l H--s, was published in London, challenging the authenticity of the letter on the basis of its content.12 GW expressed reservations concerning the accuracy of the
12 See also Monthly Review, (1756), 302--4.
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MEMOIR in a letter used by Jared Sparks in his edition of GW's writings:
I am really sorry, that I have it not in my power to answer your request in a more satisfactory manner. If you had favored me with the journal a few days sooner, I would have examined it carefully, and endeavoured to point out such errors as might conduce to your use, my advantage, and the public satisfaction; but now it is out of my power.
I had no time to make any remarks upon that piece, which is called my journal. The enclosed are observations on the French notes. They are of no use to me separated, nor will they, I believe, be of any to you; yet I send them unconnected and incoherent as they were taken, for I have no opportunity to correct them.
In regard to the journal, I can only observe in general, that I kept no regular one during that expedition; rough minutes of occurrences I certainly took, and find them as certainly and strangely metamorphosed; some parts left out, which I remember were entered, and many things added that never were thought of; the names of men and things egregiously miscalled; and the whole of what I saw Englished is very incorrect and nonsensical; yet, I will not pretend to say that the little body, who brought it to me, has not made a literal translation, and a good one.
Short as my time is, I cannot help remarking on Villiers' account of the battle of, and transactions at, the Meadows, as it is very extraordinary, and not less erroneous than inconsistent.13 He says the French
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received the first fire. It is well known, that we received it at six hundred paces' distance. He also says, our fears obliged us to retreat in a most disorderly manner after the capitulation. How is this consistent with his other account? He acknowledges, that we sustained the attack warmly from ten in the morning until dark, and that he called first to parley, which strongly indicates that we were not totally absorbed in fear. If the gentleman in his account had adhered to the truth, he must have confessed, that we looked upon his offer to parley as an artifice to get into and examine our trenches, and refused on this account, until they desired an officer might be sent to them, and gave their parole for his safe return. He might also, if he had been as great a lover of the truth as he was of vainglory, have said, that we absolutely refused their first and second proposals, and would consent to capitulate on no other terms than such as we obtained. That we were wilfully, or ignorantly, deceived by our interpreter in regard to the word assassination, I do aver, and will to my dying moment; so will every officer that was present. The interpreter was a Dutchman,14 little acquainted with the English tongue, therefore might not advert to the tone and meaning of the word in English; but, whatever his motives were for so doing, certain it is, he called it the death, or the loss, of the Sieur Jumonville. So we received and so we understood it, until, to our great surprise and mortification, we found it otherwise in a literal translation.
That we left our baggage and horses at the Meadows is certain; that there was not even a possibility to bring them away is equally certain, as we had every horse belonging to the camp killed or taken away during the action; so that it was impracticable to bring any thing off, that our shoulders were not able to bear; and to wait there was impossible,
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for we had scarce three days' provisions, and were seventy miles from a supply; yet, to say we came off precipitately is absolutely false; notwithstanding they did, contrary to articles, suffer their Indians to pillage our baggage, and commit all kinds of irregularity, we were with them until ten o'clock the next day; we destroyed our powder and other stores, nay, even our private baggage, to prevent its falling into their hands, as we could not bring it off. When we had got about a mile from the place of action, we missed two or three of the wounded, and sent a party back to bring them up; this is the party he speaks of. We brought them all safe off, and encamped within three miles of the Meadows. These are circumstances, I think, that make it evidently clear, that we were not very apprehensive of danger. The colors he speaks of as left were a large flag of immense size and weight; our regimental colors were brought off and are now in my possession. Their gasconades, and boasted clemency, must appear in the most ludicrous light to every considerate person, who reads Villiers' journal; such preparations for an attack, such vigor and intrepidity as he pretends to have conducted his march with, such revenge as by his own account appeared in his attack, considered, it will hardly be thought that compassion was his motive for calling a parley. But to sum up the whole, Mr. Villiers pays himself no great compliment in saying, we were struck with a panic when matters were adjusted. We surely could not be afraid without cause, and if we had cause after capitulation, it was a reflection upon himself.
I do not doubt, but your good nature will excuse the badness of my paper, and the incoherence of my writing; think you see me in a public house in a crowd, surrounded with noise, and you hit my case. You do me particular honor in offering your friendship; I wish I may be so happy as always to merit it, and deserve your correspondence, which I should be glad to cultivate.15
Discovery of a contemporary copy of GW's diary in the Contrecoeur Papers, Archives du Seminaire de Québec, Université Laval, indicates that the amount of deliberate French "editing" of the journal was probably less than historians have believed
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and was probably confined to critical annotation and comments. Duquesne sent this copy of the journal to his subordinate, the sieur de Contrecoeur, on 8 Sept. 1754:
I attach hereto the extract of the journal of Colonel Washington who commanded the 500 Englishmen whom we fought. You will see that he is the most impertinent of all men, but that he has wit only in the degree that he is cunning with credulous savages. For the rest, he lies very much to justify the assassination of sieur de Jumonville, which has turned on him, and which he had the stupidity to confess in his capitulation!16
This piece which the baron de Longueuil has transmitted to me is extraordinary. The hypocrisy of the Englishman is unmasked. That of the Five Nations is no less uncovered, but after all, the Englishman is their dupe, because after so many pretty promises they abandoned him at the moment when he had the most need of them. On the other hand, you will see that the Englishman, wishing to make them believe that he would march only at the solicitation of the Five Nations, marched. The blunderer, thinking that with this strong assistance he could not fail to defeat us, and then become the peaceful possessor of La Belle Rivičre [the Ohio River]! What has struck me in this journal, is that they came in wagons as far as the place where Sr. de Villiers found them, but that captain doubts all the same that they were able to cross the high mountains which they would have had to climb in order to go to the English camp. . . .
What desertion! What difficulties in the provinces where Washington has passed! What discord in these troops from different provinces who pretend to independence! It is that which makes me believe that we shall always be fighting a troop as poorly composed as they are poor warriors.
I beg you to comment on this journal in order to improve, if it can be done, upon my ideas and the precautions on which your safety depends, for they certainly are sensible that only treason can destroy our establishments.
There is nothing more unworthy and lower, and even blacker, than the sentiments and the way of thinking of this Washington. It would have been a pleasure to read his outrageous journal under his very nose.17
17 PAPIERS CONTRECOEUR, 249--53 (translation).
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It is evident that Duquesne did not regard the journal as a fabrication; a comparison of the version in the Contrecoeur Papers with the version in the MEMOIR reveals only minor differences in wording, although there are several entries in the Contrecoeur copy which do not appear in the MEMOIR. Aside from variations in spelling of places and proper names, the French translator probably closely followed GW's original diary.
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On the 31st of March, I received from his Honour a Lieutenant Colonel's Commission,18 of the Virginia Regiment, whereof Joshua Fry, Esq; was Colonel, dated the 15th; with Orders to take the Troops, which were at that Time quartered at Alexandria, under my Command, and to march with them towards the Ohio, there to help Captain Trent to build Forts, and to defend the Possessions of his Majesty against the Attempts and Hostilities of the French.19
April the 2d, Every Thing being ready, we began our march according to our Orders, the 2d of April, with two Companies of Foot, commanded by Captain Peter Hog,20 and Lieutenant Jacob Vambraam,21 five Subalterns, two Serjeants, six Corporals, one
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Drummer, and one Hundred and twenty Soldiers, one Surgeon,22 one Swedish Gentleman,23 who was a Volunteer, two Waggons, guarded by one Lieutenant, Serjeant, Corporal, and Twenty-five Soldiers.
We left Alexandria on Tuesday Noon, and pitched our Tents about four miles from Cameron, having travelled six Miles.24
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Washington's lifelong friend and physician, Dr. James Craik. (Richmond Academy of Medicine)
(From the 3d of April, to the 19th of said Month, this Journal only contains the March of the Troops, and how they were joined by a Detachment which was brought by Captain Stevens.)25
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The 19th, Met an Express who had Letters from Captain Trent, at the Ohio, demanding a Reinforcement with all Speed, as he hourly expected a Body of Eight Hundred French. I tarried at Job Pearsall's26 for the Arrival of the Troops, where they came the next Day. When I received the above Express, I dispatched a Courier to Colonel Fry, to give him Notice of it.
The 20th, Came down to Colonel Cresap, to order the Detachment, and on my Rout, had Notice that the Fort was taken by the French. That News was confirmed by Mr. Wart,27 the Ensign of Captain Trent, who had been obliged to surrender to a Body of One Thousand French and upwards, under the Command of Captain Contrecoeur,28 who was come from Venango (in French, the Peninsula) with Sixty Battoes, and Three Hundred Canoes, and who having planted eighteen Pieces of Cannon against the Fort, afterwards had sent him a Summons to depart.29
Mr. Wart also informed me, that the Indians kept stedfastly
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attached to our Interest.30 He brought two young Indian Men with him, who were Mingoes, that they might have the Satisfaction to see that we were marching with our Troops to their Succour.
He also delivered me the following Speech, which the Half-King sent to me.
Fort-Ohio, April 18 th, 1754.
A SPEECH from the Half-King, for the Governors of Virginia and Pennsylvania. MY Brethren the English. The Bearer will let you understand in what Manner the French have treated us. We waited a long Time, thinking they would come and attack us; we now see how they have a Mind to use us.
We are now ready to fall upon them, waiting only for your Succour. Have good Courage, and come as soon as possible; you will find us as ready to encounter with them as you are yourselves.
We have sent those two young Men to see if you are ready to come, and if so, they are to return to us, to let us know where you are, that we may come and join you. We should be glad, if the Troops belonging to the two Provinces could meet together at the Fort which is in the Way. If you do not come to our Assistance now, we are intirely undone, and imagine we shall never meet together again. I speak it with a Heart full of Grief.
A Belt of Wampum.
The Half-King directed to me the following Speech. I am ready, if you think it proper, to go to both the Governors, with these two young Men, for I have now no more Dependance on those who have been gone so long, without returning or sending any Message.
A Belt of Wampum.
April 23d. A COUNCIL of WAR held at Wills-Creek, in order to consult upon what must be done on Account of the News brought by Mr. Wart,
The News brought by Ensign Wart, having been examined into, as also the Summons sent by Captain Contrecoeur, Commander of the French Troops, and the Speeches of the Half-King, and of
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A plan of Fort Duquesne as it appeared in 1754. From a broadside, London: J. Payne, 1756. (Public Record Office, London, Crown Copyright)
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the other Chiefs of the Six-Nations; it appears, that Mr. Wart, was forced to surrender the said Fort, the 17th of this Instant, to the French, who were above One Thousand strong, and had eighteen Artillery Pieces, some of which were nine Pounders, and also that the Detachment of the Virginia Regiment, amounting to One Hundred and Fifty Men, commanded by Colonel Washington had Orders to reinforce the Company of Captain Trent, and that the aforesaid Garrison consisted only of Thirty-three effective Men.
It was thought a Thing impracticable to march towards the Fort without sufficient Strength; however, being strongly invited by the Indians, and particularly by the Speeches of the Half-King, the President gave his Opinion, that it would be proper to advance as far as Red-Stone-Creek, on Monaungahela, about Thirty-seven Miles on this Side of the Fort, and there to raise a Fortification, clearing a Road broad enough to pass with all our Artillery and our Baggage, and there to wait for fresh Orders.
The Opinion aforesaid was resolved upon, for the following Reasons;
1 st, That the Mouth of Red-Stone is the first convenient Place on the River Monaungahela.
2 d, That Stores are already built at that Place for the Provisions of the Company, wherein our Ammunition may be laid up;31 our great Guns may be also sent by Water whenever we should think it convenient to attack the Fort.
3 d, We may easily (having all these Conveniences) preserve our People from the ill Consequences of Inaction, and encourage the Indians our Allies, to remain in our Interest. Whereupon, I sent Mr. Wart to the Governor, with one of the young Indians and an Interpreter: I thought it proper also to acquaint the Governors of Maryland and Pennsylvania of the News;32 and I
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sent away the other Indian to the Half-King, with the Speeches inclosed in the following Letter.
To the Honourable Robert Dinwiddie, Esq; Governor, &c.33
Sir,
Mr. Wart, an Ensign of Captain Trent's Company, is this Day come from Monaungahela, and has brought the sorrowful News of the Reduction of the Fort, on the 17th of this Instant; having been summoned by Captain Contrecoeur to surrender to a Body of French Troops who were a Thousand strong, who came from Venango, with eighteen Pieces of Cannon, sixty Battoes, and Three Hundred Canoes; they permitted all our Men to retire, and take with them their Working-Tools out of the Fort, which was done the same Day.
Upon receiving this News, I called a Council of War, in order to consult what was best to be done in such Circumstances; and have sent you a particular Account of every Thing agreed upon at the said Council by the same Express, that you may know Things yet more particularly.
Mr. Wart is the Bearer of the Summons, as also of the Speech from the Half-King, wherein I inclosed the Wampum; he is in Company with one of those Indians mentioned in the Speech, who had been sent to see our Forces, and to know what Time they might expect us; the other Indian, I have sent back with a Message. I hope you will find it necessary, to send us our Forces as soon as they are raised, as also a sufficient Number of Canoes, and other Boats with Decks; send us also some Mortar-Pieces, that we may be in a Condition to attack the French with equal Forces. And as we are informed that the Indians of the Six Nations, and the Outawas, are coming down Sciodo-Creek, in order to join the French who are to meet at the Ohio; so I think it would not be amiss to invite the Cherokees, Catawbas, and the Chickasaws to come to our Assistance; and as I have received Intelligence, that there is no good Understanding between them and the Indians of the Six Nations aforesaid, it would be well to perswade them to make a Peace with them; otherwise if they should meet at the Ohio, it might cause great Disorder, and turn out to our Disadvantage.34
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We find the great Advantage there is in Water-Carriage, wherefore, I would remind you to provide a Number of Boats for that Purpose.
This Day, arrived the Men belonging to Captain Trent, who by your Orders had been inlisted as Militia-Troops; the Officers having imprudently promised them Two Shillings per Day, they now refuse to serve for less Pay; Wart shall receive your Orders on that Head.35
To his Excellency Horatio Sharpe, Governor of Maryland.
Sir,
I AM here arrived with a Detachment of One Hundred and Fifty Men: We daily expect Colonel Fry with the remaining Part of the Regiment and the Artillery; however, we shall march gently across the Mountains, clearing the Roads as we go, that our Cannon may with the greater Ease be sent after us; we propose to go as far as Red-Stone River, which falls into Monaungahela, about Thirty-seven Miles this Side of the Fort which the French have taken, from thence all our heavy Luggage may be carried as far as the Ohio. A Store is built there by the Ohio Company, wherein may be placed our Ammunition and Provisions.
Besides the French Forces above mentioned, we have Reason to
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believe, according to the Accounts we have heard, that another Party is coming to the Ohio; we have also learnt that Six Hundred of the Chippowais and Ollowais Indians, are coming down the River Sciodo, in order to join them.
The following is my Answer to the Speech of the Half-King;
"To the Half-King, and to the Chiefs and Warriors of the Shawanese and Loups our Friends and Brethren. I received your Speech by Brother Bucks,36 who came to us with the two young Men six Days after their Departure from you. We return you our greatest Thanks, and our Hearts are fired with Love and Affection towards you, in Gratitude for your constant Attachment to us, as also your gracious Speech, and your wise Counsels.
This young Man will inform you, where he found a small Part of our Army, making towards you, clearing the Roads for a great Number of our Warriors, who are ready to follow us, with our great Guns, our Ammunition and Provisions. As I delight in letting you know with speed the Thoughts of our Heart, I send you back this young Man, with this Speech, to acquaint you therewith, and the other young Man I have sent to the Governor of Virginia, to deliver him your Speech and your Wampum, and to be an Eye-witness of those Preparations we are making, to come in all Haste to the Assistance of those whose Interest is as dear to us as our Lives. We know the Character of the treacherous French, and our Conduct shall plainly shew you, how much we have it at Heart. I shall not be satisfied if I do not see you before all our Forces are met together at the Fort which is in the Way; wherefore, I desire, with the greatest Earnestness, that you, or at least one of you, would come as soon as possible to meet us on the Road, and to assist us in Council. I present you with these Bunches of Wampum, to assure you of the Sincerity of my Speech, and that you may remember how much I am your Friend and Brother."
Signed, WASHINGTON
or CONOTOCARIOUS37
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April 28. Came to us some Pieces of Cannon, which were taken up to the Mouth of Patterson's River.
(From the 29th of April, to the 11th of May, the Journal only contains Marches, and Things of little Consequence.)38
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May the 11th, Detached a Party of Twenty-five Men, commanded by Captain Stevens and Ensign Peronie,39 with Orders to go to Mr. Gist's, to enquire where La Force, and his Party were;40 and in case they were in the Neighbourhood, to cease pursuing and to take care of themselves. I also ordered them to examine closely all the Woods round about, and if they should find any Frenchman apart from the rest, to seize him and bring him to us, that we might learn what we could from him: We were exceedingly desirous to know, if there was any Possibility of sending
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Here Washington reports to Dinwiddie his problems of transport in pursuing the French. (Virginia Historical Society)
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down any Thing by Water, as also to find out some convenient Place about the Mouth of Red-Stone-Creek, where we could build a Fort, it being my Design to salute the Half-King, and to send him back under a small Guard; we were also desirous to enquire what were the Views of the French, what they had done, and what they intended to do, and to collect every Thing, which could give us the least Intelligence.
The 12th, Marched away, and went on a rising Ground, where we halted to dry ourselves, for we had been obliged to ford a deep River, where our shortest Men had Water up to their Arm-pits.
There came an Express to us with Letters, acquainting us, that Col. Fry, with a Detachment of One Hundred Men and upwards, was at Winchester, and was to set out in a few Days to join us; as also, that Col. Innis41 was marching with Three Hundred and Fifty Men, raised in Carolina; that it was expected Maryland would raise Two Hundred Men, and that Pennsylvania had raised Ten T[h]ousand Pounds (equal to about Fifty-two Thousand Five Hundred Livres) to pay the Soldiers raised in other Colonies, as that Province furnisheth no Recruits, as also that Governor Shirley had sent 600 Men to harrass the French in Canada; I hope that will give them some Work to do, and will slacken their sending so many Men to the Ohio as they have done.42
The 16th, Met two Traders, who told us they fled for Fear of
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the French, as Parties of them were often seen towards Mr. Gist's. These Traders are of Opinion, as well as many others, that it is not possible to clear a Road for any Carriage to go from hence to Red-Stone-Creek.
The 17th, This Night Mr. Wart arrived with the young Indian from Williamsburg, and delivered me a Letter, wherein the Governor is so good as to approve of my Proceedings, but is much displeased with Captain Trent, and has ordered him to be tried, for leaving his Men at the Ohio: The Governor also informs me, that Capt. Mackay, with an Independant Company of 100 Men, excluding the Officers, were arrived, and that we might expect them daily; and that the Men from New-York would join us within ten Days.43
This Night also came two Indians from the Ohio, who left the French Fort five Days ago: They relate that the French Forces are all employed in building their Fort, that it is already Breast-high, and the Thickness of twelve Feet, and filled up with Earth and Stone, &c. They have cut down and burnt up all the Trees which were about it, and sown Grain instead thereof. The Indians believe there were only 600 in Number; though they say themselves they are 800: They expect a greater Number in a few Days, which may amount to 1600, then they say they can defy the English.
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The 18th, The Waters being yet very high, hindred me from advancing on Account of my Baggage, wherefore I determined to set myself in a Posture of Defence against any immediate Attack from the Enemy, and went down to observe the River.44
The 19th, I dispatched the young Indian which was returned with Mr. Wart, to the Half King, with the following Speech.
To the Half King, &c.
My Brethren,
It gives me great Pleasure, to learn that you are marching to assist me with your Counsels; be of good Courage, my Brethren, and march vigorously towards your Brethren the English; for fresh Forces will soon join them, who will protect you against your treacherous Enemy the French. My Friends whom I send to you,
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will acquaint you of an agreeable Speech which the Governor of Virginia adresses to you: He is very sorry for the bad Usage you have received. The great Waters do not permit us to make such Haste towards you as we would do; for that Reason I have sent the young Men to invite you to come and meet us: They can tell you many Things which they have seen in Virginia, and also how well they were received by the most Part of our Grandees; they did not use them as the French do your People who go to their Fort: they refuse them Provisions; this Man has had given him, all that his Heart could wish: For the Confirmation of all this, I here give you a Belt of Wampum.
The 20th, Embarked in a Canoe with Lieut. West, three Soldiers, and one Indian;45 and having followed the River along about Half a Mile, were obliged to come ashore, where I met Peter Suver, a Trader,46 who seemed to discourage me from seeking a Passage by Water; that made me alter my Mind of causing Canoes to be made; I ordered my People to wade, as the Waters were shallow enough; and continued myself going down the River in the Canoe: Now finding that our Canoe was too small for six Men, we stopped to make some Sort of a Bark;47 with which, together with our Canoe, we gained Turkey-Foot,48 by the Beginning of the Night. We underwent several Difficulties about
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eight or ten Miles from thence, though of no great Consequence, finding the Waters sometimes deep enough for Canoes to pass, and at other times more shallow.
The 21st, Tarried there some Time to examine the Place, which we found very convenient to build a Fort, not only because it was gravelly, but also for its being at the Mouth of three Branches of small Rivers: The Plan thereof, which may be seen here, is as exact as could be done, without Mathematical Instruments.49
We went about two Miles to observe the Course of the River, which is very strait, has many Currents, is full of Rocks, and rapid; we waded it, though the Water was pretty high, which made me think it would not be difficult to pass it with Canoes.
We also found other Places where the Water was rapid, but not so deep, and the Current smoother; we easily passed over them; but afterwards we found little or scarce any Bottom: There are Mountains on both Sides of the River. We went down the River about ten Miles, when at last it became so rapid as to oblige us to come ashore.
(From the 22d to the 24th, the Journal contains only a Description of the Country.)50
The 24th, This Morning arrived an Indian, in Company with him I had sent to the Half King, and brought me the following Letter from him.
To any of his Majesty's Officers whom these may concern.
As 'tis reported that the French Army is set out to meet M. George Washington, I exhort you, my Brethren, to guard against them; for they intend to fall on the first English they meet; they have been on their March these two Days; the Half King, and the other Chiefs, will join you within five Days, to hold a Council,
49 The plan of Turkey Foot has not been located.
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though we know not the Number we shall be. I shall say no more; but remember me to my Brethren the English.
Signed, The HALF-KING.51
I Examined those two young Indians in the best Manner I could, concerning every Circumstance, but was not much the better satisfied.
They say there are Parties of them often out, but they do not know of any considerable Number coming this Way. The French continue raising their Fort, that Part next to the Land is very well inclosed, but that next to the Water is much neglected, at least without any Defence: They have only nine Pieces of Cannon, and some of them very small, and not one mounted. There are two on the Point, and the others some Distance from the Fort next to the Land.
They relate that there are many sick among them, that they cannot find any Indians to guide their small Parties towards our Camp, these Indians having refused them.
The same Day at Two o'Clock, we arrived at the Meadows,52 where we saw a Trader, who told us that he came this Morning from Mr. Gist's, where he had seen two Frenchmen the Night before; and that he knew there was a strong Detachment out, which confirmed the Account we had received from the Half King: Wherefore I placed Troops behind two natural Intrenchments, where our Waggons also entered.
The 25th, Detached a Party to go along the Roads, and other
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small Parties to the Woods, to see if they could make any Discovery. I gave the Horse-men Orders to examine the Country well, and endeavour to get some News of the French, of their Forces, and of their Motions, &c.
At Night all these Parties returned, without having discovered any thing, though they had been a great way towards the Place from whence it was said the Party was coming.
The 26th, Arrived William Jenkins; Col. Fry had sent him with a Letter from Col. Fairfax,53 which informed me, that the Governor himself, as also Colonels Corbin and Ludwell, were arrived at Winchester,54 and were desirous to to see the Half King there, whereupon I sent him an Account thereof.55
The 27th, Arrived Mr. Gist, early in the Morning, who told us, that Mr. la Force, with fifty Men, whose Tracks he had seen five Miles off, had been at his Plantation the Day before, towards Noon; and would have killed a Cow, and broken every Thing in the House, if two Indians, whom he had left in the House, had not persuaded them from their Design: I immediately detached 65 Men,56 under the Command of Captain Hog, Lieut. Mercer,57
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Portrait of George Mercer. (From a photograph at the Virginia Historical Society)
Ensign Peronie, three Sergeants, and three Corporals, with Instructions.
The French enquired at Mr. Gist's, what was become of the Half King? I did not fail to let the young Indians who were in our Camp know, that the French wanted to kill the Half King; and that had its desired Effect. They thereupon offered to accompany our People to go after the French, and if they found it true that he had been killed, or even insulted by them, one of them would presently carry the News thereof to the Mingoes, in order to incite their Warriors to fall upon them. One of these young Men was detached towards Mr. Gist's; that if he should not find the Half King there, he was to send a Message by a Delaware.
About eight at Night, received an Express from the Half King, which informed me, that, as he was coming to join us, he had seen along the Road, the Tracts of two Men, which he had
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followed, till he was brought thereby to a low obscure Place; that he was of Opinion the whole Party of the French was hidden there. That very Moment I sent out Forty Men, and ordered my Ammunition to be put in a Place of Safety, under a strong Guard to defend it, fearing it to be a Stratagem of the French to attack our Camp; and with the rest of my Men, set out in a heavy Rain, and in a Night as dark as Pitch, along a Path scarce broad enough for one Man; we were sometimes fifteen or twenty Minutes out of the Path, before we could come to it again, and so dark, that we would often strike one against another: All Night long we continued our Rout, and the 28th, about Sun-rise, we arrived at the Indian Camp, where, after having held a Council with the Half King, it was concluded we should fall on them together; so we sent out two Men to discover where they were, as also their Posture, and what Sort of Ground was thereabout; after which, we formed ourselves for an Engagement, marching one after the other, in the Indian Manner: We were advanced pretty near to them, as we thought, when they discovered us; whereupon I ordered my Company to fire; mine was supported by that of Mr. Wager's,58 and my Company and his received the whole Fire of the French, during the greatest Part of the Action, which only lasted a Quarter of an Hour, before the Enemy was routed.
We killed Mr. de Jumonville, the Commander of that Party, as also nine others; we wounded one, and made Twenty-one Prisoners, among whom were M. la Force, M. Drouillon, and two Cadets.59 The Indians scalped the Dead, and took away the most
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Part of their Arms, after which we marched on with the Prisoners and the Guard, to the Indian Camp, where again I held a Council with the Half-King; and there informed him, that the Governor was desirous to see him, and was waiting for him at Winchester;
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he answered that, he could not go just then, as his People were in too eminent a Danger from the French, whom they had fallen upon; that he must send Messengers to all the allied Nations, in order to invite them to take up the Hatchet. He sent a young Delaware Indian to the Delaware Nation, and gave him also a French Scalp to carry to them. This young Man desired to have a Part of the Presents which were allotted for them, but that the remaining Part might be kept for another Opportunity: He said he would go to his own Family, and to several others, and would wait on them at Mr. Gist's, where he desired Men and Horses should be sent ready to bring them up to our Camp. After this I marched on with the Prisoners; They informed me that they had been sent with a Summons to order me to depart.60 A plausible Pretence to discover our Camp, and to obtain the Knowledge of our Forces and our Situation! It was so clear that they were come to reconnoitre what we were, that I admired at their Assurance, when they told me they were come as an Embassy; for their Instructions mentioned that they should get what Knowledge they could of the Roads, Rivers, and of all the Country as far as Potowmack: And instead of coming as an Embassador, publickly, and in an open Manner, they came secretly, and sought after the most hidden Retreats, more like Deserters than Embassadors in
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such Retreat they incamped, and remained hid for whole Days together, and that, no more than five Miles from us: From thence they sent Spies to reconnoitre our Camp; after this was done, they went back two Miles, from whence they sent the two Messengers spoken of in the Instruction, to acquaint M. de Contrecour of the Place we were at, and of our Disposition, that he might send his Detachments to inforce the Summons as soon as it should be given.
Besides, an Embassador has princely Attendants; whereas this was only a simple petty French Officer; an Embassador has no Need of Spies, his Character being always sacred: And seeing their Intention was so good, why did they tarry two Days, at five Miles distance from us, without acquainting me with the Summons, or, at least, with something that related to the Embassy? That alone would be sufficient to raise the greatest Suspicions, and we ought to do them the Justice to say, that, as they wanted to hide themselves, they could not pick out better Places than they had done.
The Summons was so insolent, and savoured the Gasconnade so much, that if it had been brought openly by two Men, it would have been an immediate Indulgence, to have suffered them to return.
It was the Opinion of the Half-King in this Case, that their Intentions were evil, and that it was a pure Pretence; that they never intended to come to us but as Enemies; and if we had been such Fools as to let them go, they would never help us any more to take other Frenchmen.
They say they called to us as soon as they had discovered us; which is an absolute Falshood, for I was then marching at the Head of the Company going towards them, and can positively affirm, that, when they first saw us, they ran to their Arms, without calling; as I must have heard them, had they so done.
The 29th, Dispached Ensign Latour61 to the Half-King, with about Twenty-five Men, and almost as many Horses; and as I expected some French Parties would continually follow that which we had defeated, I sent an Express to Colonel Fry for a Reinforcement.
After this the French Prisoners desired to speak with me, and asked me in what Manner I looked upon them, whether as the Attendants of an Embassador, or as Prisoners of War: I answered
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them that it was in Quality of the Latter, and gave them my Reasons for it, as above.
The 30th, Detached Lieutenant West, and Mr. Spindorph, to take the Prisoners to Winchester, with a Guard of Twenty Men.
Began to raise a Fort with small Pallisadoes, fearing that when the French should hear the News of that Defeat, we might be attacked by considerable Forces.
June the 1st, Arrived here an Indian Trader with the Half-King: They said that when Mr. de Jumonville was sent here, another Party had been detached towards the lower Part of the River, in order to take and kill all the English they should meet.
We are finishing our Fort.
Towards Night arrived Ensign Towers, with the Half-King,Queen Alguipa, and about Twenty-five or Thirty Families, making in all about Eighty or One Hundred Persons, including Women and Children. The old King being invited to come into our Tents, told me that he had sent Monakatoocha to Log's Town, with Wampum, and four French Scalps, which were to be sent to the Six Nations, to the Wiendots, &c. to inform them, that they had fallen upon the French, and to demand their Assistance.
He also told me he had something to say at the Council, but would stay till the Arrival of the Shawanese, whom we expected next Morning.
The 2d, Arrived two or three Families of the Shawanese: We had Prayers in the Fort.
The 3d, The Half-King assembled the Council, and informed me that he had received a Speech from Grand-Chaudiere,62 in Answer to the one he had sent him.
The 5th, Arrived an Indian from the Ohio, who had lately been at the French Fort: This Indian confirms the News of two Traders being taken by the French, and sent to Canada; he saith they have set up their Pallisadoes, and enclosed their Fort with exceeding large Trees.
There are eight Indian Families on this side the River, coming to join us: He met a Frenchman who had made his Escape in the Time of M. de Jumonville's Action,63 he was without either Shoes or Stockings, and scarce able to walk; however he let him pass, not knowing we had fallen upon them.
63 Contrecoeur identified the fugitive as a Canadian called Monceau (see note 59).
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The 6th, Mr. Gist is returned, and acquaints me of the safe Arrival of the French Prisoners at Winchester, and of the Death of poor Colonel Fry.64
It gave the Governor great Satisfaction to see the French Prisoners safely arrived at Winchester.
I am also informed that, Mr. Montour,65 is coming with a Commission to command Two Hundred Indians.
Mr. Gist met a French Deserter, who assured him, that they were only Five Hundred Men, when they took Mr. Wart's Fort, that they were now less, having sent Fifteen Men to Canada, to acquaint the Governor of their Success: That there were yet Two Hundred Soldiers who only waited for a favourable Opportunity to come and join us.
The 9th, Arrived the last Body of the Virginia Regiment, under the Command of Colonel Must,66 and we learnt that the Independent Company of Carolina was arrived at Wills-Creek.
The 10th, I received the Regiment, and at Night had Notice, that some French were advancing towards us; whereupon I sent a Party of Indians upon the Scout towards Gist's, in order to discover
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cover them, and to know their Number: Just before Night we had an Alarm, but it proved false.
The 12th, Returned two of the Men, whom we had sent out Yesterday upon the Scout; they discovered a small Party of French; the others went on as far as Stuart's.67 Upon this Advice, I thought it necessary to march with the major Part of the Regiment, to find out those Ninety Men, of whom we had Intelligence. Accordingly I gave Orders to Colonel Must, to put away all our Baggage and Ammunition, and to place them in the Fort, and set a good Guard there till my Return; after which I marched at the Head of One Hundred and Thirty Men, and about Thirty Indians; but at the Distance of half a Mile, I met the other Indians, who told me, there were only nine Deserters; whereupon I sent Mr. Montour, with some few Indians, in order to bring them safe to me; I caused them to be drest, and they confirmed us in our Opinion, of the Intention of M. de Jumonville's Party; that more than One Hundred Soldiers were only waiting for a favourable Opportunity to come and join us; that M. de Contrecour expected a Reinforcement of Four Hundred Men; that the Fort was compleated; and its Artillery a shelter to its Front and Gates; that there was a double Pallisadoe next to the Water; that they have only eight small Pieces of Cannon; and know what Number of Men we are.
They also informed us, that the Delaware and Shawanese had taken up the Hatchet against us; whereupon, resolved to invite those two Nations to come to a Council at Mr. Gist's. Sent for that Purpose Messengers and Wampum.
The 13th, Perswaded the Deserters to write the following Letter, to those of their Companions who had an Inclination to Desert.68
(It is not in the Journal.)
The 15th, Set about clearing the Roads.
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16th, Set out for Red-Stone-Creek, and were extremely perplexed, our Waggons breaking very often.
17th, Dispatched an Express to the Half-King, in order to perswade him to send a Message to the Loups [Delawares]; which he did.
18th, Arrived eight Mingoes from Loiston [Logstown], who at their Arrival told me of a Commission they had, and that a Council must be held. When we assembled, they told us very shortly, that they had often desired to see their Brethren out in the Field with Forces, and begged us not to take it amiss, that they were amongst the French, and that they complied with some of their Customs; notwithstanding which they were naturally inclined to fall upon them, and other Words to that Purport: After which they said, they had brought a Speech with them; and desired to deliver it with Speed. These, and other Discourses to the same Purpose, made us suspect that their Intentions towards us were evil; wherefore I delayed giving them Audience until the Arrival of the Half-King, and desired also the Delawares to have Patience till then, as I only waited their Arrival to hold a Council, which I expected would be that same Day. After the eight Mingoes had conferred a while together, they sent me some Strings of Wampum, desiring me to excuse their insisting on the Delivery of their Speech so speedily, that they now perceived it necessary to wait the Arrival of the Half King.
When the Half-King arrived, I consented to give them Audience.
A Council was held in the Camp for that Purpose, where the Half-King, and several of the Six Nations, Loups and Shawanese, to the Number of Forty, were present.
The Speaker of the Six-Nations directed the following Speech to the Governor of Virginia.
Brethren,
WE your Brothers of the Six Nations, are now come to acquaint you, that we have been informed you threaten to destroy entirely all your Brethren the Indians, who will not join you on the Road; wherefore we who keep in our own Towns, expect every Day to be cut in Pieces by you. We would desire to know from your Mouth, if there be any Truth in that Information, and that you would not look upon it as preposterous, that we are come to enquire into it, since you very well know, that bad News commonly makes a deeper Impression upon us than good; that we
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may be fully satisfied by your Answers of the Truth thereof, we give you this Belt of Wampum.
We know the French will ask us at our Return, of what Number our Brethren are whom we went to see? Therefore we desire you, by this Belt, to let us know it, as also the Number of those whom you expect, and at what Time you expect them, and when you reckon to attack the French, that we may give Notice thereof to our Town, and know also, what we shall have to tell the French.
ANSWER.
Brethren,
WE are very glad to see you, and sorry that such Reports disquiet you: The English do not intend to hurt you, or any of your Allies; this News, we know, must have been forged by the French, who are constantly treacherous, asserting the greatest Falshoods whenever they think they will turn out to their Advantage; they speak well, promise fine Things, but all from the Lips outward; whilst their Heart is corrupted and full of venomous Poison. You have been their Children, and they would have done every Thing for you, but they no sooner thought themselves strong enough, than they returned to their natural Pride, and drove you off from your Lands, declaring you had no Right on the Ohio. The English, your real Friends, are too generous, to think of using the Six Nations, their faithful Allies, in like Manner; when you made your Address to the Governors of Virginia and Pennsylvania, they (at your repeated Request) sent an Army to maintain your Rights; to put you in the Possession of your Lands, and to take Care of your Wives and Children, to dispossess the French, to support your Prerogatives, and to make that whole Country sure to you; for those very Ends are the English Arms actually employed; it is for the Safety of your Wives and your Children that we fight; and as this is the only Motive of our Conduct, we cannot reasonably doubt of being joined by the remaining Part of your Forces, to oppose the common Enemy.
Those that will not join us, shall be answerable, for whatever may be the Consequence; we only desire you, Brethren, to chuse that Side which shall seem most agreeable to them.
The Indians of the Six Nations are those, who have the most Interest in this War; for them it is that we fight; and it would greatly trouble me to do them the least Hurt: We have engaged in this War, in order to assist and protect you; our Arms are open
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to receive you, and our Hands ready to nourish your Families during the Course of this War. The Governor of Virginia has often desired they might be sent to him, that he might see them in Person, nourish and cloath them according to their own Desire; but as you could not be determined to send them to him, we are ready to share in a friendly Manner, all our Provisions with you, and shall take such Measures, and give such Orders, that enough shall be brought to maintain your Wives and Children. Such a Conduct will evidently prove how much more the English love and esteem their Allies the Six Nations, than the French do; as we have drawn the Sword in your Cause, and in your Defence, delay not one Moment, be no more in Suspence, but put your Wives and Children under our Protection; and they shall find Plenty of Provisions; in the mean while, set your young Men and your Warriors to sharpen their Hatchets, in order to join and unite with us vigorously in our Battles.
The Present, my Brethren, which I offer you, is not so considerable as I could wish, but I expect in a short Time a Quantity of Goods, which are to be at my Disposal, in order to reward those who shall have shewn themselves brave and active on this Occasion; however, I shall recompense them most generously.
Be of good Courage, my Brethren, deliver your Country, and make it sure to your Children; let me know the Thoughts of your Hearts on this Affair, that I may give an Account of your Sentiments to your great Friend and Brother the Governor of Virginia. In order to assure you of my Sincerity and Esteem, I present you this Belt.
The 20th, The Council still continued.
When the Delawares knew that they were suspected of being in the French Interest, they demanded the Reason why they had been sent for, and what they should tell the French at their Return.
I answered them, it was to let them know, that we were come at their reiterated requests to assist them with Sword in Hand; that we intended to put them in the Possession of those Lands which the French had taken from them.
And as they had often demanded our Assistance, in Quality of our ancient and faithful Allies, I invited them to come and place themselves under our Protection, together with the Women and Children.
Whereupon the Indian Speaker stretched out his Blanket on the Floor, and laid several Belts and Strings of Wampum thereon,
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in the same order he had received them from the French. This done, he repeated the Speeches of M. de Contrecour; after which, the Delaware Speaker directed to me the following Speech.
Brethren,
THE Governors of Virginia and Pennsylvania; We your Brethren, the Delawares remember perfectly well the Treaty of Loiston, where you and your Uncles the Six-Nations, considering the bad Situation we were in, for want of a Man to be our Leader, you then gave us a King,69 and told us, he should transact all our publick Affairs between you and us; you gave us a Charge, not to listen to every vain Report that might be spread, but to consult ourselves, and to do, what would seem to us, to be right: We assure you, that we have given no Credit to any of those Reports, nor ever shall; but will be guided by you, our Brethren; and by our Uncles the Six-Nations: And will do, on all Occasions, what is lust and right, taking Advice from you alone. To assure you of the Desire we have to fulfill our Engagements with you, we present you this Belt.
After which they made the following Discourse, to the Six-Nations.
Uncles, Thirteen Days are now past since we have received this Belt from the Onondago Council; I do not doubt your knowing it: They exhorted us to remember old Times, when they cloathed us with a Robe reaching down to our Heels; afterwards told us, to raise it up to our Knees, and there to make it very last, and come to them at the Head of Susquehanna, where they had provided a Place for us to live; that they had also sent a Speech to those of our Nation, who live near the Minisinks, inviting them to go to the Place by them appointed, that they might live with us: They also sent us a Speech, to give us Notice that the English and French were upon the Point of coming to an Engagement on the River Ohio, and exhorted us to do nothing in that Juncture, but what was reasonable, and what they would tell us themselves. Lastly, They recommended to us, to keep fast Hold of the Chain of Friendship, which has so long subsisted between us and them; and our Brethren the English. A Belt.
Then the Delawares spoke to the Shawanese as follows:
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" Grand Sons, by this Belt, we take you between our Arms, and fetch you away from the Ohio, where you now are, to carry you amongst us, that you may live where we live, and there live in Peace and Quiet.["]
The Council after this was adjourned to the next Morning.
The 21st, Met very early, and I spoke first to the Delawares in the following Manner.
" Brethren,
BY your open and generous Conduct on this Occasion, You have made yourselves dearer to us than ever; we return you our Thanks, that you did not go to Venango, when the French first invited you there; their treating you in such childish Manner, as we perceive they do, raises in us a just and strong Resentment: They call you their Children, and speak to you, as if you in reality were Children, and had no more Understanding than such.
Consider well my Brethren, and compare all their Discourse, and you will find that all it tends to do, is to tell you, I am going to open your Eyes, to unstop your Ears, and such like Words to no Purpose, only proper to amuse Children. You also observe Brethren, that if they deliver a Speech, or make a Promise, and confirm it by a Belt, they imagine it binds them no longer than they think it consistent with their Interest to stand to it. They have given one Example of it; and I will make you observe it, in the Jump which they say they have made over the Boundaries, which you have set them; which ought to stir you up my Brethren, to a just Anger, and cause you to embrace the favourable Opportunity that we offer You, as we are come, at your Request, to assist you, and by Means of which, you may make them Jump back again, with more Speed than they advanced.
A String of Wampum.
The French are continually telling you, not to give Heed to the ill Reports that are told you concerning them who are your Fathers. If they did not know in their very Souls, how richly they deserve it on your Account, why should they suspect being accused? Why should they forewarn you of it, in order to hinder you from believing what is told you concerning them? With Regard to what they tell you of us, our Conduct alone will answer in our Behalf: Examine the Truth yourselves; you know the Roads leading to our Habitations, you have lived amongst us, you can speak our Language; but in order to justify ourselves from whatever might be said against us, and assure you of our brotherly Love; we once more invite your old Men, your Wives
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and your Children, to take Sanctuary under our Protection, and between our Arms, in order to be plentifully fed, whilst your Warriors and young Men join with ours, and espouse together the common Cause.
A String of Wampum.
Brethren, we thank you with all our Hearts, for having declared unto us, your Resolution of accomplishing the Engagements which you have entered into, at the Treaty of Loiston [Logstown], and we can do no otherwise than praise your generous Conduct with Regard to your Grand Sons the Shawanese; it gives us infinite Pleasure.
We are greatly obliged to the Council given you by Onondago, charging you to hold fast the Chain of Friendship by which we are bound; I dare say, that had he known, how nearly you are interested in this War, or that it is for the Love of you, and at your Request, we have taken up Arms, he would have ordered you to DECLARE and to act immediately against the COMMON ENEMY of the Six Nations. In order to assure you of my Affection, and to confirm the Truth of what I have said, I present you these
Two great Strings."
After this, the Council broke up, and those treacherous Devils, who had been sent by the French as Spies, returned, though not without some Tale ready prepared to amuse the French, which may be of Service to make our own Designs succeed.
As they had told me there were Sixteen Hundred French, and Seven Hundred Indians on their March, to reinforce those at the Garrison, I perswaded the Half King to send three of his Men to inquire into the Truth of it; though I imagined this News to be only Soldiers Discourse; these Indians were accordingly sent in a secret Manner, before the Council broke up, and had Orders to go to the Fort, and get what Information they could from all the Indians they should meet, and if there was any News worth while, one of them should return, and the other two continue their Rout as far as Venango, and about the Lake, in order to obtain a perfect Knowledge of every Thing.
I also perswaded King Shingas, to send out Rangers towards the River, to bring us News, in Case any French should come; I gave him also a Letter, which he was to send back again by an Express, to prevent my being imposed upon by a false Alarm.
Though King Shingas, and others of the Delawares, could not be persuaded to retire to our Camp with their Families, through the Fear they were in of Onondago's Council, they nevertheless gave us strong Assurances of their Assistance, and directed us in
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what Manner to act, in order to obtain our Desire: the Method was this; we were to prepare a great War-Belt, to invite all those Warriors who would receive it, to act independantly from their King and Council; and King Shingas promised to take privately the most subtil Methods to make the Affair succeed, though he did not dare to do it openly.
The very Day the Council broke up, I perswaded Kaquehuston,70 a trusty Delaware, to carry that Letter to the Fort which the French Deserters had written to their Comrades, and gave him Instructions how he should behave in his Observations, upon several Articles of which I had spoken to him; for I am certain the Fort may be surprized, as the French are encamped outside, and cannot keep a strict Guard, by Reason of the Works they are about.
I also perswaded George,71 another trusty Delaware, to go and take a View of the Fort, a little after Kaquehuston, and gave him proper Instructions recommending him particularly to return with Speed, that we might have fresh News.
Presently after the Council was over, notwithstanding all that Mr. Montour could do to disswade them, the Delawares, as also the Half-King, and all the other Indians, returned to the Great Meadows; but though we had lost them, I still had Spies of our own People, to prevent being surprised.
As it had been told me, that if I sent a Belt of Wampum and a Speech, that might bring us back both the Half-King and his young Men; accordingly I sent the following Speech by Mr. Croghan.72
71 Delaware George later became a chief and went over to the French.
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' Tis but lately since we were assembled together; we were sent here by your Brother the Governor of Virginia, at your own Request, in Order to succour you, and fight for your Cause; wherefore my Brethren, I must require that you and your young Men come to join and encamp with us, that we may be ready to receive our Brother Monacotocha, whom I daily expect: That this Request may have its desired Effect, and make a suitable Impression upon your Minds, I present you with this String of Wampum.
As those Indians, who were Spies sent by the French, were very inquisitive, and asked us many Questions in order to know by what Way we proposed to go to the Fort, and what Time we expected to arrive there; I left off working any further at the Road, and told them we intended to keep on across the Woods as far as the Fort, falling the Trees, &c. That we were waiting here for the Reinforcement which was coming to us, our Artillery, and our Waggons to accompany us there; but, as soon as they were gone, I set about marking out and clearing a Road towards Red-Stone.
The 25th, Towards Night came three Men from the Great Meadows, amongst whom was the Son of Queen Aliguipa.73
He brought me a Letter from Mr. Croghan,74 informing me what Pains he was at to perswade any Indians to come to us; that the Half-King was inclined, and was preparing to join us, but had received a Blow which was a Hindrance to it. I thought it proper to send Captain Montour to Fort-Necessity, in order to try if he could, possibly, gain the Indians to come to us.
The 26th, Arrived an Indian, bringing News that Monacotoocha, had burnt his Village ( Loiston) and was gone by Water with his People to Red-Stone, and may be expected there in two Days. This Indian passed close by the Fort, and assures us, that the French had received no Reinforcement, except a small Number of Indians, who had killed, as he said, two or three of the Delawares. I did not fail to relate that Piece of News to the Indians in its proper Colours, and particularly to two of the Delawares who are here.
The 27th, Detached Captain Lewis,75 Lieutenant Wagghener,
74 Letter from George Croghan not found.
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and Ensign Mercer,76 two Serjeants, two Corporals, one Drummer, and Sixty Men, in order to endeavour to clear a Road, to the Mouth of Red-Stone-Creek on Monaungahela.
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January 1 Tuesday. Visited my Plantations and receivd an Instance of Mr. French's great Love of Money in disappointing me of some Pork because the price had risen to 22/6 after he had engagd to let me have it at 20/.
Calld at Mr. Possey's in my way home and desird him to engage me 100 Barl. of Corn upon the best terms he coud in Maryland.
And found Mrs. Washington upon my arrival broke out with the Meazles.
Daniel French (1733--1771), a wealthy Fairfax County planter, lived at Rose Hill, about five miles west of Alexandria. Although his main plantation lay in the vicinity of his house, he also owned a plantation on Dogue Creek a short distance west of Mount Vernon. At this time it contained about 416 acres, but with the purchase of another tract of land later this year, he would own a total of about 552 acres in the Mount Vernon area (see entry for 6 Mar. 1760; will of French, 20 May 1771, Fairfax County Wills, Book C-1, 134--36, Vi Microfilm). French was a Fairfax County justice 1743--71 and a vestryman of Truro Parish 1744--65 and of Fairfax Parish 1765--71.
John Posey, whose home, Rover's Delight, stood near the Potomac River about a mile southwest of Mount Vernon, was a regular in GW's social circle in the 1760s, often joining him in fox hunts. Posey farmed a plantation of about 400 acres and operated a public ferry from a landing near his house across the Potomac to Maryland, where he had many personal contacts.
Mrs. Washington, born Martha Dandridge (1731--1802), first married (1749) Daniel Parke Custis (1711--1757), of the White House, New Kent County. They had two children who survived infancy, John Parke Custis (1754--1781) and Martha Parke Custis (1756--1773). Following Martha's wedding to GW 6 Jan. 1759 in her home county of New Kent, GW took Martha and the two Custis children to their new home at Mount Vernon (see FREEMAN, 3:1--2, 13).
Jany. 2d. Wednesy. Mrs. Barnes who came to visit Mrs. Washington yesterday returnd home in my Chariot the Weather being too bad to Travel in an open Carriage--which together with Mrs. Washington's Indisposition confind me to the House and gave me an oppertunity of Posting my Books and putting them in good Order.
Fearing a disappointment elsewhere in Pork I was rein to take Mr. French upon his own terms & engagd them to be delivd. at my House on Monday next.
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The Custis children, Jacky and Patsy, in a painting by John Wollaston. (Washington and Lee University, Washington-Custis-Lee Collection)
Sarah Barnes was the daughter of Col. William Ball of Northampton County and thus a distant relation to GW. After the death in 1742 of her first husband, Denis McCarty, of Prince William County, she married Abraham (Abram) Barnes, of Truro Parish, Fairfax County.
PORK: After GW resigned Dec. 1758 from the command of the Virginia troops in the French and Indian War, he retired to Mount Vernon and began working to make it a paying plantation. On 27 April 1763 he wrote to Robert Stewart, one of his old officers: "when I retired from the Publick Service of this Colony I had Provision's of all kinds to buy for the first two or three years; and my Plantation to stock, in short, with every thing" (DLC:GW).
The Mount Vernon Neighborhood
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Sarah Ball McCarty Barnes, one of many visitors to Mount Vernon in 1760. (Smithsonian Institution photo no. 75-1942
Thursday Jany. 3d. The Weather continuing Bad & the same causes subsisting I confind myself to the House.
Morris who went to work Yesterday caught cold, and was laid tap bad again--and several of the Family were taken with the Measles, but no bad Symptoms seemd to attend any of them.
Hauled the Sein and got some fish, but was near being disappointd of my Boat by means of an Oyste<r> Man who had lain at my Landing and plagud me a good deal by his disorderly behaviour.
MORRIS: Because Mrs. Washington's first husband died without a will, his property was divided according to English common law, which allowed the widow one-third of the property for her life only (called her right of dower), after which it would revert to their children or their descendants (BLACK [2], 580--81). Upon her marriage to GW, all of Martha's property came under his control during her lifetime, including her share of the slaves from the Custis estate. One of her "dower slaves" that was transferred to Mount Vernon by GW was Morris (born c.1730), who worked as a carpenter 1760--63, a tradesman 1764--65, and overseer of GW's Dogue Run plantation 1766--94. Morris's wife was Hannah, who, with a child, had been purchased by GW from William Cloptan 16 June 1759 for £80 (LEDGER A, 56). Morris and
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Hannah were married c. 1765 when both were transferred to the Dogue Run plantation. Like most large planters, GW referred to his plantation workers collectively either as his "people" or his "family."
Friday Jany. 4th. The Weather continud Drisling and Warm, and I kept the House all day. Mrs. Washington seemg. to be very ill <I> wrote to Mr. Green this afternoon desiring his Company to visit her in the Morng.
Rev. Charles Green (c.1710--1765) was the first permanent rector of Truro Parish, recommended to that post in 1736 by GW's father. He also practiced medicine. "Ministers were frequently the only ones who could 'read medicine,' since before 1700 the greater part of the literature was in Latin. Clerical practice survived incidentally in rural areas well into the eighteenth century" (SHRYOCK [1], 280).
Saturday Jany. 5th. Mrs. Washington appeard to be something better. Mr. Green however came to see her abt. 11 Oclock and in an hour Mrs. Fairfax arrivd. Mr. Green prescribd the needful and just as we were going to Dinnr Captn. Walter Stuart appeard with Doctr. Laurie.
The Evening being very cold, and the wind high Mrs. Fairfax went home in the Chariot & soon afterwards Mulatto Jack arrivd from Fredk. with 4 Beeves.
Mrs. Fairfax is Sarah (Sally) Cary Fairfax (c. 1730--1811), wife of George William Fairfax. Walter Steuart (Stuart) served with GW in the Virginia Regiment and in 1755 was wounded in Braddock's Defeat. At Grant's Defeat in 1758, where he was again wounded, Stuart "distinguished himself greatly. He was left in the Field, but made his escape afterwards" (GW to Francis Fauquier, 25 Sept. 1758, DLC:GW). Dr. James Laurie (Lowrie), a physician of Alexandria, may have come that day to tend those in GW's "family" who were down with measles.
Mulatto Jack, a dower Negro from the Custis estate, was regularly used by GW as a courier, often to and from his Bullskin plantation in the Shenandoah Valley, which at this time was part of Frederick County (later Berkeley County and now Jefferson County, W. Va.; see entry for 19 Jan. 1760).
Sunday Jany. 6th. The Chariot not returng. time enought from Colo. Fairfax's we were prevented from Church.
Mrs. Washington was a good deal better today, but the Oyster Man still continuing his Disorderly behaviour at my Landing I was obligd in the most preemptory manner to order him and his Compy. away which he did not Incline to obey till next morning.
In colonial Virginia the established church--paid for by an annual levy on all tithables--was the Anglican Church of England. By 1760 there were a number of Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Quakers, and German Pietists in Virginia; but GW, like the majority of Virginians, still adhered to the
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Mount Vernon was named for Adm. Edward Vernon, under whom Lawrence Washington had served. (Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union)
established church. Each Anglican parish was administered by a 12-man vestry elected by the voters upon the creation of the new parish by the Virginia Assembly. Subsequent vacancies were filled by the vestry itself, which had broad civil and religious duties within the parish boundaries and enjoyed great power in the choice of rector. The parish boundaries did not always follow county lines; while populous counties were served by two or even three parishes, more thinly settled counties often had but one. Mount Vernon was in Truro Parish, which in 1760 served all but the upper edge of Fairfax County. In the 1760s "Church" for GW was the old wooden Pohick Church, built sometime before 1724 in Mason's Neck, two miles up the road from Colchester toward Alexandria and about a seven-mile ride from Mount Vernon. Originally called Occoquan Church, it became the main church for Truro Parish when that parish was formed in 1732 and was renamed Pohick Church the following year (see HARRISON [1], 285--86; SLAUGHTER [1], 5; FREEMAN, 1:136--37).
Monday Jany. 7th. Accompanied Mrs. Bassett to Alexandria and engagd a Keg of Butter of Mr. Kirkpatrick being quite out of that Article.
Wrote from thence to Doctr. Craik to endeavour if possible to engage me a Gardener from the Regiment and returnd in the dusk of the Evening.
Mrs. Bassett, the former Anna Maria Dandridge (1739--1777), younger sister of Mrs. Washington, in 1757 married Burwell Bassett, of Eltham, New Kent County, by whom she had seven children. Mr. Kirkpatrick was one of two brothers, John or Thomas, merchants and partners in Alexandria. John was GW's personal secretary, 1755--57. The keg of butter weighed 71 pounds and cost GW £2 13s. 3d., which he paid on 25 Jan. (LEDGER A, 63).
A GARDENER FROM THE REGIMENT: Dr. Craik did not find a gardener, so GW asked Capt. Robert Stewart of the Virginia Regiment, then stationed at Winchester, to locate one and then find a replacement for him in the regiment. Stewart quickly found a replacement, but the chosen gardener--whose surname was Allen or Allan--balked at the terms. An appeal went
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A portrait of Sally Cary Fairfax, done by Duncan Smith from a copy of the lost original by an unknown artist. (Mrs. Charles Baird, Jr.)
out to the commandant at Pittsburgh--to no avail. Finally, in Dec. 1762, Allen went to Mount Vernon to be interviewed for the gardener's position. Apparently he did not take it.
Tuesday Jany. 8. Directed an Indictment to be formd by Mr. Johnston against Jno. Ballendine for a fraud in some Iron he sold me.
Got a little Butter from Mr. Dalton and wrote to Colo. West for Pork.
In the Evening 8 of Mr. French's Hogs from his Ravensworth Quarter came down one being lost on the way as the others might as well have been for their goodness.
Nothing but the disappointments in this Article of Pork which he himself had causd and my necessities coud possibly have obligd me to take them.
Carpenter Sam was taken with the Meazles.
John Ballendine (d. 1782) of Prince William County, an enthusiastic promoter, builder, and operator of a series of mills, ironworks, and canals, had moved in 1755 to a site on Occoquan Creek about two miles above Colchester and now operated "an iron furnace, a forge, two saw mills, and a bolting mill" there (BURNABY, 66). The "fraud" was a shortage in weight of an iron shipment from the Occoquan works to Mount Vernon. On 19 Dec. 1759 GW had paid Ballendine £44 12s. 3d. for 2 tons of bar iron, but he received only 3,556 pounds, leaving a balance of £8 5s. 7d. charged against Ballendine (LEDGER A, 69). GW wished to recover that sum in iron or cash
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and at the same time to teach Ballendine a lesson, but George Johnston (d. 1766) of Alexandria and Belvale, a distinguished lawyer and Fairfax County burgess, today told him that a suit in the county court would be expensive and that a conviction would have little, if any, effect on Ballendine, because he had been previously found guilty and punished severely in a similar case without producing any change in his behavior (Johnston to GW, 8 Jan. 1760, DLC:GW). Although Ballendine wrote GW 18 Nov. 1760, expressing a desire to send iron to make up the deficiency and thus to dear his name of all suspicion of dishonesty, the dispute was never settled (DLC: GW). GW continued to charge £8 5s. 7d. against Ballendine in his ledgers until about 1773, when he wrote the sum off as "lost" (LEDGER B, 7).
John Dalton (d. 1777), a merchant in Alexandria and one of the founders of that town, had supplied GW during the French and Indian War. Col. John West (d. 1777), uncle of John West, Jr., lived on the south side of Hunting Creek near the Potomac River, his house being about two miles by water and four by road from Alexandria ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 24 Nov. 1774). He had succeeded his brother Hugh West as Fairfax County burgess soon after Hugh's death in 1754 and served in the house until 1774 (H.B.J., 1752--55, 197). He was a Fairfax County justice 1745--77 and a vestryman 1744--65 for Truro Parish, and after 1765, for Fairfax Parish. He married twice, having children both by his first wife, Mary, and his second wife, Margaret Pearson (John West's will, 27 Mar. 1776, Fairfax County Wills, Book D-1, 25--33, Vi Microfilm; BROCKETT, 104). Because John West, Jr., lived in the same general neighborhood and died only a few months before his uncle did, the two men are often confused with one another. In the diaries, GW distinguishes between them by referring to the elder John West as colonel--apparently a militia title--and to his nephew as Mr. or Capt. John West. The title of captain may also have been a militia designation or may have derived from an earlier involvement in merchant shipping ( Va. Gaz. 5 Mar. 1752; LEDGER A, 135).
Ravensworth was originally a patent for 21,996 acres of land granted to William Fitzhugh 1 Oct. 1694 (Northern Neck Deeds and Grants, Book 2, 14, Vi Microfilm). Lying west of Alexandria and north of Mount Vernon, this large area was now divided into several plantations and quarters belonging to various planters (see map of GW's lands in MVAR, 1965, 25).
Sam, who was one of GW's slave carpenters, recovered.
Wednesday. Jany. 9. Killd and dressd Mr. French's Hogs which weighd 751 lbs. neat.
Colo. West leaving me in doubt about his Pork yesterday obligd me to send to him again to day, and now no definitive answr was receivd--he purposing to send his Overseer down tomorrow to agree abt. it.
Colo. Bassetts Abram arrivd with Letters from his Master appointing Port Royal, & Monday next as a time and place to meet him. He brought some things from me that Lay in Mr. Norton's Ware house in York Town.
Burwell Bassett (1734--1793), husband of Mrs. Washington's sister Anna Maria, lived at Eltham on the Pamunkey River, where the Washingtons usually stayed when visiting Williamsburg. The two families were close,
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particularly before the death of Mrs. Bassett in 1777. Port Royal, a small port town on the Rappahannock River, was a convenient rendezvous almost equidistant between Eltham and Mount Vernon. The warehouse at Yorktown, at the mouth of the York River, was being run in 1760 by John Norton, of the London tobacco firm of Flowerdewe & Norton. As recently as 30 Nov. 1759 GW had complained in a letter (DLC:GW) to his London agent Robert Cary that "it is almost as much trouble and expence getting Goods from any of the Rivers round to Potomack as the Original Charges of Shipping them amounts to."
Thursday Jany. 10th. Accompanied Mrs. Bassett in a Visit to Belvoir.
She this day determind on setting of for Port Royal on Saturday.
Colo. West wrote me word that he had engag'd his Pork.
Killd the Beeves that Jack brought down two of which were tolerable good.
Belvoir, located on a bluff overlooking the Potomac on the next "neck" downriver from Mount Vernon, was the first seat of the Fairfax family of Virginia, built around 1741 by William Fairfax (1691--1757), cousin and agent of Thomas, Lord Fairfax. GW first visited there while in his early teens, during stays with his brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon. It was then that the long friendship began between GW and William Fairfax's son George William. From 1757 to 1773, when Belvoir was the permanent home of George William and Sarah Cary Fairfax, the Washingtons often visited it. Years later, in reflecting to George William on his days at Belvoir, GW observed that "the happiest days of my life had been spent there" (27 Feb. 1785, DLC:GW). For the house itself, see WATERMAN, 329--34.
Friday Jany. 11th. Deliverd Rd. Stephens two Hogs in part of his Years Provisions weight
He had one before of 100 lbs. weight. Two Hogs were also reservd for Foster of the following weights
Washinton's Potomac Neighborhood Below the FallsCounty Lines shown--------are as they existed after 1777. Before Oct. 1776 the Stafford-King George line was as shown by......with Stafford on the Potomac side and King George on the Rapphannock side. Westmoreland's northern boundary before Oct. 1777 followed Upper Machodoc Creek to the old Stafford-king George line.
Washington's Potomac Neighborhood below the Falls
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that were cut out and Salted makes up 719 lbs. and accts. for Mr. French's 8 Hogs; shewing the loss of weiging Meat so soon as kills which cannot be less than 5 pr. Ct.
Richard Stephens (Stevens) was overseer of the Muddy Hole farm and John Foster was overseer of the Dogue Run farm, both on the Mount Vernon plantation.
Saturday Jany. 12th. Sett out with Mrs. Bassett on her journey to Port Royal. The morning was clear and fine but soon clouded and promisd much Rain or other falling weather wch. is generally the case after remarkable white Frosts--as it was to day. We past Occoquan witht. any great difficulty notwithstanding the Wind was something high and Lodgd at Mr. McCraes in Dumfries--sending the Horses to the Tavern.
Here I was informd that Colo. Cocke was disgusted at my House, and left it because he see an old Negroe there resembling his own Image.
The ferry at Occoquan Creek, about ten miles south of Mount Vernon, was owned by George Mason of Gunston Hall and run by one of his slaves. At the ferry crossing, the creek was quite shallow and about 100 yards wide, thus being treacherous in high winds. By 1760 Dumfries, on Quantico Creek in lower Prince William County, was losing in its commercial competition with Alexandria. Allan Macrae (d. 1766) was one of the Scottish merchants who built the town on the tobacco trade. He had come to Virginia about 1750 and in 1756 married Elizabeth Pearson (VIRKUS, 5:162).
Catesby Cocke (b. 1702), son of William Cocke (1672--1720), served successively as clerk of Stafford, Prince William, and Fairfax counties. In 1746 he retired and lived in Dumfries near his daughter Elizabeth, who had married John Graham (1711--1787), founder of Dumfries.
Sunday Jany. 13th. The Wind last Night Chopd about from Southerly to the No. West blew extreame hard and made it excessive cold.
We reachd Mr. Seldons abt. 3 Oclock and met with a certain Captn. Dives there a Man who, as I have been informd is pretty well known for some of his Exploits and suspected to be an Instrument in carrying Dickenson whose Character and Memory are too well established to need any Commentaries.
Samuel Selden, who married a daughter of John Mercer of Marlborough, lived at Selvington on the south side of the mouth of Potomac Creek in Stafford (now King George) County ( Va. Mag., 18:455, note g; HAYDEN, 63). Dickenson is probably William Dickenson, who came to Virginia with two partners about 1754. They opened a store in Williamsburg and began buying up tobacco at advanced prices. In the spring of 1759, when they were unable
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to pay their creditors, they fled the colony, leaving debts of over £20,000 and taking their profits with them.
Monday Jany. 14th. The Wind at No. West, and the Morning being clear and cold but otherwise fine we set out--Mr. Seldon obligingly accompanying us a few Miles to prevent any misapprehensions of the Road. We arrivd about 2 Oclock to the Plantation late Colo. Turners but now Inhabited by an Overseer directly opposite to Port Royal (at this place also Mr. Giberne lodges) and here we were disagreably disappointed of meeting him for a few hours but at length he arrivd almost at the same Instant that Colo. Bassett did. From hence we moved over to Port Royal and spent the Evening at Fox's with Mr. & Mrs. Bassett.
Mr. Bassett brought me a letter from Captn. Langbourn Inclosing a Bill of Lading for 20 Hhds. pr. the Deliverance Captn. Wm. Whyte. One other was sent by the Ship neither of which signifying to whom the Tobo. was Consignd which is not less strange than that only two Bills shd. be given when 4 and never less than three is customary in War time.
The Wind freshned up as the Evening came on and causd a most intense frost. Indeed no thaw had been the whole day.
Thomas Turner (d. 1758) had lived at Walsingham in King George County. His son, Thomas (d.1757) had been an old friend of GW's. At the age of 16 GW won 1s. 3d. from the latter in a game of billiards. Rev. Isaac William Giberne was licensed in 1758 and came to Virginia the next year to find a parish. In 1760 he left his bachelor's quarters at Walsingham to marry a wealthy widow, Mary Fauntleroy Beale, and moved to her home, Belle Ville, in Richmond County, Lunenburg Parish, which he served 1762--95. A hard drinker, an avid cardplayer, and an active Whig, Giberne was generally considered to be the most popular preacher in the colony (FITHIAN, 25n). The original Roy's tavern at Port Royal was bought in 1755 by Capt. William Fox (d. 1772) and was run by his wife Ann during the captain's sailing trips between England and Virginia (CAMPBELL [1], 398).
Capt. William Langbourne (Langborn) (1723--1766) was a ship captain who sailed between Virginia and Bristol, Eng. Langbourne's home, in King William County, was about three miles up the Pamunkey River from Williams' Ferry. The bill of lading, for tobacco from a Custis estate in York County, was directed to the Hanbury firm of London. In 1754 Capt. William Whyte was commanding the Deliverance between Virginia and Barbados ( Va. Gaz., 19 July and 7 Nov. 1754).
In 1760 the Seven Years' (French and Indian) War was raging on three continents and in most of the world's oceans, putting every British merchant ship in danger of being captured or sunk by the French. Thus, commercial communications between America and Britain were usually sent in triplicate or quadruplicate in different ships, so that at least one copy would get through. GW was not overcautious; the Deliverance was, in fact, taken by
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the French. The tobacco had been insured, and GW reflected that "accidents of this Nature are common & ought not to be repin'd at" (GW to Capel & Osgood Hanbury, 10 Aug. 1760, DLC:GW).
Tuesday Jany. 15th. Mr. Gibourne and I, leaving Mr. Bassett Just ready to set out recrossd the River and proceeded to Colo. Carters where we dind and in the Evening reachd Colo. Champes.
Several Gentlemen dind with us at Colo. Carters (neighbours of his) but we spent a very lonesome Evening at Colo. Champes not any Body favouring us with their Company but himself.
The Morning of this day was exceeding cold the Wind still continuing at No. West but in the Evening it died away grew something more moderate and promisd falling weather but no appearance of a thaw.
Charles Carter (1707--1764), of Cleve, King George County, was the third son of Robert "King" Carter. In 1760 Charles was one of the most powerful members of the House of Burgesses.
Col. John Champe (d. 1763), of Lamb's Creek, King George County, served variously as sheriff, coroner, and justice of the peace. Champe's daughter Jane became the first wife of GW's younger brother Samuel.
During the previous summer GW, Colonel Carter, Colonel Champe, and 15 other gentlemen had been commissioned justices for King George County by the governor and council (King George County Order Book for 1751--65, 874, Vi Microfilm). GW was entitled to be a King George justice by virtue of owning Ferry Farm and other property in the county, but he declined to serve, apparently finding the distance from Mount Vernon to the King George courthouse too great to attend the frequent court sessions. Like several others named in the commission, he did not take the required oaths of office, and his name was explicitly deleted from the county's next commission of the peace, which was issued in 1770 (VA. EXEC. JLS., 6:345). GW was appointed to the Fairfax County Court in 1768.
Wednesday Jany. 16. I parted with Mr. Gibourne, leaving Colo. Champes before the Family was Stirring and abt. 10 reachd my Mothers where I breakfasted and then went to Fredericksburg with my Brothr. Saml. who I found there.
Abt. Noon it began Snowing, the Wind at So. West but not Cold; was disappointed of seeing my Sister Lewis & getting a few things which I wanted out of the Stores returnd in the Evening to Mother's--all alone with her.
MY MOTHER'S: the Ferry Farm of GW's youth. When GW was about three years old the Washingtons moved from his birthplace at Pope's Creek, Westmoreland County, about 60 miles up the Potomac River to a new home near Little Hunting Creek. There the family lived three years on the plantation that later became Mount Vernon in Prince William (after 1741, Fairfax) County. In Nov. 1738 GW's father bought 260 acres on the north bank of the Rappahannock River just below the new town of Fredericksburg, and
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A tobacco plantation as it might have appeared in Washington's day. (Arents Collections, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations)
the next month he moved his family to this new home. Although GW, by his father's will, inherited the farm upon reaching his majority in 1753, his mother remained there until the early 1770s.
Samuel Washington (1734--1781), the eldest of GW's three younger brothers, left Ferry Farm in the mid-1750s and settled on a 600-acre plantation in the Chotank district of Stafford County that he had inherited from his father. He also had a house in the town of Fredericksburg, which in 1760, with a population of about 2,500, was a flourishing commercial and cultural center, serving most of the Rappahannock valley and a large part of the backcountry.
GW's sister was Betty Washington (1733--1797), born at Pope's Creek and raised at the Ferry Farm. In 1750 she married the widower Fielding Lewis (1725--1781), son of John and Frances Fielding Lewis, of Warner Hall in Gloucester County. Fielding Lewis was a second cousin to both GW and Betty. The Lewises, who had seven children that survived to adulthood, lived in Fredericksburg at a home built for Lewis in 1752 later called Kenmore.
In the Fredericksburg stores GW today bought 27½ pounds of German steel, a Dutch oven, and an iron pot (LEDGER A, 63).
Thursday Jany. 17th. The Snow had turnd to Rain & occasiond a Sleet, the Wind at No. Et. and the Ground coverd abt. an Inch and half with Snow, the Rain continued with but little Intermission till Noon and then came on a Mist which lasted till Night.
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Abt. Noon I set out from my Mother's & Just at Dusk arrivd at Dumfries.
Friday Jany. 18th. Continued my Journey home, the Misling continuing till Noon when the Wind got Southerly and being very warm occasiond a great thaw. I however found Potomk. River quite coverd with Ice & Doctr. Craik at my House.
Saturday Jany. 19. The Wind got abt. to the No[rth] ward last Night and froze the Ground hard. The Morning Lowerd, and threatned Rain; but about Noon the clouds dispersd and grew Warm, the Wind coming about Southerly again.
Recd. a Letter from my Overseer Hardwick, informing me that the Small Pox was surrounding the Plantation's he overlookd--& requiring sundry Working Tools.
and deliverd them to Richd. Stephens wch. fully compleats his own & Sons allowance of Provision's.
During the surveying trips of his early years GW discovered the rich lands in the lower Shenandoah Valley. The first real property GW owned was several tracts of land along Bullskin Run in Frederick County, which he bought in 1750. These lands he named the Bullskin plantation and on them were raised crops of corn, wheat, and tobacco. In 1756 GW hired Christopher Hardwick to be resident overseer. The smallpox epidemic in Frederick County was, by Jan. 1760, in its seventh month. It had already become so general by Oct. 1759 that the county court had closed down for the duration, thus bringing all legal and much other business to a standstill.
The pork that GW bought today did not come from Daniel French, but from some unidentified person. In his ledger GW recorded the total price as £4 17s. 6d. (LEDGER A, 63).
Sunday Jany. 20th. My Waggon after leaving 2 Hogsheads of Tobo. at Alexandria arrivd here with 3 Sides of Sole Leather and 4 of upper Leather 2 Kegs of Butter one of which for Colo. Fairfax and 15 Bushels of Salt which She took in at Alexandria.
Visited at Belvoir to day carrying Doctr. Craik with us who spent the Evening there.
The wind Continued Southerly the whole day the Ground very soft, & <rain>--till 10 Oclo<ck A.>M. It Raind witht. intermission, but then the Clouds dispers'd and promisd fair Weather till Noon
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when it again set in to Raining and continued by Intervals the whole Afternoon being Warm.
The wagon apparently came from Bullskin plantation.
Monday Jany. 21st. Warm with Rain, the Wind at South till Noon when it veerd abt. to the No. Ward & cleard.
The Ice in the River almost gone. The Rains that fell last Night, & to day in some measure hardned the Ground from the Rotton condition it appeard in Yesterday.
Tuesday Jany. 22d. The Wind continued No[rth]wardly--the weather clear & cold--the ground hard froze & the River blockd up again.
Killd 17 more Hogs which were bought of Mr. French who was here ready to see them weighd & to receive his Money. Doctr. Craik Dind here. Hogs wd. 1722 lbs. nett.
These hogs made the total amount of pork received from French 2,473 pounds. Paying the agreed rate of 22s. 6d. a pound, GW today gave him £27 12s. 6d. Virginia currency (LEDGER A, 63).
Wednesday Jany. 23d. Clear and more moderate than Yesterday--but the g[roun]d & r[iver] still hard frozen. Abt. Noon the wind (what little blew) came Westerly and Inclining South.
My Waggon set of for Frederick with Sundry's that were wrote for by the Overseer there.
Doctr. Craik left this for Alexandria and I visited my Quarter's & the Mill. According to Custom found young Stephen's absent.
GW's gristmill at this time was on the east side of Dogue Run, about 2 miles northwest of Mount Vernon. Lawrence Washington, acting on behalf of his father, Augustine, had apparently obtained this mill for the family in 1738, when he bought a 56-acre tract of land on the run from William Spencer (deed of Spencer to Lawrence Washington, 1--2 Mar. 1738, Prince William County Deeds, Book D, 110--16, Vi Microfilm). This property was transferred to Augustine and remained his until his death in 1743, when Lawrence was bequeathed the Mount Vernon tract "with the water mill Adjoining thereto or Lying Near the same" (will of Augustine Washington, 11 April 1743, DLC:GW). Lawrence may have improved the mill and the milldam near it, because in 1750 he bought 94 acres of land on the west side of Dogue Run onto which his millpond had overflowed and in the following year bought 22 acres adjoining the "Mill Tract" on the north, probably for the same reason (deed of Henry Trenn to Lawrence Washington, 4--5 Feb. 1750, Fairfax County Deeds, Book C-1, 152--55, Vi Microfilm; deed of Thomas Marshall to Lawrence Washington, 28 Mar. 1751, Fairfax County Deeds, Book C-1, 159--60, Vi Microfilm). Thus, there were now 172 acres around GW's mill, land which he later called his mill plantation.
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Washington drew this plan of Alexandria (Belhaven) about 1749. From George Washington Atlas, Washington, D.C., 1932. (Rare Book Department, University of Virginia Library)
Robert Stephens, son of Richard, worked on GW's Williamson farm in 1760. He apparently left before the harvest, for GW directed the 1760 Williamson farm harvest himself (see entry for 26 Jan. 1760).
Thursday Jany. 24th. Moderate and fine, the Wind at So. and a gradual thaugh.
Friday Jany. 25th. Fine warm morning with the wind at So. till abt. 10 Oclock when it came westerly and then No. Wt. blewing exceeding hard till 3 in the afternoon.
Went to Alexandria and saw my Tobo. wch. came from the Mountns. lying in an open shed with the ends of the Hhds out and in very bad order. Engagd the Inspection of it on Monday.
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Wrote to Doctr. Ross to purchase me a Joiner, Bricklayer, and Gardner if any Ship of Servants was in.
Also wrote to my old Servt. Bishop to return to me again if he was not otherwise engagd. Directed for him at Phila. but no certainty of his being there.
SAW MY TOB[ACC]O: Nicotiana tabacum, tobacco, was GW's main cash crop during this period but less important to him later (see the Introduction, p. xxx). Tobacco was inspected in tobacco warehouses, established in compliance with the acts of 1730 and 1732 of the General Assembly to prevent the exportation of "bad, unsound, and unmerchantable tobacco" (HENING, 4:247, 331). FROM THE MOUNTNS.: from Bullskin plantation in Frederick County.
Dr. David Ross (d. 1778) was a merchant in Bladensburg, Md. GW had dealt with him during the French and Indian War, when Ross was a commissary for the Maryland troops. The servants would be white indentured servants emigrating from the British Isles. Thomas Bishop (c. 1705--c.1795) came to America with General Braddock in the spring of 1755. Soon after GW was appointed colonel of the new Virginia Regiment he hired Bishop as his personal servant, paying him £10 per year. Seven months after GW retired from military life, Bishop resigned from GW's service, apparently with the intention of rejoining a unit of the British army. Philadelphia had been since 1757 the eastern headquarters for the frontier expeditions in which GW and Bishop had served.
Saturday Jany. 26th. A Very white frost the ground and River hard froze. The wind at Sun Rise at No. Et. In an hour afterwards it got to south and continued there the whole day. Rode to Williamsons Quarter--the Overseer not there--a very remarkable Circle round the Moon--another Indication of falling Weather.
In 1756 Benjamin Williamson rented a farm from GW near Mount Vernon on Little Hunting Creek. During the next four years he slowly slipped behind in his rent. The rental was not renewed for 1760, and in that year GW turned Williamson's farm (possibly combined with the farm of Thomas Petit) into a Mount Vernon quarter called Williamson's. He assigned six hands to it and hired Robert Stephens as overseer. By 1761 Stephens was replaced by Josias Cook and the quarter was renamed the Creek plantation.
Sunday Jany. 27th. A high South Wind continued to blow till about 4 in the afternoon and then it got to No. Wt. blew fresh, and grew Cold.
Abt. 10 oclock it began to Rain, and continued witht. Intermission till the wind changd and then grew clear and began to freeze.
The Southerly Wind had almost opend the River of Ice.
Monday Jany. 28th. The River close again & the ground very Knobby & hard. The wind got So. about [ ] and blew fresh which allmost cleard the River of Ice.
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Visited my Plantation. Severely reprimanded young Stephens for his Indolence, & his father for suffering of it.
Found the new Negroe Cupid ill of a pleurisy at Dogue Run Quarter & had him brot. home in a Cart for better care of him.
In 1760 Cupid was one of four slaves assigned to the Dogue Run quarter, which was divided into tracts and was still being planted in tobacco. Through various land acquisitions this farm came by 1793 to comprise dose to 649 working acres.
Tuesday Jany. 29th. White Frost, and Wind at So. till 3 oclock then No. Wt. but not very cold--clear all day.
Darcus--daughter to Phillis died, which makes 4 Negroes lost this Winter viz. 3 Dower Negroes namely--
Wednesday Jany. 30th. Very Cloudy. Wind at So. till 9 Oclock at Night when it instentaniously shifted to No. West & blew a mere hurricane.
Cupid was extreame Ill all this day and at Night when I went to Bed I thought him within a few hours of breathing his last.
Thursday Jany. 31st. He was somewhat better; The wind continued at No. West all day--very cold & clear.
Friday Feby. 1st. 1760. Wind at [ ] and Snow till 9 Oclock then cleard & became tolerable warm. Visited my Plantation's. Found Foster had been absent from his charge since the 28th. Ulto. Left Order's for him to come immediately to me upon his return & reprehended him severely.
Mr. Johnston & Mr. Walter Stewart came here this Afternoon.
Saturday Feby. 2d. 17[60]. The Gentlemen went of after Breakfast and I rid out to my Plantns. and to my Carpenter's. Found Richd. Stephens hard at Work with an ax--very extraordinary this! Desird him to see after Wm. Nations' Rent, who died t'other day.
The wind for the most part was Northerly yet the Day was mild
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--the Evening fine & promisd settle Weathr. Mrs. Possey and 2 of her Children came, and Stayd the Night here.
In 1755 William Nations began renting a quarter from GW for 1,000 pounds of tobacco per year.
MRS. POSSEY: Martha Posey (née Price) first married George Harrison (d. 1748) and then Capt. John Posey of Rover's Delight. She bore Posey at least four children: John Price, Hanson, St. Lawrence, and Amelia. Of the two children who came with her this day one was probably Amelia, who appears in the diaries as "Milly."
Sunday Feby. 3d. Very white Frost--and wind shifting from So. to East.
Breechy was laid up this Morning with pains in his breast & head attended with a fever.
Mrs. Possey went home and we to Church at Alexandria. Dind at Colo. Carlyles and returnd in the Evening.
One Newell offerd himself to me to be Overseer. Put him of to another day.
Episcopal services in Alexandria at this time were held in a small building furnished jointly by local subscription and by Truro Parish. The Rev. Mr. Green preached there every third Sunday from 1753 until 1765, when Fairfax Parish was formed. John Carlyle (1720--1780), of Dumfrieshire, Scot., was a merchant and a founder of Alexandria. In 1747 he married Sarah Fairfax (1730--1761), of Belvoir, a sister-in-law of GW's brother Lawrence. During the French and Indian War, Carlyle was a supplier of GW's troops.
Monday Feby. 4th. White Frost & So[uther]ly Wind. Sometimes cloudy & sometimes clear. The Frost seemed to be getting out of the Ground.
Col. John Carlyle entertained the Washingtons in his Alexandria home. (Sir Fitzroy Maclean, Bart.)
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Dispatchd Foster to Occoquan, to proceed from thence in Bailey's Vessell to Portobacco for 100 Barrls. of Corn wch. Captn. Possey purchased of Mr. Hunter the Priest for my use. Sent money to pay for the Corn viz.--37 pistoles and a Shilling, each pistole weighing 4 d[ram]s 8 gr.
Breechy's pains Increasd and he appeard extreamely ill all the day. In Suspence whither to send for Doctr. Laurie or not.
Visited my Plantations and found two Negroes Sick at Williamson's Quarter viz. Greg and Lucy--orderd them to be Blooded. Stepns. at Wk.
Colo. Fairfax giving me Notice that he shoud send up to Frederick in the Morning, sat down & wrote to my Overseer there.
Father George Hunter (1713--1779) was one of the handful of Roman Catholic priests--all Jesuits--who served the small Catholic populace living in colonial Maryland. As there was no official support (in the form of taxes or glebe land) to provide a living for the Jesuits, the Roman Catholic community of Maryland made use of Maryland's manor system of land tenure by establishing several manors that were held in trust by the community's leaders in the name of one or more of the Jesuits residing in the colony. Each manor, like St. Thomas Manor, in Charles County, had a chapel and usually slaves to work the manor's fields. Port Tobacco, founded in 1728 as the county seat (1728--1895) Of Charles County, Md., was literally a small tobacco port on Port Tobacco Creek, which joined the Potomac opposite the Chotank district of King George County in Virginia. The town's official name, Charlestown, which was seldom used, was legally dropped in 1820 (KLAPTHOR, 46, 105; W.P.A. [ 2 ], 490). Roman Catholic priests in this period were commonly addressed as "Mister." In 1760 Mr. Hunter was the superior for the Maryland Mission.
The 37 pistoles and 1 shilling were, according to GW's ledger, equal to £40 2s. 8d. Virginia currency (LEDGER A, 63; see entries for 21 Feb. 1760).
Tuesday Feby. 5th. Breechy's pains Increasg. & he appearing worse in other Respects inducd me to send for Dr. Laurie. Wrote to Mr. Ramsay Begging the favour of him to enquire in to the price of Mr. Barnes Sugar Land Tract & he informd me that the value set on it by Mr. Barnes was £400.
Visited my Plantation and found to my great surprise Stephens constt. at Work. Greg and Lucy nothing better.
Passing by my Carpenters that were hughing I found that four of [them] viz. George, Tom, Mike & young Billy had only hughd 120 Foot Yesterday from 10 Oclock. Sat down therefore and observd.
Tom and Mike in a less space than 30 Minutes cleard the Bushes from abt. a Poplar Stock-lind it 10 Foot long and hughd each their side 12 Inches deep.
Then, letting them proceed their own way--they spent 25 Minutes
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Martha Washington ordered this English songbook from a London merchant, and her husband wrote her name and the date on the title page. (Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union)
more in getting the cross cut saw standing to consider what to do--sawing the Stock of in two places--putting it on the Blocks for hughing it square lining it &ca. and from this time till they had finishd the Stock entirely; requird 20 Minutes more, so that in the Spaces of one hour and a quarter they each of them from the Stump finishd 20 Feet of hughing: from hence it appears very clear that allowing they work only from Sun to Sun and require two hour's at Breakfast they ought to yield each his 125 feet while the days are at their present length and more in proportion as they Increase.
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While this was doing George and Billy sawd 30 Foot of Plank so that it appears as clear making the same allowance as before (but not for the time requird in pilling the Stock) that they ought to Saw 180 Feet of Plank.
It is to be observd here, that this hughing, & Sawing likewise was of Poplr. What may be the difference therefore between the working of this Wood and other some future observations must make known.
The Weather to day was variable, often Rainy but the Wind hung chiefly between the So. & West. No Frost last Night & the Ground Vastly Rotton.
Colo. Fairfax, his Lady, & Doctr. Laurie dind here. The Dr. went away afterwards but the others stayd the Evening.
William Ramsay (1716--1785) migrated to Virginia from the Galloway district of Scotland and became a founder and merchant of Alexandria. During the French and Indian War, Ramsay, then in financial straits, was appointed a commissary of British troops on the recommendation of GW. The land of Abraham Barnes was part of an area full of sugar-bearing maple trees and hence called the Sugar Lands which lay along Sugar Land Run. After 1798 the confluence of Sugar Land Run with the Potomac River described the northern point of the boundary between Fairfax and Loudoun counties.
STOCK-LIND IT: cut it into sections before hewing it into square timbers.
Wednesday Feby. 6th. Fine warm day and the ground much dried. The wind which was extreamely little appeard to be shifting.
Colo. Fairfax & Mrs. Fairfax Dind here.
The Dr. sent his Servant down with things to Breechy. Grig came here this afternoon, worse and I had 15 Hogs arrivd from Bullskin.
Thursday Feby. 7th. The Hogs which arrivd Yesterday were killd--weighg. as follows viz.
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Out of which Jno. Foster recd. the remainder of his Years Provisions viz.
Doctr. Lauries Man attended the Sick this day also.
I went to Mr. Craigs Funeral Sermon at Alexandria--and there met my Waggons with 4 Hhds. Tobo. more. Unloaded & sent them down to Mt. Vernon.
One of the Boys that came down with them & the Hogs (Nat) was taken with the Meazles last Night.
The Wind was Southerly, and very warm & drying, but the Earth extreamely Rotton.
The funeral was probably for Charles Craig (Craik), who had rented a Mount Vernon quarter from GW since 1756.
Friday Feby. 8th. 1760. The Wind had got to No. West, but as it did not blew fresh, so neither was it cold.
Rode to my Plantatns. and orderd Lucy down to H[ome] House to be Physickd.
Saturday Feby. 9th. The Ground was a little crusted but not hard--a remarkable white Frost.
Visited my Plantation's before Sunrise & forbid Stephen's keeping any horses upon my Expence.
Set my Waggon's to draw in Stocks and Scantling, and wrote to Mr. Stuart of Norfolk for 20 or 30 or more thousd. shingles 6 Barrls. Tar 6 of Turpentine & 100 wt. of Tallow or Myrtle wax or half as much Candles.
Remarkable fine day but the Wind at No. Et.
MR. STUART: possibly Charles Steuart, a merchant in Norfolk active in the 1750s ( Va. Gaz., 12 Mar. 1752).
Sunday Feby. 10th. The Wind got to North and often, clouded up and threatend Rain but in the Evening at sunsetting it cleard and seemd to promise fair Weather.
Captn. Possey, and Mrs. Possey dind here. He obliquely hinted a design of selling his 145 Acres of Wood Land on Muddy hole.
Orderd all the Fellows from the different Quarter's to Assembly at Williamson's Quarter in the Morning to move Petits House.
On 20--21 Sept. 1759 GW's youngest brother, Charles Washington, had sold John Posey two separate tracts lying between Mount Vernon and Dogue
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Creek: one of about 200 acres on the Potomac River and the one mentioned here, which supposedly contained 145 acres of uncleared land and lay on Muddy Hole Branch, a tributary of Dogue Creek (Fairfax County Deeds, Book D-1, 669--73, Vi Microfilm). Not part of the original Mount Vernon tract, these lands had been bought for GW's father, Augustine, in 1738 and 1739 by Lawrence Washington and had subsequently been inherited by Charles (deed of William Spencer to Lawrence Washington, 1--2 Mar. 1738, Prince William County Deeds, Book D, 110--16, Vi Microfilm; deed of George Harrison to Lawrence Washington, 20--21 Nov. 1739, Prince William County Deeds, Book D, 425--29, Vi Microfilm; will of Augustine Washington, 11 April 1743, DLC:GW). Posey combined the tract on the Potomac with adjacent land that his wife held by right of dower from her first husband to form the plantation that he was farming, but he either did not want or could not afford to keep the tract on Muddy Hole Branch (see entry for 6 Mar. 1760).
Thomas Petit rented a Mount Vernon quarter from GW in 1759 and 1760, after which he disappears from GW's records.
Monday Feby. 11th. Went out early myself and continued with my People till 1 Oclock in which time we got the house abt. 250 yards. Was informd then that Mr. Digges was at my House upon which I retd. finding him & Doctr. Laurie there.
The Ground being soft and Deep we found it no easy matter with 20 hands and 8 Horses & 6 Oxen to get this House along.
Exceeding clear & fine, wind Northwardly.
The Digges family of Virginia and Maryland descended from Edward Digges, who settled in Virginia in the mid-seventeenth century and served as governor of Virginia 1655--57. His eldest son, William, later moved north of the Potomac River and founded the Maryland branch of the Digges family. The Mr. Digges who appears here is William Digges (1713--1783), a grandson of the elder William. This William, a prominent layman in the Roman Catholic church in Maryland, married Ann Atwood and lived at his plantation, Warburton Manor, across the Potomac River within sight of Mount Vernon. For many years the families of Warburton Manor and Mount Vernon exchanged visits across the Potomac.
Tuesday Feby. 12th. A Small Frost happening last Night to Crust the Ground causd the House to move much lighter and by 9 Oclock it was got to the spot on wch. it was intended to stand.
Visited at the Glebe the day being very fine clear & still. No wind blowing from any Quarter perceivably.
Sett Kate & Doll to heaping the Dung abt. the Stable.
Recd. a Letter & Acct. Currt. from Messrs. Hanbury the former dated Octr. 1--1759 the other Septr. 1st. same yr.
The Truro Parish glebe, which grew from 176 acres in 1752 to 385 in 1767, included a house and outbuildings for the Rev. and Mrs. Green (Truro
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Ann Atwood Digges, of Warburton, Prince George's County, Md. (Mr. and Mrs. Walter Slowinski)
Vestry Book, 70, 121, DLC). The house, begun in 1752 by Green and Thomas Waite, had been newly completed in 1760 by William Buckland (1734--1774), a talented joiner previously imported from England for the construction of George Mason's Gunston Hall.
The Hanbury firm, a powerful London merchant house, had served the Custis plantations for a number of years. On 12 June 1759 GW had written to the firm, then known as Capel & Osgood Hanbury, informing them of his marriage to Martha Custis and stating: "I must now desire that you will please to address all your Letters which relate to the Affairs of the Deceas'd Colo. Custis to me" (DLC:GW), which directions the Hanburys acknowledged in a letter to GW, 1 Oct. 1759 (DLC:GW).
Wednesday Feby. 13th. A fresh gale So. continued the whole day with clear and Warm Sun.
Visited all my Quarters.
Thursday Feby. 14th. Mr. Clifton came here and we conditiond for his Land viz., if he is not bound by some prior engagemt. I am to have all his Land in the Neck (500 Acres about his house excepted) and the Land commonly calld Brents for 1600 £ Curry. He getting Messrs. Digges &ca. to join in making me a good & Sufft. Title. But Note I am not bound to Ratifie this bargain unless Colo. Carlyle will let me have his Land adjoining Brents at half a Pistole an Acre.
Visited my Quarters and saw a plant patch burnt at the Mill.
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Brought home 4003 lbs. of Hay from Mr. Digges's.
The Southerly wind still continued to blow fresh till abt. 9 Oclock at Night and then it suddenly changd to No. Et. Clouded up, and threatned Rain every moment.
William Clifton (died c.1770) was descended from an English Roman Catholic family, several branches of which began leaving England for Maryland and Virginia in the mid-seventeenth century. William left England in the early eighteenth century and settled in Truro Parish, where he was living in 1739 when he bought 500 acres of the Neck land from his brother-in-law George Brent (d. 1778) of Stafford County. By 1760 Clifton's land was a plantation of about 1,806 acres in Clifton's Neck, which lay on the east side of Little Hunting Creek, facing the Potomac River, across which Clifton ran a ferry often used by GW.
BRENTS: George Brent's remaining land in the Neck, 238 acres lying between Little Hunting Creek and Clifton's plantation.
GW paid William Digges £14 for hay on 5 June 1760 (LEDGER A, 95).
Friday Feby. 15th. A Small fine Rain from No. Et. wet the Top of my Hay that had been landed last Night. It was all carted up however to the Barn & the Wet and dry seperated.
Went to a Ball at Alexandria--where Musick and Dancing was the chief Entertainment. However in a convenient Room detachd for the purpose abounded great plenty of Bread and Butter, some Biscuets with Tea, & Coffee which the Drinkers of coud not Distinguish from Hot water sweetned. Be it remembered that pocket handkerchiefs servd the purposes of Table Cloths & Napkins and that no Apologies were made for either. I shall therefore distinguish this Ball by the Stile & title of the Bread & Butter Ball.
The Proprietors of this Ball were Messrs. Carlyle Laurie & Robt. Wilson, but the Doctr. not getting it conducted agreeable to his own taste woud claim no share of the merit of it.
We lodgd at Colo. Carlyles.
A man named Robert Wilson voted for GW in the 1758 Frederick County election for the House of Burgesses.
GW apparently played cards at the ball, because on the following day he recorded the loss of 7s. "By Cards" (LEDGER A, 63).
Saturday Feby. 16. Returnd home--receiving an Invitation to Mrs. Chews Ball on Monday night next, first.
The Morning lowerd, and dript as yesterday, but abt. 10 Oclock the Wind So[uther]ly, blew fresh, and cleard.
Mercy Chew (d. 1775), with her husband Joseph Chew, kept a tavern in Alexandria which GW patronized in the early 1760s (Fairfax County Deeds, Book C-1, 63, Vi Microfilm; Fairfax County Wills, Book C-1, 244, Vi Microfilm; LEDGER A, 141, 160).
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Sunday Feby. 17th. The Wind blew cold & fresh from the No. West.
Went to Church & Dind at Belvoir.
Sent 4 Yews & Lambs to the Mill to be fatted.
Monday Feby. 18th. Dispatchd my Waggon with Tools &ca. for Frederick.
Sent over for two more Tons of Hay--to Mr. Digges.
The Morning was cold the Wind being at No. West. It afterwards changd to So. and grew more moderate but towards Night it agn. Shifted to the No. East, but made no perceptable change in the Air, as to heat or cold.
Tuesday Feby. 19th. Went to Court, and Administerd upon Nations Effects. Got Mr. Smiths Lease to me recorded and Mr. Johnston not having Darrels Deeds ready I was obligd to get the acknowledging of them postpond.
Recd. a Letter from my Brothr. Austin by Mr. Lane & answerd it.
Fine moderate day with a brisk Southerly Wind which brought up the Vessell with my Corn.
Mike and Tom began sawing in the Pit some considerable time after Sun rise and Cut 122 feet of Oak Scantling.
GW's first expansion of the Mount Vernon property occurred in Dec. 1757, when he bought two pieces of land on the plantation's northern boundary from Sampson Darrell (d. 1777) of Fairfax County: a tract of 200 acres on Dogue Run and an adjoining tract of 300 acres on Little Hunting Creek. The total price of these two tracts was?350, which GW paid with?260 in cash and a bond for?90 due in two years, and in return he received Darrell's bond guaranteeing him title to the land (LEDGER A, 49; bond of Darrell to GW, 20 Dec. 1757, ViMtV). But the official deeds were not immediately signed and recorded in court because the property was held under right of dower by Darrell's mother, Ann, for her lifetime; only after her death would it revert to Darrell as a surviving son. Thus, although GW owned Darrell's rights to the land, he could not obtain the deeds until Ann died or rented the land to him. GW did not have to await her death, because on 20 Sept. 1759 he signed a lease with her and her present husband, Thomas Smith (d. 1764) of Fairfax County, agreeing thereby to pay them 1,030 pounds of tobacco a year until Ann died (lease of Thomas and Ann Smith to GW, PHi: Gratz Collection; LEDGER A, 111). Having recorded the lease on this day, GW was eager to get and record Darrell's deeds, but he was obliged to wait for the May court session (deeds of Darrell to GW, 19--20 May 1760, Fairfax County Deeds, Book D-1, 681--92, Vi Microfilm).
Augustine Washington (1720--1762), half brother of GW by his father's first wife, Jane Butler, married Anne Aylett (d. 1773) and lived at Pope's Creek in Westmoreland County. GW usually called him "Austin." Mr. Lane was probably one of the three sons of William Lane (1690--1760) of Nomini Forest, Westmoreland County: James Lane (d. 1777), William Carr Lane (d. 1770), and Joseph Lane (d. 1796).
The Growth of Mount Vernon, 1754--86
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Map Key: The Growth of Mount Vernon, 1754--86
NOTE. The dates listed here are the ones on which GW first gained effective title to each tract. In several instances he rented land or purchased rights to it with the understanding that he would obtain full legal ownership at a later date. The Mount Vernon and mill tracts were leased in 1754 from
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Lawrence Washington's widow, Ann, for her lifetime and reverted to GW upon her death in 1761 by virtue of Lawrence's will. Darrell's rights to his 500 acres were bought in 1757, but because his mother had been given the land for her lifetime, arrangements had to be made with her, and the deeds were not signed until 19--20 May 1760. A dispute between John Posey and John West, Jr., over Posey's 6-acre strip on the Potomac delayed the signing of deeds for that land and West's property north of it. Thus, while GW began leasing both tracts during 1770, Posey did not deed the 6-acre strip to him until 8 June 1772 and West did not deed his land until 22 Sept. 1772. In the case of the Wade-Barry tract, GW had to wait for a division with Barry on 19 Sept. 1772 before taking possession of the land that he bought from Valinda Wade in 1770. Because a copy of that division has not been found, no line is shown on the map between the Wade and Barry portions. GW's purchase of Mrs. French's land in 1786 was conditioned on the payment of an annual rent to her by GW or his heirs until her death, which, as it happened, did not occur until after GW died.
The acreages given are based on GW's deeds and leases wherever possible and on contemporary ledger entries, quitrent lists, or letters in all other cases. However, these figures should not be considered exact because of the vagueness or inaccuracy of most eighteenth-century surveys. Thus, although GW was an experienced surveyor, he apparently did not know the precise total acreage of the Mount Vernon plantation as it existed at the time of his death. In an advertisement dated 1 Feb. 1796 offering the plantation for lease, he stated that it contained "altogether about eight thousand acres" (WRITINGS, 34:433--41), and in his will of 9 July 1799, he was equally vague, bequeathing the plantation in three sections: one to Bushrod Washington "containing upwards of four thousand acres, be the same more or less"; one to George Fayette Washington and Lawrence Augustine Washington "containing in the whole, by Deeds, Two thousand and seventy seven acres, be it more or less"; and one to Lawrence and Eleanor Parke Lewis containing "about two thousand Acres, be it more or less" (Fairfax County Courthouse). In the case of Bushrod Washington's land, the acreage was shown by an 1831 survey to be much less: 3,593 acres instead of 4,000 (ViMtV). The most accurate estimate of Mount Vernon's final size may be the one made by Warrington Gillingham, who surveyed the area in the 1850s and declared that the plantation had contained "about 7600 acres" (MUIR, between pp. 90 and 91).
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Wednesday Feby. 20. Landed 65 Barrels of Corn. Fine moderate day. Very little wind. George & Billy sawd 155 feet of Oak Scantling.
Thursday Feby. 21. Finished landing the Corn, which held out only 1½ Bushells above measure. Paid the Skipper for the Freight.
Visited at Mr. Clifton's and rode over his Lands--but in an especial manner view'd that tract calld Brents, which wd. have pleas'd me exceedingly at the price he offerd it at viz. half a pistole an Acre provided Colo. Carlyle's 300 Acres just below it coud be annexd at the same price and this but a few Months ago he offerd it at but now seeming to set a higher value upon it, and at the same time putting on an air of indifference inducd me to make Clifton another for his Land--namely £1700 Cury. for all his Lands in the Neck Including his own Plantn. &ca. which offer he readily accepted upon Condition of getting his wife to acknowledge her Right of Dower to it and of his success in this he was to inform me in a few days.
A fresh So[uther]ly Wind blew the whole day and often Clouds towards Night. It threatned <Rain very much.>
Clifton's wife was his cousin Elizabeth Brent (d. 1773), a daughter of Robert Brent of Woodstock, Stafford County, whose seventeenth-century ancestor Giles Brent had originally patented most of the land in what was now called Clifton's Neck. Mrs. Clifton's "Right of Dower" referred to that portion of the Neck which, although controlled by her husband under the law of marital right, could only be alienated (given or sold) by Mrs. Clifton, the legal owner. This situation was common in eighteenth-century Virginia; sometimes the wife allowed her husband to sell her land and sometimes not.
GW received a total of 100 barrels of corn. The shipping cost was £5 (LEDGER A, 63).
Friday Feby. 22. The Wind in the Night encreasd to a mere Storm and raind exceedg. hard; towards day it moderated and ceasd Raining but the whole day afterwards was Squally.
Laid in part the Worm of a fence round my Peach Orchard, & had it made. Waited on Lord Fairfax at Belvoir & engd. him to dine at Mt. Vernon on Monday next.
Upon my return found one of my best Waggon Horses (namely Jolly) with his right foreleg Mashd to pieces which I suppose
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Washington owned a copy of the work in which this drawing appears, William Gibson's A New Treatise on the Diseases of Horses, London, 1754. (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University)
happend in the Storm last Night by Means of a Limb of a tree or something of that sort falling upon him.
Did it up as well as I coud this Night.
This was GW's birthday according to the Gregorian calendar (see entry for 11 Mar. 1748), but there is no indication that he took note of it either on this day or 11 Feb., the Old Style date on which he actually was born. In 1798 and 1799 the citizens of Alexandria celebrated his birthday on or near the old date.
WORM OF A FENCE: the bottom course of rails in a rail fence.
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Saturday Feby. 23. Had the Horse slung upon Canvas and his leg fresh set--following Markhams directions as near as I coud.
Laid the Worm round my Apple Orchard & made the Fence.
The Wind for the first part was So[uther]ly but afterwards it shifted to No. West. blew fresh and grew a little Cool.
Captn. Bullet came here from Alexandria, and engagd to secure me some Lands on the Ohio being lately appointed Surveyor of a District there.
MARKHAM'S DIRECTIONS: Gervase Markham (1568--1637) wrote many treatises on diseases of cattle and horses. In 1759 GW purchased a much more current work, William Gibson's Treatise on the Diseases of Horses (London, 1751).
Thomas Bullitt, son of Benjamin Bullitt (d. 1766) of Fauquier County, served with GW in the Virginia Regiment, rising to captain. He was with GW at Fort Necessity and at Braddock's Defeat, and held his Virginians in a bloody skirmish at Grant's Defeat. For Bullitt's appointment as a surveyor, see George Mercer to GW, 17 Feb. 1760, DLC:GW.
Sunday Feby. 24th. Captn. Bullet dind here to day also. So did Mr. Clifton but the latter was able to give me no determinate answer in regard to his Land.
Was unprovided for a demand of £90 made by Mr. Alligood in favour of Messrs. Atchinson & Parker of Norfolk. My note of Hand to Sampson Darrel but promisd the payment, & Interest, at the April Court next.
Fresh Southerly Wind and Cloudy Weather.
MY NOTE: the two-year bond for £90 that GW had given Sampson Darrell as final payment for land bought from Darrell in Dec. 1757. Darrell had apparently used the bond to settle an account, and the firm of Aitcheson & Parker had now sent their collector to Mount Vernon for payment. GW paid them the £90 as promised while in Williamsburg in April (LEDGER A, 49, 89).
Monday Feby. 25th. Lord Fairfax, Colo. F[airfa]x & his Lady, Colo. Martin, Mr. B. F[airfa]x, Colo. Carlyle, & Mr. Green & Mrs. Green dind here.
So[uther]ly Wind and remarkable fine clear day. Set my People to Carting and carrying Rails round the Peach Orchard.
The Broken Legd. horse fell out of his Sling and by that means and strugling together hurt himself so much that I orderd him to be killd.
Thomas Bryan Martin (1731--1798), a nephew of Lord Fairfax, came to Virginia in 1751 and the next year was appointed land agent for the Fairfax Grant, taking up residence with Lord Fairfax at Greenway Court in the Shenandoah Valley. In 1758 Martin and GW were elected burgesses for
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Frederick County. Bryan Fairfax (1737--1802) was a half brother of George William Fairfax. After an erratic youth Bryan married Elizabeth Cary, a sister of Sarah Cary Fairfax, and settled in Fairfax County, making his home at Green Hill near Belvoir from 1761 until about 1765 when he went to England. He was one of GW's frequent fox-hunting companions before the Revolution.
Tuesday Feby. 26th. Began Plowing the Field by the Stable and Quarter for Oats and Clover. Set two plows to Work under the care of Mulatto, & Cook Jacks.
Layd the Worm round my Peach Orchard & had the Fence put up.
Made an absolute agreement with Mr. Clifton for his Land (so far as depended upon him) on the following terms--to wit, I am to give him £1150 Sterling for his Neck Lands, containg. 1806 Acres, and to allow him the use of this Plantn. he lives on till fall twelve months.
He on his part is to procure the Gentlemen of Maryland to whom his Lands are under Mortgage to join in a Conveyance and is to put me into possession of the Land so soon as this can be done. He is not to cut down any Timber, nor clear any Ground nor to use more Wood than what shall be absolutely necessary for Fences and firing. Neither is he to assent to any alterations of Tenants transferring of Leases &ca. but on the contrary is to discourage every practice that has a tendancy to lessen the value of the Land.
N.B. He is also to bring Mr. Mercers opinion concerning the validity of a private sale made by himself.
Went down to Occoquan, by appointment to look at Colo. Cockes Cattle, but Mr. Peakes being from home I made no agreemt. for them not caring to give the price he askd for them.
Calld & dind at Captn. McCarty's in my way home & left the order of Court appointing him and others to appraisers of Nation's Estate (which I had sent my Boy down for) and at the same time got a promise of him to Prize & Inspect his Tobo. at the Warehouse.
Bottled 35 dozn. of Cyder, the weather very warm, & Cloudy with some Rain last Night.
The "Gentlemen of Maryland" who held mortgages were Charles Carroll (1702--1782) of Annapolis, Benjamin Tasker (1690--1768) of Anne Arundel County, and William Digges, Ignatius Digges, and John Addison, all of Prince George's County. The Carroll and Digges families of Maryland had married into the Brent family of Maryland and Virginia, and all of these parties were now in the fifteenth year of a struggle over Clifton's Neck, producing a maze of lawsuits involving leases, inheritances, mortgages, injunctions,
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and ejectments. Clifton's suit for a final settlement in Virginia's General Court (sitting in chancery) was now awaiting the report of court-appointed commissioners, one of whom was GW.
Since the court case was still pending, the validity of such a "private sale" was a moot point, and GW wisely advised Clifton to seek a legal opinion. Mr. Mercer is probably John Mercer (1704--1768), who emigrated from Ireland to Virginia in 1720 and made his home near the Potomac River at Marlborough, Stafford County. As a lawyer Mercer became so aggressive in the courtroom that in 1734 he was barred from practice. He then turned to legal scholarship, spending the next few years preparing An Exact Abridgement of All the Public Acts of Assembly, of Virginia, in Force and Use, issued by the Virginia Gazette printer William Parks (Williamsburg, 1737; 2d ed., Glasgow, Scot., 1759). This work was the first such edition of Virginia's laws, and all county justices of the peace, including those who had complained about Mercer, were advised to possess a copy. Mercer himself was later appointed a justice of Stafford County. In the process of his scholarly pursuits, Mercer collected one of the finest libraries in the colony, about a third of which related to law.
GW had known John Mercer for years. Mercer's home of Marlborough, on the neck between Aquia and Potomac creeks, was only a few miles up the Potomac from the Chotank neighborhood, so well known to GW from youth and later so thickly populated with his cousins. As early as 1754 GW had asked for Mercer's legal advice regarding the disposition of Mount Vernon after Lawrence Washington's death. Mercer had also served the Custis family for 16 years during a major legal battle in which GW took an interest following his marriage to Martha Custis in 1759.
Speculating in large tracts of land in Fauquier and Loudoun counties, Mercer was also interested in western lands in the Ohio River valley. To pursue this interest the Mercers and the Lees were instrumental in forming the Ohio Company, although the two families later had a falling-out in the debate over the 1764 Stamp Act. While Mercer was the company's secretary, GW's brother Lawrence was its second president.
Two of John Mercer's sons served with GW in the Virginia Regiment, one of whom, John Fenton Mercer (1735--1756), was killed in battle. The other son, George Mercer (1733--1784)appears in the diaries along with other members of the family (see: HARRISON [1], 369; FREEMAN, 2:2, 290; COUNCIL, 232--35).
The Peake family of the Northern Neck descended in two branches through the two grandsons of John Peake the immigrant. The elder of the two grandsons was John Peake (d. 1758), of Prince William County, whose wife Lucy bore him eight sons. The younger grandson, William Peake (d. 1761), of Fairfax County, lived at Willow Spring in the fork of Little Hunting Creek and was hence GW's closest neighbor. William was a Truro Parish vestryman for many years, and upon his death GW was chosen by the vestry to take his place. William had two daughters, Sarah and Mary, and three sons, Humphrey, John, and William Jr., the last of whom served in the French and Indian War and died in 1756. Although it is the Willow Spring Peakes who usually appear in the diaries, the Mr. Peake mentioned here may have been a Peake of Prince William County (MCDONALD, 437--53).
From Daniel McCarty (d. 1724), planter of Pope's Creek, Westmoreland County, and Speaker of the House of Burgesses, 1715--18, were descended three branches of the Pope's Creek McCartys, many of whom appear in the
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diaries. Speaker Daniel's oldest son, Denis McCarty (d. 1742), founder of the Cedar Grove McCartys, married Sarah Ball in 1724 and settled at Cedar Grove, which was in Truro Parish when that parish was created in 1732. His oldest son, Daniel McCarty (d. 1792), whom GW refers to before the Revolution as "Captain" and afterwards as "Colonel," was in his lifetime one of the wealthiest men in Virginia (MAIN, 378--79). Captain McCarty, his wife Sinah Ball McCarty (d. 1798), and their six children, five of whom appear in the diaries, lived at Mount Air about three miles up Accotink Creek from Cedar Grove. Both McCarty homesteads were located a few miles down the Potomac River from Mount Vernon. Captain McCarty served in the Truro vestry 1748--84, and the Washingtons and McCartys often appear to have dined together after services at Pohick Church. Through his mother GW was related to both Captain McCarty and his wife.
Wednesday Feby. 27. Very little Wind & that Southerly but raind of and on the whole day.
Continued plowing while the Weather woud permit, and the People, viz. George, Kate, Doll, & little George were employd in Grubing the Field by the Garden.
Nations's horse that was destraind on for my Rent was sold at Publick Auction to Mr. Tom Triplet for £5.
Peter had got his Coal drawn & brought in one load.
Thomas Triplett (1732--1780) of Truro Parish was a son of Thomas Triplett (d. 1737). By 1763 he was living on the North Branch of Little Hunting Creek where he had rented a small plantation from George Mason of Gunston Hall (lease of Mason to Triplett, 26 April 1763, Fairfax County Deeds, Book E-1, 262--69, Vi Microfilm). In 1771 he leased additional land in that area from Mason and continued living there until his death (lease of Mason to Triplett, 19 Dec. 1771, Fairfax County Deeds, Book K-1, 14--23, Vi Microfilm). This land later passed to Mason's son Thomson Mason (1759--1820) and became part of Hollin Hall plantation (deed of George Mason to Thomson Mason, 16 June 1786, Fairfax County Deeds, Book Q-1, 249--54, Vi Microfilm). Thomas Triplett and his brother William regularly joined GW in fox hunting.
Thursday Feby. 28th. Measurd the Fields by the Quarter & Garden as the Fences was intended to be run and found Six Acres in the former & Nine in the Latter.
Also run the Round the Fields in the Lower pasture according as the dividing Fence is to go but the Compass being bad or some mistake happening I coud not close the plot with any exactness.
Finished Grubbing the Field by the Garden.
Between Sul [sun] setting & Dark, came Mr. Ramsay, Mr. Piper, Captn. Stanly & Captn. Littledale.
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Warm, & little or no wind the first part of the Day. Towards Night it clouded and the Wind getting No. Easterly it begn. raining & grew colder.
Bought 3000 Shingles a 22/6 of [ ] Newbold also wood ware, & Bees Wax.
Harry Piper (d. 1780), a merchant of Alexandria, was a factor for John Dixon & Isaac Littledale, of Whitehaven, Eng. Captain Stanley may have been Capt. Edward Stanley, who sailed in the tobacco trade for Peter How Co., also of Whitehaven (P.R.O., C.O.5/1447, f. 66).
GW paid Purnell Newbold a total of £5 4s. 7½.d. Maryland currency for his goods (LEDGER A, 89).
CLOSE THE PLOT: In running the lines of this survey, GW did not return to his exact beginning point as he should have, and thus a gap was left in the boundaries of the plot.
Friday Feby. 29th. The Rain continued by Intervals through the Night, and till afternoon when the Wind came to No. West and ceasd, growing clear. Stopd my Plows.
The Gentlemen Dind here to day and two, viz. Mr. Ramsay & Captn. Stanley, returnd to Alexandria. The others went to Belvoir.
A very great Circle rd. the Moon.
Saturday Mar. 1--1760. Finishd Bottling 91 dozn. Cyder.
The wind for the first part was at No. West & very cold, but shifting Easterly & then to So. it grew something warmer but continued Cloudy.
The Ground being hard froze stopd my Plows this day also--and employd all hands in running the dividing fence of my Pastures.
Traversd the Fields in the Lower Pasture again & set a Course from the head of the drain that Runs into my Meadow [ ] which leaves in the Tobo. House Field [ ] and in the other [ ].
Also found the contents of my Meadow to be [ ] and that the Pocoson at Cotton patch measurd [ ].
Note. The Ground cleard this year measures [ ] and the fallow Ground is only [ ]. The Marsh and Pocoson at the Creek point contains [ ].
POCOSON (pocosin): from an Algonquin Indian word meaning a tidal swamp in its last stages before turning into dry land. In the miry pocosin soil,
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alternately covered and uncovered by water, would grow grass, shrubs, and pine trees.
Sunday Mar. 2. The Morning calm & Serene. About 10 Oclock the Wind freshned from the No. West, and died away by two. At 5 it came Southerly & blew again seeming unsettled.
Mr. Clifton came here to day, & under pretence of his Wife not consenting to acknowledge her Right of Dower wanted to disengage himself of the Bargain he had made with me for his Land on the 26th. past and by his Shuffling behaviour on the occasion convincd me of his being the trifling body represented.
Monday Mar. 3d. Bought 100 Bushels of Oats at ⅙. of Reuben Joyne.
Finishd plowing the Clover field but not the dividing Fence in the Pastures.
Wind for the most part was Southerly--sometimes blewing fresh & at other times quite calm but the day was cloudy & felt cold till towards Night.
Tuesday Mar. 4th. Rain without Intermission till Noon--thence at Intervals till Night, with strong So[uther]ly wind the whole time.
Plows Stopd--but the dividing fence finishd. Gave up the Horse Cart, & the Dun horse and Jack to R. Stephens.
Wednesday Mar. 5. High Wind from the West--the day clear & somewhat cold. Began plowing the field by the Garden for Lucern.
Put in the great bay mare (& horse) King. The latter coud not be prevaild upon to plow. The other did very well: but the Plows run very badly.
Finishd Plow Harness for my Chariot Horses.
LUCERN: alfalfa or lucerne, Medicago sativa. Although this perennial legume is widely grown in Virginia today as a hay crop, GW tried unsuccessfully for at least 35 years to raise it. On 12 Sept. 1795 he wrote to Jefferson that he was giving it up because, even with manuring, he had experienced less success with it than with chicory. He probably would have fared better by using more limestone, and much better had he had available the inoculating bacteria in use today for such nitrogen-fixing crops.
Thursday Mar. 6. Fitted a two Eyed Plow instead of a Duck Bill Plow and with much difficulty made my Chariot Wheel horses plow.
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Surveyd Captn. Posseys 145 Acres of Woodland Ground which he bought of my Bror. Chs. & find some of the Courses and distances to vary from those in the Deeds and that 136 Acres only, are Included.
Also run the upper Courses of Frens Land and find some great Errors as may be seen by my Plot of it.
Wind Southerly & day fine.
Charles Washington (1738--1799) was married in 1757 to Mildred Thornton, daughter of Col. Francis Thornton of Spotsylvania County, and was probably living in the Fredericksburg area at this time. Although GW was very interested in buying lands near Mount Vernon, he did not purchase the woodland tract from Posey, and it was sold 16--17 June 1760 to Daniel French for £217 10s. (Fairfax County Deeds, Book D-2, 730--36, Vi Microfilm).
Henry Trenn (variously spelled Tren, Frenn, and Fren), who died in 1751, had owned a tract of about 300 acres on the west bank of Dogue Run, above the road from Gum Spring to Colchester. In 1750 he had sold 94 acres at the lower end of the tract to GW's half brother Lawrence, and the remainder was inherited at his death by two of his orphaned children, Absolom and Diana (deed of Trenn to Lawrence Washington, 4 Feb. 1750, Fairfax County Deeds, Book C-1, 152--53, Vi Microfilm; will of Trenn, 3 Oct. 1751, Fairfax County Wills, Book A-1, 490--91, Vi Microfilm). Absolom had apparently died since his father's death, and the tract was now solely owned by Diana, who was living in Maryland.
Friday Mar. 7th. Fine Morning, but Cloudy Afternoon, wind Southerly.
Put the Poll end Horses into the Plow in the Morng. and the Postilion & hand Horse in the Afternoon but the Ground being well sworded over & very heavy plowing I repented putting them in at all for fear it should give them a Habit of Stopping in the Chariot.
Saturday Mar. 8. No. Et. Wind & Rain--Plows stopd.
Gave Captn. Cawseys Skipper namely William Vicars--1 Tobo. Note and an Order on Hunting Creek Warehouses for 7 Hhds. of my Mountain Tobo.
John Cawsey was captain of the Tyger, a 120-ton British-built ship which took a crew of nine and sailed in the Virginia tobacco trade for John Farrel & Co. of Bristol, Eng. William Vicars was probably Cawsey's first mate. HUNTING CREEK WAREHOUSES: These tobacco warehouses at Alexandria had been established by the inspection acts of 1730 and 1732 (see entry for 25 Jan. 1760).
Sunday Mar. 9. No. Et. wind, and Snow by Intervals the whole day.
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Monday Mar. 10th. No. W. wind and clear, but the Ground too Wet for Plowing.
Rode to my Plantation and the Mill, & there partly agreed with Jerry Mitchell to rebuild my Mill when She runs dry in the Summer.
Dispatchd Mulatto Jack to Frederick for some Mares from thence to Plow.
The Snow (which was not more than an Inch & half deep) was entirely dissolvd today.
Jeremiah Mitchell, an independent artisan, contracted to do this repair work for 4s. 6d. a day. He put in 97 days in all, finishing the job by 1 Dec. 1760 (LEDGER A, 102).
Tuesday Mar. 11th. Visited at Colo. Fairfax and was informd that Clifton had sold his Land to Mr. Thompsons Mason for 1200 £ Sterlg. which fully unravelled his Conduct on the 2d. and convincd me that he was nothing less than a thorough pacd Rascall--disregardful of any Engagements of Words or Oaths not bound by Penalties.
The day clear but something cold, Wind at No. West.
George William Fairfax was one of GW's fellow commissioners in the Clifton case. Thomson Mason (1733--1785), a younger brother of George Mason, lived in St. Mary' County, Maryland. Mason moved c. 1764 to Stafford County, Va., and c. 1771 to Raspberry Plain in Loudoun County. He
This pastel of Thomson Mason, brother of George Mason of Gunston Hall, is apparently from a miniature done from life. (Board of Regents of Gunston Hall)
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studied law in England at the Middle Temple and in 1760 was a burgess for Stafford County.
Wednesday Mar. 12. Returnd home, Mrs. Carlyle accompanying us, the day being exceeding fine. Wind at South.
Found William Lodwick here with one Beef from Frederick. He set of with two but lamd the other and left him at Ricd. Colemans at the Sugar Lands.
Lodwick was apparently hired for this job only. In 1756 Richard Coleman (d. 1764) and his son James received a license to run an ordinary on the Leesburg Pike at Sugar Land Run.
Thursday Mar. 13th. Incessant Rain and No. Et. Wind.
Mr. Carlyle (who came here from Port Tobo. Court last Night) and Mrs. Carlyle were confind here all day.
Mulatto Jack returnd home with the Mares he was sent for, but so poor were they, and so much abusd had they been by my Rascally Overseer Hardwick that they were scarce able to go highlone, much less to assist in the business of the Plantations.
Merchants or their agents regularly made rounds of county courts, which met monthly to transact business and legal cases. Port Tobacco was the seat of Charles County, Md.
HIGHLONE: alone, without support.
Friday Mar. 14th. No. Et. Wind & rain witht. Intermission till after Noon. The Rain then abated, but clouds continued.
Mr. Carlyle & his Wife still remaind here. We talkd a good deal of a Scheme of setting up an Iron Work on Colo. Fairfax's Land on Shannondoah. Mr. Chapman who was proposd as a partner being a perfect Judge of these matters was to go up and view the Conveniences and determine the Scheme.
Colonel Fairfax's land on the Shenandoah River included the east bank of the crossing for Vestal's ferry. Carlyle and his brother-in-law George William Fairfax went ahead with the ironworks project. Nathaniel Chapman, who died later this year, had iron experience both with the Principio Company of Maryland and the Accokeek works in Stafford County. Chapman had also served as an executor for the estates of Augustine and Lawrence Washington, both of whom had had interests in ironworks.
Saturday Mar. 15. Snowd in the Morng. but afterwards clearing. Mr. Carlyle and his Wife returnd home.
Wm. Lodwick & the boy (Nat) who came down with him went up for the lame Beef they left upon the Road coming down.
The Vast quantity of Rain which had fallen in the last two
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days had Swelld the Waters so high that dogue Run carried of the Tumbling Dam of my Mill and was near carrying of the House also.
Wind at No. Et. & fair from a settled Sky. Sent word to Mr. Clifton by my Negro Will that I shoud be glad to see him here in the Morning having something to propose to him.
The bad Weather this Week put a Total stop to plowing except a little on Wednesday with one Plow.
GW's dam was an earthwork with a tumbling bay, or spillway, in one portion. Excess water flowed over this outfall, normally preventing the water level behind the dam from rising too high. But on this occasion water came downstream faster than it could flow out the spillway, and the dam collapsed.
Sunday Mar. 16th. In the Morning early began Snowing with a Strong No. Et. Wind and continued without the least Intermission, or Remission till dark, & how long after I know not.
Monday Mar. 17th. The Snow this Morng. was much drifted, & many places of considerable depth. It kept Snowing by Intervals till Noon & appeard unsettled the whole day.
Went to my Mill and took a view of the Ruins the Fresh had causd. Determind however to repr. it with all expedition & accordingly set my Carpenters to making Wheel & Handbarrows.
Beef from Coleman's was brought down.
Mr. Possey being here and talking of the Orphan Fren's Land adjoining mine on Dogue Run, he undertook to purchase it for me of the said Orphan Diana, who lives at Nangemy in Maryland with one--Wright who I think he said Married her Aunt.
Mr. Possey thinks it may be bought for £50 or 60 pound & there shoud be 207 Acres of it.
Posey finally purchased this land for GW in 1764, by which time Diana had married William Whiting. The Whitings received £75 in several installments for the property, which was then estimated to contain 200 acres (LEDGER A, 168; GW's list of quitrent lands for 1764, DLC:GW).
Nanjemoy, according to an English traveler who saw it in 1774, was "a small Village of about five houses" lying west of Nanjemoy Creek in Charles County, Md. All the inhabitants were planters except two men who ran a store there (CRESSWELL, 17).
Tuesday Mar. 18th. Cool in the morning, Wind at No. West, but afterwards Shifting to South grew more moderate and Melted the Snow much.
Went to Court partly on my own private Business and partly on Cliftons Affair but the Commissioners not meeting nothing
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was done in regard to the Latter. Much discourse happend between him and I con<cer>ning his ungenerous treatment of me. The whole turning to little Acct. tis not worth reciting here the result of which was that for £50 more than Mr. Mason offerd him he undertook if possible to disengage himself from that Gentleman & to let me have his Land. I did not think Myself restraind by any Rules of Honour, Conscience or &ca. from makeg. him this offer as his Lands were first engagd to me by the most Solemn assurances that any Man coud give.
Mr. Johnston not being in Town I coud not get Mr. Darrel's Deeds to me acknowledgd.
Killd the Beeves that came from Frederick.
The following month this move by GW in the Clifton affair was criticized by the General Court sitting in chancery. GW was putting himself into a potentially awkward situation, for as a commissioner he was responsible for giving a disinterested report to the chancery court on how the Clifton case should be settled.
GW dined today at Mrs. Chew's tavern (LEDGER A, 89).
Wednesday Mar. 19. Cold Southerly Wind & Lowring Weather till towds. Evening when the Clouds dispersing it became more moderate.
Peter (my Smith) and I after several efforts to make a plow after a new model--partly of my own contriving--was fiegn to give it out, at least for the present.
Snow but little dissolvd. Colo. Fairfax & Mrs. Fx. came here in the Evening.
Thursday Mar. 20th. Cold Northerly Wind. Colo. F[airfa]x and I set out to Alexa. by appointmt, to Settle & adjust (with the other Comrs.) Cliftons & Carrols accts. conformable to a decree of our Genl. Court but not being able to accomplish it then the 28th. was a further day appointed to meet and my house the place resolvd upon.
The other commissioners were Rev. Charles Green and John West, Jr., now sheriff of Fairfax County. It was the common practice in such cases for the court to appoint four commissioners, any three of whom could act as a quorum.
Friday Mar. 21st. Colo. Fairfax & Mrs. Fx. returnd home. The Wind being No. Easterly the Morng. and indeed the best half of the day was very Cold and Cloudy. The Wind towards Evening seemd to be getting So[uther]ly.
Brought 47 Bushels of Wheat from my Mill.
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Saturday March 22d. Cold southerly Wind and Cloudy, with Rain from 10 O'clock till Night.
Doctr. Laurie came here. Agreed with George Taylor for 3 Sows and Pigs--at 45/.
Taylor is a local small planter who apparently moved to Loudoun County later in 1760.
Sunday Mar. 23d. Southerly Wind and Warm. Miss Fairfax & Miss Dent came here.
Hannah Fairfax was a younger sister of George William Fairfax. Miss Dent was possibly Elizabeth Dent (1727--1796) or one of her younger sisters, all daughters of Peter Dent (c.1694--1757), Of Whitehaven, on Mattawoman Creek in the Piscataway region of Prince George's County, Md. (NEWMAN, 36--39).
Monday Mar. 24th. Began repairing my Mill Dam--with hands from all my Quarters Carpenters Included.
In digging Earth for this purpose great Quantities of Marie or Fullers Earth appeard.
In the Evening, in a Bed that had been prepard with a mixture of Dung on Saturday last, I sowed Clo<ver,> Lucerne, & Rye Grass Seeds in the Garden, to try their Goodness--doing it in the following Order. At the end next the Corner are two Rows of Clover Seed--in the 3d., 4, 5 & 6th. Rye Grass the last Row thinest Sowd 7th. & 8th. Barley (to see if it woud come up) the last also thinnest Sown--9, 10, 11, 12th. Lucerne--first a few seeds at every 4 Inches distance the next thicker & so on to the last wch. was very thick.
Carried the Sows I bot. of George Taylor to my Mill by Water.
The carpenters were needed to work on the spillway, which was made of timber. In addition, the dam probably had a timber foundation and may have been further strengthened by vertical planking on its upstream or downstream sides or in its center (CRAIK [1], 167--70).
CLOVER SEED: Trifolium pratense, red clover. Unless he specifies another dover by name, GW is referring to this species.
Tuesday Mar. 25th. Set one Plow to Work on the Field below the Garden.
All hands being employd on the Dam again the Water was Stopd. and the Work in a fair way of receiving a finish by tomorrow Night.
The Wind was Southerly--the Day Changeable.
Mrs. Possey, & some young woman whose name was unknown to any Body in this family, dind here.
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Milling machinery as depicted by Oliver Evans in The Young Mill-Wright and Miller's Guide, Philadelphia, 1795. (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University)
Wednesday Mar. 26. One Plow at Work today also.
Miss Dent & Miss Fairfax returnd home.
My Dam was entirely compleated by Evening.
Spent the greatest part of the day in making a new plow of my own Invention.
Wind at No. West & very boisterous.
Thursday Mar. 27. Southerly Wind, day warm and very fine.
Sat my Plow to work and found She Answerd very well in the
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Field in the lower Pasture wch. I this day began Plowing with the large Bay Mare & Rankin. Mulatto Jack conting. to Plow the Field below the Garden.
Agreed to give Mr. William Triplet £18 to build the two houses in the Front of my House (plastering them also) and running Walls for Pallisades to them from the Great house & from the Great House to the Wash House and Kitchen also.
William Triplett (d. 1803) of Truro Parish lived with his wife Sarah Peake Triplett at Round Hill about four miles northwest of Mount Vernon. He had participated in a recent remodeling of GW's mansion house, doing brickwork on the foundation and chimneys and plastering the interior of the house. His bill for those jobs, which totaled £52 8s. 4d., had been discharged by GW on 26 Feb. 1760 (LEDGER A, 72). GW had planned to have the two outbuildings mentioned here built earlier, but Triplett's many engagements to work for other planters in the area had prevented him from undertaking the task until now (John Patterson to GW, 2 Sept. 1758, DLC:GW).
Friday Mar. 28. According to appointment, Colo. F<airfa>x & Mr. Green met here upon Clifton's Affair, he being present as was Mr. Thompson Mason (as Council for him). Mr. Digges and Mr. Addison were also here and after examining all the Papers and Accts. on both sides, and stating them in the manner wch. seemd most equitable to Us, the debt due from Mr. Clifton according to that Settlement amounted to £[ ] that is to say--to Mr. Carroll £[243 135.1d.] to Mr. Tasker pr. Mr. Digges [£304 155.3d.] to Do. pr. Mr. Addison [£364 19s.].
We also agreed to report several things which appeard necessary, as well, in behalf of Mr. Clifton as the other party.
The Gentlemen from Maryland, Mr. Mason & Clifton left this; but Colo. Fairfax and Mr. Green stayd the Night.
Abt. Noon Mulatto Jack finishd plowing the Field below the Garden and went into the lower Pasture to work.
Sun shone Warm but the Wind blew strong from South.
The Addison family of Maryland descended from John Addison, who emigrated from England in 1677. His son Thomas Addison (1679--1727) built the family home of Oxon Hill in Prince George's County, Md., across the Potomac from Alexandria. By his second wife, Eleanor Smith Addison, Thomas had one daughter and four sons, one of whom was John Addison (1713--1764) of Oxon Hill, who appears here.
The gross amounts filled in here are taken from the Virginia General Court decree of 12 April 1760 (NjWoG). They are probably the amounts decided upon at this meeting but left blank by GW because interest and court costs were still to be figured into the final totals.
Saturday Mar. 29th. About noon sat one Plow into the Fallow Ground below the Hill, & about an hour before Sunset the other.
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Fresh and variable Wind chiefly from South. Carried out about [ ] Tumbril Load of Dung from the Stable upon the Clover Field.
Sunday Mar. 30th. Little Wind, but moist Weather. A misty Rain continuing at Short Intervals through the day.
Monday Mar. 31st. Strong So[uther]ly Wind in the first part of the day with light Showers but Abt. Noon the Wind got No[rther]ly.
Went to Belvoir (according to Appointment on the 28th. past) and drew up and Signd a Report of our Proceedings in Clifton's affair to be sent with the Accts. to the Genl. Court.
Finishd plowing the Fallowd Ground abt. Sun Setting.
Mr. Walter Stuart who I met with at Belvoir gave me a Letter from Dr. Macleane and another from Bishop.
The Latter very desirous of returning but enlisted in the 44th. Regimt. the Former wrote to Colo. Byrd to ask his discharge of the Genl.
Wrote to Lieutt. Smith to try if possible to get me a Careful Man to Overlook my Carpenters. Wrote also to Harwick ordering down two Mares from thence & desiring him to engage me a Ditcher. Inclosd a Letter from my Brother Jno. to his Overseer Farrell Littleton and directed him what to do if the Small pox shd. come amongst them.
REPORT: The report included a recommendation that all sales by Clifton be set aside in favor of an auction. See entry for 28 Mar.
Dr. Lauchlin MacLeane (d. 1778), of England, served with units of the British army and practiced medicine in Philadelphia 1755--61. MacLeane, Steuart, Bishop, Byrd, and GW had all served together in the Forbes expedition against Fort Duquesne in 1758. GW knew that MacLeane was now in Philadelphia and may have written to Bishop in care of the doctor (see entry for 25 Jan. 1760). The 44th Regiment was brought from Ireland for Braddock's campaign and may have been Bishop's old unit. Col. William Byrd III (1729--1777), of Westover, had succeeded GW as commander of the Virginia Regiment, now stationed at Winchester. Bishop did not appear at Mount Vernon until Sept. 1761, when he resumed his service which continued to his death 33 years later.
Lt. Charles Smith, who was given command of Fort Loudoun at Winchester in 1758, had been recommended to that post by GW as an officer both "diligent" and "exceedingly industrious" (GW to John Blair, 28 May 1758, DLC:GW). Having lost an arm in the service, Smith received a life pension from the House of Burgesses on the recommendation of a committee which included GW (H.B.J., 1761--65, 179, 185).
DITCHER: a man who was employed to build and repair ditches. The customary boundaries delineating
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GW's fields consisted of two parallel ditches with a row of dense hedge along the center ridge. They served the dual purpose of draining wet lands and making it more difficult for livestock to pass through the hedge.
GW's brother John Augustine Washington (1736--1787), who lived at Bushfield in Westmoreland County, had inherited land in Frederick County which lay near GW's Bullskin plantation.
Tuesday April 1 -- 1760. Crossd plowd the Fallow Field to day wch. contains 3.2.38 wch. shews that 2 Acres a day in Level ground already broke up may easily be accomplishd.
Doctor Laurie came here.
The Wind at No. West. Weather clear, somewhat Cool and drying.
Moon at its first rising remarkably red.
Recd. a Letter from Mr. Digges, Inclosing a Packet for Messrs. Nichos. & Withe wch. he desird I woud send under Cover to some Friend of mine in Williamsburg as it was to go by Clifton suspecting that Gentleman woud not deal fairly by it.
Began to prepare a Small piece of Ground of abt. [ ] Yards Square at the lower Comer of my Garden to put Trefoil in--a little Seed given me by Colo. F[airfa]x Yesterday.
The next day GW wrote a covering letter to accompany the packet. In the letter, addressed to Benjamin Waller, of the General Court, GW recited his differences with Clifton and Thomson Mason and argued strongly for his own position, which was that the court should "confirm the Opinion of the Commissioners" (2 April 1760, ViMtV). Of the two interested parties named Digges, this reference is probably to William, since Ignatius, as an agent for Charles Carroll of Annapolis, consistently refused to cooperate in the Clifton proceedings (GW to Carroll, 31 July 1791, DLC:GW). In 1760 Robert Carter Nicholas (1728--1780), a burgess for York County, and George Wythe (1726--1806), the burgess for the College of William and Mary, were already recognized as having two of Virginia's most talented legal minds.
CONTAINS 3.2.38: He means 3 acres, 2 roods, 38 perches. A rood is 40 square rods or ¼ acre; a perch is 1 square rod or 1/160 acre.
TREFOIL: Trifolium procumbens, hop clover, or hop trefoil. GW is probably referring to this plant when he mentions yellow dover and yellow trefoil.
Wednesday Apl. 2d. Got the above Ground ready for Sowing tomorrow. Begn. to Cross plow the first plowd Ground in the lower Pasture endeavouring to get it in Order for Sowg. Lucerne Seed In.
A Drying Southerly Wind & Warm.
Thursday April 3d. Sowd 17½ Drills of Trefoil Seed in the ground adjoining the Garden, numbering from the side next the
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Stable (or Work Shop) the residue of them viz. 4 was sowd with Lucerne Seed--both done with design to see how these Seeds answer in that Ground.
Sowd my Fallow Field in Oats to day, and harrowed them in viz. 10½ Bushels. Got done about three Oclock.
Cook Jack after laying of the Lands in this Field went to plowing in the 12 Acre Field where they were Yesterday as did the other plow abt. 5 oclock after Pointing.
Got several Composts and laid them to dry in order to mix with the Earth brot. from the Field below to try their several Virtues.
Wind blew very fresh from South. Clouds often appeard, and sometimes threatned the near approach of Rain but a clear setting Sun seemd denoted the Contrary.
SOWD . . . OATS TO DAY: Avena sativa, the "common oat" in GW's papers. GW did far less experimenting with varieties of oats than with wheat or field peas, perhaps because there was less selection in process among English and American growers. While president, he wrote to manager James Anderson, 29 Jan. 1797, that he was obtaining several bushels of an oat from beyond the Alleghenies "of a quality, it is said, inferior to none in the world" (DLC:GW). See entry for 8 Mar. 1787 for a note on the Poland oat.
Friday Apl. 4th. Sowd abt. one Bushl. of Barley in a piece of Ground near the Tobo. House in the 12 Acre Field.
Harrowd, & crossd Harrowd the Ground in the sd. Field intended for Lucerne.
Apprehending the Herrings were come Hauled the Sein but catchd only a few of them tho a good many of other sorts. Majr. Stewart and Doctr. Johnston came here in the Afternoon and at Night Mr. Richie attended by Mr. Ross solliciting Freight--promisd none.
BUSHL. OF BARLEY: Hordeum vulgare, barley. Here GW is sowing spring barley, but his common practice is to use the winter variety (see entry for 2 Sept. 1763). "I tried it [spring barley] two or three years unsuccessfully" (GW to William Pearce, 23 Mar. 1794, NBLiHi). Elsewhere he mentions summer barley, Minorca barley, and English barley. For naked barley, see entry for 3 May 1788, and for bere barley, see entry for 10 April 1787.
Herring came up the rivers of tidewater Virginia and Maryland every spring to spawn near the falls (VOYAGE, 335). On 15 Mar. 1760 Cary & Co. of London sent GW an invoice listing two new fish seines which were described as being "35 fathoms long each, each 20 feet deep all through, made of the best 3 thd. laid twine, small Inch Meshes, hung loose on the lines & well fixd with Leads & Corks" (DLC:GW). Those seines, however, probably did not arrive in time to be of much use to GW during this fishing season.
Robert Stewart entered the Virginia Regiment in 1754. He was soon made captain and was with GW at Braddock's Defeat, becoming
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Washington eventually gave up trying to raise lucerne, now called alfalfa. From Farmer's Magazine, Sept. 1776. (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University)
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one of GW's favorite officers. In the fall of 1758 he became brigade major of the Virginia troops on GW's recommendation, and in 1760 he was still in the service, stationed at Winchester. Dr. Johnston is probably Robert Johnston (Johnson), originally of James City County, who served as the surgeon in both GW's and Col. William Byrd's Virginia Regiments; he may have been attending the Virginia troops in Winchester at this time. Johnston, who voted for GW in the lively 1758 burgesses' election in Frederick County, died in Frederick County in 1763 (CROZIER [1], 40; election poll for Frederick County, 24 July 1758, DLC:GW).
Archibald Ritchie (d. 1784) was a Scottish merchant in Hobbs Hole (Tappahannock, on the Rappahannock River, Essex County). Hector Ross, a merchant at Colchester, Fairfax County, bought tobacco and Indian corn from GW, and his establishment, in turn, served as a local store of convenience for clothing and minor necessities for GW's white servants, his tenants, and his slaves.
Saturday Apl. 5th. Planted out 20 young Pine trees at the head of my Cherry Walk.
Recd. my Goods from York.
Hauld the Sein again catchd 2 or 3 White Fish more Herring than Yesterday & a great Number of Cats.
Richie and Ross went away.
Made another Plow the same as my former excepting that it has two Eyes and the other one.
So[uther]ly Wind, but not so fresh as that wch. blew Yesterday. However, it blew up a little Rain abt. Dark with a good deal of Lightning & some Thunder.
WHITE FISH: shad. These fish usually ran in large numbers during April and May. CATS: catfish (VOYAGE, 335).
Sunday April 6th. Wind at No. Et. and Cool. About 3 Oclock it began Raining and continued to do so (moderately) for about an hour when it cleard, the Wind shifting So[uther]ly.
I just perceivd the Rye grass Seed wch. I sowd in the Garden to try its goodness was beginning to come up pretty thick; the Clovr., Lucerne, & Barley I discoverd above Ground, on the first Instant.
Majr. Stewart & Doctr. Johnston set out for Winchesr.
Monday April 7th. Raind till 6 Oclock pretty hard and then cleard--Wind So[uther]ly and Cloudy all day.
In the Evening Colo. Frog came here, and made me an offer of 2400 Acres of Land wch. he has in Culpeper for £400. This Ld. Lyes (according to his acct.) 46 Miles above The Falls of Rappahannock--is well Water'd Timberd & of a Fertile Soil--no Impr[ove]ments on it. I told him that I woud get Captn. Thomas
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Fitzhugh to give me his Opinion of the Land when he went next to his Quarter not far from it--or I woud take it in my way from Fredk. when I next went up there as it lies he says only 8 Miles from the place where Josh. Nevil livd at the Pignut Ridge.
One Captn. Kennelly lives within a Mile of the Land and is well acquainted with it.
People kept Holliday.
Col. John Frogg was living in Fauquier County but held land across Hedgman's River in Culpeper County. The falls were just above Fredericksburg. Capt. Thomas Fitzhugh (1725--1768) lived at Boscobel in King George (now Stafford) County. Many of the military ranks held by men appearing in the diaries are in the colonial militia, in which the highest rank was that of colonel; Fitzhugh was a captain in the militia. Joseph Neville (many spellings) lived in the vicinity of the Neville's ordinary shown on the 1755 edition of the Fry-Jefferson Map. KENNELLY: probably James Kennerley, of Culpeper County, whose land was close to John Frogg's (PRICHARD, 31).
HOLLIDAY: Easter Monday.
Tuesday April 8th. What time it began Raining in the Night I cant say, but at day break it was pouring very hard, and continued so, till 7 oclock when a Messenger came to inform me that my Mill was in great danger of blowing. I immediately hurried off all hands with Shovels &ca. to her assistance and got there myself just time enough to give her a reprieve for this time by Wheeling dirt into the place which the Water had Washd.
While I was here a very heavy Thunder Shower came on which lasted upwards of an hour.
Here also, I tried what time the Mill requird to grind a Bushel of Corn and to my Surprize found She was within 5 Minutes of an hour about. This old Anthony attributed to the low head of Water (but Whether it was so or not I cant say--her Works all decayd and out of Order wch. I rather take to be the cause).
This Bushel of Corn when Ground measurd near a Peck more Meal.
No. Et. Wind and Cloudy all day. Towards Night it dripd of Rain.
The mill was probably a small, one- or two-story wooden structure with an overshot or breast wheel and a single set of grinding stones. GW's assessment of the mill's machinery must have been correct, but Anthony recognized an equally important problem. The head of water was not high enough to generate much force when the water fell on the wheel, and without more power, better machinery could not be used to its full capacity. Some work was done on the millrace by Hosea Bazell during the late summer, but any improvement made in the head of water was probably minimal (LEDGER A,
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102). Jerry Mitchell apparently confined his efforts this year to rebuilding the mill's internal works.
The slave carpenter Anthony was in his middle fifties when he was brought to Mount Vernon in 1759 as part of Martha Custis's dower. GW made him his miller but the next year reassigned him to the crew of carpenters, where by 1762 he had become head slave carpenter. After 1763 Anthony disappears from GW's tithable lists.
Wednesday Apl. 9th. Wind at No. Et. Very Cloudy and sometimes Misty.
The Heavy Rains that had fallen in this few days past had made the Ground too wet for Plowing; I therefore set about the Fence which Incloses my Clover Field.
Doctr. Laurie came here. I may add Drunk.
Observd the Trefoil wch. I sowd on the 3d. Inst. to be coming up, but in a Scattg. manner. The Lucerne wch. was sewd at the same time and in the same manner appeard much better; & forwarder.
Thursday Apl. 10th. Mrs. Washington was blooded by Doctr. Laurie who stayd all Night.
This Morning my Plows began to Work in the Clover Field, but a hard Shower of Rain from No. Et. (where the Wind hung all day) abt. 11 Oclock, stopd them for the Remainder of the day. I therefore Employd the hands in making two or three hauls of the Sein, & found that the Herrings were come.
Val Crawford brought 4 Hhds. of my Mountain Tobo. to the Warehouses in Alexa. two in my own Waggon and with a Plow such as they use mostly in Frederick came here in the Night.
He informd me of my worthy Overseer Hardwicks lying since the 17th. Ulto. in Winchester of a Broken Leg.
Valentine Crawford (d. 1777) lived near GW's Bullskin plantation in Frederick County and was regularly hired to bring down GW's mountain tobacco from those quarters. Valentine was the brother of Col. William Crawford (1732--1782) and half brother to John, Hugh, Richard, and Marcus Stephenson, sons of Richard and Onora (neée Grimes) Crawford Stephenson, all of whom appear in the diaries.
Friday Apl. 11th. Set one Plow to Work again in the Morning the other about 10 Oclock in the Clover Field.
Tryd the new Plow brot. Yesterday, found she did good Work and run very true but heavy--rather too much so for two Horses, especially while the Gd. was moist.
Abt. 11 Oclock set the People to Hauling the Sein and by Night
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and in the Night Catchd and dressd [ ] Barrels of Herring and 60 White Fish.
Observd that the Flood tide was infinitely the best for these Fish.
The Wind came fresh from So. Et. the day Cool. Cloudy till Noon, but very clear promising settled Weather afterwards.
After cleaning, the catch was packed with salt into barrels and stored for use on the plantation, fish being a staple of the slaves' diet (MIDDLETON [2], 202--5).
Saturday April 12th. Hard No. West the whole day, very clear and Cool.
Hauld the Sein but without Success. Some said it was owing to the wind setting of the Shore, which seems in some Measure confirmd by the quantity we catchd Yesterday when the Wind blew on upon it.
About 11 Oclock finishd plowing the Clover Field. Abt. 1 Mullatto Jack began harrowing it with the wide Toothd Harrow and got half over the Field by Night. Cook Jack went to Plowing in the 12 Acre Field.
Perceivd my Barley and Oats to be coming up very thick and well.
Engag'd 150 Bushels of Oats of an Eastern shore Man & got 40 of them Landd. before I found they were damagd.
GW paid £2 16s. for 39½ bushels of the oats (LEDGER A, 89).
Sunday April 13th. Fine clear still Morng. Abt. 10 Oclock the Wind (what little there was before being So.) came Easterly, blew fresh and Clouded. Towards Evening the Atmostphere was quite Overcast and threatned Instant Rain.
My Negroes askd the lent of the Sein to day but caught little or no Fish. Note the Wind blew upon the shore to day.
Monday Apl. 14. Fine warm day, Wind So[uther]ly and clear till the Eveng. when it clouded.
No Fish were to be catchd to day neither.
Mixd my Composts in a box with ten Apartments in the following manner viz.--in No. 1 is three pecks of the Earth brought from below the Hill out of the 46 Acre Field without any mixture--in No.
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All mixd with the same quantity & sort of Earth in the most effectual manner by reducing the whole to a tolerable degree of fineness & jubling them well together in a Cloth.
In each of these divisions were planted three Grains of Wheat 3 of Oats & as many of Barley, all at equal distances in Rows & of equal depth (done by a Machine made for the purpose).
The Wheat Rows are next the Numbered side, the Oats in the Middle, & the Barley on that side next the upper part of the Garden.
Two or three hours after sowing in this manner, and about an hour before Sun set I waterd them all equally alike with Water that had been standing in a Tub abt. two hours exposd to the Sun.
Began drawing Bricks burning Lime & Preparing for Mr. Triplet who is to be here on Wednesday to Work.
Finishd Harrowing the Clover Field, and began reharrowing of it. Got a new harrow made of smaller, and closer Tinings for Harrowing in Grain--the other being more proper for preparing the Ground for sowing.
Cook Jack's plow was stopd he being employd in setting the Lime Kiln.
GRAINS OF WHEAT: Triticum aestivum, wheat, was second to tobacco as a cash crop during GW's early farming years and his prime cash crop after he reduced his tobacco plantings in later years. When he speaks of "wheat" he means the common English red winter wheat, but during his lifetime he tried at least a dozen different kinds and experimented (as above) with various modes of culture. A common method of cropping was to sow wheat between corn rows after the corn had been topped in late summer. GW's diaries and papers show him trying early wheat, summer wheat, red-straw wheat, lamas wheat, double-headed wheat, yellow-bearded wheat, and Russian wheat sent him by British agriculturist Arthur Young. White wheat became his favorite variety but during the Revolution, when his farms were neglected, his seed became so mixed that it lost its original characteristics. Much of his experimentation with wheat after that time involved finding an ideal white variety. He sent a sack of early white wheat to Sir John Sinclair 10 July 1798, saying it had been developed in America about seven years earlier and
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was a white, full, and heavy grain. Possibly this is the strain which Thomas Jefferson sent home from Georgetown, Md., in 1790, reporting that Washington had assured him it was the best he had ever seen. It was a white wheat widely used in Maryland with a small, plump grain, weighing 62 to 64 pounds per bushel (BETTS [2], 153--54).
Tuesday April 15th. Sent Tom and Mike to Alexandria in my Boat for 20 or 25 Bushels of Oats.
Went up myself there to Court after calling at Mr. Green's & leaving Mrs. Washington there.
Mr. Darrell not being there the Execution of his Deeds were again put of.
Being informd that French, Triplet and others were about buying (in conjunction) a piece of Land of Simon Piarson lying not far from my Dogue Run Quarter I engagd him to give me the first offer of it so soon as he shoud determine upon selling it.
About 3 Oclock fell a very heavy Shower of Rain attended with much Wind at So. wch. Instantaneously abt. an hour by Sun changd to No. West & blew for a few Minutes most violently but soon after fell calm.
Good part of my New Fencing that was not Riderd was leveld.
Simon Pearson (c. 1738--1797) owned 558 acres of land which lay on the main road from Alexandria to Colchester, northwest of the land on Dogue Run that GW had bought from Sampson Darrell in 1757. To sell his tract Pearson had to dock the entail on it, which he achieved in 1762, and on 14 Feb. 1763 GW bought 178 acres of Pearson's land for £191 7s. (deed of Pearson to GW, DLC:GW). The remainder went to William Triplett and George Johnston.
FENCING... NOT RIDERD: In a rail fence, a rider is the top rail placed in a crotch of crossed stakes at the end of each panel, to lock all the rails in place and keep the fence firm.
Wednesday Apl. 16. My Boat which the Wind and Rain prevented from returning Yesterday came home this Morning the Wind being at North West and Fresh.
Mr. Triplet & his Brother came this day to Work. Abt. 10 Oclock they began, and got the Wall between the House and Dairy finishd.
Thinking the Ground Rather too wet for Sowing I set my Horses to Carting Rails, and both my Plows were stopd Cook Jack being employd abt. the Lime.
Finishd a Roller this day for Rolling my Grain.
Thursday April 17th. By 3 Oclock in the afternoon Mr. Triplet finishd the Wall between the Dairy and Kitchen. The Rain from that time prevented his Working.
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Sowed my Clover Field with Oats, 24 Bushels. The upper part next the Peach Orchard was Harrowed in during the Rain but before it began to Clog much.
Also sowd 18 Rows of Lucerne in the 12 Acre Field below the Hill. The first 4 Rows were Sowd in Drils the others by a line stretchd and the Seed Raked In.
Richd. Stephens brot. down 9 Hogsheads of Tobo. to go to the Inspection at Hunting [Creek Warehouse] in a flat which I borrowd (or I rather suppose hird) from Messrs. Carlyle and Dalton--wch. Flat brot. down 4 Barrels of Corn--being part of Eight that I was to have had of William Garner at the rate of 9/. pr. Barl. to be paid in Pistoles or Dollars. It seems the other 4 Barrels I am to get from Garner's House.
A Fresh Southerly Wind blew all day. Towards Noon it shifted more East and by 3 Oclock it began Raining and continued so to do witht. Intermission till we went to Bed & how long afterwards I know not.
The Alexandria retail partnership of John Carlyle & John Dalton lasted from 1744 to Dalton's death in 1777, an unusually long time in an age when most partnerships were entered into for one year at a time and few lasted more than a decade. GW carried this firm on his books from 1760 to 1769. William Gardner was a Truro vestryman from 1765 to 1776, when he apparently moved out of the parish. In 1766 and 1767 he served as a churchwarden with GW. FLAT: flatboat.
Friday April 18th. Righted up all my Fencing.
Planted other Pine Trees in the Fencd place at the Cornr. of the Garden the first being broke, and much hurt by Creatures.
Began Sowing my Clovr. and got 4 Acres sowd 14 lb. to the Acre. Harrowd it in with the fine toothd Harrow as light as I coud.
Tryd my Roller wch. find much too light.
Sowd 69 Rows more of Lucerne which makes 87 in all.
Got my Cloaths &ca. packd up for my Journey to Williamsburg tomorrow.
Mr. Barnes's Davy brot. home my Negroe fellow Boson who Ran away on Monday last.
Davy was one of Abraham Barnes's slaves. In 1760 Boson was assigned to the Mount Vernon quarter called Williamson's. GW today paid Davy 10s. for taking up Boson (LEDGER A, 89). For colonial Virginia slaves who "ran away" from their masters, see MULLIN.
Saturday Apl. 19th. Crossd at Mr. Possey's Ferry and began my journey to Williamsburg about 9 Oclock. Abt. 11 I broke my
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Chair and had to Walk to Port Tobo. where I was detaind the whole day getting my Chair mended--no Smith being with 6 Miles. Lodgd at Doctr. Halkerston's.
John Posey's ferry crossed the Potomac River from the lower point of the Mount Vernon neck to Marshall Hall in Charles County, Md., home of Capt. Thomas Hanson Marshall (1731--1801) and his wife Rebecca Dent Marshall (c. 1737--1770). By using Posey's ferry, GW could cut across Charles County, past Port Tobacco, and recross the Potomac, entering Virginia in the Chotank area of King George County. In this way he saved himself from traveling the lower "Potomac Path" on the Virginia side of the Potomac, which crossed a number of swamps and small streams now swollen by a week of hard rains. Robert Halkerston had lived in Fredericksburg during GW's youth, where he was a founding member of the Masonic Lodge in 1752 and was probably present at the 1753 lodge meetings in which the young GW was initiated, passed, and raised into Masonry.
Sunday Apl. 20th. Set out early, and crossd at Cedar point by 10; the day being very calm & fine, Dind and lodgd at my Brother's. The Evening Cloudy with Rain. Wind tho little at So. West.
The lower of the two Cedar Points in Maryland was about a 13-mile ride south from Port Tobacco. GW most likely used Hooe's ferry, although several ferries crossed the Potomac from Cedar Point in 1760. His brother Samuel's plantation in the Chotank area of Stafford County (now King George County) was originally one of their father's quarters, inherited by Samuel when he came of age in 1755 (HENING, 6:513--16). There Samuel settled and built a "dwelling house with six rooms below and three above... situated on a hill, that opens a most agreeable prospect for some miles up and down the [Potomac] river" ( Va. Gaz., R, 18 Aug. 1768, supp.). In the 1760s Samuel served as a justice of the peace for Stafford County and as a vestryman for St. Paul's Parish.
Monday Apl. 21st. Crossd at Southern's and Tods Bridge and lodgd at Major Gaines's.
After leaving his brother's home GW rode about three miles below Leedstown to Southern's (earlier Southings) ferry on the Rappahannock River, whose owner lived on the far side of the river in Essex County. In 1755 the ferryboat was manned by two Negroes (HENING, 3:22; FISHER, 170). GW then rode southwest through Essex and King and Queen counties to arrive at Todd's Bridge, where he crossed the Mattaponi River into King William County a short way upriver from Aylett's Warehouse (later the village of Aylett, Va.). In 1760 William Todd, who lived on the King and Queen side of the bridge, also had a warehouse and an ordinary at this crossing (GRAY [1], 303). Maj. Harry Gaines (d. 1766), a local planter, was elected a burgess for King William County in 1758.
Tuesday April 22d. Crossd Pamunky at Williams's Ferry, and visited all the Plantations in New Kent. Found the Overseers
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Washington's Williamsburg Neighborhood
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much behind hand in their Business. Went to Mrs. Dandridges and lodgd.
From Major Gaines's, GW rode south through King William County to cross the Pamunkey River into New Kent County at Williams's ferry. The crossing brought him very near the Custis plantations in the vicinity of the White House, which had been the home of Martha Dandridge Custis when GW met her. Mrs. Frances Jones Dandridge (1710--1785), widow of John Dandridge (1700--1756), was GW's mother-in-law. She lived at Chestnut Grove in New Kent County, about midway along the Pamunkey River between the White House and the Bassett's home, Eltham (GRAY [1], 304, 315).
Wednesday Apl. 23d. Went to Colo. Bassetts and remaind there the whole day.
Burwell Bassett's home, Eltham in New Kent County, was less than a mile up the Pamunkey River from West Point, where the Pamunkey joins the Mattaponi to form the York River.
Thursday April 24th. Visited my Quarters at Claibornes and found their business in tolerable forwardness. Also went to my other Quarter at [ ] where their was an insufficiently quantity of Ground prepard--but all that coud be had--it was sd.
Dind at Mr. Bassetts and went in the Evening to Williamsburg.
CLAIBORNES: This Custis plantation lay in King William County on the neck of land the Pamunkey River forms just above Eltham. Containing an estimated 3,080 acres, nearly half of which were marsh, Claiborne's was so named because Martha Washington's first husband, Daniel Parke Custis, had purchased it 14--15 Dec. 1750 from the executors of William Claiborne (d. 1746) of Romancoke (survey by William Groveham 14--18 April 1789 and 25--29 Mar. 1791, Vi). When the Custis estate was apportioned among Martha and the two children, Claiborne's was one of the plantations assigned to her by right of dower. As her second husband, GW was entitled to use the dower plantations as if they were his own, except that he could not sell them or encumber them "to the prejudice of her ultimate rights or those of her heirs," for on her death the dower plantations were to go to John Parke Custis (FREEMAN, 3:20). At this time 19 dower slaves worked at Claiborne's, growing tobacco, wheat, and corn under the direction of the plantation's overseer, John Roan ("Part of John Roan's Crop--1759," and "A List of Working Dower Negroes, where settld & under whose care, 1760," DLC:GW; both lists are at the beginning of the 1760 Virginia Almanack in which GW kept his diary for this year).
Friday Apl. 25th. Waited upon the Govr.
The governor of Virginia was an appointee of the king. Since, in the British imperial practice, the governorship was considered to be a source of revenue as well as an administrative responsibility, the governor often obtained the royal appointment of a lieutenant governor, who would live in Virginia as the colony's chief executive officer, and with whom the governor would come
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to some agreement over the income and perquisites of the office. In 1760 the governor of Virginia was Sir Jeffery Amherst, and the resident lieutenant governor was Francis Fauquier (1703--1768). Fauquier was commissioned lieutenant governor of Virginia 10 Feb. 1758, took the oaths of office in Williamsburg 5 June 1758, and died in office. He had thus been GW's superior during part of the 1758 campaigns against the French. It was Lieutenant Governor Fauquier whom he visited on this date; he was following the common practice of Virginians in referring to him as simply the governor.
Saturday Apl. 26th. Visited all the Estates and my own Quarters about Williamsburg. Found these also in pretty good forwardness.
Receivd Letters from Winchester informing me that the Small Pox had got among my Quarter's in Frederick; determind therefore to leave Town as soon as possible and proceed up to them.
ESTATES: John Parke Custis's plantations in York County. He had also inherited the Custis lands in New Kent, Hanover, and Northampton counties as well as lots in Williamsburg and Jamestown (Custis to GW, 11 May 1778, ViHi; Va. Gaz., P, 16 Oct. 1778). MY OWN QUARTERS: Martha Washington's dower plantations in York County--Bridge Quarter and the Ship Landing, both of which lay near the Capitol Landing on Queen's Creek about two miles north of Williamsburg. Together they contained about 1,000 acres, of which "100 or more" were "firm hard marsh, supporting a numerous flock of cattle winter and summer," and 10 to 12 were swamp ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 2 April 1767). Tobacco and corn were grown on the higher ground by 19 dower slaves who worked there at this time. The dower property also included a gristmill, which adjoined the two York plantations, plus lots in Williamsburg
Francis Fauquier, governor of Virginia, arrived in the colony 5 June 1758. (Thomas Coram Foundation for Children, London)
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and Jamestown ("A List of Working Dower Negroes, where settled, & under whose care, 1760," DLC:GW, at the beginning of GW's 1760 Virginia Almanack; GW to Custis, 12 Oct. 1778, DLC:GW).
Sunday Apl. 27th. Went to Church. In the Afternoon some Rain, & a great deal of severe Lightning but not much Thunder.
CHURCH: probably Bruton Parish Church on Duke of Gloucester Street in Williamsburg.
Monday Apl. 28th. Let my House in Town to Colo. Moore, for Colo. Dandridge, who is to come into it in the Fall, and pay me 45 £ pr. Ann. In the meanwhile I am to paint it.
In the Afternoon after collecting what Money I coud I left Town and reachd Colo. Bassetts.
This day agreed with Mr. Jno. Driver of Nansemond for 25,000 shingles to be deliverd in October. They are to be 18 inch shingles and of the best sort. Desird him if he coud not cause them to be deliverd for 18/a Thousd. not to send them but let me know of it as soon as possible.
By "my House in Town," GW refers to a Williamsburg house in Martha's dower estate which was now under GW's management.
Colonel Moore is either Thomas Moore or his brother and near neighbor, Bernard Moore (d. 1775), of Chelsea, who was a burgess for King William County 1744--65 and again, 1769--71. Both were colonels and lived in the Custis-Dandridge-Bassett neighborhood along the Pamunkey River; both were heavily in debt to the Custis estate. Colonel Dandridge is Bartholomew Dandridge (1737--1785), a brother of Mrs. Washington.
The money GW collected today was for burgesses' wages and an old account from the colony of Virginia £60 4d. in all (LEDGER A, 89).
John Driver was a merchant in the port town of Suffolk, Va., on the Nansemond River. One of the major sources of roofing shingles for Virginians was the Dismal Swamp area just south of Suffolk in Nansemond County.
Tuesday Apl. 29th. Reachd Port Royal by Sunset.
GW crossed the Pamunkey River at Thomas Dansie's ferry and dined at Todd's ordinary on his way to Port Royal (LEDGER A, 89).
Wednesday 30th. Came to Hoes Ferry by 10 Oclock but the wind blew too fresh to cross: detained there all Night.
Hooe's ferry, running from Mathias Point in Virginia to lower Cedar Point in Maryland, was established in 1715 by Col. Rice Hooe (Hoe, Howe), grandson of Rice (Rhuys) Hooe, a seventeenth-century immigrant from Wales. At Colonel Hooe's death (1726), the ferry was inherited and run by his son John (1704--1766), and following John's death by John's widow, Ann Alexander Hooe, and their son Gerard Hooe (1733--1786), who married
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Sarah Barnes (1742--1815) and lived at the family home of Barnsfield in Mathias Neck, Stafford County (HENING, 4:93; Va. Gaz., R, 24 Mar. 1768; NICKLIN [1], 368).
From Hooe's ferry, GW probably retracted his steps home but entered no expense in his ledger for recrossing the Potomac to reach Mount Vernon.
Thursday May 1st. Got over early in the Morning and reachd home before Dinnertime and upon enquiry found that my Clover Field was finishd sowing & Rolling the Saturday I left home--as was the Sowing of my Lucerne: and that on the [ ] they began sowing the last field of Oats & finishd it the 25th.
That in box No. 6, two grains of Wheat appeard on the 20th.; one an Inch high--on the 22d. a grain of Wheat in No. 7 and 9 appeard--on the 23 after a good deal of Rain the Night before some Stalks appeard in Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, & 8 but the Ground was so hard bakd by the drying Winds when I came home that it was difficult to say which Nos. lookd most thriving. However in
The two Grains in No. 8 were I think rather the strongest, but upon the whole No. 9 was the best.
Friday May 2d. Cold, & strong Westerly Winds.
My English Horse Coverd the great bay Mare.
GW had bought an English colt from Col. Bernard or Thomas Moore in Mar. 1759 for £17 10s. (LEDGER A, 55).
Saturday May 3d. Wind got Southerly, but blew fresh and Cool.
The Stallion coverd Ranken--and afterwards breaking out of his pasture Coverd the great bay Mare again.
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Sunday May 4th. Warm and fine. Set out for Frederick to see my Negroes that lay Ill of the Small Pox. Took Church in my way to Colemans where I arrivd about Sun setting.
Monday May 5th. Reach'd Mr. Stephenson in Frederick abt. 4 Oclock just time enough to see Richd. Mounts Interrd. Here I was informd that Harry & Kit, the two first of my Negroes that took the Small Pox were Dead and Roger & Phillis the only two down with it were recovering from it.
Lodgd at Mr. Stephenson.
Richard Stephenson (d. 1765) of Frederick County married the widow Onora Grimes Crawford, mother of William and Valentine Crawford. By Mrs. Crawford, Stephenson had five sons, four of whom appear in the GW diaries. As an early entrepreneur in the Shenandoah Valley, Stephenson joined John Vestal and others in 1742 to set up an iron bloomery project. He hired GW to survey land for him in 1750 and during the French and Indian War was a supplier to GW's troops. GW sometimes referred to Stephenson as "Stevens" or "Stephens."
Richard Mount recorded a will in Frederick County in 1752.
Tuesday May 6. Visited my Brother's Quarter, & just calld at my own in my way to Winchester where I spent the day & Evening with Colo. Byrd &ca.
The Court was held to Day at Stephen's Town but adjournd to Winchester to Morrow.
Because of the smallpox epidemic in Frederick County, the county court was moved, by order of the governor 3 July 1759, to Stephensburg, "during the time the small pox rageth in the town of Winchester." Stephensburg (later Newton, later Stephens City), founded by Lewis Stephens in 1758, was competing with Winchester to become the seat for Frederick County. By Oct. 1759 the smallpox, according to a petition of the inhabitants of Winchester, "was raging at Stephensburg," and the court did not meet at all until Feb. 1760 (NORRIS [1], 121--22). GW is here noting the court's move back to its regular seat.
Wednesday May 7. After taking the Doctrs. Direction's in regard to my People I set out for my Quarters and got there abt. 12 Oclock--time enough to go over them and find every thing in the utmost confusion, disorder & backwardness my Overseer lying upon his Back of a broken Leg, and not half a Crop especially of Corn Ground prepard.
Engagd. Vale. Crawford to go in pursuit of a Nurse to be ready in case more of my People shd. be seizd with the same disorder.
Thursday May 8th. Got Blankets and every other requisite from Winchester & settld things upon the best footing I coud to prevt.
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the Small Pox from Spreading--and in case of its spreading for the care of the Negroes. Mr. Vale. Crawford agreeing in case any more of the People at the lower Quarter getting it to take them home to his House--& if any of those at the upper Quarter gets it to have them removd into my Room and the Nurse sent for.
GW today lent £15 to Crawford and gave £4 to his overseer Hardwick (LEDGER A, 89).
Friday May 9th. Set out on my return Home. The Morning drizzling a little. Calld at the Bloomery and got Mr. Wm. Crawford to shew me the place that has been so often talkd of for erecting an Iron Work upon.
The Convenience of Water is great--first it may be taken out of the River into a Canal and a considerable Fall obtained--& (then) a Run comes from the Mountain on which the largest Fall may [be] got with Small Labour and expense. But of the constancy of this Stream I know nothing nor Coud Crawford tell me. I saw none of the Ore but all People agree that there is an inexhaustable fund of that that is rich--but Wood seems an obstacle not but that there is enough of it but the Gd. is so hilly & rugged as not to admit of making Coal or transporting it.
I did not examine the place so accurately myself as to be a competent
THE BLOOMERY: a primitive means of turning iron ore into iron, consisting of a hearth rather larger than that of a blacksmith. Iron ore and charcoal were fed into a fire fanned by a bellows that was powered by a waterwheel. When the heated iron formed a lump, or "bloom," it was lifted to an anvil and beaten into a bar by a hammer, also powered by the waterwheel. The product was an impure wrought iron used by local artisans and blacksmiths. A bloomery for making bar iron was begun in 1742 by a group which included William Vestal and Crawford's stepfather, Richard Stephenson. It was located on John Vestal's land about four miles above Key's (later Vestal's) ferry, on the right bank of the Shenandoah River and the mouth of Evitt's Run.
IRON WORK: a more sophisticated process producing a high grade of iron for commercial sale. Such a work, using limestone for flux, needed a much greater amount of capital to finance a 25- to 30-foot-high furnace, a large bellows (often 25 feet long) for the blast, a waterwheel over 20 feet in diameter, and a minimum of 10 to 12 full-time workers. But it could turn out 20 tons of relatively pure pig iron per week, which would either be worked in the colonies or shipped to England for sale (BINING, 76--84). Vast amounts of firewood were needed to produce charcoal for the iron furnace.
William Crawford, brother of Valentine Crawford, entered the Virginia Regiment in 1755 as an ensign in the company of scouts and later served with GW on the Forbes expedition of 1758. He lived in Frederick County until 1765, when he removed to the Youghiogheny country in western Pennsylvania.
Despite Crawford's approval of this site for an ironwork, GW did not join in the venture.
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The familiar cradle for harvesting small grains, largest implement shown here, changed very little before mechanical devices replaced it. From La Nouvelle Maison rustique, Paris, 1798. (Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union)
judge of this matter & Mr. Crawford says there will be no difficulty in the case.
Reachd Coleman's.
Saturday May 10. Arrivd at home abt. 10 Oclock where I found nay Brother Jno. And was told that my great Chesnut folded a Horse Colt on the 6 Instt. and that my Young Peach trees were Wed according to Order.
The Oats, & in short every thing else seemd quite at a stand, from the dryness of the Earth which was remarkably so partly for want of Rain and partly by the constant drying Winds which have blown for sometime past.
GW's younger brother, John Augustine Washington, had managed Mount Vernon for him during the former's absence in the French and Indian wars.
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"Jack," as GW called him, brought his bride, Hannah Bushrod Washington, to Mount Vernon in 1756 and lived there until 1758. It was partly in acknowledgment of Jack's help and loyalty that GW in his will left part of the Mount Vernon estate to Jack's older son, Bushrod Washington (MVAR, 1964, 18--21; WRITINGS, 37:288--89).
Sunday May 11th. Mrs. Washington we[nt] to Church.
My black pacing Mare was twice Coverd.
Proposd a purchase of some Lands which Col. F[airfa]x has at the Mouth of the Warm Spring Run joing. Barwicks bottom. He promisd me the preference if he shd. sell but is not inclind to do it at prest.
Monday May 12th. Fine Rain began in the Morning and continued by Intervals all day.
Sent Cook Jack & my Horses to get in Stephens Corn.
Black Mare was coverd again to day. Mr. Alexander sent a Mare but She refusd the Horse.
CORN: Zea mays, Indian corn. GW's principal variety was probably Virginia Gourdseed, a coarse, white dent corn with a red cob and soft and starchy kernel (SINGLETON, 73). He wrote Charles Carter 14 Dec. 1787 that his normal yield at that time was 2 to 2½ barrels per acre, an estimated 8 to 10 bushels. When he obtained early seed corn from the North, it was most likely to be a flint variety with white cob and a round kernel, much harder than that of the dent variety.
There were two main branches of the Alexander family in eighteenth-century Virginia, descended respectively from Robert and Philip Alexander, the two sons of John Alexander the immigrant (d. 1677). It was this John Alexander who in 1669 purchased the 6,000-acre Howsing Patent out of which the city of Alexandria was carved in 1749. In 1760 the "Robert" branch of Alexanders was represented by the brothers John Alexander (1711--1764), of Caledon, in the Chotank area of Stafford County, and Col. Gerard Alexander (d. 1761), of Alexandria, whose oldest son, Robert Alexander (d. 1793), is probably the Mr. Alexander mentioned here.
Tuesday May 13th. Cloudy with some slight Showers of Rain. People all working at Muddy hole getting in Stephens's Corn. My Brother Jno. returnd from Difficult.
DIFFICULT: Difficult Run, which empties into the Potomac River between the Great Falls and the Little Falls. From 1757 until 1798 it was the upper half of the boundary between Loudoun and Fairfax counties.
Wednesday May 14th. Wind at No. Wt. fresh and drying. Visited at Belvoir.
People & Plows at Muddy Hole.
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Thursday May 15th. Drying Winds--People at Muddy hole again.
Friday May 16th. Still Cool and Windy--my People yet continuing at Muddy hole. My Brother Jno. left this and I got Nations Estate Appraisd by Messrs. McCarty Barry & Triplet--as follows viz.
Nations's estate still owed GW £1 11s. 1d., but GW wrote off that balance as "given to his Widow" (LEDGER A, 69). Barry is probably John Barry (died c. 1776), the clerk of Pohick Church, an original trustee of the town of Colchester, and a neighbor of Daniel McCarty.
Saturday May 17th. Mulatto Jack returnd from King William with 3 Yoke of Oxen & lost Punch the Horse he rid.
Sent up 16 Hydes to Mr. Adams at Alexa. viz.
Brought a Pipe of Wine from there wch. Captn. McKie brought from Madeira also a Chest of Lemons and some other trifles.
Began weeding my Trefoil below the Hill.
The Great Bay was coverd. Got an Acct. that the Assembly was to meet on Monday. Resolvd to set of to Morrow.
Robert Adam (1731--1789) was born in Kilbride, Scot., migrated to America in the early 1750s, and settled in Alexandria, where he initiated a number of industries, including a tannery.
McKie is possibly Capt. William Macky, who entered his ship into the York River Naval District records, 1 April 1760, as having come from South Carolina, a common port of call in the trade between Chesapeake Bay and the wine islands (P.R.O., C.O.5/1448, f. 25).
GW was a burgess for Frederick County 1758--65. The House of Burgesses had met 4--11 Mar. 1760 to continue the existence of the Virginia Regiment for another six months, but GW had not attended that session (H.B.J., 175861, 157--68). The House met again 19--24 May 1760 to consider an urgent message from Governor Fauquier for men and money to relieve Fort Loudoun on the Little Tennessee River, which was in danger of falling to the Cherokees (H.B.J., 1758--61, 171--79).
Sunday May 18th. Set out in Company with Mr. George Johnston. At Colchester was informd by Colo. Thornton and Chissel that the Assembly wd. be broke up before I could get down.
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Turnd back therefore & found Colo. Fairfax and his Family and that Lightning wch. had attended a good deal of Rain had struck my Quarter & near 10 Negroes in it some very bad but with letting Blood they recoverd.
George Johnston, of Belvale, was a burgess for Fairfax County 1758--65. Colchester, a small settlement of Scottish merchants, lay on Occoquan Creek about eight miles below Mount Vernon. Colonels Thornton and Chissel may have been Col. Presley Thornton, burgess for Northumberland County, and John Chiswell, of Hanover County.
On 23 May the House of Burgesses passed a bill authorizing the raising of £32,000 and up to 700 soldiers plus officers for the relief of Fort Loudoun (H.B.J., 1758--61, 176).
Monday May 19th. Went to Alexandria to see Captn. Littledales Ship Launchd wch. went of extreamely well. This day was attended with slight shower's. Colo. F[airfa]x had a Mare Cover'd. So had Captn. Dalton.
In 1760 Isaac Littledale was establishing his trade between his home in Whitehaven, Eng., and the Potomac River valley. For this trade the Hero, a 200-ton ship which required 14 hands, was built in the Alexandria shipyard in 1760. Littledale was her captain on the maiden voyage.
Tuesday May 20th. Being Court day Mr. Clifton's Land in the Neck was exposd to Sale and I bought it for £1210 Sterlg. & under many threats and disadvantages paid the Money into the Comrs. hands and returnd home at Night with Colo. Fairfax & Famy. Captn. Dalton's Dun Mare again Covd.
The final decree of the General Court in chancery (decree, Clifton v. Carroll et al., 12 April 1760, NjWoG) ordered that the commissioners on 20 May at Alexandria sell at public auction to the highest bidder the lands in Clifton's Neck and that Clifton's creditors then be paid off. The "threats and disadvantages" to GW came from all sides. Thomson Mason threatened to appeal the sale decree; Ignatius Digges and Charles Carroll refused to show up at all to deliver their mortgages, thus barring GW from a clear title; and Carroll had already decided to appeal the case to the Privy Council in London (Charles Carroll of Annapolis to Charles Carroll of Carrollton, 26 April, 4 July 1762, CARROLL, 264--69). Finally, Clifton declared he would not vacate the land until 1762, which, among other problems, threatened GW with a two-year loss of rent from the Clifton's Neck tenant farmers (Robert Carter Nicholas and George Wythe to GW, 27 May 1760, anonymous donor).
Wednesday May 21. Wrote to Messrs. Nicholas & With for Advice how to act in regard to Clifton's Land. Sent the Letter by the Post. A good deal of Rain in the Night.
Colo. Fairfax went home. Began shearing my Sheep. (Dalton's sorrel) Mare coverd.
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In their reply of 27 May 1760 Robert Carter Nicholas and George Wythe stated they were "sorry to find you are likely to be involved in so much Trouble" and warned GW that they could advise nothing "with any Certainty" (Nicholas and Wythe to GW, 27 May 1760, anonymous donor). After giving their opinion that Mason had a strong case and the Privy Council would probably find for Carroll, they referred GW to his local lawyer, George Johnston.
At this point in the diary GW inserts a lengthy paraphrase on the cultivation of lucerne from Jethro Tull, Horse-Houghing Husbandry: An Essay on the Principles of Vegetation and Tillage (London, 1731). This important British work on scientific agriculture ran through several editions--here GW is quoting the 1751 edition--and was still being published in 1829. GW relied heavily on it in his early years as a farmer; later he would turn to the books and personal communications of Arthur Young.
Material in angle brackets has been taken from DIARIES, 1:164.
Thursday May 22d. Continued shearing my sheep. A good deal of Rain at Night--and Cool as it has been ever since the first Reign on the 12th.
Captn. Dalton had a sorrell Mare coverd.
My Black Mare that came Frederick was Coverd Yesterday & the day before.
Captn. McCarthy had a Mare Coverd the 20th.
Memms.
To have 600 Tobo. Hills Marld at Williamsons quarter--to try the Virtues of it--to do it more effectually, tend 500 Hills of the same Ground witht. Marl giving both equal working and let them fare exactly alike in all Respects.
Illustration from Thomas Hale's Husbandry, London, 1758. (Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union)
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For an Experimt.
Take 7 Pots (Earthen) or 7 Boxes of equal size and number them.
Then put in No. 1 pld. Earth taken out of the Field below, which is intend, for Wheat--in No. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 equal proportion's of the same Earth--to No. 2 put Cow dung--to 3 Marle, 4 <with> Mud from the Marshes <& bottoms> adjoining the [ ] Field, to 5 Mud <tak>en out of the River immediately, to 6 the same Mud lain to Mellow sum time, and to 7 the Mud taken from the Shoreside at low Water where it appears to be unmixd with Clay. Of each an equal quantity--and at the proper Season of Sowing Oats put in each of these Pots or boxes 6 Grains of the largest and heaviest Oats planted at proper distances--and watch their growth and different changes till Harvest.
N.B. To preserve them from Accidents put them in the Garden <and> let the Pots be buried <up> to their brims.
[January]
1st. Fine warm Sun Shine--wind Southerly.
2. Warm, but Mist and Rain.
3. Just the same kind of Weather as Yestery.
4. Ditto.
5. Wind at No. West. Blew hard & grew very Cold.
6. Clear & tolerable warm.
7. Ditto.
8. The morng. fine, but Cloudy & cold afterwards.
9. High wind, but clear & tolerably warm.
10. Fine, clear & warm.
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11. Morng. Lowering, but fine & warm afterwards.
12. White frost & clear in the Morng. but Cloudy afterwd.
13. Wind at N. Wt. very clear, & extrame cold.
14. Wind Do. but not hard--yet very cold & frosty.
15. Do. pretty fresh & very cold & frosty.
16. Wind at So. Wt. very cloudy in the Mg. At 12 begn. to Sn[ow].
17. Wind at No. Et. and Rain till Noon then Mist.
18. Great Sleet, & mist till Noon, then clear Wd. So.
19. Wind So. tolerable clear--but cloudy afternn.
20. Wind Contd. So[uther]ly with Rain, & Warm.
21. So[uther]ly in the Morng. and Rain till Noon--then No[rther]ly & clear.
22. Wind cond. No[rther]ly. Clear, cold, & hard frost.
23. Clear and Moderate--wind Westerly.
24. Fine day. Wind So[uther]ly. Gradual thaw.
25. Warm & So[uther]ly wind in the Mg. Afterwds. at No. Wt.
26. No. Et. in the Morng. So[uther]ly afterwards.
27. Strong So. wind & Rain till 4 P. M. then No. Wt.
28. Wind at So. again & fresh. Clear all day.
29. Wind at Do. till 3 Oclock then No. W. clear all d[ay].
30. So[uther]ly Wind & Cloudy till 9 at Night then No. W. & clear.
31. <N>o. Wt. dear and Cold.
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[February]
1. Snow in the Morning, but clear afterwds.
2. Wind No[rther]ly but mild clear.
3. Wind shifting from East to So. Clear & <warm>.
4. So[uther]ly cloudy & clear by turns--white Frost.
5. So[uther]ly with Rain--gd. very Rotton.
6. Very fine drying day. No wind.
7. W. So[uther]ly, very warm & drying.
8. W. No. Wt. but not hard, fine dear & Warm.
9. Sml. Frost. Wd. No. Et.
10. Do. wind at No. threatning Rain.
11. Clear & fine. Wind Northwardly.
12. Very clear, still and fine.
13. Strong, & warm southerly Wind--clear.
14. Ditto Ditto Do. Do. but cloudy.
15. No. Et. wind and Rain.
16. Morng. cloudy--fair afterwds. & So[uther]ly Wind.
17. Wind at No. W. cloudy & very cold.
18. Cold in the Mg. Moderate afterwds. Wd. So[uther]ly.
19. Fine warm day. Fresh So[uther]ly Wind.
20. Fine Day & little wind.
21. Brisk So[uther]ly Wind & Cloudy with mch. Rain.
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22. So[uther]ly Storm.
23. Fine day. Wind shifting from So. to No. Wt.
24. Fresh So[uther]ly Wind & Cloudy Weather.
25. Wind still So[uther]ly, warm & fine day.
26. So[uther]ly wind Cloudy & a little Rain.
27. So[uther]ly wind & dripping Weather.
28. Little or no Wind till Night then No. Et. & Wet.
29. Rain till 12 Oclock then Wind at No. West.
[March]
1. Cold & Cloudy--wind first at No. Wt. then East[er]ly.
2. Fair day, variable Wind.
3. Southerly Wind & Cloudy.
4. High Westerly Wind--clear & cool.
5. So[uther]ly wind & Rain.
6. Do. fine day.
7. Do. fine Morning but Cloudy Afterwds.
8. No. Et. Wind, and much Rain.
9. No. Et. Wind & Snow by Intervals all day.
10. No. W. Wind & Clear.
11. Ditto--Ditto--somewhat Cold.
12. Southerly Wind--clear & very fine.
13. No. Et. Wind & Incessant Rain.
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14. Do. till Noon.
15. Wind at Do. Cloudy and little Snow.
16. No. Et. Wind and much Snow.
17. Snowd by Intervals all Day.
18. Wind in the Morng. at No. Wt. then So[uther]ly & War[m].
19. Lowg. & Cold, Wind So[uther]ly.
20. Cold No[rther]ly Wind--clear.
21. In the Morng. No. Et. Wind. So[uther]ly afterwards.
22. Cold south[er]ly Wind & Rain.
23. Southerly Wind and Warm.
24. South[er]ly in the Morng. Easterly After.
25. Do. but changeable Weather.
26. No. West & very boisterous.
27. So[uther]ly Wind, fine warm day.
28. Clear, & Warm strong So[uther]ly Wind.
29. Misty Rain at Intervals. Little wind.
30. Fresh & variable Wind, chiefly from So.
31. Do. & fresh, light Showers.
[April]
1. Clear, No. West Wind--a little Cool.
2. So[uther]ly drying Wind & Warm.
3. Do. and fresh, with Clouds.
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4. Clear--So[uther]ly Wind--fresh.
5. So[uther]ly Wind. Rain at Dark.
6. No. Et. Wind. Cool & Cloudy with Rain.
7. So[uther]ly Wind--with Rain. Cloudy all day.
8. Much Rain, wind variable.
9. No. Et. very cloudy sometimes Misty.
10. Do. Do. Do.
11. So. Et. & fresh. Cleard abt. Noon.
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[May]
May 24th. Betty from Riverside Quarter came home Sick & did not again in a Condition to work till the 13th. July fol.
Riverside Quarter, or River Quarter, a newly developed part of the Mount Vernon crop land, was in the 1,806 acres of land GW had bought from William Clifton in 1760. Most of the remaining cleared land in the Neck owned by GW was, in 1760, being worked by tenants. Riverside Quarter became the basis for the larger River plantation (later River Farm) that GW developed in subsequent years.
GW had gone to Frederick County early in May to campaign for reelection to the House of Burgesses. He and George Mercer won the two seats in the assembly despite a determined campaign by GW's old lieutenant from the Virginia Regiment, Adam Stephen (see FREEMAN, 3:55--56, 61--62).
[July]
11th. July. Edward Violette compleated his Planting at Muddy hole Quarter--that is, he planted 25,000 hills on the East side of the Plantn. & replanted all.
The same day Jno. Foster at Dogue Run Quarter finishd his, having 40,000 to plant besides replanting--18,000 of which lying at the south Extreame of the Plantn., 8,000 in the Orchard abt. the House, & the Rest around the New Tobo. House on the East.
N.B. The Reason of noting this late plantg. is to see how it succeeds.
Edward Violette (d. 1773) was overseer at Muddy Hole until he moved to the Bullskin plantation in 1762 (see entry for 27 Oct. 1762).
Friday July 31st. Sowd Turnips--upon which fell a heavy Rain immediately--so that they were neither Rakd nor harrowd in--the seed I mean. In a few days they came up very thick and well.
[August]
Augt. 15th. Sow'd abt. half an Acre of English Turnip Seed adjoining to the above and Raked them in the Ground being dry.
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A tobacco plant from Rembert Dodoeën's Cruydeboeck, Antwerp, 1554. (Arents Collections, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations)
Elsewhere GW calls his English turnips "Norfolk turnips," from the county in southeast England where the raising of turnips ( Brassica rapa) as a field crop for livestock was highly developed. Tull's method of drilling the seed in rows to permit cultivation by horsedrawn equipment had become a technique of the agricultural revolution in England. Elsewhere GW mentions the Naper turnip, Swedish turnip, winter turnip, and summer turnip.
GW contracted a bad cold during the election campaign in Frederick County in May 1761, which turned into a long, serious illness during the recover his health. Although he felt an improvement after a few weeks at the warm springs, he had a slight relapse while attending the House of Burgesses in October and missed some of the meeting. (On GW's illness, see FREEMAN, 3:62--63, 67--68, 70.)
[September]
Septr. 8. Sowed 12 Bushels of Ray Grass Seed and 2 Bushels of Hop Trafoil in the Inclosure adjoining the Quarter. The Weather was extreamely dry when it was sowd, however their fell a slight Shower that day--as there did likewise the 10th. but not more
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than sufficient to lay the Dust thoroughly. The seed was Harrowed in with a Brush Harrow and it is apprehended buried too deep by that means as none of it appeard till towards the last of the Month after a great deal of Rainy Weather and then of none but the Ray grass. The other is not to be seen at this time Octr. 23d.
RAY GRASS: Lolium perenne, perennial, or English, ryegrass.
[21] Cattle bought at My Bro. John Washington's Sale 21st. Septr. 1761.
The list of cattle has been moved from the flyleaf of the almanac.
[October]
Octr. 15th. Sowed a Bushel of Ray grass seed, a gallon of clean Timothy Seed, and abt. half a Bushel in Chaff of Ditto on my Meadow at Dogue Run quarter. Note this ground at the time of Sowing was very moist--but no Rain fell upon it afterwards Untill the 22d. of the Month, when it raind hard for two days. This Seed was also harrowd in with Bushes. Clean Timothy seed supposd not to be good.
English agriculturist Richard Parkinson wrote that American farmers usually sowed timothy grass, Phleum pratense, alone (PARKINSON, 2:343); here GW is mixing it with ryegrass. In his later years GW depended heavily on timothy, finding it suitable for a hot climate and able to survive in wet pasturelands.
Octr. 22d. Began Captn. Posey's Barn with Turner Crump & Six Carpenters.
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With books such as these, and the skill of his carpenters, Washington continually improved his expanding farms. (Boston Athenaeum)
Roof trusses illustrated in Francis Price's British Carpenter, London, 1768. (Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University)
Turner Crump was hired by GW in Dec. 1760 to oversee GW's slave carpenters at a wage £30 per year. This construction project apparently marked the first time GW contracted Crump and his slave carpenters out to do work for others.
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[January]
Note. Killed this 27th. of Jany.--18 hogs of abt. 15 Months old--and for an experiment weighed them alive, after they had fasted abt. 36 hours.
by which it appears that the odds between gross and Nett Porke shoud be abt. 15 pr. Ct.
HASLLETTS: haslets, the edible viscera of a slaughtered animal.
[February]
9. Began Plowing for Oats.
20. Rented George Ashfords Plantn. to Nelson Kelly for 1000 lbs. Tobo. & Cash.
Sowed a good deal of Tobo. Seed at all my Quarters.
George Ashford of Fairfax County sold GW 135 acres of land on the west side of Dogue Run 13--14 Jan. 1762 for £165 (Fairfax County Deeds, Book E-1, 22--30, Vi Microfilm). Adjoining this land on the north was another 135-acre tract that GW had bought from Ashford's brother John 29--30 Jan. 1761 for £150 (Fairfax County Deeds, Book D-1, 822--27, Vi Microfilm). Both tracts lay on the east side of the land that GW purchased from Simon Pearson on 14 Feb. of 1763, giving him a solid 448-acre section between Dogue Run and the main road from Alexandria to Colchester. Kelly later in the year became overseer of the Dogue Run plantation (see entry for 31 Aug. 1762).
27. Killed 27 Hogs after being Six days coming from Frederick and very well emptied--wch. hogs weighed gross as follows--viz.
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4643 lbs. being the gross wt. I then tryed what they woud weigh nett, after being killd 12 & 18 hours.
The difference between Nett. & gross Porke is 753 by wch. it appears that there is a loss of 16 pr. Ct.
March
2. There having fallen a Snow of abt. 2 Inches depth the Night before--I sowed thereupon, at the Meadow at Fosters, where the grass was entirely destroyd by the Winter's Frosts, Six pecks of Ray grass Seed & three quarts of Timothy Seed mixed well in Ashes.
Also Sowed, from the North Side of the Inclosure by the Quarter, to the Quarter with Ray grass, hop Clover, & Lucerne Mixed--viz. for the whole Inclosure 8 Pecks of Ray seed, 3 ditto of the Clovr., & 1 ditto of the Lucerne--but the Snow dissolving & the Wind coming out very fresh at No. West I was obligd to desist
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and a prodigious severe frost happeng. that Night 'tis to be fear'd the Seed all perished.
In March GW's half brother Augustine Washington died; GW records an expenditure of £2 13s. 3d. for a trip to Westmoreland County to attend the funeral. He undoubtedly gave some advice and help to Augustine's family, but he refused to act as executor, probably because of the distance involved and the press of his own affairs (LEDGER A, 146; FREEMAN, 3:73n; GW to John West, 13 Jan. 1775, DLC:GW). After his trip to Augustine's home, GW traveled to Williamsburg to attend a meeting of the House of Burgesses which began on 30 Mar. At this meeting Governor Fauquier announced that, according to instruction from the assembly in Jan. 1762, the Virginia Regiment had been disbanded. Now, however, there was a possibility of trouble with the Spanish in Florida, and the assembly voted to raise 1,000 troops to form a new regiment (see FREEMAN, 3:74--75).
18th. Agreed to give Turner Crump one Sixth part of what he can make by my Carpenters this Year, which is to commense the 22d. day of Octr. being the time when he began Captn. Poseys Work, and to give him the Seventh of what he can make by them the Year after.
20. Finished Plowing for Oats--abt. 20 Acs.
22. Began Plowg. and Ditchg. the Meadow at George Ashfords.
Also began Sowing & Harrowing in of Oats.
Also, grafted Six trees in the Garden. See Memorandum of this on 'tother side the Book.
24. Burnt Tobo. Beds.
Grafted 5 others of the same Cherry's on Scions standing in a Cluster in the Mint bed.
Also, 3 Bullock hearts (from Colo. Mason) one under the Wall to the right of the gate--2 others under the Wall also, between the 5 Cornation Cherrys & opposite to the Plumb trees.
Also--4 more of the fine early Cherrys from Colo. Masons, between the abo<ve> and the Cherrys which were graf<ted> last year from that tree by the Gra<pe> Vine. These were all upon growg. Sc<ions>.
Grafted likewise in the Peach Orch<ard> 4 More Apricots & in the Apple Orchard 6 more. Note. These Apricots came from the Plantation where Mr. Clifton used to live.
Beginning with the word "Grafted," the remainder of the 24 Mar. entry has been transferred from a dated memorandum on the back cover of the diary.
4 MORE APRICOTS: Prunus armeniaca, apricot. GW does not mention this fruit again in the diaries until 9 Feb. 1785, but other papers show that it was common in his orchards.
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25. Sowed them [tobacco beds] in the following Manner viz. in the first bed next towards the dividing fence Frederick Tobo. Seed--in 2d. Bed Thick joint in 3d. Sweetscented--4th. Johnson's 5th. br[oa]d long Green.
27th. Finished Sowing & harrowing in my Oats. Viz. 44 Bushels.
Also, finished Sowing the grass Seed by Quar[te]r.
29. Engagd my Ferriage at Fredksburg. by the Year of Mr. Jas. Hunter.
James Hunter, Jr. (1746--1788), inherited this Rappahannock River ferry from his father, William, who died in 1754. Since James Jr. was still a minor in 1762, GW must have dealt with his older cousin and guardian, James Hunter, Sr. (d. 1785), a major merchant, planter, and iron manufacturer then of King George County.
30. Sowed in the Meadow at Ashfords, eight Quarts of Timothy Seed four Do. of Lucerne, and three pecks of Hop Trefoil.
April
5. Sowed Timothy Seed in the old Apple Orchard below the Hill.
7. Sowed--or rather sprinkled a little of Ditto on the Oats.
8. to the 10th. Getting Swamp Mud, & laying it in heaps--also got a little of the Creek Mud--Both for tryal as Manures.
14. Inspected 20 Hhds. Tobo.
15. John Foster run away.
21. Sent Jno. Alton to take charge of Plantation.
John Alton (d. 1785), a white servant, worked faithfully for GW for more than 30 years. He accompanied GW as his body servant in the Braddock campaign and later served in various capacities at Mount Vernon. When John Foster ran away from Mount Vernon, GW sent Alton to take over the overseer's duties at the Dogue Run farm. Later in the year Alton was transferred to Muddy Hole to succeed Edward Violette (see entry for 27 Oct. 1762), and at the time of his death was overseer at River Farm. For several years Alton also managed the Mill plantation.
22. Attachts. in my hands for Fosters effects.
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The royal arms of colonial Virginia. (Colonial Williamsburg Photograph)
24. Had the Plantn. viewed.
Herrings run in gt. quantity's.
Planted new gd. at Williamson's.
26. Began to plant Corn at all my Plantation's.
May
3. Mr. Daingerfields Negro Bricklayer Guy came here to work.
Three William Daingerfields were living in Virginia in 1762, all of whom GW knew. Col. William Daingerfield (d. 1769), of Greenfield, Essex County, whom GW had visited in 1752 as he was traveling home from Barbados, had a son and a nephew, both named William. The son William Daingerfield (d. 1781), of Coventry and Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania County, had served with GW as ensign and lieutenant in the Virginia Regiment and continued in service until the regiment was disbanded in 1762. The nephew William Daingerfield (d. 1783), of New Kent, was a first cousin to Burwell Bassett and lived in the Eltham neighborhood until about 1770, when he removed to Belvidera, just south of Fredericksburg (see RILEY [1], 172). GW hired Guy
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for £30 per year plus room and board and billed Daingerfield for Guy's clothing. Guy remained in GW's service until Oct. 1763.
4. Finished Planting Corn at all Places.
10. Counted the Tobo. Gd. at Doeg Run Qr. as follows--viz.--of
John Gist (d. 1778) was a planter who for many years had rented 106 acres on the east side of Dogue Run from Sampson Darrell--land that came under GW's ownership after his purchase of 500 acres from Darrell in 1757. Gist continued to rent his quarter from GW until 12 Aug. 1760, when GW bought out his lease for £30 (deed of Gist to GW, PHi: Gratz Collection; LEDGER A, 84). Gist apparently moved to Loudoun County.
11. Told my Sheep as follows--viz, & Cut & Markd
Note. The above Includes falling Sheep Ewes & Lambs.
Put 31 hides in Soak for Tanning.
Guy began the Garden Wall, after having built an Oven in the Kitchen, laid the hearth, & repaird the back.
Brought 5 Cows & Calves from Muddy hole.
13. Got a Cask of Leith Ale from Mr. Marshall Piscatwy.
Agreed to do Mr. Bells Work for £59.
Marshall is probably James Marshall, who owned or managed a "Public House of Entertainment" in Piscataway in 1761 ( Md. Gaz., 23 April 1761). Piscataway is on Piscataway Creek in Prince George's County, Md., almost directly across the Potomac from Mount Vernon. At this time it was a
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thriving town made up largely of Scottish merchants engaged in the tobacco trade.
MR. BELLS WORK: On 15 Aug. 1763 GW received £41 15s. 8d. from "Mr. Josias Bell for Carpenters w[ork]" (LEDGER A, 166). Most of GW's carpenters were involved in this work during the summer of 1762 (see entries for 28 June, 19 July, 27 July, and 29 July 1762). Bell was probably Josias Beall (born c. 1725) of Prince George's County, Md.
15. 6 Cows & Calves from S. Johnson. 3 Do. 2 Do. from C.
22. Young Countiss & black Mare Covered by Alexanders Ho[rse].
Alexander is probably Robert Alexander, son of Col. Gerard Alexander and his wife Mary Dent Alexander. It is probable that GW sent some of his mares to Alexander's nearby plantation to be bred, possibly to an English stallion which he had previously sold to Alexander (LEDGER A, 96).
28. Planted abt. 50, or 60,000--being the first--Tobo, put in. Roan's bay & sorrel covered by Mr. Rozers Traveller. English bay & black covered by Aeriel.
Roan may have been John Roan, overseer of Claiborne's, the Custis dower plantation in King William County.
Ariel was a thoroughbred black stallion from the famous Belair stables in Prince George's County, Md. In 1762 he was standing at William Digges's plantation (BELAIR STUD, 56).
Henry Rozer or Rozier (born c.1725), of Prince George's County, Md., lived at Notley Hall, nearly opposite Alexandria (BROWNE, 309; BRUMBAUGH, 1:85). The previous spring he had advertised in the Maryland Gazette: "YOUNG TRAVELLER, now in the Possession of Mr. Henry Rozer, in Prince-George's County, Covers Mares at Two Guineas. He is Five Years old, full Sixteen Hands and an Inch high, was bred by Col. Tasker, got by Mr. Moreton's TRAVELLER in Virginia, and came out of Miss COLVILL" (2 April 1761).
30. Chesnut Mare covered by Alexrs. H[orse] Countis & blk. refused.
Roan Mare & old black coverd by McCartys horse.
Capt. Daniel McCarty (d. 1791) of Mount Air charged GW £3 for "the use of your Horse to 4 Mares" (LEDGER A, 82).
31. White Mare & Rankin covered by Do.
June
1. Guy Sick and did no Work.
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2. Good Season at D[ogue] Run Quartr. planted abt. there.
4. Jno. Askew came to Work.
In 1759 GW hired John Askew (Askin), a local joiner, for £25 per year plus housing. In Oct. 1761 they changed the agreement, GW now paying Askew a per diem wage that amounted to the same £25-per-year rate. For a 5-day week with 11 holidays per year Askew's pay would come to 2s. per day. Hence, as Askew was paid per day, GW kept track of any absence or return to work by Askew.
7. Jno. Askew came to Work.
8. Roan Mare took McCartys Horse.
Old black--took--Do.--Do.
9. Rankin's--took--Do.--Do.
White--refused Do.--Do.
English Mare refused Alexrs. Horse.
13. Recd. a Pipe of Wine.
Hogs at Mill--viz.
Blaze Mare refused horse.
14. English Mare refused Do.
17. Began Mowing Meadow on C[ree]k side.
Planted at Orchard point--Craiks and Cowpen my 5 sorts of Tobo. as follow
At the point 100 hills of each sort in undunged gd. & 100 of dunged
The 1st. Row next Tobo. bed Fred[eric]k & so on as they were sowed in March last then begg. with the same & so on alternately.
The same Order observe at Craiks begg. next Greek & in the Cowpen next Wood.
Orchard Point was apparently a point of land on Clifton's Neck at the mouth of Little Hunting Creek (see "Observations" entry for 14 July 1768). On his
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1766 map of River Farm, GW refers to a point of land across the creek from this as Old Orchard Point ( GW Atlas, pl. 3).
19. Finished Mowing 2 Meadows--& Makg. Hay. Note 5 hands can easily cut both in two days.
Rankin Covered by McCarty's horse.
2 Steers & Cow & Calf from Dogue Run.
20. Roan Mare & old black took horse.
22. Hay in both Meadows Cured & stacked.
25. Began clearing at Rivr. Side Quarter.
27. Rankin covered by McCartys horse.
28. Corn planted in Tobo. Grd. at Muddy hole R[ive]r[side Quarter]. Will George & Ned went to Work at Bells.
29. Replanted Tobo.--poor Season--corn replanted just coming up. Much hurt by B< >.
30. Good Season--planted best part of Tobo. gd.
[July]
1st. Roan Mare took McCartys horse.
Black Do. Do. Do. Do.
3. Recd. 494 bushls. Oyster Shells.
4. My Mares came from Mr. Rozers.
MY MARES: the mares sent to Rozer's to be bred (see entry for 28 May 1762).
7. Broached pipe of Wine.
8. Finished plantg. & replantg. at all Qrs.
9. 10. Cut my wheat at R[iverside] Qr. & Ck. Do. Also finished first cuttg. of Hay.
12 Finished plowg. gal. behind Garden.
Carpenters went to Reapg. at Poseys.
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13. Mares brot. from Mr. Digges's.
GW brought back his English bay and black mares which had been sent to William Digges's plantation to be bred (see entry for 28 May 1762).
14. Counted my Sheep as follows--
15. Nancy Gist left this.
Nancy Gist, daughter of Christopher and Sarah Howard Gist, had gone to live with William Fairfax's family at Belvoir in 1757 while her father was on the frontier, first as a captain with the Virginia Regiment, then as deputy to Edmund Atkin, superintendent for Indian affairs in the southern colonies (William Fairfax to GW, 17 July 1757, DLC:GW; GW to Sally Fairfax, 25 Sept. 1758, WRITINGS, 2:292--94; TRIMBLE, 145--47). She never married and after her father's death in 1759 went to live with one of her brothers.
19. Will, George, Sam, & Mike went to Bells agn.
20. Recd. my Goods from the Unity--Captn. Robson.
Bot. Frederick & Judy of Mr. Lewis.
Began grubg. my Meadow. Note sometimes 4, & sometimes 6 hands at Wk.
Capt. William Robson of the Unity carried a large shipment of goods which GW had ordered from Robert Cary & Co. on behalf of himself and the two
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A typical tobacconist's trade card. (Trustees of the British Museum)
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Custis children. The complete order amounted to £463 15s. 8d. and included such items as a new still, clothing, china, food, farm equipment, and books (invoices of goods shipped to GW, 1754--66, DLC:GW). GW wrote Cary & Co. on 18 Sept. 1762 that everything had arrived except some shoes. "There must likewise have been a mistake in Shipping the Plows, for many of the most material parts being wanting, the rest, according to the Bill of Parcells, is entirely useless, and lye upon my hands a dead charge" (DLC:GW).
FREDERICK & JUDY: On this date GW paid £115 to Col. Fielding Lewis for two Negroes (LEDGER A, 146).
26. Sowed a little of each kind of Seed that came in, in the Garden to try their goodns.
Opened a Cask bottled Porter contg. as follows
27. Crump went over to Bells to work.
29. Tom also went over.
31. Guy finished the 3 sides of Garden all to Capp[in]g Pill[a]r. B. Mitchell went away.
Burgess Mitchell of Maryland had been employed 1 May 1762 by GW as overseer of the Home House plantation, the farm on which the mansion house was located. He was to work until the end of October, for which GW was to pay him £6 plus his levy and tax and to provide him with laundry services, lodging, and food. According to the terms of the agreement, if Mitchell did not fulfill his obligations satisfactorily he could be "turned of at any season between this" and the last of October and would forfeit his wages (agreement of Mitchell with GW, 1 May 1762, DLC:GW). He left before the six months were up.
[August]
2. Philip Fletcher came to making Bricks.
Sowed a Bushel of Buckwheat in Sandy grd. at Ch[arle]s C[rai]ks.
Philip Fletcher was paid £14 10s. for making 78,000 nine-inch bricks, 2,125 tiles for the garden wall, and 1,080 nine-inch-square flooring tiles (LEDGER A, 130).
After this early trial of Fagopyrum esculentum, buckwheat, GW appears to
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have neglected it as a crop for many years. He next begins to experiment with it when he receives 50 bushels from Leven (Levin) Powell of Loudoun County, as he notes in his entry of 1 Dec. 1786. When Powell sent him several more bushels in April 1787, he included a letter advising GW on raising the crop and explaining that it was fed to cows and horses as a meal mixed with straw or chaff. GW planned to use it both as livestock feed and as green manure to be plowed under. Seven years later he was still learning how to raise the crop. When the Whiskey Rebellion called him into rural Pennsylvania in 1794, he paused at Reading to write William Pearce at Mount Vernon some observations he had made on the methods used by Pennsylvania farmers. Eventually he gave up buckwheat completely, believing that it depleted as much as it enriched the soil.
3. Inspected 11 hogsheads--Tobo. H[untin]g C[ree]k Warehouse.
5. Sowed Turnip Seed.
12. Sowed Rye & Hop Trefoil behind Garden.
RYE: Secale cereale, important to GW in sheep husbandry and in his overall plan when in later years he had developed a seven-year crop rotation. He usually grazed sheep on the young rye, withdrawing them in time to produce a grain crop.
16. Began Sowing Wheat at River Quarter.
20. Began beating Cyder at Ditto.
Recd. 1 hhd. Molasses qty. 120 Gals. & 1 Barl. Sugar wt. 254 lb. of Colo. Walke.
Also recd. of Mr. Thos. Thompson leathr, as follows Viz.
Col. Anthony Walke (1692--1768), of Fairfield, Princess Anne County, was a merchant based in Norfolk who imported rum and sugar from the West Indies. By 1762 his son Anthony Walke (1726--1782) had become a partner in the business. In his LEDGER A, 118, GW records Thompson's first name as William.
21. Recd. 70 Bags of Salt--abt. 280 Bushels.
25. Began Sowing Wheat at Creek Quartr.
30. Began Sowing wheat at Muddy hole.
Began cutting Creek Meadow.
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31. Winney came from Mountain Quarter.
Agreed with Nelson Kelly to Overlook Gists &ca.
MOUNTAIN QUARTER: Bullskin plantation. Winney may be the slave of the same name who was a house servant at Mount Vernon from 1766 until some time after 1773 (Toner Transcripts, DLC).
According to articles of agreement signed the following day, Kelly, described as a "Planter," was to oversee the next year's tobacco and corn crops at GW's "quarters on Doegs Run known by the names of Gists and Ashfords" and in return he was to receive a part of the crops, some meat provisions, and a cash bonus on the tobacco (DLC:GW).
[September]
8. Carried the last of my Tobo. to H[ untin ]g C[ree]k W[are-house].
Finished sowing Wheat at Muddy hole 15 [ ].
13. Began getting Fodder at Muddy hole.
[October]
4. Put up 4 Hogs for forwd. Bacon at R[iver] Side.
GW had left Mount Vernon for Frederick County 3 Oct. and did not return until eight days later (GW to George W. Fairfax, 30 Oct. 1762, PHi: Dreer Collection).
12. 13. Sowed Rye at Muddy hole.
18. Planted 4 Nuts of the Medateranean Pine in Garden close by the Brick Ho[use].
23. At Night set fire to brick Kiln.
26. Put up at Muddy hole 21 hogs
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27. Stopd Kiln holes about 2 oclock.
Ned Violette moved off for Frederick & John Alton to Muddy hole.
30. Sowed 3 pints of Timothy Seed below my Meadow at Ashfords.
Note--A small part on the So. West Side not broke up, but very light notwithstanding.
[November]
4. Killed four hogs from Rivr. sid[ e ] Quarter. Nett wt . . . 435 lbs.
10. Set of for Williamsburg & returnd Decr. 1st.
GW apparently repeated his practice of visiting the Custis plantations on his way to Williamsburg and probably arrived in that city on 15 Nov., when he took his seat in the House of Burgesses. The fourth session of the 1761--65 assembly had begun on 2 Nov. 1762 and was a busy one, passing 44 acts before its prorogation on 23 Dec. As the assembly tended to do most of its major work in the middle half of a session, GW was present for consideration of most of the major bills, including some which must have had particular interest for him. Among the bills passed were four that concerned military affairs; one for encouraging local manufactures; one for enlarging the growing town of Alexandria; and one for enlarging the boundaries of Truro Parish, to whose vestry he had just been elected in October. While in Williamsburg, GW stayed at Christiana Campbell's tavern on Duke of Gloucester Street near the Capitol. He also tended to some personal and financial concerns: he paid Anthony Walke for the sugar and rum delivered the previous August, collected some of his burgess's allowances which, under the new act, allowed him 15s. per diem plus £7 10s. travel expenses per session, and visited his barber.
29. 28 hogs & 2 Beeves come from Bullskin.
30. Killed the above Hogs & 6 from Mudy. hol[e] & 10 from Doeg Run-wt. Nett.
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[December]
4. Finished Measg. & Lofting Corn.
6. 94 Barrls. Corn in great Corn Ho[use] at Muddy hole--when they began to use it.
Mr. Adams 8 Sheep from Mudy. hole.
GW records this delivery to Robert Adam of Alexandria in his LEDGER A, 133, as "8 Fat Sheep."
15. 8 Ditto from Doeg Run.
Killed 28 Hogs viz.
GW made the above entries in The Virginia Almanack for the current year, as was his custom. The 1762 edition, like many eighteenth-century almanacs, contained a printed section of proverbs and anecdotes, appearing in this case near the end of the volume. Of the 100 items there, GW marked 15 with an X, apparently indicating that he found them especially interesting or amusing.
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[March]
Brought to D. Run Plantn. 3 of my Stray Steers.
2. Seven young Pigs at R[iver] Side Qr.
6. Eight Do. at Muddy hole.
9. By this lost 3 of my Sheep viz. a Ram & two young Ewes.
10. Brot. a strayed Heifer of mine to Rivr. Side Qr.
April 24, 1763
At my Plantation in King William
M 190 Corn holes good Tale.
M 170 Tobo. Hills Do. Do.
M 190 CORN HOLES: That is, 190,000 corn holes. GW frequently used the roman numeral M to indicate one thousand.
[May]
At Bridge Quarter
Overseer--Cluning
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At Ship Landing
May 13. Told my sheep & cut & Marked Lambs as follows--viz.
Tobo. Ground belonging to Muddy hole
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[June]
24. Began to cut Timothy at Ashfords.
30. Finished Do.--2 days Rain in the time.
On 3 June 1763, GW attended the initial meeting, probably at Stafford Court House, of a group of Potomac valley men who were interested in developing western lands. This meeting followed by only four months the Treaty of Paris, in which France renounced all claim to lands west of the Appalachian Mountains, thus opening these lands to settlement by the American colonists. To this end colonial land companies began forming, and one of the first was the Mississippi Company, organized at this meeting. The regulations agreed upon provided for a limit of 50 members (there were never more than 40), each of whom was to get 50,000 acres, and none of whom could transfer his interest without approval of the company, thus protecting the company from infiltration by members of rival land companies. Assessments were to be provided for as needed. The company would be run by a ten-member executive committee, which was to execute the decisions of the annual meeting of the full company (Mississippi Company regulations, 3 June 1763, DLC:GW; CARTER [1], 109).
[July]
1st. Began to cut Rye by Garden.
5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Cut and secured all my Wheat (by Stacking) at River & Creek Quarters--abt. 60 Acres. Carpenters, Smiths, & home Gang employd.
Writing to Burwell Bassett 5 July, GW reported that his wheat crop was largely destroyed by rust and other defects, "and our Crops of Indian Corn and Tobacco in a manner lost in Weeds and Grass, occasioned by continual and excessive Rains" (WRITINGS, 2:401).
11. Cut & Stacked wheat at Mudy. hole & Cut Rye there.
12. 13. Cut & Stackd Do. at Dogue Run & Stackd Rye at Muddy hole.
14. 15. 16. & 18. Cut & made Hay of Clover at River Quarter with part of & the hands--the Rest Workg. at D[ogue] R[un].
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19. 20. Cutg. Hay at Hell hole.
21. 22. Makg. Do.--Rainy.
23. People doing Jobs.
25. 26. 27. Cutting & makg. Hay at Sein Landg.
28. 29. Cut Timothy Seed at Ashfords & new topd. the stack there.
Note. This seed was cut too soon & did not stand long enough in the field wch. occasioned gt. loss.
30. Doing Jobs.
[August]
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Cutting curing and Stackg. Hay from Creek Meadow.
Note. Too late cutting Hay for first Crop this year.
15. Sowed Turnips at Muddy hole.
16. Sowed Do. at Rivr. Quartr.
Do. at home in Peach Orchard--English seed from Clifton & Posey.
17. Sowed Do. below Garden. Seed from England.
18. Ditto in Apple Orchard. Some English seed & some Country Do.
Sowed likewise at Creek Qr. & Doeg Run--Country Seed.
Note. No Rain upon them until the < > Inst.
20. Counted sheep pr. List Inclosd.
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26. Sowed a little English cloverseed at Quince tree in Garden to see if it was good.
QUINCE TREE: Cydonia oblonga, an unimportant fruit in GW's orchard scheme.
29. Began sowing Wheat at Muddy hole.
31. In Turnips below garden and Peach Orchard sowed about a Peck of Spelts in Drills--also abt. a Hat ful in Apple Orchard lower corner.
Spelt is Triticum aestivum var. spelta or any other variety of wheat in which the chaff adheres to the grain. It therefore cannot be threshed like other wheats but must be milled. GW raised white and black varieties.
[September]
1st. Observed that my yg. Corn was just beginning to show, occasioned by Rains falling abt. the 25th. Quere has it time to make or Ripen.
2. Sowed a Bushel & half of Winter Barley on an Acre of Ground in Apple Orchard.
3. 4. Sowed Rye in Ditto & began Stilling Cyder.
8. Agreed with Thomas Nichols a farmer to Overlook my People at Home & work wt. them for £20.
9. Began to sow wheat at C[ree]k Qrs.
On this day GW attended the first annual meeting of the Mississippi Company, held at Thomas Ludwell Lee's home, Belleview, on the south side of Potomac Creek in Stafford County. At the meeting the company agreed upon a formal memorial to the crown, appointed William Lee treasurer-secretary, and chose its ten-member executive committee, which was to meet semiannually at Westmoreland Court House. GW was not one of the ten, probably because the members were chosen on the basis of their proximity to the meeting place; John Augustine Washington, who lived in Westmoreland County, was on the committee. GW paid his company quota of £8 5s. for hiring an agent in England who was to prosecute the memorial and also invite into the company not more than nine English members "of such influence and fortune as may be likely to promote its success" (CARTER [1], 170). The meeting also authorized special meetings of the full company.
Four weeks after this meeting the crown promulgated the Proclamation
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Line of 1763, which prohibited any settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. Although GW later observed to William Crawford (21 Sept. 1767, DLC:GW) that he could "never look upon that Proclamation in any other light . . . than as a temporary expedient to quiet the Minds of the Indians and must fall of course in a few years," the presence of the Line, coupled with the instability of British ministries during the 1760s and the claims of competing land companies, caused the Mississippi Company's petition to remain dormant for the next four years.
10. Began to sow Do. at Rivr. Qr.
12. Began to sow Do. at Doag Run.
Finished sowing Do. at Muddy hole 25 <Bls.>
15. Planted in 11 holes on the West side of the Garden 22 English Walnuts.
17. Began to sow Rye at Muddy hole.
19. Began getting fodder at Do.
21. Frost bit Tobacco at D[ogue] Run.
22 Frost bit Do. at Do. and at Muddy hole also bit Fodder very much.
Began to get fodder at Creek Quarter.
[October]
1st. Finished sowing 7 Bushels of Spelts in 7 Acres of Corn Ground at Muddy hole--the Sowing of which was began the day before.
Novembr.
4. Finished sowing Wheat at Doeg Run--viz. 33 Bushls. in the large Cut 24 in the next adjoining 4½ by the Gate & 3 in the other Tobo. Ground. In all 64½ Bushels.
5. Finished Sowing Wheat at C[ ree ]k Qr. in all 32½ Bushls. Finished sowing Do. at River Qr. in all 47½ Bushels.
7. Put up 10 Hogs to fatten at River Quarter.
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8. Put up 15 to fatten at Mudy. Hole.
9. Put up 24 to fatten at Doeg Run.
Got done Sowing Wheat at the Mill & home House viz. 32 at the first and 4½ at the last.
15. Put up 10 Hogs at Doeg Run from the Mill.
18. Killed 5 Hogs from Creek Quartr. nett wt.--590 lbs.
Memorandoms--March 21st.
Grafted 40 Cherrys--viz.
Grafted 12 Magnum Bonum Plums beginning at the further part of the Second Row.
Planted 4 Nuts of the Mediterranean Pine in the Pen where the Chesnut grows--sticks by each.
Note the Cherrys & Plums came from Collo. Mason's--Nuts from Mr. Gr[een].
Set out 55 cuttings of the Madeira Grape--viz.--31 in finishing the 2d. row where the Plums are and 24 in the next beginning at the hither end--these from Mr. Greens.
GRAFTED 40 CHERRYS: All the cherries mentioned here and elsewhere originated in England; the sweet varieties are Prunus avium, the sour P. cerasus, and the duke cherries P. avium regalis. Here GW is grafting the Bullock, or Ox Heart, a dark red cherry with large, heart-shaped fruit which ripened in July; one of several varieties of May cherries, and the Carnation, a large and handsome light red cherry highly esteemed for making brandy and preserves (DOWNING, 194). The Magnum Bonum plum was also known as the egg plum in American gardens, occurring in both white and yellow forms.
MEDITERRANEAN PINE: probably Pinus pinea, the Italian stone pine, native to Italy and southern Europe and often cultivated for its edible kernels. Nurseryman Bernard McMahon listed it as a desirable planting in his CALENDAR [1], 273, and it still is a popular landscaping tree in the South, but not hardy in Virginia. Peter Collinson sent seeds of this species to John
Arrangement of an orchard from Batty Langley, New Principles of Gardening, London, 1728. (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University)
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Custis, Williamsburg, from England, but in 1738 Custis reported that he had been unable to save the seedlings he produced (SWEM, 69, 74).
COLLO. MASON: George Mason (1725--1792), one of GW's neighbors, lived at Gunston Hall, located about 16 miles south of Alexandria on Pohick Bay. Mason was an enthusiastic farmer and he and GW frequently exchanged views on agriculture as well as on political events. Mason was a trustee of Alexandria, a member of the Truro Parish vestry, a justice of Fairfax County, and treasurer of the Ohio Company. Although he disliked holding public office, he served briefly in the House of Burgesses and for a number of years in the House of Delegates and exerted considerable influence on the political thought of his Virginia contemporaries.
22. Transplanted to the Corner of the Borders by Garden House a Cherry Graft--from the Cherry tree at the other Corner of the said Bord<er> by the first Fall.
26. Grafted 12 Quinces on Pear and Apple Stocks and planted them next the vines in Bd. [Border] Row in Nurs<ery>.
Also grafted 10 of a pretty little early (June) Pear from Collo. Mason's and planted them at the end of the Quinces except 3 wch. begins the 4th. Row at the other end.
Transplanted about 350 hundd. young Crab Scions from Creek Quarter into the Nursery.
30. Grafted, & planted as followeth.
viz.
12 Spanish pairs from Collo. Masons. They hang till November & are a very valuable Fruit--these stand next the little early pair in the 4 Row beging. with the 4th. Tree in the said Row.
Also grafted 12 Butter pears from Collo. Masons--these esteemed among the finest pears, & stand next the Spanish pears.
Grafted 10 black Pear of Worcester from Collo. Mason's next the Butter Pear--these are a large course fruit for baking.
Grafted 10 of the Winter Boon Chrns.--from Collo. Masons--who had them from Collo. Fairfx. who praises them much--these begin the 5th Row next Grass Ground.
Grafted 8 of the Summer Boon Chrns. next these. From Do. who had them from Do. &ca.
Grafted 10 of the Bergamy Pears from Collo. Masons next the Sumr. Boon. These are a very fine Fruit but Co<arser> than most other English Pears.
Grafted 10 of the New Town Pippin from Collo. Masons who had them from Mr. Presidt. Blair.
Grafted 43 of the Maryland Red Strick--had the Grafts from Mr. Win. Digges--these are the whole of the 6th. Row.
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George Mason, Washington's neighbor at Gunston Hall. (Mr. S. Cooper Dawson, Jr.)
WINTER BOON: GW means Bon Chrétien pears. There are several varieties, summer, fall, and winter.
The Newtown Pippin apple was developed on Long Island, proved most popular, and is now called the Albemarle Pippin because of its association with the orchards of Albemarle County, Va. When he writes "Strick," GW means "Streak." Downing describes a "Red Streak" variety and calls it a good cider apple. An English Redstreak was offered for sale by nurseryman Philip Walten of Baltimore in 1788. George Mason used the Redstreak for cider and sent GW a quantity of it 5 April 1785, cautioning him that it would not be ready for drinking until May. Mason suggested that if GW decided to drink some while it was still sweet, he ought to grate a little ginger into it to make it "much more grateful to the Stomach" (Mason to GW, 5 April 1785, DLC:GW).
John Blair (1687--1771), of Williamsburg, became a member of the council in Virginia in 1745. Upon Governor Dinwiddie's return to England in Dec. 1757, Blair took the oaths as president of the council and served as acting governor until the arrival of Gov. Francis Fauquier in June 1758. During that period GW, as commander of the Virginia Regiment, reported to Blair.
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Editorial note. The following entry, recording details of GW's visit to the Dismal Swamp, appears faintly in pencil on the front of the 1763 diary and is repeated, in ink, in the diary for 1764. Variations between the two texts are minor. Although the entry is dated 15 Oct., it covers his first visit to the swamp in May, while he was attending meetings of the General Assembly in Williamsburg. The notes apparently were prompted by his second visit to the area in October, during which he did not enter the swamp.
The Dismal Swamp, in southeast Virginia and northeast North Carolina, is a coastal swamp about twenty miles long which at one time extended over some two thousand square miles. It is geologically unusual in that it is higher than the surrounding land, and water drains out of it rather than into it. At its center is Lake Drummond, about three miles across, which GW calls "the Pond" (see main entry for 28 Oct. 1768).
In 1763 GW and several partners including Fielding Lewis and Burwell Bassett formed a company, "Adventurers for Draining the Dismal Swamp," and the General Assembly of Virginia empowered them to construct canals and causeways through private land without being subject to suits for damages (HENING, 8:18). The purpose of the undertaking was to harvest lumber while the swamp was draining and to farm the land once it became dry. Early developers including Washington showed little interest in the digging of a canal for boat tragic between Chesapeake Bay and Albemarle Sound, a project which was accomplished a generation later. Although GW acquired land in the area and helped to finance some draining, his interest waned about twenty years after the following memorandum was written. His Dismal Swamp activities will be dealt with more fully in notes accompanying his correspondence on the subject.
Here GW documents a trip from Suffolk, down the west side of the swamp, across the Perquimans River to a site near present-day Elizabeth City, N.C., then back along the eastern side of the
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The Dismal Swamp is shown in this detail from a manuscript map of 1749 by Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson. (Manuscripts Department, University of Virginia Library)
swamp to Suffolk. Among the landowners named by GW were some from the prominent Nansemond County families of Riddick, Sumner, and Norfleet. Mills Riddick, from whom GW later bought land, was a member of the House of Burgesses for many years.
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15 Octobr. 1763
Memm. From Suffolk to Pocoson Swamp is reckoned about 6 Miles, and something better than 4 perhaps 5 Miles from Collo. Reddicks Mill run (where the Road x's it). The land within this distance especially after passing Willis Reddicks is Level & not bad. The banks down to this (Pocoson) Swamp declines gradually, and the Swamp appears to be near 75 yds. over, but no Water in it at present. Note--Mills Riddicks Plantn. seems to be a good one the land being level and stiff. So does Henry Riddicks above.
From Pocoson Swamp to Cyprus Swamp (which conducts more Water into the great Dismal than any one of the many that leads into it) is about 2½ Miles. This also is dry at present, but appears to be 60 or 65 yards across in the wettest part.
The next Swamp to this is called Mossey Swamp and distant about 3 Miles. Near this place lives Jno. Reddick on good Land, but hitherto from Pocoson Swamp, the land lyes flat, wet, & poor. This Swamp is 60 yards over and dry.
Between Cyprus Swamp, and the last mentioned one, we went on horse back not less than ½ a Mile into the great Swamp (Dismal) without any sort of difficulty, the horse not sinking over the fetlocks--the first quarter however abounding in Pine and Gallbury bushes, the soil being much intermixed with Sand but afterwards it grew blacker and richer with many young Reeds & few pines and this it may be observed here is the nature of the Swamp in general.
From Mossey Swamp to a branch and a large one it is, of Oropeak (not less than 80 yards over) is reckoned 4 Miles--two Miles short of which is a large Plantation belonging to one Brindle near to which (on the South side) passes the Carolina line.
The Main Swamp of Oropeak is about ½ a Mile onwards from this, where stands the Widow Norflets Mi<ll> & luke Sumners Plantations. This Sw<amp> cannot be less than 200 yards across but does not nevertheless discharge as much Water as Cyprus Swamp.
At the Mouth of this Swamp is a very large Meadow of 2 or 3000 Acr<es> held by Sumner, Widow Norflet, Marmaduke Norflet, Powel & others & valuable ground it is.
From Oropeak Swamp to loosing Swamp is about 2 Miles, and this 70 yards across.
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Extent of the Dismal Swamp is seen in this section of the Fry-Jefferson map of 1751, showing portions of Virginia and North Carolina. (Tracy W. McGregor Library, University of Virginia)
From hence again to Bassey Swamp the lower Road may be allowed 2 Miles More but Swamp seems trifling.
And from Bassey Swamp to Horse Pool (which is the last, & including Swamp running into the Dismal) is about 2 Miles more & 35 yards across only.
The whole Land Pocoson Swamp to this place and indeed all the way to Pequenmen Bridge is in a manner a dead level--wet & cold in some places--sandy in others and generally poor.
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This last named Swamp--viz. the Horse pool, is called 9 Miles from the upper Bridge on Pequemin River; within a Mile of which lives one Elias Stallens, and within 5 Miles is the lower Bridge--from whence to the bridge, or Ferry over little River is 15 measured Miles the course nearly due South as it likewise is from Suffolk to the said Bridge the Dismal running that course from that place.
From little River Bridge (or Ferry) to Ralphs Ferry on Paspetank is (I think we were told) abt. 16 Miles, the course East or No. East; and from thence if the ferry is not crossed along up the West Side of the River to the Rivr. Bridge of the said Paspetank is reckoned--Miles and about a No. Wt. course the Dismal bordering close upon the left all the way.
Note--the above Acct. is from Information only, for instead of taking that Rout, we crossed from Elias Stallens (one Miles above the upper bridge on Pequemin) across to a set of People which Inhabit a small slipe of Land between the said River Pequemen & the Dismal Swamp and from thence along a new cut path through the Main Swamp a Northerly course for 5 Miles to the Inhabitants of what they call new found land which is thick settled, very rich Land, and about 6 Miles from the aforesaid River Bridge of Paspetank. The Arm of the Dismal which we passed through to get to this New land (as it is called) is 3¼ Miles Measured--Little or no timber in it, but very full of Reeds & excessive Rich. Thro. this we carried horses--without any great difficulty.
This Land was formerly esteemed part of the Dismal but being higher tho' full of Reeds People ventured to settle upon it and as it became more open, it became more dry & is now prodigeous fine land but subject to wets & unhealthiness.
It is to be observed here that the tide, or still Water that comes out of the Sound up Pequemen River flows up as high as Stallens, and the River does not widen much untill it passes the lower Bridge some little distance. At Ralphs ferry upon Paspetank the River is said to be 2 Miles over, and decreases in width gradually to the bridge called River bridge, where it is about 30 yards across and affords sufficient Water for New England Vessels to come up and Load.
From what observations we were capable of making it appeared, as if the swamp had very little fall (I mean the Waters out of the great Swp.) into the heads of these Rivers which seems to be a demonstration that the Swamp is much lower on the South & East Sides because it is well known that there is a pretty considerable
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Stylized artist's view of the Dismal Swamp. (Library of Congress)
fall on the West side through all the drains that make into Nansemond River & the Western Branch of Elizabeth at the North End of the Dismal.
From the River Bridge of Paspetank to an Arm of the Dismal at a place called 2 Miles Bridge is reckoned 7 Miles, & a branch of Paspetank twice crossed in the distance.
This Arm of the Dismal is equally good & Rich like the rest & runs (as we were informed) 15 or 20 Miles Easterly, and has an outlet (as some say) into Curratuck Inlet by No. West River, or Tulls C[ree]k but these accts. were given so indistinctly as not to be relied upon. However it is certain I believe that the Water does drain of at the East end somewhere, in which case a common causay through at the crossing place would most certainly lay all that Arm dry.
From this place wch. is 2 Miles over to the Carolina line is about 4 Miles, and from thence to No. West landing on No. West Rivr. a branch of Curratuck, is 3 Miles more.
Note--the Carolina line crosses the Swamp in a West Direction, and is 15 Miles from the place where it enters to its coming out
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of the same near Brindles Plantation. Flats and small Craft load at No. West landing.
To the great Bridge from No. West landing is accounted 12 Miles the Lands good,as they are on all this (East) side and highly esteemed valued in general according to the Propretors own Accts. from 20/. to £3. acre but we were told they were to be had for less. This gt. Bridge is upon the South Branch of Elizabeth River & abt. 10 Miles for Norfolk and heads in the Dismal as does likewise No. West River Paspetank little River & Pequemen.
From the Great Bridge to Collo. Tuckers Mills is about 8 Miles within distance several small Creeks making out of South Rivr. head up in the Dismal.
Farleys Plantation at the Forks of the Road is reckoned 5 Miles from the aforesaid Mills near to which the dismal runs.
From hence to Robert's Ord[inar]y is 6 Miles and from thence to Suffolk 10 more. The lands from the Great Bridge to within a
Lake Drummond, in the center of the Dismal Swamp, shown in an early survey. (Library of Congress)
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Mile or two of Roberts's is generally sandy & indifferent. From hence to Cowpers Mill they are good & from thence to Collo. Reddicks Mean again.
Note--from the River B. on Paspetank to the Great Bridge on South River the Road runs nearly North and from thence to Farleys Plantation it seems to be about West from this again to Collo. Reddicks (or Suffolk) So. Wt. and from thence to Pequemen B. & little Rivr. South as beforemend. the Swamp bordering near to the Road all the way round--in some place close adjoining & in others 2 and 3 Miles distant.
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March
29. Grafted as follows viz.
8 Bullock Heart Cherry's: these are a fine large bla: Cherry, ripe in May, but not early. They begin the first Row in the Nursery next the Quarter--& at that end next to the Ray Grass Field. Between these and the rest a Stake is drove. Then--
8 of the finest early May Cherry--ending at another Stick. Then--
6 of the large Duke Cherry, ending at a stick likewise all in the same Row. These three Cherrys from Collo. Mason's. From hence to the end of the Row are Cherry Scions for Grafting upon another year.
Grafted also--12 Magnum Bonum Plumbs beginning the 2d. Row at the end next Ray Grass, & ending at a stake. From hence to the end of the Row are Plumb Scions for grafting upon--another year. Note the Magnum Bonum Plumb from Collo. Mason's.
In the 3d. Row (beging. next Ray Grass) the 1st. 4. & 5th. trees are of a pritty little early (June) pair from Collo. Masons.
The 2, 3, 6th. and to the 15th. tree Inclusive (at the end of which a stake is drove) are the bla: Pear of Worcester--from Collo. Mason--a large course Pear for Baking.
Then 10 Bergamy Pears from Ditto, ending at a Stake. These are a very fine fruit but Cou<rser> than most other English Pears.
Grafted also--the 3d. Row aforesd. continued.
Then--after the 10 Bergamy Pears--one of the Summer Boon Chrn. [bon Chrétien pear]. This from Collo. Mason who had them from Collo. Fairfax--who praises them much.
From hence to the end of the Row are apple Scions to Graft upon.
4th. Row all apple Scions to continue Pear Grafts upon next year.
5th. Row--beginning at the end next to Cherry Walk are first 15 New Town Pippins from Collo. Mason--who had them from Mr. President Blair. These end at a Stake & the Remainder of the Row & all the
6th. Row are Maryland red Stricks--68 in number.
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In the almanacs that he used for his diaries, Washington often used symbols which are discussed on p. 329. (Library of Congress)
Note the last years Grafts from Mr. Digges--this Collo. Mason.
Grafted also--In the 7 Row, 43 Gloucester White Apple. 8 Row beginning Next Ray Grass 7 more of Do. (in all 50) endg. at a Stake. Note these from Collo. Mason.
In the border just above the 2 Fall in the Garden Grafted one of the fine early May Cherry--Collo. Mason.
Note this is the 2d. Graff in the Border & stands nearest the middle walk.
All the old standard varieties of pear were derived from Pyrus communis, the European species. In the first catalogue of fruits published in America, gardener William Prince advertised the "black pear of Worcester, or Parkinson's warden." It is "dirty brown in color" and does against a wall (HITT, 344). A horticulturist writing in 1950 reported that trees of this
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variety are said to be more than 200 years old (HEDRICK, 35). There were several kinds of Bergamot, and the Autumn Bergamot may have been raised in England in the time of the Caesars. GW is following English custom in calling it a "Bergamy."
The Gloucester White apple does not appear to be a common variety; GW may simply be describing it on the basis of where he got it. A Gloucester Cheese variety is named in WATSON [1], 296--97.
[June]
5. Got one load of Hay from Peach Orchard weight 483 lbs.
6. Got the rest in viz. 1979
3462
7 & 8. Dug up abt. [ ] load of Marle to spread over Wheat Land--for experiment.
8. Sowed Lucerne again in the missing places below Garden.
11. Finishd (with two Plows) the Gd. behind the Garden wch. was begun the 4th.
12. Began to cut Meadow (Creek).
13. Meazured of 64 Gallons & put undr. Bishops care for Harvest &ca.
This month GW began to make various notations--words, names, abbreviations, letters, numerals, symbols, and other marks--in the margins of the monthly astronomical calendars printed in his almanacs. There are few substantial clues to the meaning of these casual jottings. Varying greatly in form and seldom having any apparent relation to corresponding diary or almanac entries, they appear at random over two widely separated periods: June 1764--Nov. 1775 and Feb. 1795--Dec. 1798. In most cases the editors can make no sense of them, but some can be understood. During the summer of 1770 GW used the calendar pages for a health record, counting his stepdaughter Martha Parke Custis's recurring epileptic attacks for a period of about three months (see main entry for 31 July 1770). During 1772 and 1774 the calendar notations served on several occasions to remind him of future obligations. The abbreviation "Fred" next to 15 Sept. and 23 Nov. 1772 meant that he had business in Fredericksburg on those days, and another notation next to 18 Sept. 1772 apparently told him that he must return to Mount Vernon by that date for a court-ordered survey and division of land that involved him. Several days in Nov. 1774 were similarly designated for the sale of a friend's lands (see main entries for 20--27 Nov. 1774). As aids to
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An earlier edition of this work on gardening was owned and used by Washington. (Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union)
memory and measurement, GW's notations in each of these cases served the same general purpose that the other parts of his diaries did, but without duplicating the exact functions of those other parts (see illus., p. 328).
[August]
1 & 2 Sowed Turnips--behind Garden.
10. Sowed Spelts--behind Ditto.
14. Cut Timothy Seed at Doeg Run.
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Allowing the artistic license, this engraving from Mawe and Abercrombie's Gardener's Calendar, London, 1803, might have been sketched in the Mount Vernon gardens. (Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union)
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15. Onwards getting Apples for Cyder.
17 & 18. Brought Oats from Ashfords. Note they were good Oats & a bushl. of them when well cleand weighd 30 lbs. & a bushl. of Spelts--weighd 28.
22. Trimmed up 52 heads of Tobo. at Creek Quarter for Sweetscented Seed.
Began to cut Meadow on Creek.
23. Peaches require to be gatherd for B[rand]y.
24. Began to sow Wheat at Muddy hole.
27. Began to sow Do. at Riverside Qr.
28. Began--Do. at Creek.
30. Began--Do. at Doeg Run.
31. Finished curing & Stacking Hay.
[September]
8. Sowed a few Oats to see if they woud stand the Winter (at Doeg Run).
15. Finished Sowing Wheat at Riverside Quarter 50 Bushels.
20. Sowed Wheat as far as Ransoms Houses at Muddy hole 55 Bushels.
Elizabeth Ransom, a widow, had rented a farm from GW from 1757 to 1760.
21. Began to cut Tops at Muddy H. & R. Qrs.
The practice in GW's day was to remove the tops and blades from the cornstalks during the fall, leaving the bare stalks standing while the ears ripened. The tops and blades, and later the harvested stalks, became fodder for livestock.
22. Finishd Sowing the Wheat in Corn Ground on this side the Run at Doeg Run Qr. Wint[er] (Wheat) from home 36 Bls. thrashed at the Quartr. 38 Bls. in all 74 Busl.
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Washington raised nearly all the crops shown in this illustration from Hale's Husbandry, London, 1758. (Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union)
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Finishd plan[tin]g. Turnips behind Garden wch. was begun 20th.
27. A Negro & Apprentice of Robt. Wrights began to Work upon my Mill.
Transplanted Lucerne below Garden & Sowed [ ] Rows of St. Foine.
GW tried doggedly to raise sainfoin ( Onobrychis vicioefolia), also called esparcet, a crop now in very limited cultivation in the United States. It does not adapt well in areas where red clover and alfalfa will do much better, as Arthur Young knew when GW asked him for seed of the English strain in 1786. Young replied 2 Feb. 1787 that he was sending only a small quantity of seed, "for I cannot conceive that it will succeed at all with you" (DLC:GW). Young was correct. GW wrote Samuel Powel 15 Sept. 1788 that his fall planting in 1787 died by frost and his spring 1788 crop failed to come up at all (ViMtV). Still, GW continued to plant small quantities of it, hoping to accumulate enough seed for a full crop. Despite the dissatisfaction with the plant, it was still being advertised in the American Farmer, 1 (1820), 376, for sale in Baltimore. The advertisement referred to it also as "Hundred Year's Clover."
[October]
1st. Robert Wright began to Work at my Mill.
Gathered Apples for Cyder.
Robert Wright, a local millwright, finished repairing GW's mill by 20 Oct.
2. Sowed 7 Bushels of Spelts by the Orchard.
Morris & George went to Work at Mill along with the Mill wright.
13. Finishd getting & securing Fodder at Muddy hole & Creek.
15. Finishd Do. Do. at Doeg Run.
Finishd Sowing Wheat at Muddy hole & began to Sow Spelts.
18. Finishd securing fodder at Riv. Side.
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January
1st. Had at the Home House 78 sheep besides the 11 which are
Cattle at Home House--viz.--
[March]
5th. March 1765. Grafted 15 English Mulberrys on wild Mulberry Stocks on the side of the Hill near the Spring Path. Note the Stocks were very Milkey.
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Many of Washington's diaries were kept in interleaved copies of the Virginia Almanack. (Library of Congress)
There is no species known as the English mulberry, but Morus nigra, black mulberry, was commonly grown in England for its edible fruits. It was known to eighteenth-century Virginia planters as the English mulberry. While feeding silkworms on mulberry leaves and making paper from the bark were much discussed and attempted in GW's day, there is no evidence that he raised the trees for anything but ornamentation and fruit. M. alba multicaulis, the white mulberry used in silkworm culture, is not mentioned in any of the Mount Vernon documents. GW purchased four young paper mulberry trees, Broussonetia papyrifera, from William Hamilton in Mar. 1792.
6th. Grafted 10 Cornation Cherrys on growing Stocks in the Garden--viz. 5 of them in and about the Mint Bed, 3 under the Marella Cherry tree 1 on a Stock in the middle of the border of the East square, and just above the 2d. fall (note this Graft is on the Northernmost fork of Do. On the Westernmost one is a Bullock Heart & on the Easternmost one is a May Cherry out of the Cherry Walk) 1 other on a Stock just above the 2d. gate--note this is on the Northernmost prong. The other Graft on the said stock is of the May Cherry in the Cherry Walk.
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15. Grafted 6 Early May duke Cherrys in the Nursery, beginng. at that end of the first Row next to the Lane--the Row next the Quarter is meant--at the end of this a stake drove in.
Also Grafted joining to these in the same Row 6 of the latter May dukes--which are all the Cherrys in the Row.
Also Grafted 7 Bullock Heart Cherrys in the last Row.
30. Grafted 48 Pears which stand as follows viz. in the 3d. Row beging, at the end next the Cherry Walk are 12 Spanish Pears. Next to these are 8 Early June Pears then 10 latter Burgamy--then 8 Black Pear of Worcester--and lastly 10 Early Burgamy. Note all these Pears came from Colo. Masons & between each sort a stick is drove down. The Rows are counted from the end of the Quarter.
This day also I grafted 39 New Town Pippins, which compleat the 5th. Row and which Row are all of this kind of Fruit now.
The 6th. Row is compleated w. Grafts of the Maryland Red Streck, which are all of this sort of Fruit and contains [ ] trees so is the 8th. Row of this Apple. Also 54, in number and 20 in the 9th. Row beginning next the Cherry Walk.
The 7th. Row has 25 Grafts of the Gloucester white Apple which compleats this Row with that sort of Fruit.
[May]
12. Finish Sowing Oats at Muddy hole.
12. 13. Sowed Hemp at Muddy hole by Swamp.
Sowed Do. above the Meadow at Doeg Run.
15. Sowed Do. at head of the Swamp Muddy H.
16. Sowed Hemp at the head of the Meadow at Doeg Run & about Southwards Houses with the Barrel.
GW had rented some land on Dogue Run from Benjamin Southward in 1761.
18. Began to Sow the old Gd. next the Orchard at Muddy hole with the Drill & finish'd 25 Rows & then stopd it sowing two fast.
20. Sowed 14 Rows more--the drill beg. altered with 1 Bushel of seed.
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Sowed two pices more at Doeg Run--viz. the two Orchards.
Sowed Lucern--also 4 Rows adjoining with St. Foin--& [ ] other Rows with Fenugreek Seed.
Trigonella foenum-graecum, fenugreek, is an annual trefoil grown as forage and bearing a seed with a strong, bitter taste; it was often used as an emollient in poultices. GW does not appear to have gone very seriously into its production.
30. Peter Green came to me a Gardener.
Apparently Peter Green was on a yearly wage contract of £5. He appears on GW's tithable lists only for July 1765 and left his position in June 1766. In 1771 GW was trying to find a good "Kitchen Gardener" on a four- or five- year indenture at a moderate wage, and even inquired in Scotland. He hired David Gowan, "late of Fredericksburg," as a gardener for the year 1773. According to the articles of agreement signed 11 Jan. 1773, Gowan agreed to serve "in the capacity of a Gardener; & that he will work duely & truely, during that time, at the business; and also when need be, or when thereunto required, employ himself in Grafting, Budding, & pruning of Fruit Trees and Vines--likewise in Saving, at proper Seasons, and due order, Seeds of all kinds" (DLC:GW). His salary was £25, plus lodging and food for his family.
31. Cut my Clover for Hay.
The diary entries for the month of May are taken from a loose sheet in the Dreer Collection, PHi.
[June]
8. Sowed Turnips for forward use.
17. Began to cut my Meadow by the Sein Landing, and on the 24th. finished securing all my Hay at the Home House out of the three Meadows and on the [ ].
25th. Began to cut my Timothy Meadows on Doeg Run & finished making & securing the Hay on the 2d. of July. Rain falling the 28th. otherwise the whole might have been compleated by the 30th.
27. Began my Harvest at the River Plantn.
[July]
22. Began to Sow Wheat at Rivr. Plantn.
23. Began to sow Do. at Muddy hole.
25. Began to Sow Do. at the Mill.
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His use of the almanac as a diary gave Washington convenient data on roads, lunar changes holidays, and other well-known almanac fare. (Library of Congress)
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[August]
3. Began to sow Turneps behind the Garden--the upper part of which, & down to a stake is the Norfolk Turnep. From thence to the bottom Naper Turnep.
5. Finishd sowing Do. & a good shower fell thereon the same day.
GW wrote to Burwell Bassett 2 Aug. that the weather had rendered the prospects of a good crop "truely melancholy." "I lost most of my wheat by the rust, so that I shall undergo the loss of a compleat crop here, and am informed that my expectations from below [in York County] are not much better" (WRITINGS, 2:424).
6. Sowed Turneps where the Drilld Wheat was, behind the Garden. These of old Seed.
Finish'd Sowing Wheat at Muddy hole.
7. Began to separate the Male from the Female hemp at Do--rather too late.
HEMP: Cannabis sativa, a highly profitable fiber crop, providing work in the off-season. After the 1720--22 sessions, the General Assembly offered a bounty of 4s. for every "gross hundred" of hemp, water-rotted, bright, and clean, to encourage production (HENING, 4:96--97). GW speaks of separating the male and female plants. "This may arise from their [the male] being coarser, and the stalks larger" (CALENDAR [1], 457). In the 1790s he experimented with a variety from India.
9. Abt. 6 Oclock put some Hemp in the Rivr. to Rot.
10. Seperated my Ewes & Rams but I believe it was full late--many of the Ewes having taken Ram.
3. Finish'd Sowing Wheat at the Rivr. Plantn. i.e. in the corn ground. 123 Bushels it took to do it.
15. The English Hemp i.e. the Hemp from the English Seed was pickd at Muddy hole this day & was ripe.
Began to separate Hemp in the neck.
17. Finishd Sowing Wheat in the Corn field, which lyes over the Run at the Mill 27 Bushl.
22. Put some Hemp into the Water about 6 Oclock in the Afternoon--note this Hemp had been pulld the 8th. Instt. & was well dryed, & took it out again the 26th.
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[September]
4. Began to Pull the Seed Hemp but it was not sufficiently ripe.
5. 6. 7. 9. Sowed Turneps behind the Garden.
Getting of Fodder at Mill & Muddy H.
15. To this date my Carpenters had in all worked 82 days on my Schooner.
The schooner, apparently built at Mount Vernon, was finished and rigged by Dec. 1765 and launched the following February.
22. This Week they workd 22 days upon her.
Here GW means man-days. Hence, if four of the six slave carpenters GW had in 1765 worked a 5½-day workweek they would have put in 22 mandays for that week.
23. Began to sow Wheat from Colo. Colvils in Peach Orchard, & finishd 24th.--4 Bushls.
Began to cut my Meadows at Hell hole & Creek.
Col. Thomas Colvill (d. 1766), of Cecil County, Md., had inherited Cleesh, on the south side of Great Hunting Creek, from his brother John (d. 1756).
24. Took up Flax which had been in Water since the 12th. viz. 12 days.
FLAX: Linum usitatissimum. Arthur Young chided GW 19 May 1789 for wasting his time with flax. "What in the name of wonder can you do with flax? Not make linnen I hope; buy from England, from France, from Russia, anywhere rather than employ a soul in fabrics while wastes surround you by millions" (DLC:GW).
25. Hempseed seems to be in good order for getting--that is of a proper ripeness--but oblige to desist to pull my fodder.
26. Began to get fodder at Doegs Run & River Plantn.--rather too dry.
28. This Week my Carpenters workd 22 day's upon my Schooner. And John Askew 3 days upon her.
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GW revised his contract with his joiner Askew in April 1764, now paying him per diem at the rate of £4 per month. In Dec. 1765 Askew agreed to supervise GW's slave carpenter for an annual salary of £35 per year plus some provisions and to pay GW £7 10s per year for rent. Askew's employment ended in the spring of the 1767.
[October]
5. This Week my Carpenters workd 24 days upon the schooner & John Askew 4 Do.
7. Finish'd gettg. & securing my folder at Doeg Run.
8. Do.--Do. at Rivr. Plantation--too dry.
10. Finishd pulling Seed Hemp at River Plantation.
12. Finishd pullg. Do. Do. at Doeg Run. Not much, if any, too late for the Seed.
The Virginia General Assembly offered a bounty for raising high hemp of quality. From "Agriculture," in Diderot's Encyclopédie, Paris, 1780. (Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union)
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This Week my Carpenters workd 22 days upon my Schooner & J. Askew 3 Do.
19. This Week the Carpenters workd 18 days which makes in all 190 days & 10 of Jno. Askew.
21. Began to sow Wheat in Hemp Gd. at Rr. Plantn.
22. Began to sow Wheat at Doeg Run, on the Corn field on this side.
25. Began to sow wheat in the Corn field on this side the Run at the Mill.
Sowed three Pecks of Wheat (had from Colo. Lewis, of a sort, which he says is early and of an extraordinary Increase, also very large graind) behind the Garden in drills. Note it begins next the ditch & ends at a stake.
26. Sowed the Remaining part of the Turneps in drills with an early Wheat also abt. 3 Bushels more broad[cast] in the same Ground & the residue thereof in spelts--6 Bushels.
28. Sowd. the residue of P. Orch. with spelts. [ ] B.
31. Finishd sowing Wheat in Hemp Ground at Rivr. Plantn. & plowd in a good deal of shattered Hemp Seed--27 Bushls. in all 152 [ ].
[November]
1st. Sent 1 Bull 18 Cows & 5 Calves to Doeg Run in all--24 head branded on the left Buttock GW.
Sent 3 Cows, & 20 Yearlings & Calves to the Mill, wch. with 4 there makes 27 head in all viz. 5 Cows & 22 Calves & Yearlgs. branded on the Right shoulder GW.
Out of the Frederick Cattle made the Stock in the Neck up 100 head--these branded on the Right Buttock GW.
Muddy hole Cattle in all [ ] head branded on the left shoulder GW.
6. Finishd sowing Wheat at the Mill--viz. 19 Bushls. in the large cut within the Post & Rail fence & 6 B. in the small cut wch. with 27 Bushl. sowed the other side makes in all 52 B.
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Repository Symbols
Bibliography
Index
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Dover, Del.: Public Archives Commission, 1944.
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Route." Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 46 (1938), 299--315.
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Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia from the First Session of the Legislature, in the Year 1619. 13 vols. New York, Philadelphia, Richmond: various publishers, 1819--23.
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Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical Commission, 1941.
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University of Pennsylvania Press, 1945.
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The index in the final volume of the Diaries will be complete and extensive. Preliminary indexes, such as the one that follows, consist primarily of references to persons. The abbreviation "id." is used for "identification."
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77, 80, 82, 83, 85, 86; id., 27; location of house, 35; recommends doctor for Lawrence Washington, 73
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sixth Baron (illus., 2), 3, 4, 6, 7, 29, 34, 219, 245; proprietor of Northern Neck, xxiii, 2, 4, 5, 9, 15, 241; home, xxiii, 7; GW surveys for, xxiii, li, 1--23; id., 1; GW visits, 7; subscriber to History of Barbados, 25; sees GW at Belvoir, 243; dines at Mount Vernon, 245
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surveying, xxiii--xxiv, 1--5, 6, 7--10, 15--16, 18, 19, 22, 226, 248, 249, 251, 276land transactionsFrederick County, xxiv, 226, 279western lands, 192, 245Mount Vernon, 237, 239, 241--42, 243, 245, 246--47, 250, 251, 252, 254--55, 268, 281, 282, 289, 293, 298Culpeper County, 263--64Custis lands, 274agriculture experiments, xxxi--xxxiii, 255, 257--58, 261, 265, 267--68, 275, 283, 293, 295, 296, 315, 317--18, 327--29, 335--37, 340travelsFrederick County, 6--23, 276--78, 289, 306Barbados, 24--117Williamsburg, 34, 269--75, 295, 307Fredericksburg, 37, 224--25western journeys, 126--61, 162--210Port Royal, 222--26Warm Springs, 290Westmoreland County, 295Dismal Swamp, 319--26Custis estate, 214, 223, 272, 273--74, 299, 307, 309--10and House of Burgesses, 245--46, 280, 289, 290, 295, 307
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The Diaries of
GEORGE WASHINGTON
Volume II
1766--70
ASSISTANT EDITORS
Beverly H. Runge, Frederick Hall Schmidt,
and Philander D. Chase
George H. Reese, CONSULTING EDITOR
Joan Paterson Kerr, PICTURE EDITOR
DONALD JACKSON, EDITOR
DOROTHY TWOHIG, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF VIRGINIA
CHARLOTTESVILLE
This edition has been prepared by the staff of
The Papers of George Washington,
sponsored by
The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union and the University of Virginia.
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF VIRGINIA
Copyright © 1976 by the Rector and Visitors
of the University of Virginia
First published 1976
Frontispiece: Martha Washington, by John Wollaston.
(Washington and Lee University, Washington-Custis-Lee Collection)
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Washington, George, Pres. U.S., 1732--1799.
The diaries of George Washington.
Bibliography: p. 341
Includes index.
1. Washington, George, Pres. U.S., 1732--1799.
I. Jackson, Donald Dean, 1919- II. Twohig, Dorothy. III. Title.
E312.8 1976 9734'1'0924 [B] 75-41365 ISBN 0--8139--0688-1 (v. 2)
Printed in the United States of America
Administrative Board
Advisory Committee
Contents
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Acknowledgments
The editors' first obligation is to the sponsors and agencies whose financial support and enthusiastic backing made our work possible. The cosponsors of The Papers of George Washington are the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union and the University of Virginia. Our principal governmental support has come from the National Endowment for the Humanities, with strong additional funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. An annual grant from the William Stamps Farish Fund has been most appreciated.
Of the many colleagues at the University of Virginia who assisted in the formation and encouragement of The Papers of George Washington, the editors are particularly indebted to former president of the University, Edgar F. Shannon, Jr., and his special assistant Francis L. Berkeley, Jr. All the many others who gave us assistance with the countless details of planning, financing, and day-to-day operation are perhaps best represented by one person, Charles L. Flanders of the Office of the Associate Provost for Research at the University of Virginia.
We are grateful for the interest and encouragement of the Regent of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, and of her predecessor, the late Mrs. Francis F. Bierne. The editors also owe a debt of gratitude to the Mount Vernon staff, especially Charles C. Wall, resident director; John A. Castellani, librarian; Frank E. Morse, librarian emeritus; Robert B. Fisher, horticulturist, and Christine Meadows, curator.
For assistance in research on Washington's diaries, we would like to thank the staff of the Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, the research staff of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and members of the Virginia Division of Parks. The Alderman Library at the University of Virginia has housed our editorial offices and its staff has graciously and efficiently performed all the library services essential to an editorial project.
The reproduction of Washington's diaries in these volumes has
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been made possible by the cooperation of the following repositories and individuals who own the original manuscript material: the Library of Congress, Columbia University Libraries, the Detroit Public Library, Mount Vernon, John K. Paulding, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Public Record Office, London.
Our typographic consultant for general design is P. J. Conkwright, of Princeton, N.J.
The editors acknowledge with appreciation the industry and competence of the following members of the research and clerical staff who over a period of several years were directly involved in the laborious task of transcribing and checking the Washington diaries: Lynne Crane, Dana K. Levy, Patricia Waddell, Corinne Poole, Jessie Shelar, Kathleen Howard, Patricia De Berry, Roger Lund, Barbara Morris, Cynthia S. Miller, Christine Hughes, Nancy Morris, and Karen Whitehill.
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Transcription of the diaries has remained as faithful as possible to the original manuscript. Because of the nature of GW's diary entries, absolute consistency in punctuation has been virtually impossible. Where feasible, the punctuation has generally been retained as written. However, in cases where sentences are separated by dashes, a common device in the eighteenth century, the dash has been changed to a period and the following word capitalized. Dashes which appear after periods have been dropped. Periods have been inserted at points which are clearly the ends of sentences. In many of the diaries, particularly those dealing with planting and the weather, entries consist of phrases separated by dashes rather than sentences. Generally if the phrase appears to stand alone, a period has been substituted for the dash.
Spelling of all words is retained as it appears in manuscript. Errors in spelling of geographic locations and proper names have been corrected in notes or in brackets only if the spelling in the text makes the word incomprehensible. Washington occasionally, especially in the diaries, placed above an incorrectly written word a symbol sometimes resembling a tilde, sometimes an infinity sign, to indicate an error in orthography. When this device is used the editors have silently corrected the word.
The ampersand has been retained. The thorn has been transcribed as "th." The symbol for per has been written out. When a tilde is used to indicate either a double letter or missing letters, the correction has been made silently or the word has been transcribed as an abbreviation. Capitalization is retained as it appears in the manuscript; if the writer's intention is not clear, modern usage is followed.
Contractions and abbreviations are retained as written; a period is inserted after abbreviations. When an apostrophe has been used in contractions it is retained. Superscripts have been lowered,
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and if the word is an abbreviation a period has been added. When the meaning of an abbreviation is not obvious, it has been expanded in square brackets: H[unting] C[reek]; so[uther]ly.
Other editorial insertions or corrections in the text also appear in square brackets. Missing dates are supplied in square brackets in diary entries. Angle brackets (< >) are used to indicate mutilated material. If it is clear from the context what word or words are missing, or missing material has been filled in from other sources, the words are inserted between the angle brackets.
A space left blank by Washington in the manuscript of the diaries is indicated by a bracketed gap in the text. In cases where Washington has crossed out words or phrases, the deletions have not been noted. If a deletion contains substantive material it appears in a footnote. Words inadvertently repeated or repeated at the bottom of a page of manuscript have been dropped.
If the intended location of marginal notations is clear, they have been inserted in the proper place without comment; otherwise, insertions appear in footnotes.
In cases where the date is repeated for several entries on the same day, the repetitive date has been omitted and the succeeding entries have been paragraphed.
Because Washington used the blank pages of the Virginia Almanack or occasionally small notebooks to keep his diaries, lack of space sometimes forced him to make entries and memoranda out of order in the volume. The correct position of such entries is often open to question, and the editors have not always agreed with earlier editors of the diaries on this matter. Such divergence of opinion, however, has not been annotated.
Bibliographical references are cited by one or two words, usually the author's last name, in small capitals. If two or more works by authors with the same surname have been used, numbers are assigned: HARRISON [2]. Full publication information is included in the bibliography for each volume. The symbols used to identify repositories in the footnotes precede the bibliography.
Surveying notes and dated memoranda kept in diary form have not been included in this edition of Washington's diaries, al. though the information contained in them has often been used in annotation.
The Diaries of
GEORGE WASHINGTON
Volume II
1766--70
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January
14. Flax at the Mill put out to Rot.
18. Flax at Doeg Run put out to Rot.
March
Sowed Hemp about the old Tobo. House at Muddy hole.
Note, the latter part of Feby., & all Mar. till the 19th. was extreamely wet and disagreeable--scarce two fair days together & sometimes hard Frosts, insomuch that neither Hoe nor Plow coud be stuck into the Ground, which prevented my sowing Hemp till the 21st. as above.
22. Began to sow Hemp (adjoining the Lane going to Mrs. Wades) at the Mill. Sowed as far as a stick drove into the Ground.
Also sowed Ditto in the lower part of new Ground at Muddy hole--to a stake.
First part of this day warm Sun & southerly Wind. Latter part showery--high Wind at same place.
Mrs. Valinda Wade, widow of Zephaniah Wade (died c. 1746), lived with her three daughters, Valinda, Sarah, and Eleanor, on a 193-acre tract of land adjoining GW's mill plantation.
23. High wind at No. Wt.--cold & Cloudy.
24. Sowed Hemp at Muddy hole to the second stake.
Hard frost--clear, but very cold the first part of the day--the Wind being at No. West.
25. Hard frost--afterwards warm & hazy. Wind Southwardly.
Sowed Hemp at Muddy hole to the third Stake, and at the Mill to the Second stake.
26. Constant dose Rain, from sometime in Night till 3 in the afternoon. Wind at North East--when it shifted to No. Wt. but did not blow hard.
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27. Cloudy, Wind at No. Wt. but not hard, nor very cold. Ground exceeding wet. No Hemp sowed this day.
28. Sowed Hemp at Muddy hole to the 4th. stake. Ground too wet. No Hemp sowed elsewhere.
Wind Westerly, with Clouds, & Raw.
29. Sowed Hemp at Muddy hole to the 5th. Stake & at Doeg Run (in the Orchard round Gists House) to the first (beginng. at that end of it next the Gate). Hoeing in Farm Dung at the Mill.
Wind at No. West, with some Clouds, & Cool.
30. Cool, & Cloudy all the day. Wind Northwardly.
31. Sometimes cloudy but warm and pleasant. Wind at South.
April
1st. Sowed Hemp at Muddy hole to the Road--at the Mill to the 3d. Stake--and finished the Orchard at Doeg Run.
Wind at up No. Et. & very cloudy the whole day. At one O'clock it sat in to Raining which at 6 turnd to Snow.
The April entries in this diary are missing from the diary at DLC. The entries of 1--8 April are taken from a facsimile in the Toner collection at DLC and those of 9--13 April from a transcript in the same collection.
2. Day warm & fine. Wind Northwardly in the Morning--Southwardly afterwards. Ground too wet to prepare for or Sow in Hemp.
3. Sowed Hemp at Muddy hole to the first Stake (beging. at the [ ]and next the woods) --at the Mill to The 4th. stake--and at Doeg Run (by the Lane) to 1st. stake beginng. at the great Mulberry.
Clear & pleasant--but not warm--the Wind being Northwardly in the forenoon--calm in the Evening.
4. Sowed Hemp at Muddy hole to the 2d. stake, at the Mill to the 5th. & at Doeg Run to the 2.
Hazy--Wind Southwardly & Rain. At 6 in the afternoon began to Rain. Ground full Wet for sowing, or Working before.
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An early map by Washington, showing a portion of his Mount Vernon estate. From George Washington Atlas, Washington, D.C., 1932. (Rare Book Department, University of Virginia Library)
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5. Constant Rain all Night, and till 10 O'clock this day (Wind hard at No. Et.) & cloudy afterwards. At 6 in the Evening sat into close Raining again. No Hemp sowd to day.
6. Wind at No. Et. & raining all day--Sunday.
7. Raining till 10 Oclock--very cloudy afterwards till Night when it began to Rain again. Wind at No. East. Ground exceeding wet.
8. Cloudy the first part of the day--wind westwardly. Ground very wet.
9. Clear, wind hard at Northwest. Sowed Hemp at the mill to the 6th. stake. None sowed elsewhere--ground too wet.
10. Fine clear day till late in the afternoon when it cleared. Being little wind Sowed Hemp at the mill in the 7th. stake at Muddy hole to the 3d stake. At dog Run none sowed.
11. Cloudy, with light showers all day, wind briskly from the Southard. Sowed Hemp at the Mill to the 8th. stake--at Muddy hole to the 4th. & at Dog Run to the third.
Sowed a little Flax by the Peach orchd. Ground very wet.
12. Sowed Hemp at the Mill--none elsewhere ground being wet. Clear wind Northwardly.
13. Sunday--clear & warm--wind South.
On this day GW set out for the lower Tidewater, stopping at Fredericksburg to pick up Fielding Lewis. After stopping at Eltham, they crossed the James River and visited the Dismal Swamp. They then returned to spend a week at Eltham and in Williamsburg, where GW settled some accounts, including the purchase of two indentured servants. GW was back at Mount Vernon by 10 May.
June
16. Began to cut my Meadows at Home.
GW hired an extra hand, Thomas Plummit, who worked seven days on the mowing at 2s. 6d. per day (LEDGER A, 232).
25. Finishd Do. & brought it into Barnes. Weather often Raining--Hay hurt.
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26. Began to Cut my Timothy Meadow at Doeg Run & did not finish it till the 8th. of July--the Weather being Rainy & bad--which almost spoil'd 30,000 weight of Hay.
July
3. Cut my early Wheat behind Garden.
7. Began to cut Wheat in the Neck with the hands there.
8. Set into it with my whole force & two Cradlers hired. My Hay at D. Run finishd yesterday.
The two hired cradlers were James and Daniel Starke, who worked about 2 ½ weeks for 5s. per day each. GW also hired another helper, Amoriah Bonham, for a total of 23 days, which apparently was the duration of the harvesting. Bonham was also paid 5s. per day (LEDGER A, 232, 234).
9. My Schooner arrivd at Colchester.
12. Finished cuttg. binding & shocking Wheat in the Neck--152 Bushels sowing.
GW has added the following additional entries out of order in the diary. In the manuscript he placed them between 21 and 22 July.
".5. Pull'd my flax at home.
7. Pulld two patches at Doeg Run.
8. Put part of what I pulld at Home in Water.
12. Took it out, & spread it on the Green."
14. Began Harvest at Muddy hole.
15. Finished it--in Shocks 75 Bushels sowing.
16. Began and finishd at the Mill, in shocks 52 bushels Sowing.
17. Began Harvest at Doeg Run. My Schooner also came up with 10,031 feet of Plank from Occoquan Saw Mills.
Among the group of mills established on Occoquan Creek were two sawmills, which at this time were being operated by John Semple (see main entry for 23 Jan. 1770).
21. Securd all my Harvest in shocks at D[ogue] R[un].
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22. Put into the House.
23. Sowed Turneps in the flax patch at Home. Also sowed Do. at Muddy hole and ditto at Morris's.
24. Pulld a small patch of Flax at Doeg Run.
25. Began to Sow Turneps in Drills behind Quarter.
26. Sowed Do. in Do.--Do.
27. Sowed a few Do. Do.--Do. Hard Rain 28 & 9.
30. Sowed Do. in Neck.
31. Finishd Sowing behind Quartr. in Drills.
August
1. Began to Sow Wheat at the Mill.
Began to Sow Do. in the Neck in the upper part of the field.
6. Began to Sow Do. at Muddy hole.
Finished Sowg. Do. in clovr. patch at the Mill--9 Bushels.
22. Began to Sow Wheat at Doeg Run.
Finishd Sowing up Cut in the Neck.
25--26. 27. & 28. Spreading flax at Home.
28. Finishd sowing Wheat altogether at the Mill 46 ½ Bushls. the other side--in all 55 ½ Bl.
29. Finishd Sowing the Field by the Meadow at Doeg Run--26 Bushels.
Stopd sowing Wheat at Muddy hole & Doeg Run. Sowed 108 at the first place 1 8 Bl. in little fd.
Began to pull Hemp at the Mill and at Muddy hole--too late for the blossom Hemp by three Weeks or a Month.
[September]
4. 5. & 6th. Spreading flax at Doeg Run.
Do. Do. pulling Peas at Ho[me] House.
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PULLING PEAS: Lathyrus sativus, field pea, of which GW tried many varieties. His diaries and other farm records refer to the crowder pea; early, or "forward," pea; red pea; small white pea; small round pea; small gray pea; Yateman pea; and the "Albany or field pea," which persisted through more than a decade of GW's crop experiments. His diary entry for 16 April 1785 indicates a planting of the Albany variety, and he wrote Thomas Jefferson 6 July 1796 that it grew well but was subject to the same insect pests as the garden pea. The field pea differs from the cowpea, Vigna sinensis, of which the best known is the black-eyed variety, which GW called the Indian pea.
8. Began to Cut my Meadows a Second time.
10. Began to get Fodder at Muddy hole Quarter & at the Mill.
12. Began to get Fodder in the Neck.
15. Do.--Do.--Do.--at Doeg Run. Turnd flax at Home House.
27. Finishd getting & securing fodder at the Mill.
30. Ditto--Ditto at Doeg Run--that is, exclusive of what belonged to that Plantation at the River Quarter.
October
1st. 2, 3, & 4. Sowing Wheat Doeg Run.
2. Finished getting & securing Fodder at Muddy hole.
3. Getting Peas at Ditto--too late a good many of which being rotten on the Ground.
3 & 4. Continued Sowing Wheat at Do.
4. Finishd Sowing the little field at Doeg Run with 16 Bls.
6. Put my English Ram Lamb to 65 Ewes. Sheep at home as follows viz.
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(8.) Finishd getting & securing Fodder in the Neck also that which belongd to Doeg Run there.
9. Sowed a piece of Hemp Gd. at the Mill in wheat 2 ½ Bls. which makes in all th(r.) 58 B.
25. Finishd Sowing large field with [ ] Bls.
Finishd Sowing Wheat at Muddy hole--170 Bushels in all--18 of wch. white Wheat in the little field.
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[February]
1. Cloudy & Cool in the forenoon & till towards night. Wind at No. West. Gd. not froze.
2. Frozen Morning, clear still & pleast. afterwards.
3. Frozen morning. Clear, pleast. & thawing afterwards. Wind risg. from So. Wt.
4. Frozen--clear & Windy abt. 10, from the Northwest but thawing.
5. Soft, calm, & pleasant. Wind rising from No. West abt. & blew hard but not cold.
6. Frozen morning. Clear & cold Wind still at No. West & fresh.
7. Frozen Morng., brisk & cold Wind from the Southward. Clear till the Afternoon then cloudy. In the Evening clear again.
8. Soft, clear, & Warm. Wind Southwardly.
9. Soft, warm & Lowering, high Wind from the Southward. Hard rain in the Night.
10. Soft, cloudy & light showers of Hail Rain &ca. till ten Oclock--then excessive hard Wind from No. West. Cold.
11. Frozen & cloudy morning. Afterwards clear Wind Southwardly.
12. Soft & cloudy till Noon. Afterwards clear & still. Wind No[rth]wardly in Mg.
13. Soft Morning & snowing all day more or less from the Northward.
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14. Hazy in the Morng. Clear afterwards; w. hard wind from the No. West. Snow abt. 3 or 4 Inches deep.
15. Hard frost. Wind Westwardly & then Southwardly & cloudy.
16. Grey & frosty Morning. Wind Southwardly & thawing. Also clear afterwd.
17. Clear & cool. Wind at No. West. Morng. frozen thawing afterwards.
18. Frozen Morning. Thawing afterwards & pleasant tho somewhat Cool. Wind No. & No. Et.
19. Soft Morng. Somewhat Cloudy & still.
20. Soft Morng. Brisk wind from So. Wt. with which the Ground much dried. Snow all gone two days ago.
21. Ground not froze. Wind came to No. Wt. early in the Morning & blew very hard & turnd very cold towards Evening.
22. Ground froze. Clear, wind Southward & Warm.
23. Cloudy with spits of Snow first part of the day. Raining afterwards with the Wind at No. Et. In the Night Snow again which covd. the ground abt. an Inch.
24. Cloudy & Cold Wind at No. West.
25. Hard frost. Clear & not very cold. Wind at No. West--not high.
26. Brisk wind from the Southward. Clear warm & pleasant. According to Colo. West the greatest part of the next Moon shoud be as this day--i.e. the same kind of weather that happens upon the thursday before the change will continue through the course of the next Moon at least the first & 2d. quarter of it. Quere is not this an old woman's story.
27. Soft clear, warm, & Still.
28. Soft, Mild & pleasant. Wind Southwardly. Somewhat hazy & smoaky. A little rain in the Night.
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[February]
13th. Vestry to meet by 2d. appointmt.
Some of GW's diary entries, such as these three in February, are appointment reminders rather than a record of occurrences. The vestry of Truro Parish met on 23 Feb.
16th. Vestry to meet at Pohick.
26. Sale of Colo. Colvills Negroes.
Thomas Colvill had died in 1766, and these slaves apparently were sold to pay some of his debts. On his deathbed Colvill had persuaded GW to be one of his executors by assuring him that he would be expected only to give his good name to the administration of the will and to check occasionally on its progress, while the actual work was done by the other executors: Colvill's wife Frances (d. 1773) and John West, Jr., husband of Colvill's niece Catharine. As it happened, the estate was so troublesome and Mrs. Colvill and West proved to be so unequal to their task that GW had to take an active part in the matter, which was to plague him until 1797 (GW to Bushrod Washington, 10 Feb. 1796, DLC:GW). One difficulty was that Colvill had left legacies to English relatives who could not be easily identified and whose confusing claims were almost impossible to authenticate. A second problem was that in May 1765 Colvill, as executor for his brother John, had sold Merryland, a 6,300-acre tract in Frederick County, Md., to John Semple of Prince William County, Va., for £2,500 sterling. That sum was to have paid John's debts, including £742 owed to Thomas, but Semple gave a bond for the £2,500, which he was later unwilling or unable to honor. Thus, neither Colvill estate could be settled until some agreement could be reached with the contentious Semple (see main entry for 31 Dec. 1771; GW to William Peareth, 20 Sept. 1770, DLC:GW).
March
1st. Soft mild, still, & pleasant. Somewhat cloudy.
2. (No frost) Cloudy till abt. 11 Oclock then Rain & almost all Night very hard Wind at No. Et.
3. Fine clear Morning & Warm Wind southwardly. Cloudy abt. 1 Oclock & at 3 began to Rain hard g: constant.
4. Soft morning. Clear day, & very high wind from No. West but not cold.
5. Clear, warm & pleast, forenoon. Wind southwardly. Afterwards hazy & lowerg.
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This typical sheepfold was designed to be moved easily to better grazing land. From La Nouvelle Maison rustique, Paris, 1798. (Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union)
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6. Raining constantly the whole day. Wind at No. Et. but not cold.
7. Wind in the same place & Raing. more or less all day.
8. Flying clouds in the forenoon. Wind brisk from the No[rth]ward. Clear afternn.
9. Lowering Morning. Clear afternoon. Wind southwardly.
10. Fine, clear & mild day. Wind for the most part Westwardly & No. West.
11. Turnd cold abt. 10 oclock & after spittg. snow--wind hard at No. West.
12. Ground hard froze; wind high at No. West. Often spittg. snow in the forenoon & very cold.
13. Ground very hard froze & exceedg. Cold. Wind hard at No. West & clear.
14. Ground exceeding hard froze & cold in the Morning but pleasant afterwards, clear. Wind Westward.
15. Clear & tolerably pleasant. Wind westwardly. Little frost.
16. Little frost again but exceedg. pleast. Afterwards wind at south West.
17. Fine & Pleasant. Very warm wind at So. West.
18. Wind at No. Et. Somewhat cool in the Morning. Cloudy in the afternoon with Thunder Lightning--Hail Rain & Snow.
19. Cloudy & cold. Wind Northwardly.
20. Continual Rain. Wind at No. East.
21. Constant & hard Rain till 11 Oclock. Wind Southwardly. Afterwds. Westwd. & clear.
22. Clear. Wind westwardly & South[ward]ly.
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23. Clear Morning. Cloudy afterwds. Wind Southwardly, & eastwardly.
24. Cloudy Morning. Abt. 11 Constant Rain & contind. till 5. Wind varying.
25. Fine & clear. Wind Southw[ard]ly & brisk.
26. Clear & pleasant tho cool.
27. Clear pleast. & warm. Wind Southwardly & fresh.
28. Clear but cool. Wind fresh from the No. Et.--exceeding hard in the Evening--with Rain all Night.
Rain till 9 Oclock. Cloudy the remainder of the day with a brisk eastwardly Wind.
30. Cloudy all day. Wind at No. East and cold.
Cloudy, raw, & disagreeable Wind continuing at No. East.
April
16. Sowed a little flax at Muddy hole.
18. Sowed a little more of Do. by the Road at Ditto.
21. Began to Plant Corn in the Neck & at the Mill.
27. Began to Plant Ditto at Doeg Run & Muddy hole.
Sowed behind the Quarter 1320 sqr. yds. of flax with a little more than a Peck of Seed.
Sowed the same quantity of Ground along side of the flax with little more than ½ Bushel of Hemp Seed.
29. Sowed more flax seed behind the quarter.
30. Planted Irish Potatoes behind Do.
Solanum tuberosum, Irish potato. GW's plantings included red potatoes and white, with small and large varieties of each, grown both as a table product and a field crop. He instructed Anthony Whitting 4 Nov. 1792 to plant them early so they could be harvested before the planting of wheat on the same
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ground. More commonly he planted potatoes with corn. Thomas Jefferson described GW's method in this way: "He puts them in alternate drills, 4 f. apart, so that the rows of corn are 8 f. apart, & a single stalk every 18 i. or 2 f. in the row" (Jefferson to Thomas Mann Randolph, 11 Aug. 1793, DLC: Jefferson Papers).
April
1. Fine clear morning. Cloudy & cold afterwards. Wind at No. Et. all day.
2. Cloudy morng. Hard & violent Rain from 10 Oclock till 4. Wind Eastwardly.
3. Clear morning. Somewhat cloudy in the Afternoon. Wind at So. West.
4. Wind at So. West and pleasant tho sometimes lowering.
5. Weather lowering. Wind at No. Et. & Eastwardly all day. At Night Rain but not much.
6. Wind at No. East & very cloudy till abt. Noon--then constant Rain but not hard the remaindr. of the day & all Night.
7. Very cloudy & drizley all day. Wind still Eastwardly.
8. Cloudy & Misty till abt. Noon then clear, wind abt. So. West. In the Afternoon Cloudy & Rain again with Rain in the Night. Wind at East.
9. Clear middle day. Eveng. & morng. Cloudy with Rain & heavy Rain at Night. Wind So. West.
10. Clear and cloudy alternately with some Rain & variable wind. Rain.
11. Clear & pleasant tho somewhat cool. Winds Northwardly.
12. Morning clear. Wind very high from So. West. Afterwards cloudy with frequent showers of Rain & hail.
13. Clear & cool. Wind at No. West.
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14. Clear Morning. Cloudy & threatng. Afternoon. Wind at So. West.
15. Clear Morng. Wind at No. West & afterwards Southwardly.
16. Grey Morning. Clear Noon. Lowering Afternoon. Wind varying--chiefly Northwardly.
17. Clear with the Wind Eastwardly & cool.
18. Lowering with intervening sunshine till 5 Oclock then very cloudy & hard shower of Rain for 10 or 15 Minutes & high gust of Wind from So. West where it was all day.
19. Wind at No. West & cool in the Morng. Afterwards still clear & very warm.
20. Wind Eastwardly & fresh all day with some Showers of Rain in the Afternoon.
21. Cloudy with some gleams of Sunshine & Showers in the Afternoon. Wind very high & boisterous the whole day from South Et.
22. Squaly kind of a day. Wind mostly at So. West & fresh with some showers of Rain & hail & cool their falling a good deal of Rain at Night.
23. Clear Morning & cool. Wind Westwardly. Rainy afternoon.
24. Wind for the most part of the day at No. Et. & cloudy. Afternoon clear the whole day cool.
25. Clear. Wind at No. West & moderate.
26. Clear. Wind Nor[th]wardly--moderate & pleasant.
Clear, still, warm & pleast. Wind what little there was Southwardly.
28. Very warm & pleast. Wind So. Westwardly with clouds & appearances of Rain in the Afternoon.
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29. Warm & pleasant. Wind Southwestwardly till abt. 7 Oclock then fresh from No. East & Wind cold.
30. Cold Raw & cloudy. Wind Eastwardly. Rain in the Night.
[May]
8. Sowed Flax at Muddy hole.
9. My Schooner returnd.
11. Finishd plantg. Corn in the Neck & began with 4 plows to break up the 5 foot cut.
12. Finishd plantg. Corn at the Mill, & began to break up the field round the Overseers House.
Cut 22 old Rams in the Neck & began to shear my Sheep.
14. Finishd plantg. Corn at Muddy Hole.
16. Finishd plantg. at Doeg Run.
Sowed flax at Muddy Hole.
Finishd breakg. up the 5 foot cut in N. with 4 plows two days & 5 plows almost 3 days. Made in all abt. 20 days work.
18. Sowed flax at Muddy hole by the Pond.
Also began to plow Corn at Doeg Run with 3 plows.
Set into plowing at Muddy hole w. 3 plows-- 1 plow has been at work a day or two there.
22. Sale of the Glebe 18 Months Credt.
The sale of the Truro Parish glebe (and church plate) was necessitated by the creation of Cameron Parish (1749) and Fairfax Parish (1765) out of Truro and was authorized by an act of the assembly passed in Nov. 1766 (HENING, 8:202), which provided for an equal division of the parish property among the three parishes. As a churchwarden GW was responsible for running the sale, and on this date he went to the glebe with the vestry and sold the glebe and plate to Daniel McCarty, who in turn donated the plate back to Truro Parish. The income from this sale was split among truro, Cameron, and Fairfax parishes.
23. Morris finishd plowing his first cut (Doeg Run) with 3 plows by 12 oclock.
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Finishd plowg. the 5½ foot cut in the Neck with 4 plows, & replanted this & the 5 foot cut there.
25. Early Wheat at Muddy hole beginng. to head--that is the heads of some out some bursting the blade & others swelling Do.
26. Sowd. Hemp over again with near 5 pecks of Seed--the first comg. up much too thin.
28. Finishd plowing the 3--9 Inch cut in the Neck.
29. Finishd plowg. all the Mill Corn.
30. Finishd plowg. the other Cut in the Neck.
May
Cloudy & cool in the Morning. Wind Eastwardly. Clear & warm afterwards till 5. Wind Southwardly--then Eastwardly again.
2. Cool in the Morning. Wind Eastwardly. Clear & pleasant afterwards.
3. Cloudy. Wind at So. Et. & fresh. Rain in the Night but not much.
4. Hard Rain early in the morning. Wind abt. So. Et. & fresh with Clouds. Afternoon Rainy with hard wind & Hail from So. West.
5. Very cold & cloudy. Wind hard from No. West & West.
6. Clear and cool. Wind at No. West & hard.
7. Clear & warm. Wind southwardly till about Sunset--then No. East.
8. Still the first part of the day. Wind Eastwardly afterwards & cool--with flyg. Clouds.
9. Cloudy more or less all day. Wind at No. Et. & cool.
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10. Wind at No. East. Cool & clear.
11. Clear. Wind Northwardly & cool.
12. Clear. Wind Do. & warmer.
13. Warm & still. Wind what little there is Southwardly.
14. Very warm clear & still. Wind what there was of it Southwardly.
15. Warm & clear. Wind brisk from abt. SS. Wt.
16. Brisk Wind from same place in the Morning. Cloudy & still afternoon.
17. Cloudy & lowering till the Afternoon. Wind southwardly then clear & cool wind Northwardly.
18. Clear. Wind Southwardly in the Morning. Afternoon cloudy & likely for Rain but went of with cold No[rthw]ardly Wind.
19. <Wind> Southwardly, clear & some<what> cool.
20. Cloudy & sometimes dropping of Rain in the forenoon with the Wind Southwardly. Afterwards clear. Wd. at No. West & Cool.
21. Very cloudy all day. Wind at No. Et. and very cool.
22. Cloudy till Noon with the Wind at No. Et. then Sunshine & somewhat warmer, afterwards cloudy with Lightning & rumbling in the No. West.
23. A little Rain in the Night with lightning & pretty loud thunder. Morng. Cloudy, as it was all day. Abt. 10 Oclock a fine shower fell with thunder & lightning for an hour. Wind variable but not cold.
24. Good Rain in the Night. Cloudy & often drisling till the Afternoon when it cleard. Wind for the most part at No. Et. but not cold.
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25. Clear & pleast. Wind Southwdly. & warm.
26. Lowering & warm, wind South.
27. Clear--cool in the morning. Wind at No. West. Afterwards very warm & still.
28. Wind Southwardly. Warm, & cloudy in the afternoon with lightning.
29. Rain last night, but not much, then refreshing Shower. Calm & warm in the Morning. Clear & cool afterwards. Wind at No. Wt.
30. Clear. Wind southwardly & warm.
31. Clear. Wind abt. So. West & warm.
June
1st. Wind abt. So. West & warm. Cloudy in the afternoon & some Rain (in Fredk.).
2. Cloudy with Rain & thunder in the Morning. Afterwards clear--in Fred.
3. Clear & warm--in Fredk.
4. Do. & very warm--Do.
5. Do.--Do.--travelling down.
6. Do. & extreame Hot. Wind what little there was Southwardly.
7. Very hot & Sultry. Wind Southwardly. Some Clouds & a little thunder in the Afternoon.
8. Wind <at No.> West but warm in the Evening.
9. Wind Northwardly with much appearances of Rain in the fore noon but none near home.
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10. Very warm & Sultry but no Rain. Wind for the most part Eastwardly but little of it.
11. Exceeding warm & but little wind wch. blew from the So[uth]ward. In the Evening a refreshing shower from the Westward for abt. 15 Minutes with severe lightning & thunder none of wch. or very little reachd. either Doeg Run or the Mill.
12. Exceeding Sultry. Little or no Wind.
13. Very warm. In the Afternoon a fine Shower here & in the Neck but little at the Mill again, less at Doeg Run & not much at Muddy h[ole.]
14. Very warm with some appearance of Rain but none fell hereabouts.
15. Warm with Do. Do.
16. Cooler wind at No. West & clear.
17. Cool wind at No. West in the Morning. In the Afternoon at No. Et. & cloudy.
18. Drisling till abt. 9 Oclock then constt. & close Rain for abt. an hour or two--this pretty genl. & wet the gd. very well. Wind abt. So. Wt. & warm.
19. Wind Northwardly & warm.
20. But little Wind & variable. Warm and grewing weather.
21. Exceeding warm & still.
22. Warm. Wind Southwardly.
23. Wind Southwardly & not very warm.
24. Wind Southwardly & hot. Morng. cloudy as was the Afternoon with some thunder. In the Night a fine shower of Rain. Less at Doeg Run than elsewhe.
25. Warm wind Southwardly, with a good shower of Rain abt. 3 Oclock.
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Washington copied material from Jethro Tull's Horse-Hoeing Husbandry, London, 1733, into his diaries for ready reference. (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University)
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26. Cool & pleast. morng. Wind Northwardly afterwards, still & warm.
27. Pleasant in the Morning, Wind Southwardly. Warm & still afterwards.
28. Clear. Wind Eastwardly & not very warm.
29. Clear & warm. Wind Southwardly.
30. Wind Southwardly & exceeding hot. Little rain in the Evening wth. some thunder and a good deal of Lightning.
[June]
22. Pulled some Flax & put it into the water at the Wharf at Night.
23. Finishd setting Corn at Muddy hole & Doeg Run.
24. Began to cut Wheat at Muddy hole. Note--the straw of a good deal of wch. was green.
Took out & spread the flax this Morng.
July
14. Finishd my Wheat Harvest.
16. Began to cut my Timothy Meadow which had stood too long.
25. Finishd Ditto.
Sowed Turnep seed from Colo. Fairfax's in sheep pens at the House.
Sowed Winter Do. from Colo. Lees in the Neck.
26. Waggon to be down.
27. Began to Sow Wheat at the Mill with the early White Wheat wch. grew at Muddy hole.
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28. Began to Sow Wheat at Muddy hole with the mixd Wheat that grew there.
Also began to Sow Wheat at Doeg Run of the red Chaff from Home.
Also sowed Summer Turnep behd. Garden.
29. Sowed Colo. Fairfax's kind in Flax Gd. joing. sheep pens.
July
1st. Clear and very Cool. Wind at No. West.
2. Do. Do. Do.
3. Do. Do. Do.
4. Still & somewhat warmer.
5. Winds varying. Cool & cloudy.
6. Winds Southwardly. Cool & cloudy with a good shower of Rain in the Night.
7. Cool & clear, wind No. West.
8. Do. Do. Do.
9. Clear & still but not hot.
10. Brisk Southwest Wind with clouds & a small sprinkle of Rain in the Afternoon.
11. Brisk southwest Wind in the forenoon. Very warm Afternoon with light Rain introduced with high Wind from No. West.
12. Southwardly Wind & clear.
13. Clear & pleasant. Wind northwardly in the morning.
14. Clear and not very warm. Wind Southwardly.
15. Clear with the Wind at South Wt.
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16. Warm & woud have been Sultry but for a pleasant breeze fm. S.W.
17. Very warm with the Wind at So. West. In the Afternoon a fine Rain.
18. Clear. Wind No[rth]wardly.
19. Ditto--Do. Do. and Cool.
20. Cloudy & Cool. Wind Eastwardly with a little light Rain.
21. Rainy & Misty all day. Wind Eastwardly. Gd. very wet.
22. Cloudy & warm first part of the day with Rain in the Aftern.
Warm and pleasant, growg. Weathr.
24. Very warm and still.
25. Cloudy & warm the first of the day--with Rain for some hours in the Afternoon.
26. Cloudy with Rain now & then but not hard. Wind Southwardly & warm.
27. Warm & Clear. Also calm.
28. Ditto--Ditto in the forenoon. Afterwards Rain.
29. Clear Warm and still.
30. Warm & clear. Wind Southwardly.
31. Warm & clear in the forenoon. Afterwards slight Rain.
August
9. Finishd sowing the cut of Corn on the other side at the Mill with 43 Bushels of Wheat.
Finishd sowing the 4 foot cut in the Neck with Wheat viz. 45 ½ Bushl.
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15. Finishd sowing the 39 Inch Cut of Corn in the Neck with 44½ Bushl. Wheat.
Finishd sowing that half of Muddy hole Corn field with Wheat round the Barn [ ] Bushel.
22. Finishd sowing Wheat on this side at the Mill viz. 28 Bushels which makes in all sewed there 71 Bushls.
25. Also finishd the 18 Inch cut at Doeg run. Sowd therein 35 Bushels of Wh. The 6 by 3 foot cut was sowed with 40½ Bushels abt. the 13th.
26. Finishd sowing the 5<> Cut of Corn in the Neck with 53 Bushels Wheat.
August
1st. Calm & still. Also warm.
2. Cloudy for the most part & wind southwardly with some thunder & showers abt. 4 Oclock.
3. Close and Cloudy the greatest part of the day. In the Afternoon Rain where I was (at Mr. Moodys).
Moody's is probably the home of Benjamin Moody (d. 1784), of Fairfax County. Moody, who was related by marriage to Thomas Colvill, was named a beneficiary in Colvill's will.
4. Warm with some Clouds & sprinkles of Rain abt. the long Glade.
5. Warm with Clouds--on the blue Ridge.
6. Very Warm.
7. Very warm. Arrivd at the Warm Springs.
8. Very warm also with some Rain.
9. Warm and Clear.
10. Cool & pleasant.
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11. Not very warm.
12. Tolerably pleasant but w.
13. Very warm, & Cloudy in the Afternoon.
14. Much Rain fell last Night & the forepart of this day--The Weather Warm.
Pleasant yet warm.
Cloudy & warm.
17. A good deal of Rain fell last Night. Pleast. today.
September
5. Finishd sowing the other half of Muddy hole field with Wheat viz. [ ] Bushl. wch. make in all there [ ] Bushels.
Also finishd the two foot Cut at Doeg Run with 39 Bushels.
12. Finishd sowing the 5½ foot cut in the Neck with Wheat viz. 51 Bushels which make in all there 194.
18. Finishd Sowing the 6 by 4 feet Cut at Doeg Run with 36 Bushels. Sowed the simling Rows at Do. with 1½ Bushels which makes in all there 152.
SIMLING[?]: a conjectural reading. GW did include the cymling, or summer squash ( Cucurbita pepo var. condensa), in his crop rotations. In his instructions for the operation of River Farm, 10 Dec. 1799 (DLC:GW), he directed that one quarter of field No. 2 be planted to pumpkins, "simlins," turnips, and Yeatman peas.
The diary entries for August and early September can only be retrospective, perhaps compiled from reports submitted by GW's cousin Lund Washington. GW and Mrs. Washington set out with the George Fairfaxes for Warm Springs, now Berkeley Springs, W.Va., about 3 Aug. By the next day they were in Leesburg and by 8 Aug. were settled at the Springs in a house owned by George Mercer. The expenses for the trip are recorded in an account headed "Expences in going to, from, and at the Springs [10 Sept.] 1767" (DLC:GW). The family cook who accompanied the Washingtons had soon laid in a quarter each of veal and venison and such sundries as butter, eggs, squash, corn, cucumbers, watermelons, peaches, and apples. Mrs. Washington's two children, John Parke Custis and Martha Parke Custis, remained at Mount Vernon under the care of Lund, who reported in letters of 22 Aug. and 5 Sept. to GW (ViMtV) that they were well. In his letter of
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5 Sept., Lund acknowledges GW's letter of 27 Aug., not found, and says he is glad to learn that the mineral waters have benefited Mrs. Washington. When GW and Fairfax split their expenses 10 Sept., the amount each owed was £7 8s. 7d. in Virginia currency. In a later letter to Rev. Jonathan Boucher, 9 July 1771, GW mentions having spent two seasons in the Mercer house at the Springs (DLC:GW).
[November]
Nov. 20. Vestry in Truro Parish.
This entry is from DIARIES, 1:240; the manuscript containing the entry has been lost since Fitzpatrick used it.
At the vestry meeting it was resolved to replace the old frame Pohick Church in Mason's Neck. Because the church was so near the southern boundary of the parish, it was no longer in a central location convenient to all of the Pohick parishioners, many of whom by the 1760s were settled in the northern half of the area served by Pohick Church. After a warm debate over a more central location for the new Pohick building, the new majority was able, by a vote of seven to five, to locate the new church in Pohick Neck, two miles north of the old Pohick Church at a site called the Crossroads (MVAR, 1964, 22--25; SLAUGHTER [2], 64).
Publick Levy 1767 8 lbs. Tob[acco] pr. Poll--No.
No. of Tythables in 1762--121022
1764--128000
1766--131799
Sold & applied to the fund for giving a Bounty on Hemp
PUBLICK LEVY: These notes appear on one of the last blank pages of the 1767 almanac. Except for GW's notation of the number of tithables for 1762,
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1764, and 1766, the rest of this entry is an abstract of an act of the assembly passed in April 1767 entitled: "An act for raising a public levy" (HENING, 8:273--75; the 34 acts in this series are incorrectly dated by HENING as Nov. 1766). In the act, which set the new levy at 8 pounds of tobacco per tithable (or poll), the above-named counties are listed as being in arrears for the 1764--66 levy period, and the respective number given for each county is the amount of arrearage in pounds of tobacco. The act provided that the income from this arrearage tobacco would be set aside as a "depositum" to support the colony's bounty for growing hemp. From time to time the assembly would lay a "general" or "public" levy colonywide on a per capita basis, which in the eighteenth century ranged between 4½ and 12½ pounds of tobacco per tithable. In 1767 a tithable was any white male aged 16 or over and every black and mulatto aged 16 and over, which in essence defined tithables as all adult workers. Although there was a technical difference between the terms poll and tithable, the two were commonly used interchangeably. Of the three years for which GW here notes tithable totals, the figure for 1762 is exactly the same as that reported by Governor Fauquier (GREENE [2], 141). [29]
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Jany. 1st. Fox huntg. in my own Neck with Mr. Robt. Alexander and Mr. Colvill--catchd nothing. Captn. Posey with us.
Although John Posey joined in the chase today and on other occasions during the next few months, he was now, in GW's opinion, a man "reduced to the last Shifts," for he was being destroyed financially by enormous debts that he had acquired over the past several years (GW to Posey, 24 Sept. 1767, DLC:GW). GW was one of Posey's principal creditors, holding mortgages on his lands and slaves for a total of £820 Virginia currency conveyed since 1763. With interest accumulating at the rate of £41 a year and miscellaneous charges against him, Posey now owed GW nearly £1,000 (LEDGER A, 168, 256). But Posey was strongly opposed to selling his property to dear his books and had begged GW several times to lend him more money in order to avoid that end. GW had agreed not to press Posey for repayment of his previous loans and was willing to act as his security for a £200 sterling loan from George Mason, but he refused to advance Posey any more cash (GW to Posey, 24 June and 24 Sept. 1767, DLC:GW).
2. Surveying some Lines of my Mt. Vernon Tract of Land.
The Mount Vernon tract was the original Washington family land on Little Hunting Creek, being part of a grant for 5,000 acres between Little Hunting and Dogue creeks that the proprietors of the Northern Neck had made 1 Mar. 1674 to Col. Nicholas Spencer (d. 1689) of Albany, Westmoreland County, and GW's great-grandfather, Lt. Col. John Washington (1632--1677) of Bridges Creek, Westmoreland County (Northern Neck Deeds and Grants, Book 5, 207--8, Vi Microfilm). The Spencer-Washington grant was divided in 1690 between Colonel Spencer's widow, Frances Mottram Spencer (died c. 1727), and John Washington's son Lawrence Washington (1659--1697/98). Mrs. Spencer chose the western half of the grant which bordered on Dogue Creek, or Epsewasson Creek as the Indians had called it, and Lawrence Washington took the eastern half on Little Hunting Creek (survey and division by George Brent, 18 Sept. and 23 Dec. 1690, ViMtV). The Little Hunting Creek tract was inherited by Lawrence's daughter Mildred Washington (1696--c.1745), who, after her marriage to Roger Gregory of King and Queen County, sold it for £180 to her brother Augustine Washington, GW's father (deed of Roger and Mildred Gregory to Augustine Washington, 19 Oct. 1726, ViMtV).
From Augustine the tract passed to GW's half brother Lawrence, who during the 1740s named it Mount Vernon (will of Augustine Washington, 11 April 1743, DLC:GW). After Lawrence's death in 1752, his widow Ann and her second husband, George Lee (1714--1761) of Westmoreland County, rented the tract and 18 slaves to GW for her lifetime at the rate of 15,000
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pounds of tobacco or £93 15s. Virginia currency a year, and upon Ann's death in 1761, it became GW's outright by virtue of a provision in Lawrence's will (deed of George and Ann Lee to GW, 17 Dec. 1754, KETCHUM, 25; LEDGER A, 47; will of Lawrence Washington, 20 June 1754, ViMtV). Although the tract was originally supposed to contain about 2,500 acres, it now contained only about 2,126 acres because of a change in the northern boundary that had been made about 1741 (survey by R. O. Brooke, c.1741, CALLAHAN, facing p. 3; GW's quitrent lists 176073, DLC:GW).
3. At Home with Doctr. Rumney.
Dr. William Rumney (d. 1783), who was born and trained in England, served as a surgeon with the British army in the French and Indian War and settled in Alexandria in 1763.
4. Rid to Muddy hole, D. Run, & Mill Plantns.
5. Went into the Neck.
6. Rid to Doeg Run and the Mill before Dinner. Mr. B. Fairfax and Mr. Robt. Alexander here.
7. Fox hunting with the above two Gentn. and Captn. Posey. Started but catchd nothing.
8. Hunting again in the same Compy. Started a Fox and run him 4 hours. Took the Hounds off at Night.
9. At Home with Mr. B. Fairfax.
10. At Home alone.
11. Running some Lines between me and Mr. Willm. Triplet.
Triplett's land bordered on part of GW's Dogue Run farm (see main entry for 17 Mar. 1770).
12. Attempted to go into the Neck on the Ice but it wd. not bear. In the Evening Mr. Chs. Dick Mr. Muse & my Brother Charles came here.
Charles Dick (b. 1715), of Caroline and Spotsylvania counties, supplied GW's troops in 1754--55 as a Virginia commissary for the British forces. By 1768 Dick's mercantile business was centered in Fredericksburg. George Muse of Caroline County, married Elizabeth Battaile (d. 1786) in 1749 and had a son, Battaile Muse (1751--1803), who also appears in the diaries.
13. At Home with them--Col. Fairfax, Lady, &[ca.]
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14. Ditto--Do. Colo. Fx. & famy. went home in the Evening.
15. At Home with the above Gentlemen and Shooting together.
16. At home all day at Cards--it snowing.
GW lost 3s. 6d. in playing cards with his friends (LEDGER A, 269).
17. At Home with Mr. Dick &ca.
18. Went to Court & sold Colo. Colvils Ld. Returnd again at Night.
As an executor for Thomas Colvill's estate, GW signed an advertisement in Rind's Virginia Gazette (24 Dec. 1767) announcing that "upwards of six hundred acres of valuable LAND . . . will be sold to the highest bidder, at the court-house of Fairfax county, on the 3d Monday in next month (being court day)." The high bidder was Benjamin Moody.
GW today recorded losing 11s. 3d. at cards (LEDGER A, 269).
19. Went to Belvoir with Mr. Dick, my Bror. &ca.
20. Returnd from Do. by the Mill Doeg Run and Muddy hole.
Surveyd the Water courses of my Mt. Vernon Tract of Land-taking advant, of the Ice.
The freezing over of the Potomac River and Little Hunting Creek enabled GW to survey their shorelines on this day more easily than he usually could, "the ice permitting him to work from the water at will, which greatly simplified the calculating" (DIARIES, 1:247 n.I).
22. Fox hunting with Captn. Posey, started but catchd nothing.
23. Rid to Muddy hole & directed paths to be cut for Fox hunting.
24. Rid up to Toulston in order to Fox hunt it.
TOULSTON: Towlston Grange on Difficult Run, home of Bryan Fairfax.
25. Confind by Rain with Mr. Fairfax & Mr. Alexander.
26. Went out with the Hounds but started no Fox. Some of the Hounds run of upon a Deer.
27. Went out again--started a Fox abt. 10. Run him till 3 and lost him.
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The Spencer-Washington grant, as divided in 1690, gave Washington's grandfather Lawrence about half the tract shown here. (Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union)
28. Returnd Home. Found Mr. Tomi Elsey there.
Thomasin (many spellings) Ellzey (Elzey) was a vestryman of Truro Parish from the 1765 election to the dissolution of the Virginia vestries in 1785. He was a son of Lewis Ellzey (d. 1786) and Mary Thomasin Ellzey (d. 1791). Thomasin married Alice, daughter of Col. Thomas Blackburn (d. 1807) and Christian Scott Blackburn, of Rippon Lodge.
29. Went to Belvoir with Mrs. W--n &ca. after Dinnr. Left Mr. Ellzey at home.
30. Dined at Belvoir and returned in the Afternoon. Borrowd a hound from Mr. Whiting--as I did 2 from Mr. Alexr. the 28th.
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GW was connected with the Whiting family of Gloucester County through his Uncle John Washington (1692--1746), who had married Catherine Whiting (1694--1734), daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Whiting of Gloucester County. The Mr. Whiting who loaned GW the dog today may be Catherine's nephew Francis Whiting (d. 1775), who was born in Gloucester County and moved to the Shenandoah Valley later in his life. Francis's older brother Beverley Whiting (c. 1707--1755), burgess of Gloucester County, may have been the Beverley Whiting who was one of GW's godfathers ( Va. Mag., 32:130; LEDGER A, 126; FREEMAN, 1:47n).
31. At Home alone all day.
Remarks of the Weather
Jany. 1st. Ground exceedg. hard froze, but this day calm & moderate.
2. Moderate. Wind Southwardly. Thawing a little.
3. Rain, with the Wind at So. West. Gd. still hard froze, except the Top of it.
4. Foggy g: Warm. Mid day clear. Frost still in the Earth. Calm.
5. Very thick & Foggy in the Morning. Wind afterwards at No. Et. and Rain all day the Wind shifting southwardly.
6. Warm, clear, & pleasant, in the Morng. Wind high from No. Wt. & cool afterwards.
7. Clear and frosty. Wind brisk from No. W.
8. Clear, frost, & still.
9. Cloudy, with Misty forenoon & constt. Rain afterwards. Wind Southwardly.
10. Weather clear. Wind Southwardly, yet raw and Cold. Hard frost.
11. Clear with the Wind at West. Evening very cold & Wind Northwardly. Severe Frost. River froze across.
12. Wind at No. West and exceeding cold and frosty.
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13. More moderate, and yet very cold, with a little Snow in the Morng. and Eveng. clear.
14. Clear and pleast. Wind at South River still froze.
15. Clear and pleasant. Wind Southwardly. Thawd a good deal.
16. Constant Snow the whole day from the Northward.
17. Clear and pleasant. Wind So. West and West. Hard frost.
18. Still & cloudy. Very like to Snow but broke away abt. Sun Set. Cold.
19. Clear and pleast. Morning. Afternoon Raw & cold.
20. Clear, still, & warm. Thawd a great deal.
21. Very warm and Still. Snow dissolving fast.
22. Warm, still, and clear again. Snow almost gone.
23. No Frost last Night. Warm, & clear in the forenoon. Cloudy with some Rain in the Afternoon-afterwards clear again. Ice broke in the River.
24. Lowering Morning, but very fine & Warm till 7 in the Afternoon, when the Wind shifted to No. East from So.
25. Drizling & Raing. all day. Wind--No. Et.
26. Wind at No. West. Cloudy & cold, with Spits of Snow.
27. Cold-cloudy--& still morng. Clear & pleast. afterwards. Wind Southwardly.
28. Wind at No. West & very cold.
29. Do. at Do. & Do. River froze up again last Night.
30. Very hard frost last Night. Morng. cold but more moderate afterwards. Wind gettg. Southwardly.
31. Lowering. Wind Southwardly & moderate. Ice breaking and dispersing.
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Observations
Jany. 1st. Neck People clearing a piece of ground which was begun the 23d. of Decr.
Doeg Run People working in the Swamp which they began to clear this Fall.
Muddy hole People (except two threshing) clearing the Skirt of woods within the fence 4 Men & 2 Women from Doeg Run assisting.
Mill People also clearing.
6. Doeg Run People finishd grubbing the Swamp they were in and proceeded to another adjacent.
12. Threshing Wheat at all Plantations Ground being too hard froze to Grub to any advantage.
16. Finishd my Smiths Shop-that is the Carpenters work of it.
18. Carpenters went to Saw Plank at Doeg Run for finishing the Barn there.
Will put new girders into my Mill where they had Sunk.
19. Mike, Tom, & Sam went abt. the Overseers House at Muddy hole.
20. Plantations chiefly employd in getting out Wheat.
22. Davy, George, Jupiter and Ned, finishd Sawing at Doeg Run & Joind Mike &ca. abt. Overseers House at Muddy hole.
Where & how--my time is Spent.
1st. Rid round into the Neck and directed the running of a Fence there.
2. Rid to Muddy hole-Doeg Run & Mill.
3. Fox hunting with Captn. Posey & Ld. Washington. Started but catchd nothg.
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Lund Washington (1737--1796), a distant cousin of GW, was the son of Townshend and Elizabeth Lund Washington, of the Chotank area, where GW spent part of his youth. Lund had managed the Ravensworth estates of Henry Fitzhugh (1723--1783) during the early 1760s, and in 1765 GW hired him as manager for his Mount Vernon plantations.
4. Snowing all day--but not very fast--at home.
5. At home alone till Mr. Robt. Alexander came in the Evening.
6. Fox hunting with Mr. Alexander & Captn. Posey. Started but catchd nothing.
7. At Home alone.
8. Rid to Muddy hole--Doeg Run & Mill and in returng. met Mr. Alexander Mr. Stoddard and Captn. Posey, who had just catchd 2 foxes. Returnd w. them to Dinner.
Stoddard is possibly a member of the Stoddert family of Prince George's and Charles counties, Md. Thomas Stoddert, who served with the Maryland troops in the French and Indian War, was the father of Benjamin Stoddert (1751--1813) by his wife Sarah Marshall Stoddert, daughter of Thomas Marshall of Marshall Hall.
9. Went out Hunting again. Started a fox. Run him four hours & then lost him. Mr. Stoddard went home. Alexr. stayd.
10. Rid to Muddy hole, Doeg Run, and Mill, Mr. Alexander going in the Morng. as Mr. Magowan did to Williamsburg.
Walter Magowan (d. 1786), an immigrant from Scotland, was hired by GW in the fall of 1761 to tutor the two Custis children at a wage of £35 a year. Magowan left the position in the late fall of 1767 and applied for the rectorship of Frederick Parish in Frederick County. The parish promised to hold the position open until Dec. 1768, and Magowan was now preparing to go to England for ordination. For this trip GW gave him a letter of introduction to Robert Cary & Co., dated 10 Mar. 1768 (DLC:GW).
11. Went into the Neck and returnd to Dinner.
12. Fox hunting with Colo. Fairfax, Captn. McCarty, Mr. Chichester, Posey, Ellzey & Manley who dind here with Mrs. Fairfax & Miss Nicholas. Catchd two foxes.
Richard Chichester (c. 1756--1796), son of Richard Chichester (d. 1743) and Ellen Ball Chichester of Lancaster County, was, through his mother, a distant relation of GW. He inherited his father's plantation, Fairweathers,
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and in 1759 married Ann Gordon (1743--1765) of Lancaster County. Shortly after Ann's death he moved from Lancaster to Fauquier County and married Sarah McCarty (d. 1826), daughter of his cousin Capt. Daniel McCarty of Mount Air, here mentioned. In 1774 Chichester bought land on Accotink Creek in Fairfax County, near McCarty's home and settled there with his family for the rest of his life (HAYDEN, 106--7; deed of Richard Watts to Chichester, 6 Dec. 1774, Fairfax County Deeds, Book M-1, 28--32, Vi Microfilm).
Harrison Manley (d. 1773), the son of John Manley (d. 1751) and Sarah Harrison Manley, occasionally sold wheat to GW and used the services of GW's mill, blacksmith shop, and weaving shop as part payment in return (LEDGER B, 9).
Two daughters of Wilson and Sarah Cary--Sarah and Elizabeth--married the brothers George William and Bryan Fairfax. A third daughter, Anne Cary (b. 1733), married Robert Carter Nicholas (1728--1780) of James City County and had four daughters, one of whom, probably either Sarah Nicholas (b. 1752) or Elizabeth Nicholas (753--1810), is the Miss Nicholas who appears here.
13. Hunting in the same Company. Catchd 2 More foxes. None dind at Mt. Vernon.
GW today lent Ellzey £10 (LEDGER A, 269).
14. At home alone.
15. Ditto--Ditto.
16. Went up to Alexa. and returnd in the Eveng.
While GW was in town today he received £75 cash as part payment for wheat sold to the Alexandria firm of John Carlyle & Robert Adam. This partnership, which was separate from the one Carlyle had with John Dalton (see entry for 17 April 1760), had been formed in 1764 to deal in wheat and flour and lasted until about 1770. During that period GW sold most of his wheat to the firm and regularly drew on his account with it for his cash needs (LEDGER A, 180, 271, 280, 310, 326).
17. Rid to Muddy hole, Doeg Run, & the Mill. Returnd to Dinner and alone.
18. Went a ducking between breakfast & dinner. In the Afternoon Mr. Thruston Mr. Alexander, & Mr. Carter from Gloster came in.
Charles Mynn Thruston (1738--1812), originally of Gloucester County, raised a body of volunteers in 1758 and joined William Byrd's Virginia Regiment as a lieutenant (WRITINGS, 3:2; HAMILTON [1], 2:292). In 1760 he married Mary Buckner, daughter of Col. Samuel Buckner of Gloucester County; she bore him three sons and died in 1765. In the fall of 1764 Thruston, having
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been chosen minister of Petsworth Parish, Gloucester County, went to England to take orders, and was licensed for Virginia in Aug. 1765 (PETSWORTH, 323--24; GOODWIN, 312). The Alexander family of Gloucester County had been headed by David Alexander (d. 1750), who emigrated to Virginia from England. This Mr. Alexander may have been David's son Morgan Alexander (b. 1746), who, like Thruston, was now looking for land, in either Loudoun or Frederick County, where he could settle. There were several Carter families in Gloucester County at this time.
19. After dinner the above Gentlemen went to Belvoier.
20. Fox hunting with Captn. Posey. Catchd a Fox.
21. At home all day. Mr. Wm. Gardner dind here. A Gentleman from York River came to buy Wheat.
22. Rid to Muddy hole, Doeg Run and the Mill before Dinner and went out with my Gun after it.
23. Fox hunting with Captn. Posey. Catchd a Fox we suppose, but being dark coud not find it.
On this day, while ordering a butt of Madeira wine from a dealer in the Madeira Islands, GW asked for some cuttings of the grape. As if suspecting that the request would run counter to the policy of the vintners, he wrote, "but if in requiring this last Article there be any sort of Impropriety I beg that no notice may be taken of it" (GW to Scott, Pringle, Cheape & Co., 23 Feb. 1768, DLC:GW).
24. Went a ducking between breakfast & dinner & killd 2 Mallards & 5 bald faces. Found Doctr. Rumney here at Dinner who staid all Night. Mr. Magowan returnd.
Rumney had come to see GW's stepdaughter, Martha Parke Custis, who was known as Patsy (Patcy) to her family and friends. Now 11 or 12 years old, Patsy had suffered from epilepsy at least since the age of 6, and with the beginning of her adolescence, the malady showed no signs of abating (receipt from James Carter, 12 April 1762, ViHi: Custis Papers). On this occasion Rumney prescribed 12 powders of unidentified composition, "a vial of Nervous Drops," and a package of valerian, a drug that was thought to be useful in controlling epileptic spasms (receipt from William Rumney, 18 Feb. 1769, ViHi: Custis Papers; HOOPER, 981). But these medicines, and the many others that would be tried in the future, could not relieve Patsy's condition. She was beyond the help of eighteenth-century physicians, and much to the dismay of her family, epileptic attacks would plague her at frequent intervals until one caused her death in July 1773.
25. Doctr. Rumney went away. I went to the Creek but not cross it. Killd 2 Ducks-viz. a sprig tail and Teal.
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Until he became too old for the chase, Washington hunted foxes at every opportunity. This print still hangs in the library at Mount Vernon. (Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union)
26. Laid of a Road from Mt. Vernon to the Lain by Mr. Manleys.
27. Went on the Road, clearing between Mt. Vernon, and the Mill. In the Evening Mr. Stedlar came.
In 1765 GW hired John Stadler, a local music teacher, for the purpose of "teaching Mrs. Washington & two Childn Musick" (LEDGER A. 231). During the next six years Stedlar frequently visited Mount Vernon to give lessons, mostly to the children. Patsy was learning to play the spinet, and her brother, John Parke Custis, the fiddle (GW to Robert Cary & Co., 12 Oct. 1761 and 20 July 1767, DLC:GW).
28. In the Afternoon went up to Mr. Robt. Alexanders in order to meet Mr. B. Fairfax & others a fox Huntg. None came this day but Captn. Posey.
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Robert Alexander lived just north of Four Mile Run. He had inherited the house and 904 acres of land from his father, Gerard Alexander (will of Gerard Alexander, 9 Aug. 1760, Fairfax County Wills, Book B-1, 327--29, Vi Microfilm).
29. At Mr. Alexanders all day with his Phil & Captn. Posey--it raining.
PHIL: probably Robert Alexander's younger brother Philip Alexander (d. 1790), whose home was just north of Alexandria.
Remarks of the Weather
Feby. 1st. Mild, Still, & Warm.
2. Lowering Morning--but Wind Westwardly & clear afterwards.
3. Clear, & somewhat cool in the Morning. Cloudy afterwards.
4. Snowing all day; but not very fast. Towards Night it turnd to hail and then to Rain. Very little Wind.
5. Raining more or less till the Afternoon when it ceasd & became foggy & remaind Cloudy.
6. Cloudy & dull Morng. Clear Afterwds.
7. Gloomy Morning. Cloudy afternoon--and rainy Evening and Night.
8. Calm and Misty Morning & dull day.
9. Clear-calm-& warm Morning. Windy afternoon-from the westward.
10. Clear & fine day. Little wind.
11. Still and Lowering kind of a day wt. drops of Rain every now and then.
12. Dull Morning, & lowering Day but no Rain & very little Wind.
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13. Cloudy Morning--but very pleasant Mid day & afternoon being clear with very little wind.
14. Raining more or less till the Afternoon when turnd to a kind of Mist. Winds changeable.
15. Heavy Morng. Rain abt. 8 Oclock & till 2 then Snow. Variable Winds.
16. Clear and pleasant with little Wind and that variable.
17. Very white Frost; Morning clear, & Still. Afternoon muddy with the Wind at So.
18. Lowering day with drops of Rain every now and then. Afternoon Misty with the Wind at No. Et.
19. Thick mist the whole day with very little wind.
20. Foggy & Misty Morng. Cloudy all day. Wind Southwardly in the Afternoon.
21. Quite warm--still--and tolerably clear.
22. Warm and Cloudy--with Showers of Rain and some Thunder. Wind fresh from the So. West &ca.
23. Rainy morning & Misty day, with but little wind.
24. Clear, & cool. Wind brisk from the North West.
25. Hard frost. Clear & cool, Wind at No. West in the Morning but calm & pleasant in the Afternoon.
26. Dull morng. Wind at So. Wt. and cool. Clear Noon & Muddy Sky in the Afternn.
27. Showery all day (misty Showers) & still.
28. Misty Showers with intervening Sun. Wind Southwardly & fresh.
29. Constant Rain from abt. 7 Oclock till three--then Snow with variable Wind from So. Wt. to No. Et. Westwardly.
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Observations
Feby. 1st. Carpenters all (except Will) Went to Sawing Palling for a Goose yard.
13. Finishd the Goose Pen at Home. Also finishd clearing the Point of Woods between where Carney & Rollins & Crump livd in the Neck abt. 30 Acres.
Richard Rollins and William Crump apparently moved out of Clifton's Neck soon after GW purchased it in April 1760 (LEDGER A, 74, 80). John Carney remained as a tenant, paying GW the standard annual rental of 730 pounds of tobacco until 1765, when GW bought out his lease (LEDGER A, 82, 136, 218).
18. Rais'd Overseers House at Muddy hole.
Finishd Threshing & cleaning my Wheat at Doeg Run Plantn. [ ] Bushl.
23. Stopd clearing the Field on the Ck. in the Neck, and began upon those pieces of Woods in the other field by Mr. Sheridines.
John Sheridine of Charles County, Md., had rented land in Clifton's Neck from William Clifton in 1741. After GW bought the land in 1760, Sheridine continued to rent until GW bought out the remainder of the lease in 1773. Sheridine's son, John Sheridine (d. 1768), seems to have lived on the land until his death. After this, his widow Barberry (Barbara?) remained there for several years (deed of Sheridine to GW, 9 Aug. 1773, MWA; LEDGER A, 75, 134, 227, 351; LEDGER B, 39).
26. Began to deliver my Wheat to Mr. Kirk.
Carpenters not having quite finishd the Overseers Ho[use] at Muddy hole for want of some Plank went abt. a Corn Ho. there.
Much abt. this time a Hound Bitch Mopsey of Mr. R. Alexanders (now with me) was proud, & shut up chiefly with a black dog Taster who lind her several times as did Tipler once, that is known of. The little Bitch Cloe in the House was also proud at the same time--but whether lined or not cannot be known. See how long they go with Pup--and whether both the sametime--being very difft. in size.
James Kirk, an immigrant from England, established himself as a wheat merchant and also invested heavily in western lands. He kept a store and office in Alexandria and maintained a country residence across the Potomac in Maryland (LEDGER A, 270--71; CRESSWELL, 4, 27, 52). GW's wheat is today being loaded on a ship owned by Kirk for Carlyle & Adam, the purchasers.
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26 & 27. Transplanted trees of differt. kinds into the Lucern Patch.
Where & how my time is Spent.
Mar. 1st. Went a fox hunting with the two Alexrs. and Posey. Was during the chase (in which nothing was catchd) joind by Mr. Fairfax, Jno. Alexander & Muir.
John Alexander (1735--1775), of King George and Stafford counties, was in this period the eldest of three brothers in the "Philip" branch of the Alexander family. John, who had inherited a portion of the 1669 Howsing Patent from his father, Philip Alexander (1704--1753), was a burgess from Stafford County 1765--75. He married Lucy Thornton (d. 1781). John Muir (c. 17311791), of Dumfries, Scot., settled as a merchant in Alexandria; in 1758 he was chosen a town trustee.
2. Hunting again, & catchd a fox with a bobd Tail & cut Ears, after 7 hours chase in wch. most of the Dogs were worsted.
3. Returnd home much disorderd by a Lax, Griping and violent straining.
4. At Home, worse with the above complaints. Sent for Doctr. Rumney, who came in the Afternn.
5. Very bad the Doctr. staying with me.
6. Something better--Doctr. still here--& Mr. Ramsay came down to see me.
7. Rather better. Doctr. went home after breakfast. Mr. Ramsay staid to Dinner.
8. Mending fast. Colo. Thos. Moore calld here on his way from Alexa. Home, but made no stay. Colo. Fairfax, & Mr. Gilbt. Campbell (Comptroller) Dined here.
Moore, who was heavily indebted to the estate of the late Speaker of the House of Burgesses, John Robinson (d. 1766) of King and Queen County, was now trying to renew his bond to GW for his debt to the Custis estate, which GW had been carrying, with interest, for eight years (LEDGER A, 204; see main entry for 4 Nov. 1768).
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Gilbert Campbell, of Westmoreland County, was comptroller of the South Potomac Naval District. He was a signer of the Westmoreland County association to prevent the execution of the Stamp Act in the colony, 27 Feb. 1766, and was still serving as comptroller in 1776.
9. Still mending. At home alone.
10. Mending still. Rid out. Mr. Peake & Auge. Darrel dind here.
Humphrey Peake (1733--1785), who inherited Willow Spring from his father, William Peake (d. 1761), was a neighbor and fox-hunting companion of GW and a frequent visitor to Mount Vernon.
Augustus Darrell (d. 1777) of Fairfax County, a son of Sampson Darrell, married about 1771 Sarah McCarty Johnston, widow of George Johnston of Belvale and sister of Daniel McCarty of Mount Air (LEDGER A, 300).
11. At home alone all day.
12. Rid to the new Road-Mill, Doeg Run & Muddy hole Plantns. & found Doctr. Rumney upon my return, who dind & stayd all Night.
During this visit Rumney treated Patsy Custis with valerian and powders and applied some type of plaster (receipt from William Rumney, 18 Feb. 1769, ViHi: Custis Papers). GW today paid him £5 in cash (LEDGER A, 269).
13. At Home alone all day.
14. With the people working upon the New Road between breakfast and Dinner.
15. At home alone all day.
16. Hunting with Captn. Posey & L[un]d W. Started and catchd a fox in abt. three hours.
17. Rid into the Neck--to Muddy hole and upon the New Road. When I came home found Colo. Carlyle & his Wife & Children there.
Col. John Carlyle's firs wife, Sarah Fairfax Carlyle, bore him two children: Sarah, who appears in the diaries as "Sally," and Anne (1761--1778), who appears as "Nancy." After the death of Sarah Fairfax Carlyle in 1761, Colonel Carlyle married Sybil West, daughter of Hugh West (d. 1764) and Sybil Harrison West (d. 1787). They had one child, George William Carlyle (d. 1781).
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18. Went with Colo. Carlyle & our Families to Belvoir. Myself & Mrs. W--n returnd leaving the others there. Found Mr. Stedlar at Mt. Vernon.
19. At home all day. Mr. Stedlar here.
20. At home all day. Mr. Stedlar still here. In the Afternoon Mr. Carlyle & Family returnd from Belvoir.
21. Went to Court. Colo. Carlyle & Family also went up. Mr. Stedlar stay'd--& Sally Carlyle.
22. Rid to the Mill, Doeg Run and Muddy hole Plantation.
23. Rid out to see, & examine whether a Road coud not be discovd. & opend from Posey's ferry back of Muddy hole Plantn. thereby avoidg. the Gumspring, which I think may be done to advantage.
24. Rid out again with Mr. Peake on the above Acct. and observd that a good Road might be had along H[untin]g C[ree]k upon Colo. Masons Land.
25. Went into the Neck. Grafted some Cherries & began to manure the ground for my Grapevines.
26. Went Fox huntg.--but started nothing. Mr. Lawe. Washington came here & Miss Ramsay in the Afternoon.
MR. LAWE. WASHINGTON: probably Lawrence Washington (1728-c.1809), usually called "of Chotank," the son of John and Mary Massey Washington and first cousin to Lund Washington. His home was on a bluff of the Potomac River near Chotank Creek. This Lawrence was one of the two Chotank cousins remembered in GW's will as "acquaintances and friends of my Juvenile years" (WRITINGS, 37:286; EUBANK, 18--20). Lund Washington also had a brother named Lawrence (1740--1799), who may be the one referred to here.
William Ramsay (1716--1785) and his wife Ann McCarty Ramsay (c. 1730--1785) had two sons and five daughters. "Miss Ramsay" is probably the eldest daughter, Elizabeth, who appears in the diaries variously as "Betsy," "Betcy," and "Betty."
27. At home. Lawe. Washington went away.
28. At home.
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29. Fox hunting--with Jacky Custis & Ld. Washington. Catchd a fox after 3 hrs. chase.
JACKY: GW's stepson, John Parke Custis. He was described by GW in May of this year as "a boy of good genius, about 14 yrs. of age, untainted in his Morals, & of innocent Manners. Two yrs and upwards he has been reading of Virgil, and was (at the time Mr. Magowan left him) entered upon the Greek Testament" (GW to Jonathan Boucher, 30 May 1768, PHi: Dreer Collection).
30. Rid to Muddy hole--Doeg Run & Mill Plantation's.
31. Went into the Neck. At my return found Doctr. Rumney & Mr. Wm. Crawford at the House. Dr. Rumney went away in the Afternoon.
On the following day Rumney charged twelve "Nervous Powders" and ingredients for a medicinal brew to Patsy Custis' account (receipt from William Rumney, 18 Feb. 1769, ViHi: Custis Papers).
Remarks--of the--Weather
Mar. 1st. Cool & clear. Wind fresh from the No. West. Ground froze.
2. Cool morning but clear, still, and pleasant afterwards. Frost again.
3. Lowering with some sprinkles of Rain.
4. Cool, Wind at No. West, & frosty.
The Custis family coat of arms. (Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union)
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5. Cool, & Cloudy. Ground froze. Towards Night Snow--just to whiten the Ground.
6. Ground & snow hard froze. Clear, Wind Northwardly.
7. Clear & cool, wind still Northwardly.
8. Frosty Morning--but clear & pleast. day. Wind Southwardly.
9. No frost. Clear & pleast. forenoon & Mid day--but hazy afternoon. Wind fresh from South.
10. Lowering Morning. Rainy, & Windy afternoon from the So[uth]ward.
11. Clear with high Wind from the So. Wt.
12. Cloudy for the Most Part. Wind Southwardly. In the Evening Rain.
13. Wind at No. West and Cool--with a lowering Sun--& sometimes Cloudy.
14. Wind Southwardly till the Afternn. then Northwardly with first Rain then Snow, being cloudy & raw all day.
15. Snow abt. half an Inch thick. Morng. cold & clear. Wind at No. West till the Afternoon, then North with a thick Muddy Sky. Ground froze.
16. Ground froze. Morning thick and threatening--but clear afterwards with the Wind Southwardly.
17. Morning frozen and cold, wind Raw from the Northward. Afterwards something warmer but still cold & clear.
18. Hard frost. Clear and cool. Wind at Northwest.
19. Ground froze. Morning threatng. & cold. Abt. 8 Oclock began Snowg. which it did constantly the whole day from the No. Et. & was one of the most disagreeable day of the whole Winter. Snow abt. 6 Inchs. deep.
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20. Cold and boisterous. Wind at No. West and Snow drifting. Afternoon somewhat more moderate.
21. Moderately warm. Wind Southwestwardly & sometimes lowering but clear Aftn.
22. Calm, clear, & pleasant. Snow melting fast.
23. Calm, & cloudy, with a little Rain in the Morning--so likewise in the Evening.
Note. This Moon, wch. changd the 18th. appeard with the points directly upwards exactly of a height.
24. Clear & cool. Wind at No. West.
25. Clear. Morning Cool, & wind at No. West. Evening Mild & calm. Ground froze.
26. Morning still, clear, & warm. Afternoon clear & cool. Wind at No. West.
27. Cloudy & lowering till abt. 3 Oclock then Snowing more or less till Night when it raind a good deal but little Wd.
28. Cloudy & sometimes drizling with but little Wind. After Sunsetting clear.
29. Raw, cold, & cloudy forenoon. Clear & more moderate Afternoon, Wind being pretty fresh from No. Wt. all day.
30. Calm, clear & pleast. Morng. Afternoon also clear, but more cool--Wind being brisk from southward.
31. Grey Morng. Clear Afterwards & raw. Wind fresh from the Southward.
Observations
Mar. 3d. Deliverd a Load of 508 Bushels of Muddy hole Wheat to Mr. Kirks Ship and my Schooner returnd.
5. Deliverd another Load of 517 ½ Bushls. of the Neck Wheat to the above ship and returnd the same day.
Finishd cutting down Corn Stocks at all my Plantations.
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12. Large parts of my Wheat Field at Doeg Run--the same I believe at the Mill--were found to be exceedingly Injurd by the Frost (and I apprehend by the last frost abt. the 7 & 8th. Instt.). Upon examining the Wheat which appeard to be so much hurt, I found the Roots for the most part were entirely out of the ground. Some indeed had a small fibre or so left in, & here perhaps a green blade might be found in a bunch, but where the Root was quite Out the whole bunch seemd perishd & Perishing.
Note. Watch the Progress of this Wheat, & see if there be any possibility of its taking Root again (as it lyes thick on the gd.). Near a stake in the 18 Inch Cut and abt. 100 yds. from the Barracks is a spot of an Acre or so of this kind. Observe this place--being poor gd. also.
Carpenters returnd from the Road abt. Muddy hole Corn House.
15. Deliverd the last load of my Wheat to Mr. Kirks Ship which makes 1921 Bushls. delivd. him in all. Reckg. in 15 Bushls. to be deliv'd him by Mr. Digges.
GW had previously lent 15 bushels of wheat to William Digges of Warburton, the equivalent of which was now earmarked for delivery by Digges to Kirk as part of GW's total delivery (LEDGER A, 156). The total included 475 bushels delivered 11 Mar. but not mentioned in the diary (LEDGER A, 271).
16. Began to list Corn Ground at Muddy hole.
Recd. my Goods from Mr. Cary by Captn. Johnston.
Sent my Vessel abt. 4 Oclock in the Afternoon to Mr. Kirk agreeable to his Letter.
John Johnstoun, captain of the Lord Cambden, was delivering GW's major spring shipment of supplies from England; the shipment comprised a great variety of goods collected from 39 different London shops, including a set of surveyor's instruments for John Parke Custis and some harpsichord music for Patsy. These were all gathered together and shipped by Robert Cary & Co., which was the major London merchant house for the Custis estates and was subsequently retained by GW after his marriage to Martha Dandridge Custis.
18. Began to lay of my Corn ground in the Neck.
19. Sent Chaunter (a Hound Bitch) up to Toulston; to go to Mr. Fairfax's Dog Forester--or Rockwood--She appearg. to be going Proud. Forrester not beg. at Home she went to Rockwood.
25. Observ'd a Lamb in my Pasture being the first fallen from Ewes put to my Ram the [ ].
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26. My Vessel returnd from Mr. Kirks employ abt. sundown--being 10 days gone.
29. Began to Cork & pay the bottom of my schooner.
30. Finishd my Fencing & began to Enlist my Corn Ground at the Mill.
Looked again at the Wheat at Doeg Run (particularly abt. the Stake near the Barracks) and found no alteration for the better--it appearing to have no root in the Ground.
31. Finishd Corking my Vessel & weeding out my Lucern.
Memms.
If Ewes & Lambs are restraind from Wheat Fields, & no green food sowd to support them in the Spring--contrive that no more fall after this year till the last of March.
Where & how--my time is Spent.
April 1st. At home with Mr. Crawford.
William Crawford's visit was not purely social. By the fall of 1767 GW had concluded that because the Pennsylvania-Maryland boundary line (Mason and Dixon's Line) would soon be completed, and because western expansion (temporarily barred by the Royal Proclamation of Oct. 1763) would soon be at least partially opened up by a treaty with the Indians, the time was ripe for acquiring some parcels of choice land in western Pennsylvania and the Ohio Valley. GW wrote to Crawford (21 Sept. 1767, DLC:GW), who had settled the year before at Stewart's Crossing on the Youghiogheny River (BUTTERFIELD [1], vii), and proposed a partnership for taking up land. Crawford quickly replied that he would "heartly imbrass your Offer upon the Terms you proposed," and went on to sketch out the prospects, necessary procedures, and possible problems that the two land hunters might encounter (29 Sept. 1767, DLC:GW). Crawford's appearance at Mount Vernon, allowing land discussions which were spread over a six-day period, was GW's first opportunity to confer personally with his man in the field.
2. Rid to Muddy hole--Doeg Run & the Mill. Mr. Crawford went to Alexandria.
3. Went to Pohick Church & returnd to Dinner. Mr. Crawford returnd in the Afternoon.
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4. Fox hunting with Messrs. Chichester, the Triplets, Manley, Posey, Peake & Adams. Never started a Fox--but did a Deer.
Abednego Adams (1721--1809), originally of Charles County, Md., married Mary Peake, a sister of Humphrey Peake. They appear to have settled for a time on land in the fork of Little Hunting Creek which Adams's wife inherited from her father in 1761.
5. At home with Mr. Crawford. Mr. Campbell came here g: dined, Mrs. Washington, Miss B. Ramsey & Patcy Custis went to Belvoir & returnd.
As an agent for the Alexandria partnership of Carlyle & Adam, Matthew Campbell (d. 1782) had come to Mount Vernon to pay GW £121 11S 9½d. for wheat purchased from him during the past six months (LEDGER A, 271).
6. Mr. Crawford set of home, and we (together w. Miss Betcy Ramsay) went up to Alexa. to a Ball.
GW had given Crawford £20 on the previous day (LEDGER A, 269).
7. We returnd from Alexandria thro Snow.
8. At home alone. Except with Price the Bricklayer who has been here since Tuesday.
In 1767 Thomas Price was asked by the Truro vestry to inspect the work at the still unfinished Falls Church building, around which the town of Falls Church later developed (Truro Vestry Book, 116, DLC). Several years later GW bought "a Bricklayer named Isaac Web" from Thomas Price for £30 Maryland currency (LEDGER B, 106).
9. FOX hunting with the two Triplets Mr. Peake & Mr. Manley. Started, but catchd nothing.
10. At home alone.
11. Planting out Grape Vines according to M[e]m[orandum]. Mrs. Posey dined here and Mr. Alexander & Mr. Edwd. Payne Supd. & lodgd.
Edward Payne served with GW as a vestryman of Truro Parish 1765--74. When Payne contracted with the parish in 1766 to build a chapel of case (later called Payne's Church) for the parishioners in the northwest corner of the parish, GW was appointed to the building committee (SLAUGHTER [1], 22, 50).
12. Payne and Alexander went away after Breakfast. And Miss Tracy Digges & her sister Betty came in the Aftern. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg R. & Mill.
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Theresa Digges (b. 1744) and Elizabeth Digges (1743--1845) were the two eldest daughters of William and Ann Digges of Warburton Manor.
13. At home. The Miss Digges here. In the Afternoon Mr. Chichester came.
14. Fox hunting with Mr. Chichester Captn. Posey Messrs. Triplet Peake & Adams. Startd but catchd nothing. Posey & Adams dind here as did Mr. Digges.
15. At home. Mr. Digges & his daughters went away after breakfast.
16. At home alone. In the Evening went into the Neck.
17. Went to a Church & returnd to Dinner.
18. Went to Court and returnd in the Evening.
19. Measurd the Field designd for Corn at the Mill, and Doeg Run this year.
20. At home alone all day.
21. Rode to Muddy hole Doeg Run and Mill Plantns.--at the first & last of wch. just began to check Corn Gd. Mr. Stedlar came here.
22. At home all day. Mr. Stedlar here.
23. At home all day again. Mr. Stedlar still here.
34. Mr. & Mrs. Peake & their daughter dined here as also did Mr. Stedlar.
Humphrey Peake of Willow Spring married Mary Stonestreet, daughter of Butler Stonestreet (d. 1755) of Prince George's County, Md. The Stonestreet home, Exeter, was on Piscataway Creek, which emptied into the Potomac almost directly across from Mount Vernon. Of the two daughters of Humphrey and Mary Peake, this is probably the elder, Ann Peake (d. 1827), often referred to in the diaries as "Nancy."
25. Went to Muddy hole, Doeg Run & Mill before Dinner, & into the Neck afterwards.
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26. Set of for Williamsburg with Mrs. Washington, Jacky & Patcy Custis & Billy Bassett. Lodgd. at Mr. Lawsons.
GW may have originally planned to combine this visit to Eltham and Williamsburg with attendance at a session of the House of Burgesses which, although scheduled to open on 1 May, had met from 31 Mar. to 16 April (H.B.J., 1766--69, 138, 140, 175--77). Billy is William Bassett (1760--1775), eldest son of Mrs. Washington's sister Anna Maria Dandridge Bassett and Col. Burwell Bassett of Eltham. The Washingtons probably stayed at the home of Thomas Lawson, who ran John Tayloe's ironworks on Neabsco Creek, Prince William County, from which GW bought some bar iron in 1761 (ViHi: Tayloe Papers; Lawson to GW, 28 June 1761, ICHi).
27. Reachd Fredericksburg.
28. Stayed there all day at Colo. Lewis.
29. Proceeded on our Journey and reached Hubbards Ordy. in Comy. with Colo. Lewis & Mr. Dick.
Benjamin Hubbard, who died about 1780, was one of a group of Quakers who moved from Pennsylvania to settle in Caroline County in the 1730s. Hubbard later embraced the established church and served as a Caroline County justice 1754--60. Hubbard's ordinary, located about 37 miles southeast of Fredericksburg in lower Drysdale Parish, was his base of operations for an extensive mercantile business in the Mattaponi River valley from 1756 to 1780. GW had stayed at Hubbard's as early as 1759, when he and his new bride apparently made a trip from the White House to Fredericksburg, possibly to visit the mother of the bridegroom (LEDGER A, 52, 55; CAMPBELL [1], 175--76 347, 392, 412).
30. Breakfasted at Todds Bridge--dind at Claibornes & came to Colo. Bassetts.
From Todd's Bridge on the Mattaponi River, GW's party followed his regular route through King William County to a fork in the road just beyond King William Court House. Although on previous trips GW chose the south fork, which crossed the Pamunkey River at Williams' ferry near the White House, the party now took the east fork, remaining on the main road to arrive at Sweet Hall, the home of William Claiborne, which lay on the Pamunkey River opposite New Kent County. About nine miles beyond Sweet Hall was Col. Burwell Bassett's home, Eltham, which he inherited as the eldest surviving son of his father, William Bassett (1709-C.1743).
GW today paid a Dr. Lee, possibly Arthur Lee, £2 3s. 9d. for Patsy Custis (LEDGER A, 269; see main entry for 6 July 1768).
Remarks--of the--Weather
April 1st. Ground a little froze. Day very cold, with flying Clouds & Wind high from No. Wt.
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2. Ground hard froze. Morning very keen & sharp, wind being at No. Wt. Afterwards more moderate winds varying--with Clouds.
3. Wind fresh from the Westward & very cold with Snow at times & Clouds.
4. Ground very hard froze (as it was yesterday). Day clear. Morning calm--but Wind from the Southward afterwards & Cold.
5. Ground very hard froze. Wind high from No. West. Very cold & Clear.
6. Ground hard froze. Morng. Calm--clear & pleast. Afternoon Muddy & cold. Wind at So. West. Abt. 10 Oclock at Night it began Snowg.
7. Snowed all Night, and all this day without Intermission from the No. and No. East. Ground coverd six or 8 Inches.
8. Clear and cold. Wind fresh from the No. West. Snow melting fast notwithstandg.
9. Clear & cool in the Morng. Wind at No. Wt. & ground hard froze. Still & pleast. in the Aftern.
10. White frost, & ground a little crusted over. Moderate but lowering. Wind at So. Et.
11. Clear--calm, and springing.
12. Clear--Warm & still till abt. three Oclock. Then fresh Wind from E.S.E.
13. Clear and rather Cool. Wind fresh from S.W. to N.W.
14. Lowering day. In the Afternoon a little Rain--with the Wind at So. Et.
15. Now and then slow Rain. Very cloudy till abt. 4 Oclock when it cleard--but little Wind, and that abt. So. Et.
16. Lowering most of the day, with the Wind Southwardly & cool till the afternoon when it was still, clear & warm.
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17. Clear & cool wind at No. West.
Note--the horns of this Moon (wch. changd yesterday) were directly up as the last.
18. Clear & Cool. Wind Northwardly.
19. Rather Cool for the Season. Wind variable. & in the Evening low.
20. Clear and Cool. Wind brisk from the East.
21. Cool--Cloudy & Raing more or less all day. Wind at East.
22. Constant Rain all last Night, and all this day, with the Wind at East.
23. Constant Rain again all last night & all this day. Wind still at No. Et.
24. Raining in the Night and till after Sunrise. Wind at No. West & cloudy, that is flyg. clouds, in the Morng. but clear still & warm in the Afternoon.
25. Still, clear, warm, & pleasant.
26. Warm, still, & very smoky. In the Evening the Wind very fresh from the Southward.
27. Clear and Cool, wind fresh from the No. West.
28. Clear, & rather Cool, wind variable and in the Evening at No. Wt.
29. Lowering all day & sometimes sprinkling of Rain. Wind southwardly & pretty fresh.
30. Clear and warm with but little Wind till Night when it blew very fresh from the Southward.
Observations
April 2d. Sewed a patch of Flax in the Neck.
Also sewed a patch at Doeg Run by the last yrs. Turneps.
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6. Sewed part of the Ground at home (the Cowpens) in Flax.
7. Carpenters finishd the Corn Ho. at Muddy hole. And went to trimmg. fish Barrls.
11. Planted out Grape Cuttings accordg. to Memm.
12. Sewed remainder of Flax Ground at Home.
Also sewed Flax Seed at Muddy hole.
White fish began to Run. Catching 60 or 70 at a Haul with some Her[rin]g.
14. Sowed Flax at Doeg Run at the head of the Meadow.
Began plowing at Doeg for Corn--that is to list.
Ditto Carpenters went to getting Staves for Cyder Casks.
18. Began fishing for Herrings with Carpenter's &ca.
21. Began to cross gd. at Muddy hole & the Mill--having Run only a single furrow for a list.
23. The great abundance of Rain which fell within this 48 hours carrd. away my Dam by the Miss Wades & broke the back Dam by the Mill.
The land north of GW's mill plantation was now jointly owned by three daughters of Zephaniah and Valinda Wade, Mrs. Wade having apparently died sometime within the previous two years. The dam near the Wades' property was about 300 yards up Dogue Run from the mill and had probably been built a short time before in an attempt to store more water for use in the mill during droughts. Nevertheless, the run regularly went dry in the summer. THE BACK DAM: the lower dam.
Where & how--my time is Spent.
May 1. Rid to a place calld Root's to see a Meadow of Colo. Bassetts. Returnd to Dinr.
ROOT'S: land owned by the Rootes family of Virginia. The first Rootes to appear in Virginia records was Maj. Philip Rootes (d. 1756), who lived at Rosewall, in King and Queen County, across the Mattaponi River from West Point; he also owned land in New Kent County. Rootes married Mildred Reade, who bore him four sons: Philip, of Rosewall; Thomas
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Reade. of Gloucester County; Col. George, who settled on the Virginia frontier; and John. who served in the 2d (William Byrd's) Virginia Regiment.
2. Went to Williamsburg with Colo. Bassett, Colo. Lewis & Mr. Dick. Dind with Mrs. Dawson & went to the Play.
Mrs. Dawson was born Elizabeth Churchill (c. 1709--1779), daughter of Col. William and Elizabeth Churchill of Middlesex County. In 1729 she married Col. William Bassett (1709-c.1743) of Eltham, by whom she had at least five children, one of whom was Col. Burwell Bassett. After the death of her first husband, Elizabeth Churchill Bassett moved to the Bassett family town house in Williamsburg, two blocks south of the market square. In 1752 she married Rev. William Dawson, then commissary of the Church of England in Virginia, who died within a fortnight after the wedding. Although Mrs. Dawson continued to live in the Bassett town house, where GW dined on this date, she died at the Bassett country seat of Eltham.
The play was given in Williamsburg's second theater, built by local subscription in 1751 behind the Capitol on Waller Street. In 1768 a group of players--male and female--was formed by David Verling, their actor-manager, into the Virginia Company. After opening in Norfolk they moved to Williamsburg, where they opened their run on 31 March, coinciding with the meeting of the Burgesses. Which play GW saw is not known; the Virginia Company had a broad repertory, including Restoration comedy, eighteenth-century satire such as the popular Beggar's Opera by John Gay, and many of the plays of William Shakespeare, who was being "rediscovered" by the eighteenth-century English theater (see RANKIN).
3. Dined with the Speaker.
THE SPEAKER: Peyton Randolph (c.1721--1775), son of Sir John and Susanna Beverly Randolph. was king's attorney and burgess for Williamsburg. From Nov. 1766 until the Revolution, Randolph served as Speaker of the House of Burgesses.
4. Dined with Mrs. Dawson, & suppd at Charlton's.
Richard Charlton (d. 1779) had announced in June 1767 that he had opened "the Coffee-House" in Williamsburg "as a Tavern," and GW had supped there on a visit to the city the previous fall ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 25 June 1767; LEDGER A, 262). The exact location of the coffeehouse is not known, but it was "nigh the Capitol" ( Va. Gaz., R, 2 Feb. 1769). In 1775 Charlton was said to be living "in the back street," probably present-day Francis Street ( Va. Gaz., D, 7 Jan. 1775). In addition to being an innkeeper, Charlton was a barber and wigmaker, and he may have plied those trades at his tavern ( Va. Gaz., P, 14 June 1776, and D&N, 11 Dec. 1779).
5. Dined at Mrs. Campbells.
Christiana Campbell's tavern was GW's habitual lodging place in Williamsburg from 1761 to 1771. On this visit to the city, he paid Mrs. Campbell £2 10S. "for Board," which included his lodgings as well as the daily breakfasts
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Peyton Randolph in a portrait by John Wollaston. (Virginia Historical Society)
Elizabeth Harrison Randolph, wife of Peyton Randolph, in a portrait attributed to John Wollaston. (Virginia Historical Society)
and other occasional meals that he ate at the tavern (LEDGER A, 274). Mrs. Campbell (1722--1792) was playfully described by a young Scottish merchant in 1783 as "a little old Woman, about four feet high; & equally thick, a little turn up Pug nose, a mouth screw'd up to one side" (MACAULAY, 187--88). The daughter of a Williamsburg innkeeper named John Burdett (d. 1746), she had married Dr. Ebenezer Campbell, an apothecary in Blandford, and had lived there with him until his death about 1752 (JETT, 24--25). Returning to Williamsburg a short time later, she had by 1760 begun to operate her tavern on Duke of Gloucester Street in the second block from the Capitol (GIBBS, 152--54). She was assisted in her business by her unmarried daughter Molly.
6. Rid to the Plantations near Williamsburg & dined at Mr. Valentines.
Joseph Valentine (d. 1771), who was in charge of all the Custis estates when GW married Martha Dandridge Custis in 1759, stayed on as the "Common Steward" for both John Parke Custis' inherited portion and GW' dower portion of the Custis plantations (GW to Robert Cary, 24 Oct. 1760, CSmH).
7. Came up to Colo, Bassetts to Dinner.
8. Went to Church & returned to Dinner.
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When in Williamsburg, Washington sometimes attended Bruton Parish Church. (College of William and Mary)
GW probably joined the Bassetts in worship at Warrenray Church, a few miles from Eltham.Warrenray was the upper church of Blisland Parish, serving the eastern part of New Kent County.Col. Burwell Bassett was for many years one of the most active vestrymen of the parish; in 1768 he was joined on the vestry by Bartholomew Dandridge, younger brother of Mrs.Bassett and Mrs. Washington (CHAMBERLAYNE, 179).
9. Went a Fox hunting and catched a Fox after 35 Minutes chace; returned to Dinner & found the Attorney his Lady & daughter there.
John Randolph (c.1728--1784), of Williamsburg, succeeded his older brother Peyton Randolph as attorney general of Virginia in 1766. John married Ariana Jennings (1730--1801) of Maryland, who bore him a son, Edmund, and two daughters, Susanna and Ariana, Like GW, John Randolph was an avid gardener,and he wrote a book on vegetable gardening (probably during the 1760s) which became the first gardening book published in the American colonies (see RANDOLPH).
10. Rid to the Brick House & returned to Dinner--after which went a dragging for Sturgeon.
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The phrase "the Brick House" referred originally (in the seventeenth century) to a particular house built of brick, indicating how unusual such a building was in the early years of the colony. The original house lay about three miles east of Eltham on the south side of the York River across from West Point; after 1738 it was also the location of the Brick House tobacco warehouse (HENING, 5:15). By the mid-eighteenth century the Brick House lent its name to its immediate surrounding neighborhood, which is the sense in which GW refers to it here. In that neighborhood lay land that had been in the Bassett family for many years, as well as one of the larger quarters of the Custis estate, which GW was managing for Jacky (CHAMBERLAYNE, 335, 669--70; see also the Custis Papers in ViHi).
11. Dined at the Glebe with Mr. Davis.
Rev. Price Davies, of County Montgomery, Wales, who was born about 1732, received his B.A. from Christ Church, Oxford, in 1754. He later migrated to Virginia, married Elizabeth Perry of Gloucester County, and in 1763 became rector of Blisland Parish, New Kent County (GOODWIN, 262).
12. Went to New Kent Court with Colo. Bassett.
13. Went after Sturgeon & a Gunning.
14. Went to my Plantation in King William by Water, & dragd for Sturgeon & catchd one.
MY PLANTATION IN KING WILLIAM: Claiborne's (see entry for 24 April 1760).
15. Rid to see Colo. Bassetts Meadow at Root's.
16. Fishing for Sturgeon from Breakfast to Dinner but catchd none.
17. Rid to the Brick House & returnd to Dinner.
18. Did the same & got my Chariot & Horses over to Claibornes.
19. Went a Shooting, & hair huntg. with the Hounds who started a Fox wch. we catched.
20. Set of from Colo. Bassetts for Nomony. Crossd over to Claibornes--from thence by Frazers Ferry to Hobs hole dining at Webbs Ordinary.
Nomini was a Westmoreland County neighborhood clustered around Nomini Creek, which emptied into the Potomac River about 12 miles below GW's birthplace at Pope's Creek. From Claiborne's ferry, GW's party rode through King William County to cross the Mattaponi River at William Frazier's (many spellings) ferry (HENING, 7:402). They then proceeded almost
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Hannah Bushrod Washington, wife of John Augustine Washington. (Dr. and Mrs. John A. Washington)
Washington's brother, John Augustine, often called "Jack." (Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union)
due north through King and Queen County, crossing into Essex County where they stopped in the afternoon for dinner at Webb's tavern (for the Webb family of Essex County, see WEBB [1], 270--77). After dinner they rode north to Hobbs Hole (now Tappahannock), a tobacco port on the south side of the Rappanhannock River and the seat of Essex County, which was described by a visitor in 1774 as "a small Village, with only a few Stores, & Shops" (FITHIAN, 203). GW spent £2 1s. 6d. for overnight lodgings, ferriages, and other expenses there (LEDGER A, 274).
21. Reachd my Brothr. John's who & his wife were up the Country. Crossd over to Mr. Booths.
Bushfield, where John Augustine Washington lived with his wife Hannah and their several children, was on the east bank of the Nomini near the mouth of the creek. "His House," said young Philip Vickers Fithian who saw it in 1774, "has the most agreeable Situation, of any I have yet seen in Maryland Or Virginia" (FITHIAN, 89). "Brother John" had succeeded his father-in-law, John Bushrod, as master of the Bushfield plantation upon the
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latter's death in 1760, and although the plantation contained only about 1,200 acres, he was now one of the ten leading landowners in Westmoreland County (MVAR, 1964, 18--21).
Col. William Booth lived almost directly across the Nomini from Bushfield at Nomini Plantation, which he, like John Augustine Washington, had taken over from his wife's father, in this case Col. William Aylett, who died in 1744. Aylett had married twice and had no sons, but four daughters. Elizabeth, who was probably the oldest, married Booth, and her sister Anne married GW's half brother Augustine Washington (EUBANK, 47--49).
22. Went to Church (nomony) & returnd to Mr. Booths to Dinner who was also from home in Glousester. Mr. Smith the Parson dind with us.
Nomini Church was on the east bank of Nomini Creek about 3½ miles upstream from William Booth's home. Rev. Thomas Smith (1738--1789) was the rector of Cople Parish, which comprised the lower end of Westmoreland County, including both Nomini and Yeocomico churches. He had assumed that post soon after his graduation from Cambridge University in 1763 and retained it until his death 26 years later (EATON, 22--23). A highly respected minister, Smith was a prosperous planter also; in 1782 he was credited with having 42 slaves, a total that made him the twentieth largest slaveholder in Westmoreland County at that time ( Va. Mag., 10:234). His wife Mary Smith (1744--1791) was a daughter of John Smith of Northumberland County and was a distant relation of GW, her great-grandmother Mary Warner Smith having been a sister of GW's grandmother Mildred Warner Washington (EUBANK, 52).
23. At Mr. Booths all day with Revd. Mr. Smith.
24. Came up to Popes Creek & staid there all day.
Pope's Creek was an addition to the Bridges Creek plantation, the original seat of GW's family in Virginia. In the 1720s GW's father, Augustine, built a house on the site lying on the west side of Pope's Creek about three-quarters of a mile from the Potomac River, and it was there that GW was born. On the death of GW's father, the plantation was inherited by GW's half brother Augustine Washington. It was now the home of Augustine's widow, Anne Aylett Washington, and their four children, including their only son, William Augustine Washington (1757--1810), who inherited the plantation upon his mother's death in 1773 and renamed it Wakefield. The present house, constructed in the 1930s, is a memorial house near the site of the original one (see FREEMAN, 1:15--47).
25. Got up to my Brother Sams. to Dinner. Found Mrs. Jno. Washington & ca. there.
GW lost 10s. playing cards today (LEDGER A, 274).
26. Remaind at my Brother Sams where my Brother Jno. came as also Mr. Lawe. Washington &ca. to Dinner.
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27. Dined at Mr. J. Washingtons with the compy. at my Brs.
John Washington (1730--1782) of Hylton was, like GW, a great-grandson of John the Immigrant. He married Catherine Washington, a sister of Lawrence Washington of Chotank. His home, Hylton, was in the Chotank neighborhood.
28. Went to Boyds hole & returnd to my Brother's to Dinr., where we found Colo. Lewis & my Br. Charles.
At Boyd's Hole on the Potomac River in Stafford (now King George) County was a small settlement of merchants clustered about one of the original tobacco warehouses established in 1730 (HENING, 4:268).
It was probably on this date, while at Boyd's Hole, that GW paid his share of a general levy on members of the Mississippi Company to the treasurer, William Lee (LEDGER A, 274). During the first four years of its existence the company had been making such a small impression in England that many contemporaries and most early authorities did not even know it had existed before 1767 (CARTER [1], 109 n.19). By Mar. 1767 the executive committee had decided that the time was ripe for another attempt at pressing their memorial. During the company meeting at Stafford Court House 16 Dec. 1767, which GW attended, a quota of £13 11s. sterling was approved for "employing an agent to proceed immediately to Britain, there to solicit the Company's Grant, as fully, speedily, and effectually as the nature of the Business will admit." GW recorded this payment as £16 18s. 9d. Virginia currency (CARTER [2], 16:316--19; LEDGER A, 169).
29. Went to St. Paul's Church & Dined at my Brothers.
Few churches in eighteenth-century Virginia had official names. Rather, a church tended to take a name from its location in the parish (the "upper" or the "lower" church), from its builder (Payne's Church), from a nearby geographical location (Nomini Church, Pohick Church) or simply from the name of its parish. Thus GW here refers to attending the church of St. Paul's Parish in Stafford County, which was the one closest to the home of his brother Samuel, a vestryman for St. Paul's Parish until 1770. By a change in county boundaries in 1776 this parish and its church became part of King George County (MEADE [1], 2:192, 187--88).
30. Went fishing & dined under Mr. L. Washingtons Shore.
GW today lost £1 8s. 9d. at cards (LEDGER A, 274).
31. Returnd home crossing at Hooes Ferry through Port Tobacco.
Remarks--of the--Weather
May 1. Cool. Wind Northwardly & fresh.
2. Cold & chilly wind to the Northward.
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Barnsfield, home of the Hooe family which ran Hooe's Ferry for many years. From Smoot, Days in an Old Town, Alexandria, Va., 1934. (Alexandria Library)
3. Warm, wind getting Southwardly and Cloudy.
4. Very Warm & Sultry, with flying Clouds & appearance of Rain.
5. Warm again. Wind Southwardly & fresh.
6. Rain in the Morning. Warm afterwards with Clouds.
7. Cool Wind Northwardly.
8. Less Cool than yesterday but not warm.
9. Very warm & Sultry. Wind Southwardly.
10. Wind Eastwardly & not so warm as yesterday--being Cloudy.
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11. Much Rain fell last Night and this Morning. Evening clear & warm.
12. Cool Evening and Morning but warm midday.
13. Wind Northwardly & rather Cool.
14. Warm & sometimes Sultry, with but little wind. In the Afternoon thunder & clouds with Slight Showers.
15. Not so warm as yesterday.
16. Wind at South but not fresh & tolerable warm, & clear.
17. Warm with but little Wind and that Southwardly.
18. Ditto--Ditto--Ditto.
Note the Horns of this Moon were also up as the two last were tho a little more declining.
19. Warm and but little Wind which was Southwardly. The weather very hazy as it had been for several days with the Sun and Moon remarkably red.
20. Clear, and but little Wind, & that Southwardly.
21. Warm, & clear in the Morning. Afternoon lowering, Wind Southwardly.
22. Showery all day. Wind pretty fresh from the Southward.
23. Wind shifted in the Night to No. Et. Blew and Raind hard all Night & till One or two Oclock this day, when it ceasd. The Afternoon became pleasant.
24. Morning clear but Cool. Afternoon lowering & very Cool wind No. East.
25. Misty all day and Cold with but little Wind.
26. Cloudy & very Cold Wind Northwardly. Sometimes Sun appearg.
27. Clear and somewhat Cool tho' there was but little Wind.
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28. Clear & Warm. Wind, tho' little of it Southwardly.
29. Clear with a small breeze from the Northward.
30. Clear & warm with little Wind & that Eastwardly.
31. Warm & flying Clouds. Wind abt. South.
Observations
May 2d. My Carpenters & House People went to Planting Corn at Doeg Run after they had finishd fishing.
3. The hound bitch Mopsey brought 8 Puppys, distinguishd by the following Names--viz.--Tarter--Jupiter--Trueman--& Tipler (being Dogs) --and Truelove, Juno, Dutchess, & Lady being the Bitches--in all eight.
23. My Carpenters & House People went to Work at my Mill repairing the Dams--hightening of them--& opening the Race.
29. The bitch Chanter brought five Dog Puppies & 3 Bitch Ditto which were named as follow--viz.--Forrester--Sancho--Ringwood--Drunkard--and Sentwell. And Chanter--Singer--& Busy.
Where & how my time is Spent.
June 1st. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run & the Mill.
2. Went into the Neck.
3. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run & Mill.
4. At Home all day writing.
5. Went to Church at Alexandria & dined at Colo. Carlyles.
6. Rid to Muddy hole and the Mill, & met with Doctr. Rumney upon my Return who dined here.
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While Rumney was at Mount Vernon, he gave Patsy Custis "a large Julep," probably a syrupy, nonalcoholic drink intended to soothe her nerves (receipt from William Rumney, 18 Feb. 1769, ViHi: Custis Papers).
GW today paid £15 for a horse for Jacky Custis (LEDGER A, 274).
7. Went up to Alexandria to meet the Attorney Genl. & returnd with him, his Lady & Daughter, Miss Corbin and Majr. Jenifer.
The Major Jenifer mentioned frequently in the diaries is Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer (1723--1790), who lived at Stepney, a large estate in Charles County, Md. He served in various public offices in Maryland before the Revolution and was at this time a member of the Maryland Provincial Court. From 1778 to 1782 he was a member of the Continental Congress. In 1785 he was made one of the commissioners to settle the navigation of the Potomac River, and later he was a member of the Constitutional Convention.
8. At Home with the above Company. Colo. Fairfax, his Lady & Miss Nicholas--Colo. West & his Wife--& Colo. Carlyle Captn. Dalton & Mr. Piper--the three last of whom stayd all Night.
9. The Attorney &ca. went away leavg. Miss Nicholas only here.
10. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run and the Mill.
Rid to Ditto--Ditto & Ditto.
Went to Pohick Church and returnd to Dinner.
13. Went to Belvoir where Mr. Seldon his Lady &ca. were.
Mary Cary (1704--1775), an aunt of Sarah Cary Fairfax, married Joseph Selden (d. 1727) of Elizabeth City County and had three sons: Col. Cary Selden of Buckroe, Elizabeth City County; Col. Samuel Selden of Selvington, Stafford County; and Rev. Miles Selden (d. 1785) of Henrico County ( Va. Mag., 9:109; MEADE [1], 2:205).
14. Returnd home again, & found Mr. B. Fairfax here. Sent for Doctr. Rumney to Patcy Custis who was seized with fitts. Mr. M. Campbell lodgd here.
Rumney treated this outbreak of epileptic convulsions by bleeding Patsy and prescribing some of the same medicines that he had given her earlier: valerian, "nervous drops," and ingredients for another medicinal brew (receipt from William Rumney, 18 Feb. 1769, ViHi: Custis Papers).
15. Colo. Fairfax & Family together with Mr. Seldon & his dind here as also Doctr. Rumney. Mr. B. Fairfax went in the Mg.
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16. Rid to the Mill Doeg Run and M. Hole. Mr. Campbell came here in the Eveng.
17. Rid into the Neck and to Muddy hole.
18. At home all day prepg. Invoices and Letters for England.
The "Invoices and Letters" were all dated 20 June 1768, the "Invoices" listing personal and plantation items needed from England for Mount Vernon and the Custis estates. To Charles Lawrence of London, GW wrote for a "Suit of handsome Cloth Cloaths," reminding the tailor that his long-legged correspondent stood a "full Six feet high" and was "not at all inclind to be corpulent." GW also ordered new clothes, including a green riding outfit for "Mastr. Custis . . . now 15 Yrs. of age & growing fast" and "a Suit of blew Livery" for Jacky's body servant (DLC:GW). From John Didsbury of London, GW ordered 32 pairs of shoes and boots for the Washington family, including 2 pairs of satin pumps, one in black and one in white, for Patsy Custis; also ordered were 4 pairs of "strong, course" shoes for Jacky's body servant (DLC:GW). In his cover letter to Robert Cary & Co., GW complained that for "four years out of five" he had made less profit by consigning his tobacco to Cary to sell in England than he would have made if he had sold it in Virginia (DLC:GW).
19. At home. Do. Do.
20. Went to Court and returnd at Night.
21. Went up again and stayd all Night.
22. Returnd home in the afternoon.
23. At Home all day.
24. Rid to Muddy hole, Doeg Run, and the Mill before Dinner, & was sent for by express to come to Alexa. to settle and Arbitrate an Acct. between Mr. George West & Mr. Chs. Alexander wt. Mr. Thomson Mason & Mr. Ellzey.
George West (d. 1786), son of Hugh and Sybil West and brother of John West, Jr., was a Fairfax County surveyor. He married Ann Alexander, who was a first cousin of Charles Alexander (1737--1806) of Preston in Fairfax County. Charles Alexander married Frances Brown (d. 1823), daughter of Richard Brown of Maryland.
William Ellzey (d. 1796), a son of Lewis Ellzey by his first wife and thus a half brother to Thomas in Ellzey of Truro Parish, married Frances Westwood and lived in the neighborhood of Dumfries, where he practiced law until about 1773. By 1774 he was living on his father's land in Loudoun County. GW sought his legal help in several disputes in the late 1760s.
Jacky Custis rode up to Alexandria with GW this afternoon.
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25. Returned Home & remained there all day. Doctr. Rumney came in the Afternoon & stayd all Night.
26. At Home. Doctr. Rumney went away in the Afternoon.
27. At home. Colo. Fairfax & his Lady dined here & returnd in the Aftern.
28. Set of for, and Reachd Fredericksburg.
GW was taking Jacky Custis to a boarding school in St. Mary's Parish, Caroline County, which the parish rector, Rev. Jonathan Boucher, ran in his home on a small plantation about 11 miles from the parish church. Jacky had received no instruction since Christmas when Magowan had ceased tutoring him, and GW was now anxious to have the boy resume his education. To school Jacky took his luggage, a body servant, and two horses (GW to Boucher, 30 May 1768, PHi: Dreer Collection).
29. Rid round and examind the Wheat Fields there. Which were fine.
30. Went to Mr. Bouchers. Dined there and left Jackey Custis. Returnd to Fredericksburg in the Afternn.
Jonathan Boucher (1737/8--1804), son of a poor English schoolmaster, came to Port Royal in 1759 to earn his living by tutoring gentlemen's sons. He soon began incurring heavy debts, a habit that would plague him for most of his life, but his fortune took a turn for the better in 1761 when he was offered the rectorship of neighboring Hanover Parish in King George County.
Jonathan Boucher, schoolmaster and clergyman, ran a boarding school below Fredericksburg which Jacky Custis attended. (Yale University Art Gallery, Mabel Brady Garvan Collection)
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During the following year he took holy orders in England and, returning to Virginia, was confirmed as Hanover's rector. He later moved to his present position as rector of St. Mary's Parish in Caroline County, where he had a busy bachelor existence, preaching, working his plantation, and running the school for boys that Jacky had come to attend. Boucher was a genial and often witty man, but he also had traits that frequently led him into difficulty, as he readily admitted in his Reminiscences: "There was nothing quite ordinary or indifferent about me; my faults and my good qualities were all striking. All my friends (and no man ever had more friends) really loved me; and all my enemies as cordially hated me. Women, in particular, were apt to be pleased with me, because I had a natural gallantry and attachment to the sex which made them secure of my good-will and friendship. . . . In most respects, when thwarted and opposed, I was obstinate and mulish; yet there was nothing which I might not be coaxed into. A woman might do anything with me. . . . As to my conduct in life, it was of a piece with the rest of me: no man took more pains, or laboured harder, to earn money, but I took no adequate care of it when I had earned it. I always intended well, but often acted ill" (BOUCHER [1], 80--81; see also CLARK [3], 19--32).
Remarks--of the--Weather
June 1st. Warm & still forenoon. Pleast. Afternoon a breeze from So. West.
2. Warm morning with Clouds & Thunder & Rain. Towards Night a good deal more Rain & Loud thunder.
3. Very warm morning with Rain abt. One Clock & a little thunder.
4. Cold and sometimes Raining. Wind Westwardly.
5. Cool with clouds & sometimes a sprinkle of Rain. Wind Westwardly.
6. Cool and Cloudy but no Rain the Wind Northwardly.
7. Clear & Cool. Wind at No. West.
8. Ditto--Do.--Wind Westwardly.
9. Clear and Warm, Wind abt. So. West. In the Afternoon Cloudy with Rain, and high wind from W.S.W.
10. Cloudy Morning but clear & cool afterwards with brisk Wind from No. Wt.
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11. Midling warm--with the Wind at So. Wt.
12. Warm. Wind Southwardly & fresh.
13. Wind Southwardly till the Afternoon when it Shifted to the Westward & blew a mere hurricane attended with hard Rain.
14. Wind very hard from the No. West with thunder & sevl. Showers of Rain.
15. Blustering Wind & varying from So. West to No. West. Cool.
16. Still & Warm with Rain in the Night.
17. Still & hot till abt. 2 Oclock then thunder & Rain with some Wind which afterwards dyed away.
18. Calm & cloudy with some Rain in the forenoon & thunder & Showery in the Afternoon & Night.
19. Clear & cool. Wind at No. West.
20. Clear and Warm. Wind Southly.
21. Warm & in the Afternoon Cloudy with Rain at Night.
22. Cool. Wind fresh from the No. Wt.
23. Wind very fresh from the So. West, and in the Night it blew a mere Hurricane from the same point with a little, & but a little Rain.
24. Wind fresh from the Westward.
25. Calm and Still & yet Cool. In the forenoon Wind Eastwardly in the Afternoon & Cloudy.
26. Cloudy with appearances of Rain in the Afternoon.
27. Wind fresh from the So. West & Warm. In the Afternoon thundr., & Rain for half an hour or more.
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28. Showery till 11 Oclock with very high Wind from the So. West & West all day, & cool.
29. Warm with but little Wind till the Evening then Cool with the Wind fresh from the No. West.
30. Cool with the Wind though not much of it Westwardly.
Observations
June 1st. Upon looking over my Wheat, I found all those places which had been injurd by the March frosts extreamely thin, low & backwards, having branchd but little, & looking puny--indeed in many places the Ground was entirely naked and where it was not, there was but too much cause to apprehend that the Wheat woud be choaked with Weeds.
It was also observable that all my early Wheat (generally speaking) was headed and heading. The common Wheat was but just putting out head; & the Red Straw Wheat had but very little or no appearance of head & was lower than any of the other, although first sown.
The heads of the whole appeard short & did not promise any great increase.
It was also remarkable that the Red Straw Wheat had a great number of Smutty or blasted heads in the same manner it had last year, when they did put out.
8th. Carpenters went to getting the frame for my Barn at the House.
[1]5. The Maryland hound Bitch Lady took Forrester & was also servd by Captn., & refusd the Dogs on the 11th.
Finishd breaking up Corn Ground at Doeg Run.
17. Finishd breakg. up Corn Ground at Muddy hole.
18. Finishd Do. Do. at the Mill.
22. About this time Captn. Posey's Bitch Countess was discoverd Lind to Dabster & was immediately shut up & none but Sterling sufferd to go to her.
Musick was also in heat & servd promiscuously by all the Dogs, intending to drown her Puppy's.
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25. The Carpenters finishd getting the Frame for the Barn at my Ho. House.
28. Began to cut the upper part of my Timothy Meadow.
Where & how--my time is Spent.
July 1st. Went over to Stafford Court House to a meeting of the Missisipi. Dined and lodged there.
With another change of ministers in England, and because of the new Indian treaties in progress which opened large parts of trans-Appalachian land to white settlement, the Mississippi Company's hopes were quickening. Dr. Arthur Lee, brother of the company's treasurer, William Lee, was taken into the company and chosen as the agent to be sent to England. He probably received his instructions at this meeting (CARTER [2], 318; CARTER [1], 109). The new agent, however, had little luck in his petitioning and lobbying. Although the Lee family--the original movers for the company--maintained their hopes up to the outbreak of the Revolution, GW was not so sanguine. While transferring his accounts to a new ledger in Jan. 1772, GW wrote off his £27 13s. 5d. investment in the company as a total loss instead of carrying it over (Richard Henry Lee to William Lee, 15 April 1774, BALLAGH, 1:106; LEDGER A, 169).
Stafford County's courthouse at this time stood on the south side of Potomac Creek about four miles upstream from Marlborough. During the Revolution it was moved to a site near present Stafford, Va. (WATKINS, 115--18), the location shown on the map on p. 1:220--21.
2. Dined at Dumfries and reachd home.
3. At Home all day.
4. Rid to see my Wheat at differt. Places. Doctr. Rumney came here in the afternn.
5. Went to Muddy hole with Doctr. Rumney to see the Cradlers at work.
6. Rid to Muddy hole and Doeg Run after Doctr. Rumney went away. When I returnd found Mr. Wm. Lee & Doctr. Lee here.
Arthur Lee (1740--1792) was the youngest of the six surviving sons of Thomas Lee (1690--1750), builder of Stratford Hall, Westmoreland County, and his wife, Hannah Ludwell Lee (1701--1749/50). He attended Eton and the
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George Digges lived at Warburton, Prince George's County, Md. (Mr. and Mrs. Walter A. Slowinski)
One of the many Lees in the Washington circle of friends, Dr. Arthur Lee had studied medicine in Edinburgh. (Independence National Historical Park Collection)
University of Edinburgh, where he took a medical degree in 1764, and then returned to Virginia to practice medicine in Williamsburg. Arthur and his elder brother William (1739--1795) were now preparing for a visit to England which would see Arthur take up the study of law and William enter the tobacco trade in London (LEE [1], 195). During this visit to Mount Vernon the brothers probably discussed with GW the prospects for the Mississippi Land Company, in which both were deeply involved.
7. Mr. Lee went away. Mr. Darnel & Daughter--Mr. Geo. Digges & his two eldest Sisters came here & stayed all Night.
The Darnall (many spellings) family of Maryland descended from Col. Henry Darnall (d. 1711), who emigrated from England in 1672. This Mr. Darnall may be a great-grandson of Col. Henry, also named Henry, whose daughter Mary married Charles Carroll of Carrollton this same year (ROWLAND [1], 2:445--47).
George Digges (1743--1792) was the eldest son of William Digges of Warburton Manor. George's two eldest sisters were Theresa (Tracy) and Elizabeth (Betty).
8. Doctr. Lee & all the rest went away & I rid to the Cradlers (cutting my Wheat at the Mill).
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9. Rid to Muddy hole, the Mill, and Doeg Run before Dinner & to the Mill afterwards--where my People was harvesting.
10. Went to Church and returnd to Dinner.
11. Rid to Muddy hole where three white men were Cradling --& then to the Mill where we were getting in Wheat. Mr. Chichester with his wife Miss S. McCarty, & Dr. Rumney came.
Sinah McCarty (died c.1809) was a daughter of Capt. Daniel McCarty of Mount Air and a sister of Mrs. Sarah McCarty Chichester, with whom she appears here.
Rumney continued his treatment of Patsy Custis by giving her two capsules of musk, which in the eighteenth century was thought to be a strong antispasmodic agent and was commonly used as a remedy for epilepsy. Four or five days later Rumney apparently sent a dose of valerian to Patsy (receipt of William Rumney, 18 Feb. 1769, ViHi: Custis Papers).
12. Rid to Muddy hole before breakfast where all hands were harvesting the Wheat. The Company went away.
13. Went in to the Neck where I this day began my Harvest. Colo. Fairfax & Doctr. Lee dind here and returnd.
14. Attended in the Neck Again.
15. Went over again & drove back by Rain about One Oclock, which continued all the Afternoon.
16. Went by Muddy hole & Doeg Run to the Vestry at Pohick Church. Stayd there till half after 3 Oclock & only 4 Members coming returned by Captn. McCartys & dined there.
By Virginia law, the presence of at least 7 of the 12 vestrymen was necessary to form a quorum (HENING, 7:303). The absence of so many members of the vestry on this occasion suggests the beginning of a new strategy by those vestrymen who disliked the location for the proposed new Pohick Church.
17. At home all day.
18. In the Neck with my People Harvesting.
19. In Ditto with Ditto. Mr. Richd. Graham came here in the afternoon.
Richard Graham (d. 1796) was a Scottish merchant of Dumfries, Prince William County, who was heavily involved in western lands. In 1757 he
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married Jane Brent (b. 1738), the youngest daughter of Col. George Brent (d. 1778).
20. In Ditto with Do. in the Forenoon. In the Afternoon went with them to cut the Wheat at Doeg Run.
21. Went to the Harvest Field at Ditto.
22. Rid to Ditto in the forenoon with my Wife & Patcy Custis.
23. Rid to Ditto in the forenoon--where I met with one Russel, a Tenant of mine upon the Land I bought of Carters Estate, coming down to see upon what terms he coud get the Land.
George Russell was a tenant on land in Fauquier County formerly owned by the late George Carter (see main entries for 10 and 17 March 1769).
24. Went to Pohick Church.
25. Went to Alexandria & bought a Bricklayer from Mr. Piper & returnd to Dinner. In the Afternoon Mr. R. Alexander came.
Michael Tracy (Treacy), probably an Irish indentured servant, was bought by GW for £18 4s., a good price if Tracy was an apt bricklayer (LEDGER A, 277). In July 1770 a Michael Tracey was advertised in the Virginia Gazette as a runaway from Andrew Wales, brewer, of Alexandria (R, 26 July 1770).
26. Rid with Mr. Alexander to my Meadow & returnd with him to Dinner. Mr. Vale. Crawford here. They went away.
27. Rid to the Meadow again. Vale. Crawford & his Br. Wm. both came this Afternoon.
28. Went to the Meadow with the above two.
29. But little Wind--that Southwardly--very Warm. Rid to the Meadow in the Afternn. Writg. in the Fore.
30. Rid into the Neck and from thence to Doeg Run where we were Haymakg. Colo. Carlyle & Lady came last N. & went to Day.
31. Went to Alexa. Church. Dind at Colo. Carlyles & returnd in the Afternoon.
The Fairfax vestry decided 27 Nov. 1766 to replace the parish's two church buildings with new brick structures, one near Four Mile Run called Falls Church, and one at Alexandria, later called Christ Church. The vestry advertised
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for bids and on 1 Jan. 1767 agreed with James Parsons (d. 1785) to build the church at Alexandria for £600. Because work on the new church was not yet finished, the worship services GW attended in town today must have been held in the old building (see entry for 3 Feb. 1760; POWELL, 85--87).
Remarks--of the--Weather
July 1st. Cloudy & Cool in the Morning--but clear and very warm in the Afternoon and Night.
2. Clear and exceeding Hot with but little Wind. Night also Warm.
3. Clear and Warm but Windy from the So. West.
4. Cool in the Morning, warm afterwards & Cool at Night again--but little Wind.
5. Warm & Cloudy--with appearances of Rain. Wind Southwardly. The Afternoon, & Evening Cool.
6. Drizling in the Morning, & very cloudy, all day--with the Wind Southwardly.
7. Cool & clear--with the Wind at No. West & westwardly.
8. Clear & tolerably cool. Wind at So. West.
9. Clear, warm, & still abt. Noon. Afterwards cooler Wind being risen from the Southward.
10. Very Sultry and hot--although the Wind blew fresh from So. & So. West. Clear.
11. Wind Southwardly--Warm--& showery abt. 2 Oclock.
12. Very warm and Sultry with appearances of Rain--but none fell. Wind Southwardly.
13. Warm and but little Wind--& that Southwardly.
14. Clear & Warm with a little Wind from the Southward.
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15. Cloudy Morning & drizling & rainy Afternoon--with wind westwardly. Note this Rain continued slow till some time in the Night and with but little Wind.
16. Clear & cool in the forenoon with thunder abt. 11 Oclock. Abt. 2 Oclock a black Cloud with Wind and Rain from the No. West & at 5 a Secd. Cloud from the same Quarter.
17. Wind Westwardly and little of it. Day moderate.
18. Warm & but little Wind. Some appearance of Rain--but none fell.
19. Clear and very warm with a small breeze from the Southward.
20. Very warm with but little Wind and that Southwardly. Clear.
21. Clear & Exceeding hot till abt. 10 Oclock--then a little cooler by the Wind Rising from the Southward.
Note--last Night & the Night before makes but the 4 or 5th. warm Night we have had this year.
22d. Clear & very warm--with the Wind Southwardly. Last Night warm.
23. Clear & very warm, with but little Wind & that variable. Hot Night again.
24. Very warm notwithstanding the Wind blew high from the So. W.
In the Afternoon some Rain & Wind here but a good deal towards Alexa.
25. Cool & showery in places. Very cool in the Eveng. Wind at No. West.
26. Wind at No. West & cool & clear.
27. Wind Westwardly, clear, & somethg. warmer.
28. Clear & something warmer still. Wind Southerly.
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29. But little wind & that Southwardly. Very warm.
30. Very little Wind but very hot with appearances of Rain tho none fell.
31. Very warm, with Rain flying abt. but none fell with us. Wind fresh from the southward in the Afternoon.
Observations
July 2d. Finishd going over my Corn ground in the Neck--both with the Plows & Hoes.
4. Began to cut my Wheat at the Mill--but upon examination, finding it too green desisted.
Note, upon looking into my Wheat the Rust was observd to be more or less in it all--but, except some at Doeg Run it was thought no great damage woud follow as the Wheat was rather too forward.
5. Jonathan Farmer coming down last Night, & examining my Wheat to day was of opinion that some of Muddy hole field was fit, at least might be cut with safety. Accordingly began it with himself 3 other White Men & 4 Negroe Cradlers letting the grain lye upon the stubble abt. 2 days to dry.
The three white cradlers were Eliab Roberts, Abner Roberts, and Andrew Jones. The text clearly reads Jonathan "Farmer," but GW meant to write Jonathan Palmer, who was hired as head harvester for 10s. per day (LEDGER A, 274, 277).
8. Began to cut the Wheat at the Mill in the field round the Overseers House which was cut, & abt. 4 Acres in the other this day by 10 and sometimes 11 Cradlers which were all that worked amounting in the whole to abt. 40 Acres.
9. Six and sometimes 7 Cradlers, cut the remainder of the field (abt. 28 Acres) on this side to day.
The Wheat at Muddy hole, was (that is all that was cut down) got into Shocks by 11 Oclock to day--and abt. ¾ of the field round the Overseers House at the Mill.
Pulld the Flax at Muddy hole.
On this day GW paid off Abner Roberts and Andrew Jones, giving them a total of £3 1s. 6d. for their work (LEDGER A, 274).
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11 & 12th. Pulld the Flax at home.
Got in the most of the Mill Wheat but was prevented finishing by Rain.
Three white Men (Cradlers) cut down abt. 10 or 12 Acres of Muddy hole Wheat.
Hands Went to Muddy hole & finishd Harvesting the Wheat there--that is cutting & securing it in shocks.
The three white cradlers were Jonathan Palmer, Eliab Roberts, and Robert Langley.
13. Some hands went & got the residue of the Mill Wheat into the House & all the Rest with the Cradlers went into the Neck & cut down & securd little more than 20 Acres of Wheat.
14. The hands from the Mill joind the others, & altogether finishd the Cut of Wheat (containing 50 Acres) at the Orchard point great part of which was very thick, Rank, & heavy Cuttg.
15. Began cuttg. the Wheat next to it on the Riverside. Abt. One Oclock was stopd by Rain which continued the whole afternoon.
16. Finishd this cut, & began the one next to the House. This day it also Raind & stopd the Harvest abt. an hour or two.
17. Dischargd three Cradlers keepg. only Jonathan Palmer & Eliab Roberts.
The three discharged cradlers, each of whom was paid 5s. per day, were David Kinsey, paid for 2 days of work; William Black, for 1¾ days; and Robert Langley, for 6 days (LEDGER A, 274).
18. Nine Cradlers at work including the two white men.
20th. About 11 Oclock finished Harvesting the Wheat in the Neck; that is cutting it down, & securing it shocks. In the whole, allowing for the time lost by Rain we were six days doing it.
About 2 Oclock in the Afternoon began to cut the Field at Doeg Run containing 150 Acres with 10 Cradlers--3 of them sorry hands.
21. Finishd one quarter of the above field abt. 2 Oclock.
Note this cut was, in places, greatly injured by the Rust.
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22. About 2 Oclock finishd another Cut in this field being of the same Size of the last. This was also injured by Rust--as well as by the frosts.
23. At 12 Oclock finishd the third cut of 37½ Acres at Doeg Run & clapd into the last one.
25. Finishd the last cut abt. One Oclock this day (Monday) part of wch. was much hurt by the Rust--& cut down the small piece at home & securd it.
Note--from the most accurate experiments I coud make this year, upon Wheat siezd with the Rust before it is fully formd & beginning to Harden, it appears to be a matter of very little consequence whether it is cut down so soon as it is siezd with this distemper (I mean the parts of the field that are so)--or suffered to Stand--for in either case the grain perishes & has little or no flower in it. That indeed wch. is sufferd to stand may gain a little, & but a little in respect to the grain & the other in respect to the straw so that I think it is nearly equal wch. of the two methods is followed.
Note also--from this year's experiments, it appears certain that Wheat may be cut down (suffering it to take a day or two's Sun) much Sooner than it generally is. I took Wheat of three differt. degrees of Ripeness i.e., some whose Straw and head was green (but the grain of full size and Milky) --some whose Straw from the upper joint was colouring--and some that the Straw from the said joint was col[ore]d but the Knots (at the Joints) Green, & observd after they had lain 2 or 3 days in the sun that the grain of the first was but little shrunk--the 2d. scarce perceptable--& the last plump & full by wch. it evidently appear's that to cut Wheat Knot green is not only safe but the most desirable state it can be cut in--& that where there is a large qty. the question is, whether it may not be better to begin while the wheat is colouring from the upper joint as the grain will loose but little (if any) than to cut it in an overripe state when it may loose a good deal more by shattering. For my part I am clear it is better to cut it green & shall have no reluctance to practice where the whole cannot be cut at the exact period one woud choose it.
26. Began to cut my Timothy Meadow.
GW discharged Eliab Roberts today, paying him £5 13s. (LEDGER A, 277).
30. Finished Do. & got into Stacks without damage.
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About the 27 and 28 Sowed some Turnep Seed in Corn Ground at Morris's--that is at Doeg Run Plann.
Memm. On the 30th. of this Month I agreed with Jonathan Palmer to come and Work with my Carpenters; either at their Trade--Cowpering--or, in short at any thing that he may be set about--In consideration of which, I am to pay him £40 pr. Ann. allow him 400 lbs. of Meat & 20 Bushels of Indian Corn. I am also to allow him to keep two Milch Cows (one half of whose Increase I am to have) and to have Wheat for which he is to pay. He is to be allowed a Garden & I am to get the old dwelling House at Muddy hole repaird for him. I am also to take his Waggon at £17, if he brings it free from damage and it is no older than he says--that is about a 12 Month. Note he is to be here as early as possible in April--if not in March.
On this day GW paid Edmund Palmer 17s. for 1 day of cradling and 4 days of mowing. He also settled accounts with his head harvester, Jonathan Palmer, who was paid £6 for 18 days of cradling and 4 days of mowing, plus a bonus of £1 4s. "in considn. of his g[oo]d, behaviour" (LEDGER A, 277). The contract with Palmer is typical of the time: while the form is standard, the content, being the product of bargaining by both sides, reflects the particular strengths and needs of each party. Such contracts were usually annual, and their renegotiation tended to reflect the changed circumstances of one or both parties.
COWPERING: an older spelling of coopering.
Where and how my time is Spent.
Aug. 1st. Went to Belvoir & dined. Returnd in the Afternoon.
2. Rid to the Mill, Doeg Run, and Muddy hole. Miss Manly dind here & Mr. Alexr. came in the Evening.
MISS MANLY: probably Mary (Molly) Manley, eldest daughter of Harrison and Margaret Manley.
3. Mr. Alexander & Miss Manly went away. Rid to the Mill & Muddy hole.
4. Went a fox hunting in the Neck with Lund Washington & Mr. Thos. Triplet. Started nothing.
5. Went by Muddy hole--the Mill--& Doeg Run Plantations to a Race at Cameron. Returnd in the Evening.
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Cameron was the name of the neighborhood which began at the junction of several major roads leading into Alexandria, between one and two miles west of town, and thence extending several miles west along Cameron Run, the stream which fed into Hunting Creek. In GW's lifetime Cameron lent its name to a proposed town, several family homes, a mill, and an ordinary. In the sense that GW uses the name here, Cameron was probably the junction point itself, a convenient location for horse-racing fans who lived in Alexandria or in the surrounding countryside (see HARRISON [1], 414--15; RICE, 2:89).
6. At home all day.
7. Ditto--Ditto.
8. Went a fox hunting but Started nothing. Visited Plantation's in the Neck & Mill.
9. At home all day.
10. Rid to the Mill Doeg Run and Muddy hole and returnd to Dinner.
11. Rid to the same places as yesterday & returnd to Dinner.
12. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run & Mill & returnd when I found Doctr. Rumney.
13. The hounds havg. started a Fox in self huntg. we followd & run it after sevl. hours chase into a hold when digging it out it escapd. The Doctr. went home.
14. At home. Mrs. Fairfax & Miss Nicholas came in the Afternoon.
15. Went to Court. Mr. Igns. Digges Mr. Lee and Mr. Hill came here.
Ignatius Digges (1707--1785) of Melwood, Prince George's County, Md., was the grandson of William Digges (d. 1698), who moved from Virginia to Maryland in the late seventeenth century. Ignatius, a first cousin to William Digges of Warburton, married Elizabeth Parnham, and after her death Mary Carroll, daughter of Daniel Carroll of Duddington (1707--1734). His only child, a daughter Mary Digges (1745--1805) by his first wife, married Thomas Sim Lee (1745--1819), of Prince George's County, Md., who is probably the Mr. Lee mentioned here. Lee was a grandson of Philip Lee (1678--1718), who moved from Virginia to Maryland in 1700.
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Washington owned many hunting prints such as this one, evidence of his deep interest in fox hunting. (Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union)
In the mid-seventeenth century Clement Hill settled in Maryland, where he sat on the council. Since Hill had no issue, his nephew, also named Clement Hill (1670--1743), inherited his uncle's lands in Maryland, migrated from England to Maryland in 1696, and eventually settled at the Woodyard, Prince George's County. This Clement had three sons, John (d. 1800), Clement (1707--1782), and Henry (d. 1796), and two grandsons, Clement Jr. (1743--1807) and Henry Jr., all of whom were alive in 1768 (MACKENZIE [1], 2:310--17).
16. At home with the above Gentlemen. Mrs. Fairfax & Miss Nicholas went home after Dinner.
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Ignatius Digges of Melwood in Prince George's County, Md. (Mr. Outerbridge Horsey)
Mary Carroll Digges, second wife of Ignatius Digges. (Peter H. Davidson & Co., Inc.)
17. Dined at Belvoir with the above Gentlemen & returnd in the afternoon.
18. Rid around all my Plantations after the above gentlemen went away.
19. At home--settled & paid the Sheriff.
Once a year the justices of each county would submit the names of three of their number to the governor and council, who would choose one of the three to be sheriff for the ensuing year. The Virginia county sheriff was more an administrator than a law officer, having the major responsibility for running elections, serving summonses, and collecting the annual levies in his county, which included those laid by the county and the parishes within the county as well as public levies set for the entire colony by the General Assembly. Much of this collecting was done by sub-sheriffs; in 1768 Sampson Darrell was sheriff of Fairfax County and Pierce Baily was the sub-sheriff who appears here to collect the balance owed by GW for this year, £1 15s. 3d. (LEDGER A, 277).
For the Fairfax County levy this year GW paid for 85 tithables at 14 pounds of tobacco each. Sixty-seven of these tithables lived in Truro Parish and thus came under that parish's levy of 41 pounds of tobacco per tithable. GW also paid the public tax of £1 10s. on his chariot and his chair as well as some minor fees he owed for government services. The total of the levies paid by GW in 1768 was 3.937 pounds of tobacco and £3 14s. 4d. cash. Because GW no longer grew tobacco at Mount Vernon, he paid his tobacco levies in local tobacco warehouse, or transfer, notes, mostly on tobacco paid
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him by his local Mount Vernon renters. With tobacco worth 2d. a pound, these notes were equivalent to £32 16s. 2d. in currency (LEDGER A, 236; Truro Vestry Book, 128, 130, DLC. See also FLIPPIN, 312--17; SYDNOR, 68--70, 78; HENING, 7:643--44).
20. Set of for my Brother Sam's & Nomomy. Crossd at the Mouth of Nangamy & went to my Brothers.
Mrs. Washington and Patsy Custis accompanied GW on this trip, and Jacky Custis, taking a vacation from his studies, met them today at Samuel Washington's house (GW to Jonathan Boucher, 19 Aug. 1768, owned by Mr. Sol Feinstone, Washington Crossing, Pa.). During the family's stay in the Chotank area, GW loaned Samuel £1 and apparently played cards twice, losing £1 on one occasion and winning 3s. 9d. on the other (LEDGER A, 277).
21. At my Brothers. Colo. Lewis & my Brothr. Charles came there.
22. Still at my Brothers with other Company--his Child being Christned.
This child was one of several that did not live to maturity (DIARIES, 1:285n).
23. Hauling the Sein under Mr. Lawrence Washington's shore.
24. Imbarkd on board my Schooner for Nomomy. Lay of Captn. Laidler's.
John Laidler (d. 1773), of Laidler's ferry, just above Lower Cedar Point in Charles County, Md. Laidler's was the major ferry crossing to the Virginia shore on that part of the Potomac River.
25. Hauling the Sein upon the Bar of Cedar point for Sheeps heads but catchd none. Run down below the Mouth of Machodack & came to.
Upper Machodoc Creek, in Stafford (now in King George) County, flows into the Potomac about 14 miles above GW's birthplace at Pope's Greek, Westmoreland County.
26. Reachd my Brother John's at Night.
While the Washingtons were in Westmoreland County, Jacky Custis became "much disorder'd by an intermitting fever, attended with billeous vomittings," and Dr. Charles Mortimer of Fredericksburg was called to treat him. Jacky was soon better, but he remained so "very weak & low," that "his Mamma" insisted on taking him to Mount Vernon until he was fully recovered (GW to Jonathan Boucher, 4 Sept. 1768, PU; BLANTON, 358--59).
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27. Hauling the Sein upon Hollis's Marsh Bar & elsewhere for Sheeps heads but catchd none.
Hollis Marsh was at the upper cape of Nomini Bay.
28. Went to Nomony Church & returnd to my Brother's to Dinner.
29. Went into Machodack Ck. fishing and dind with the Revd. Mr. Smith.
Lower Machodoc Creek empties into the Potomac River about two miles below Nomini Bay in Westmoreland County, forming a bay about one mile wide at its mouth. This creek is not to be confused with Jackson's Creek, also in Westmoreland County, which empties into the Potomac six miles below Lower Machodoc Creek and was sometimes called "Lower Machodoc" (EATON, 71).
The Cople Parish glebe, where Thomas Smith lived, was near the mouth of the Lower Machodoc Creek about three miles east of Bushfield (FITHIAN, 190).
30. Hauling the Sein on the Bars near Hollis's Marsh & other places.
31. Dined with Mr. Jno. Smith who was marryed yesterday to the widow Lee.
John Smith (1715--1771) of Fleets Bay plantation on Indian Creek, Northumberland County, was a second cousin to GW. He had previously been married to Mary Jaquelin (1714--1764) of Jamestown and had lived for many years at Shooter's Hill plantation, Middlesex County. In 1767 he established a smallpox inoculation hospital at Fleets Bay, despite the fear of some Virginians that he was opening "a second Pandora's Box," spreading the disease instead of preventing it. In Feb. 1768 he was accused of causing two or three outbreaks of smallpox in the colony, including one in Williamsburg, by failing to quarantine his patients long enough after inoculation (William Nelson to John Norton, 14 Aug. 1767 and 27 Feb. 1768; MASON [1], 31--33, 38--40). But he persisted in offering his services as an inoculator until his death ( Va. Gaz., R, 9 June 1768 and 20 April 1769).
THE WIDOW LEE: Mary, daughter of J. Philip Smith and widow of both Jesse Ball (1716--1747) of Lancaster County and Col. John Lee (1724--1767) of Essex and Westmoreland counties. John Lee had left Mary the use, for her lifetime, of his land and slaves at Cabin Point in Westmoreland County, about 3 ½ miles east of Bushfield near the mouth of the Lower Machodoc Creek (indenture between John Smith and Mary Lee, 30 Aug. 1768, Westmoreland County Deeds and Wills, 1768--73, 13--15, Vi Microfilm). The newly married couple were now living at Cabin Point, and it was probably there that GW dined with Smith on this day.
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Remarks--of the--Weather
Augt. 1. But little Wind & yet not very warm.
2. Clear & warm. Wind Eastwardly.
3. Wind Eastwardly--with appearances of Rain but none fell.
4. But little Wind with great appearance of a settled Rain after noon tho not enough fell to make the House eves run.
5. Very warm with the wind Southwardly.
6. Exceeding hot--& still till the Evening, then a slight breeze from the Southward.
7. Very Warm, Wind Southwardly. Abt. 3 Oclock a slight Shower here & better at the Mill & Doeg Run--to the No. Wt. & Southward the appearance of a great deal of Rain.
8. Cloudy Morning, with Showers in difft. places but none here. Wind Southwardly.
9. Cloudy, with sometimes a mist till abt. One clock--after which two or three smart Showers for a few Minutes from the S.W.
10. A fine Settled Rain from the Northward for two or three hours in the Morning--with slight Showers afterwards.
11. Cool Wind being at No. West--with gt. appearances of Rain--but none fell.
12. Clear and tolerably warm. Wind Southwardly.
13. Warm with very little Wind. Clouds to the Westward--but no Rain here.
14. Wind abt. Southwest & tolerably fresh, otherwise Warm. Clouds to the Westward & thunder with a great deal of Rain upwards--but none here.
15. Great appearances of Rain but none fell with us. Warm.
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16. Clear and Warm with very little Wind.
17. Clear and warm in the first part of the day--with a fine Rain tho rather heavy abt. 5 Oclock lasting 2 hours first from the So. West--then from the North.
18. Clear and warm--also still.
19. Clear with the Wind fresh from the No. West--& cool.
20. Clear, & not warm--wind, what little there was, abt. So. West.
21. Clear & cool. Wind So. West.
22. Clear and Warm with very little Wind from the So. West. Abt. 11 Oclock at Night the Wind (witht. any Cloud or apparent cause) came out hard at No. West & blew so all Night.
23. The Wind fresh from the No. West all day and very cold.
24. Warmer, but still cool, with the Wind from the Eastward.
25. Warm with very little Wind and that Southwardly.
26. Exceeding Hot with very little or no Wind all day.
27. Very warm also with very little wind. Abt. 1 Oclock Thunder, but no rain. At Nomony.
28. Warm with but little wind and some Clouds, but no Rain.
29. Brisk Eastwardly Wind in the Morning. Calm midday, & Westwardly Wind in the Evening.
30. Very calm--& warm all day.
31. Clear with the Wind Westwardly & not warm.
Observations--in--August
Augt. 1st. Began to tread out Wheat at the Mill. Also began to draw it in, in the Neck.
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An ox cart of Washington's day. From Arthur Young, Annals of Agriculture, London, 1792. (Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union)
2. Began to draw it in (that is to carry it from the field on this side the Run over to the Barn) with only my Ox Cart at Doeg R.
5. Began to cut my Timothy Seed--there. Getting Wheat in at Muddy hole.
6. The Hound Bitch Lady brought four Puppys that is 3 dogs and a bitch distinguished by the following Names--viz. that with the most black Spots Vulcan--the other black spotted Dog Searcher--the Red spotted Dog Rover--and the red spotted bitch Sweetlips.
8. Sowed Turnep Seed at home--in the Neck and at Muddy hole Plann.
Began to Sow Wheat at the Mill & at Doeg Run.
10. Sowed Turneps at the Mill.
11. Began to beat Cyder at Doeg Run Muddy hole, & in the Neck.
15. Set in to Sowing Wheat at Muddy hole.
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26. Finishd drawing in & securing my Wheat in the Neck.
29. Began to Sow Wheat at Ditto.
Where & how my time is spent.
Septr. 1. Set out from Nomony in my return to Chotanck. Lodgd on board the Vessel between Swan Point & Cedr. P.
Here GW must mean Lower Cedar Point, in St. Mary's County, Md., only a few miles up the Potomac River from Swan Point and just across the river from the lower side of Chotank (now Mathias) Neck.
2. Came up as high as Hoes ferry & Walk to my Brother Sams.
3. Went to Mr. John Stiths & dined there. Returnd in the afternoon.
GW's host is probably John Stith (1724--1773), son of Drury and Elizabeth Buckner Stith; John married Elizabeth Wray (d. 1806) of Hampton and King George County.
4. Went to Church. Dined at Colo. Harrison & returnd to my Brs. in the afternoon.
Nathaniel Harrison (1703--1791), of Brandon, Prince George County, was the eldest son of Nathaniel Harrison (1677--1727) and Mary Cary Harrison of Wakefield, Surry County. After the death of his first wife, Mary Digges Harrison (1717--1743), he married Lucy Carter, daughter of Robert "King" Carter and widow of Henry Fitzhugh (d. 1742) of Eagle's Nest, where GW was visiting on this date.
5. Crossd over to the lower point of Nangemoy where I met my Chariot & returnd home.
6. Went in the Forenoon to the Mill-Doeg Run & Muddy hole. In the Afternoon paid a visit to Majr. Fairfax (Brother to Lord Fx.) at Belvoir.
Maj. Robert Fairfax (1707--1793), of Leeds Castle, Yorkshire, Eng., was the younger brother of Thomas Fairfax, sixth Baron Fairfax of Cameron. Robert had recently arrived from England to visit his relatives, dividing his time between Belvoir and Lord Fairfax's home, Greenway Court, in the Shenandoah Valley. Robert preferred Belvoir, finding that Valley living placed him "quite beyond the gentry . . . among the woods, with nothing but buckskins,
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Maj. Robert Fairfax, later seventh Baron Fairfax of Cameron, had just arrived in Virginia when he visited Mount Vernon in 1768. (Virginia Historical Society)
viz., back-woodsmen and brutes . . . it is almost past description" (quoted in BROWN, 160).
7. Dined at Belvoir with Mrs. W--n &ca.
8. Went to a Ball in Alexandria.
9. Proceeded to the Meeting of our Vestry at the New Church and lodgd at Captn. Edwd. Paynes.
The "New Church," built for the vestry by Edward Payne to serve the upper part of Truro Parish, was about 12 miles north-northwest of Colchester. Although the building was not quite finished at the time of this meeting, the vestrymen, "understanding that it is the general Desire of the People in this part of the Parish to have the Church received," voted four to three to open it for use, GW voting with the majority (Truro Vestry Book, 131, DLC).
10. Returnd home & dind at Belvoir with Lord Fairfax &ca.
11. At Home all day.
12. Lord Fairfax, & his Brother & Colo. Fairfax & Mr. B. Fairfax dind here. The latter stayd all Night.
13. Went a fox huntg. with Lord Fairfax Colo. Fairfax & B. Fairfax. Catchd nothg.
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14. Mr. B. Fairfax & myself went a huntg. Started a Fox & run it into a hole but did not catch it.
15. Dined at Belvoir with Colo. Robt. Burwell.
Robert Burwell (1720--1779), a planter from Isle of Wight County, was a member of the council 1764--76. Besides his home plantation in Isle of Wight, he owned land in Surry, Loudoun, Prince William, and Frederick counties (ISLE OF WIGHT, 311--13).
16. Went into the Neck. Returnd to dinner.
17. At home--Colo. Robt. Burwell, Mr. Grymes & Colo. Fairfax dind here. The latter went home in the Evening.
In GW's lifetime the Grymes family of most prominence in Virginia descended from John Grymes (1691--1748), grandson of Charles Grymes the immigrant. John, who was receiver general of Virginia, 1723--48, bought Brandon in Middlesex County, which became the Grymes family seat. At the time of this diary entry two of John's three sons were still living: Benjamin Grymes (1725--c.1776), of Smithfield, Spotsylvania County, which he represented in the House of Burgesses 1766--71; and Ludwell Grymes (b. 1733), of Gloucester County and by 1771 of Burlington, Orange County. John Grymes's eldest son, Philip, died in 1754; Philip's sons were Peyton, Benjamin, Charles, John (who was at Eton in 1760), and Philip Ludwell Grymes (1746--1805) of Brandon, a burgess for Middlesex County, 1769--70.
18. Colo. & Mrs. Fairfax dind & lodgd here.
19. Went to Court with Colo. Burwell &ca.
On this day the Fairfax County court formally received a new commission of the peace from the governor and the council. Dated 29 July 1768, it authorized 23 justices for the county, including all the current justices but one and adding three new members to the court: GW, Daniel French, and Edward Payne (VA. EXEC. JLS., 6:345). The total number of justices varied from time to time and from county to county. The law only required that a minimum of 8 justices be appointed for each county, and the number added above that limit depended primarily on the changing population and needs of the various counties (HENING, 5:489; SYDNOR, 79). In court today several of the old justices renewed their oaths of office according to law, but GW did not take his oaths until 21 Sept. (Fairfax County Order Book for 1768--70, 36--55, Vi Microfilm).
20. Colo. Burwell &ca. went away to Belvoir--& Mrs. Washington & the two Childn. went up to Alexandria to see the Inconstant, or way to Win him Acted.
The Inconstant, or The Way to Win Him, by the Irish playwright George Farquhar (1677--1707), was first produced in London in 1702. Although not
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one of Farquhar's better farces, it became highly popular later in the century, enjoying long runs at Covent Garden and Drury Lane (FARQUHAR, 1:213--78). GW, who accompanied his family to town today, paid £3 12s. 6d. for tickets to this play and the one seen on the following day, both of which were performed by David Verling's Virginia Company (LEDGER A, 277; RANKIN, 145--46).
21. Stayd in Town all day & saw the Tragedy of Douglas Playd.
Douglas, written by John Home (1722--1808), a Presbyterian clergyman of Edinburgh, was produced first in Edinburgh in Dec. 1756 and opened in London at Covent Garden the following year. The play was considered one of the finest British tragedies of the period and with its medieval Scottish setting, probably drew well in Alexandria, a town founded and still heavily populated by Scots (see TUNNEY).
22. Came home in the forenoon.
23. Went a fox hunting & catchd a Bitch Fox, after abt. 2 Hours Chase.
24. At Home all day. Colo. Henry Lee & Lady, & Miss Ballendine came to dinner & stayd all Night.
Col. Henry Lee (1729--1787) of Leesylvania, Prince William County, was a younger son of Henry Lee (1691--1747) of Lee Hall, Westmoreland County, and a cousin of William and Arthur Lee. His wife was Lucy Grymes Lee,
Col. Henry Lee of Leesylvania, from an unlocated miniature. (The Society of the Lees of Virginia)
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daughter of Charles Grymes of Moratico, Richmond County. Colonel Lee, like GW, was first elected to the House of Burgesses in 1758 and served until the Revolution.
Miss Ballendine is probably Frances Ballendine (d. 1793) of Dumfries, sister of John Ballendine.
25. At Home. The above Company went away after Breakfast.
26. Went Fox huntg. in the Neck. Started & run a Fox or Foxes 3 Hours & then lost.
27. Rid to Muddy hole, Doeg Run, & Mill.
28. Dined at Colo. Fairfax's and returnd in the Afternoon.
29. Went to a Purse Race at Accatinck & returnd with Messrs. Robt. and George Alexander.
GW spent 12s. 6d. at the race and also paid Robert Sanford 12s. "for Pacing my Horse" (LEDGER A, 277).
George Dent Alexander (d. 1780), of Fairfax County, was a younger brother of Robert Alexander.
30. At Home all day. After Dinner Mr. Geo. Alexander went away. The other (Robt.) stayd.
Remarks--of the--Weather
Septr. 1. Brisk Eastwardly Wind in the Morning. Northwardly afterwards & Cool.
2. Wind at No. West and very cool.
3. Cool wind, tho very little of it Eastwardly.
4. Warm. Wind rather Westwardly tho but little of it.
5. Tolerably pleast. Wind Eastwardly in the Morning & Evening but calm Midday.
6. Very little Wind and that Eastward and rather Cool.
7. Cloudy forenoon, with appearances of Rain; & Wind Southwardly.
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8. Heavy Cloud in the Night, with thunder & lightning, but not rain sufft. to lay dust.
9. Very cool & clear, with the Wind at No. West.
10. Cool & clear again, Wind Shifting to the Southward.
11. Great appearances of Rain in the Morning, with thunder & Lightning but no Rain fell.
12. Clear and Cool. Wind at No. West.
13. Clear but not so cold as yesterday Wind being Southwardly.
14. Wind Southwardly with a fog in the Morning & Clouds all day.
15. But little Wind yet cool with some appearances of Rain.
16. Wind Northwardly & cool--with great appearances of Rain--especially in the Afternoon.
17th. But little Wind & that Westwardly. Cool--with appearances of Rain.
18. Wind at No. West & very cool, with great appearances of Rain in the Forenoon, but clear afterwards.
19. A Severe frost, wch. killd much Tobo. &ca. abt. Ravensworth & higher up. Wind Shifting Southwardly became warmer.
20. Warm with the Wind at South.
21. Very warm. Wind still Southwardly with appearances of Rain in the Morning and Evening but none fell.
22. Thunder, with severe wind (from the Northwest) and some Rain in the Morning. In the afternn. & Night a gd. deal of Rain.
23. Cloudy, and sometime misty all day; in the afternoon a good deal of Rain. NB. These are the only Rains to lay the dust since the 17th. of August, now 36 days.
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24. Cloudy & Misty forenoon. Clear Afternoon with but little Wind & that variable.
25. Clear & pleasant with but little Wd.
26. Flying Clouds with but little Wind & that Southwardly.
27. Clear with the Wind Westwardly & sometimes blowing fresh.
28. Clear, calm, & Warm, the fore part of the day, with a little wind from So. in the Aftern.
29. Misty all day, with the Very little Wind from the Northward & warm.
30. Heavy Rain for several hours in the forenoon, after which it now & then Misted. But little Wind and that variable & Warm.
Observations--in--Septembr.
6. My Ox Cart finishd drawing in the Wheat at Doeg Run--but during this time it was employd in getting home the Cyder from all the Plantation's.
14. Finishd Sowing the Second cut of Wheat in the Neck which compleated the half of the Corn Ground there.
16. Anointed all my Hounds (as well old Dogs as Puppies) which appeard to have the Mange with Hogs Lard & Brimstone.
17. Got done Sowing Wheat at Doeg Run. Sowed 92½ Bushels.
The Hound Bitch Mopsey going proud, was lind by my Water dog Pilot before it was discoverd--after which she was shut up with a hound dog--Old Harry.
18. My Schooner Saild for Suffolk for a load of Shingles.
22. Spread my Flax for Rotting at the Home House.
23. Finishd Sowing the third Cut of Wheat in the Neck.
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27. Spread Flax for Rotting at Doeg Run.
Began to Cut Tops at Doeg Run.
28. Finishd Sowing Wheat at Muddy hole. The field took 106 Bushls. to Sow.
Where & how--my time is--Spent.
Octr. 1. Fox huntg. back of Mr. Barry's with Mr. Robt. Alexander Mr. Manley & Captn. Posey. Started & catchd a bitch Fox. Mr. Stedlar came here in the Afternoon.
2. At home. Mr. Alexander went away before breakfast. Mr. Stedlar remd. all day.
3. Clear & pleasant with very little Wind. Rid to Muddy hole & Doeg Run. Miss Sally Carlyle came here.
4. Went into the Neck--& up the Creek after Blew Wings.
5. Went to Alexandria, after an early dinner to see a Ship (the Jenny) Launched but was disappointed & came home.
6. Went up again. Saw the Ship Launchd. Stayd all night to a Ball, & set up all Night.
On this date GW lost 19s. at cards and paid 5s. for a play ticket for Jacky Custis (LEDGER A, 277).
7. Game home in the Morning & remaind. Mr. Townd. Dade (of Chotk.) came here.
Townsend Dade (d. 1781), originally of the Chotank area of Stafford County, had by his first wife, Elizabeth Alexander Dade, five children who lived to adulthood, including Elizabeth Dade (b. 1734), who in 1751 married GW's Chotank cousin Lawrence Washington (1728--c.1809). Dade next married Parthenia Alexander Massey, widow of Dade Massey, Jr. (died c.1734); she bore Dade at least three children, including a son named Townsend.
8. Went Fox huntg. (in the Neck) in the forenoon. Started but catchd nothing & in the Afternoon went up the Ck. after Blew Wings--killd 7 or 8.
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9. At Home all day. Mr. Dade went away.
10. Rid to Muddy hole, Doeg Run, & the Mill. Captn. McCabe dind here.
11. At home all day alone.
12. Rid to Muddy hole, Doeg Run, & Mill in the forenoon. In the Afternoon went into the Neck.
13. Went a fox hunting and catchd a Bitch Fox after two hours chase.
14. Went into the Neck in the forenoon.
15. Went a hunting with Captn. Posey & Ld. Washington. Catchd a Bitch Fox after a chace of 1 Hour and 10 Minutes.
16. Went to Pohick Church. Dind at Captn. McCartys & came home at Night. Doctr. Rumney who came here last Night went away this Morning & Mr. Ramsay & Mr. Adams came here at Night.
17. At Home all day. Ramsay & Adams went home this Evening.
18. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run, & the Mill.
19. Set of on my Journey to Williamsburg & reachd Colo. Henry Lees to Dinner.
GW is beginning a multipurpose trip. Although the Assembly was not scheduled to meet, the General Court had begun its 24-day fall session, which would draw most of the merchants and many lawyers and planters to Williamsburg for both their public and private affairs. Virginia was also expecting the arrival in Williamsburg of a new governor; Norborne Berkeley, baron de Botetourt (c. 1718--1770), was appointed 12 Aug. 1768 to be the royal governor of Virginia. Rather than sending a deputy to the colony, Botetourt chose to reside in Virginia and govern directly, thus becoming the first peer in 80 years to reside as governor in Virginia.
Jacky Custis accompanied GW on this trip as far as Boucher's school where he resumed his studies.
Col. Henry Lee's home, Leesylvania, was on the south side of Neabsco Creek near the Potomac River. Henry and his wife Lucy had eight children who lived to maturity, all of whom appear in the diaries.
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20. Detaind there all day by Rain.
GW today gave Jacky 11s. (LEDGER A, 281).
21. Reachd Fredericksburg, found Warner Washington &ca. there.
Warner Washington (1722--1790), of Gloucester County, was a son of John and Catherine Whiting Washington, and a first cousin to GW. Warner's first wife, Elizabeth Macon Washington (c.1729--1763), of New Kent County, bore him one child who lived to maturity, Warner Washington, Jr. (1751--1829). In May 1764 Warner married Hannah Fairfax (1742--1808), daughter of William Fairfax of Belvoir, and by this date they had two children, Mildred Washington (b. 1766) and Hannah Washington (17671828). Warner was now in the process of moving his family from Gloucester County to settle in the Shenandoah Valley.
While GW was in Fredericksburg, he paid 5s. to have his watch cleaned and 1s. 3d. for repair of his boots (LEDGER A, 281).
22. Dined at Parkers Ordy. & lodgd at Mr. Benjn. Hubbards--Colo. Lewis also.
In the 1760s William Parker, a planter and justice of the peace, operated an ordinary in his home in Caroline County (CAMPBELL [1], 347, 413).
23. Dined at the Causey & got to Colo. Bassetts.
Because the shores of the lower Pamunkey River were rather marshy, it was difficult to maintain convenient ferry landings. In 1749 Thomas Dansie, who had a wharf on the north, or King William, side of the Pamunkey, was authorized to build a "Causeway from the [south shore of the Pamunkey] River opposite to his said Wharf through the said Marsh to the High Land in the said County of New Kent" (WINFREE, 413). Five years later the General Assembly authorized Dansie to run a ferry between his wharf and the causeway landing at "the same rates as are by law now taken . . . at Claiborne's Ferry," and also directed New Kent County to build a road from the causeway to the main road leading to Claiborne's ferry landing (HENING, 6:427).
Dansie's ferry was not yet open in May 1755 when a northbound traveler recorded: "came to Claibornes about Twelve [o'clock]. Was an hour in passing here; by making a long slant up the River, upon the account of large marshes" (FISHER, 165). The two ferries were so close to one another that travelers did not always bother to differentiate one from the other. Thus, although GW here records his dining at the causeway, he noted in his ledger that his dinner expenses and ferriages today were at Claiborne's ( Va. Gaz., 24 July 1752; LEDGER A, 281).
24. Dined at Josh. Valentine's sent Chair's & Horses over James River & lodgd in Wmsburg. ourselves.
Lower down the James River the 50-gun ship of the line of the Royal Navy, H.M.S. Rippon, was dropping anchor. On board was Virginia's new governor,
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whose pedigree had been printed earlier that month for the elucidation of all interested Virginians: "NORBORNE BERKELEY, Lord Botetourt, Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of the county of Gloucester, Lord Lieutenant of the cities of Bristol and Gloucester, Constable of St. Briavel's castle, Colonel of the South battalion of the Gloucestershire militia, L.L.D. . . . His Lordship claiming the barony of Botetourt from the Lord Botetourt, High Admiral of England, and constable of St. Briavel's castle, in the time of Edward I, and III, after a solemn hearing of his claim in the House of Peers, had the title adjudged and confirmed to him in 1764, and accordingly took his seat in the House, next to Lord Dacre, being the 5th Baron of England. . . . His Majesty has since appointed him one of the Lords of the Bedchamber" ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 6 Oct. 1768).
25. Crossd James River & by Rain was forcd to lodge at one Captn. Stowe's.
GW crossed at Hog Island, about six miles south of Williamsburg (LEDGER A, 281). Captain Stowe may have been Joseph Stowe, a ship captain who sailed out of Virginia in the wine trade ( Va. Gaz., 24--31 Aug. 1739, and P&D, 29 Sept. 1768).
26. Breakfasted in Suffolk. Dined & lodgd in the Dismal Swamp at Jno. Washington's.
Suffolk, a small port town established on the east side of the Nansemond River in 1742, was the principal shipping outlet for products of the Dismal Swamp: rice, shingles, and naval stores. John Washington probably Lund Washington's brother John (1740--1777), who acted as manager of the Dismal Swamp Company before the Revolution ( Va. Mag., 26:419--20). On this trip GW opened an account with John Washington of Suffolk, buying 14,000 shingles, 4 pairs of shoes, and 2 barrels of crab-apple cider (LEDGER A, 281, 282).
For GW's interest in the Dismal Swamp, see the diary for 15 Oct. 1763.
27. Went up to our Plantation at Norfleet's in Carolina & returnd in the Aftern.
28. Went into the Pond with Colo. Lewis Majr. Riddick & Jno. Washington & at Night went to the Majrs.
THE POND: Lake Drummond.
29. Got to Smithfield in return to Wmsburg.
30. Set out early, breakfasted at Hog Island and dined in Wms.
GW returned to a capital in thrall over the presence of a peer of the realm: Lord Botetourt, who had arrived in the city four days before. Writing to Lord Hillsborough, Botetourt later described his reception: "Colonel Cary finding
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me eagerly bent upon being at Williamsburg that night, immediately order'd his Chariot and convey'd me within four miles of the City, where I was met by Mr. Secretary Nelson and his Brother; at the Capitol we found the Council and all the Gentlemen of Williamsburg assembled to receive us. I was immediately conducted to the Council Chamber; and after my Commissions were read took the oaths and swore in the Council" (l Nov. 1768, P.R.O., C.O.5/1346, f. 103).
GW lodged at Mrs. Campbell's tavern.
31. Dined at the Mayor's. Ent[ertaine]d at the Govr. in Ditto.
Colonial Virginia had a number of towns, such as Alexandria, that had a board of trustees with very limited powers. Two colonial towns, however, were incorporated in the eighteenth century: the Borough of Norfolk (1736) and the City of Williamsburg (1722). Under such a charter, the city gained governmental powers comparable to those of a county court, including a city hustings court and the right to one representative in the House of Burgesses. The city government consisted of a board of 6 aldermen, a 12-member common council, a recorder, and a mayor, the last of whom was elected from among the aldermen on 30 Nov. of each year. James Cocke, a prominent merchant, was mayor for 1767--68, and 1772--73. Cocke's home was about a block west of the Governor's Palace (WALKER, 36, 49).
In a session held the previous spring, which GW had not attended, the Virginia House of Burgesses had unanimously resolved to endorse a Massachusetts protest of the Townshend Acts by which Parliament, beginning late in 1767, imposed duties on certain British exports to the colonies: tea, glass, lead, paints, and some types of paper. Denying Parliament's right to levy such duties without consent of the colonists, the burgesses had petitioned both houses of Parliament and the king for repeal of the acts and had hinted that there would be a boycott of British goods into Virginia if their request was denied. The new governor was especially instructed by the king in Council to "converse with, the members of our . . . council [in Virginia], separately and personally, as also with the principal persons of influence . . . and endeavor to lead them . . . to disclaim the erroneous and dangerous principles which they appear to have adopted." The ship Rippon was to remain to assist Botetourt, including the ferrying from Boston of British troops, in case Botetourt encountered any "sudden commotion of the populace" (LABAREE [1], 1:364-65; Lord Hillsborough to the Lords of Admiralty, 28 July 1768, P.R.O., C.O.5/1346, f. 75).
Remarks--on the--Weather
Octr. 1. Clear and pleasant. Still forenoon but brisk Southwestwardly Wind afterwds.
2. Clear, Warm, & Still in the forenoon, a small Southwardly breeze in the Afternoon.
3. Clear & pleasant, with but little Wind & that Southwardly,
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4. Brisk Southwestwardly Wind & warm with flying Clouds.
5. Rain in the Night--& in the Morning--clear abt. 8 Oclock with showers afterwards with the Wind westwardly & cool.
6. Clear & cool. Wind brisk from West.
7. Clear with but little Wind--& that Southwardly.
8. Clear with a fresh No. West breeze in the morning, but still afterwards.
9. Cloudy with appearances of much Rain--but none fell. Wind Southwardly in the Morng. & westwardly & cool afterwds.
10. Cool in the Morng. Moderate Afterwds. with little Wind.
11. A Frost this Morning to bite Fodder. Calm & warm forenoon. Brisk So. Westwardly wind & like for Rain in the Afternn.
12. Clear and cool morning. Wind fresh at No. West. Calm afternoon & warm.
13. Clear and cool. Wind still at No. West--in the Evening Eastwardly.
14. Calm and warm forenoon. Cloudy afternoon with appearances of Rain.
15. Foggy & Misty Morning. Warm, clear, & still afterwards.
16. Cloudy with the Wind Northwardly--then cold & Chilly-with appearances of Rain.
17. Cold Rain & disagreeable, with the Wind abt. No. East.
18. A severe frost this Morning--but Calm clear & warm day.
19. Calm, clear, & Warm forenoon, but lowering afternoon.
20. Moderate Rain till abt. 2 Oclock & Cloudy & misty afterwards. Wd. North.
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21. A good deal of Rain in the Night & more or less till 9 or 10 Oclock then clear with the Wind Westwardly.
22. Clear and pleasant with a small Southwardly breeze.
23. Ditto--Ditto--Ditto.
24. Clear with the Wind Southwardly & Warm.
25. Foggy Morng. & Clouds--with a good deal of Rain in the Afternoon & night from No. East.
26. Clear & cool Wind brisk from the Westward.
27. Cold & clear. Wind abt. No. West.
28. Less cold Wind being at So. West & clear.
29. Warmer still. Wind continuing Southwardly & the weather clear.
30. Clear and very cool morning. Wind Westwardly. Afternoon Mild.
31. Mild Wind Southwardly and Clear.
Observation's--in--October
Octr. 1st. The hound Bitch Tipsey, was lind by the little Spaniel dog Pompey before she was shut up in the House with old Harry.
4. Finishd Sowing Wheat at the Mill which field took 75 Bushels.
5. Finishd Sowing in the Neck. This field took 216 Bushels. Which makes the quantities sowed as follow--Viz.--
Began getting Fodder at the Mill.
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6. Began getting Ditto in the Neck.
11. Sowed Apple Pummice in the New Garden--from Crab Apples.
SOWED APPLE PUMMICE: The pomace, a residue from cider making, contained apple seeds that would produce seedlings to use in grafting.
15. Finishd pulling (but not securing) Fodder at Doeg Run Quarter.
Did the same also at Muddy hole.
Where & how--my time is--Spent
Novr. 1. In Williamsburg Dined at the Speakers--with many Gentlemen.
2. In Ditto. Dined at the Attorney Genls. with Lord Botetourt (the Govr.) & many other Gentlemen.
Botetourt described to Lord Hillsborough his dining out during his first week in Williamsburg: "I have been asked every day to dinner by the principal Gentlemen and am at present upon the very best terms with all. I like their stile exceedingly" (l Nov. 1768, P.R.O., C.O.5/1346, f. 104).
3. In Ditto. Dined at Mrs. Dawson's.
4. In Ditto. Dined with several Gentlemen at Ayscoughs. Colo. Byrds Lottery began drawing.
Christopher Ayscough and his wife Anne (both died c.1772) had recently opened a tavern on Francis Street about 100 yards south of the Capitol. Before Governor Fauquier died in March, Christopher had been a gardener at the palace, and Anne had cooked for the governor, performing her duties so well that she was rewarded with a bequest of £250 from Fauquier's estate. That sum was probably used to buy and stock the tavern, the chief attractions of which were Mrs. Ayscough's cooking skills and a supply of fine liquors ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 6 Oct. 1768; GIBBS, 147--48).
Col. William Byrd III, in a desperate attempt to pay his debts, was raffling off much of his property, including "the intire TOWNS of ROCKY RIDGE and SHOCKOE, lying at the Falls of James river," valued at over £50,000, at £5 per ticket ( Va. Gaz., R, 23 July 1767). Besides owing gambling losses, Byrd was the largest single debtor to the estate of the late Speaker-Treasurer John Robinson. Upon Robinson's death it was discovered that he had loaned out personally over £100,000 worth of retired notes which
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Ayscough's was a tavern frequented by Washington during his trips to Williamsburg. From Virginia Gazette, P&D, 6 Oct. 1768. (Colonial Williamsburg Photograph)
had been issued by the Virginia government to finance the French and Indian War. The paper notes were supposed to be destroyed as they were collected by the treasurer in payment of taxes and fees to the government, but Robinson privately had made loans to dozens of large and important but financially pressed planters, many of whom were burgesses or council members. To settle Robinson's estate and satisfy his creditors (mainly the government), his administrators had to force the sale of the land and slaves of a number of Robinson's debtors. Some debtors, like William Byrd, turned to lotteries. Besides causing financial confusion, the "Robinson affair" created an unsettling effect on the political life and social fabric of Virginia in the late years of the colonial period (see MAYS, 1:174--208).
GW, who, unlike Byrd, did not gamble for high stakes, lost £1 at cards today (LEDGER A, 281).
5. Dined at Mar. Campbells where I had spent all my Evenings, since I came to Town.
Today GW bought 100 forms for leasing land to tenants at John Dixon and Alexander Purdie's printing office on Duke of Gloucester Street. A few days earlier he had purchased 4 almanacs, probably at this same place (LEDGER A, 281).
6. Left Williamsburg--& Dine & at Colo. Bassetts.
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John Robinson, late Speaker of the House of Burgesses. (Colonial Williamsburg Photograph)
7. Set out for home with Betcey Dandridge. Dined at King Wm. Court Ho. & Lodgd at Mr. Wm. Ayletts.
BETCEY: Elizabeth Dandridge (b. 1749), the younger of Mrs. Washington's two sisters who reached adulthood. In 1773 she married William Aylett's brother John.
The "publick house" at King William Court House was described in 1777 as being "72 feet by 20 with a portico the whole length, there are 4 rooms below and 4 above, with 4 closets on a floor" ( Va. Gaz., D&H. 26 Dec. 1777). The tavern was leased to various innkeepers by its owners, the Quarles family of King William County.
William Aylett (1743-c.1781) of Fairfield, King William County, which county he represented as burgess 1772--75 and in all five of the Virginia Conventions 1774--76, was appointed in 1776 deputy commissary for the Continental Army, serving until his death.
8. Dined at Parkers and lodgd at Fredericksburg.
9. Reached home in about 7 Hours & an half. Found Doctr. Rum[ne]y & Miss Ram[sa]y here.
Patsy Custis probably had another attack of epilepsy about this date, because during Rumney's visit he bled her and gave her another "vial of Drops" and two more musk capsules (receipt from William Rumney, 18 Feb. 1769, ViHi: Custis Papers).
10. At Home all day. The Doctr. & Miss Ramsay went home.
11. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg run and the Mill. Mr. Magowan & Mr. Stedlar came to Dinner as Mr. R. Alexr. did in the Aftern.
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Walter Magowan was now the Rev. Mr. Magowan, having taken his Episcopal orders in England in the summer of 1768.
12. Went Fox huntg. in the Neck. Started & was run out of hearg. of the Dogs--owing to the Wind. Whether they catchd or not is not known.
13. Went to Pohick Church, & dined at Home with Mr. Ths. Triplet H. Manley & Mr. Peake.
14. Rid to Muddy hole & all my Plantns.
15. Went a Fox hunting in the Neck. Catchd a bitch fox--after an hour and 40 Minutes chace.
16. Went to Colo. Fairfax's & Dind with Mrs. Wn. & Miss Dandridge. Returnd in the Afr.
17. Went up to a Race by Mr. Beckwiths & lodgd at Mr. Edwd. Paynes.
Mr. Beckwith is possibly the Marmaduke Beckwith who appears on the tax lists of Fairfax County for 1782 and 1785 (HEADS OF FAMILIES, 18, 85).
18. Returnd home. Breakfasted at Captn. McCartys--& came by the Mill & Muddy Ho.
19. At home all day--alone.
20. At home all day alone.
21. Went up to Court and returnd in the Evening with my Brothr. John.
GW was attending the Fairfax County court as a justice for the first time since taking his oaths of office 21 Sept. The Fairfax court by law convened on the third Monday of every month except when there was no business to be considered, and it continued to meet, beginning daily about 9:00 A.M., until the docket for the month was finished, usually within six days (HENING, 5:489--91, 8:47). In November the court convened on this date and remained in session until 24 Nov., but GW was present only today (Fairfax County Order Book for 1768--70, 56--75, Vi Microfilm). Like most Virginia county justices of the time, GW attended court primarily at his convenience, coming when his affairs allowed or when a matter of special concern was to be heard. Irregular attendance, however, seldom caused any problems, because the law only required a quorum of 4 justices, a number that was relatively easy to obtain from the many available, especially in Fairfax County where
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several of the 23 justices lived in Alexandria near the courthouse (HENING, 5:489; SYDNOR, 79). County courts had powers and responsibilities in many areas as most criminal, civil, moral, administrative, and political matters in the counties came under their jurisdiction. They could try nearly all crimes committed by slaves and, for freemen, those crimes, such as minor theft and assault, that did not involve punishment by loss of life or limb. Civil cases heard by the monthly courts--usually suits for land, debts, or damages--had to be for at least 25s. or 200 pounds of tobacco. Suits of less value were decided out of court by individual justices. County courts also levied some taxes, registered most legal documents, judged cases of bastardy and public drunkenness, supervised the care of orphans by guardians or the parish vestry, issued ordinary licenses and set tavern prices, controlled the constructionof roads and public buildings, and either recommended or appointed most county officials, including militia officers below the rank of brigadier. Justices as individuals, besides handling minor civil cases, had other duties and powers, such as the right to order attachments of property for debt and the right to issue warrants and peace bonds (HENING, 5:491--92, 6:105--11; SYDNOR, 76--83; CHITWOOD, 80--87).
22. Went a fox huntg. with Lord Fairfax & Colo. Fairfax & my Br. catchd 2 Foxes.
23. Went a huntg. again with Lord Fairfax & his Brother, & Colo. Fairfax. Catchd nothing that we knew of. A fox was startd.
24. Mr. Robt. Alexander here. Went into the Neck.
25. Mr. Bryan Fairfax as also Messrs. Grayson & Phil. Alexander came here by Sunrise. Hunted & catchd a fox with them & My Lord his Br. & Colo. Fairfax all of whom with Mrs. Fx. & Mr. Watson of Engd. dind here.
Benjamin Grayson (d. 1757) immigrated to Virginia from Scotland and built Belle Air, two miles south of Occoquan Creek, Prince William County. He married twice-widowed Susannah Monroe (1695--1752). Of their four children this Mr. Grayson was probably William (c. 1736--1790), the third son, who, after graduating from the College of Philadelphia (now University of Pennsylvania) in 1760, returned to practice law in Dumfries, which became the Prince William County seat in 1762 (W.F.A. [1], 91).
Mr. Watson of England is possibly Josiah Watson, who settled in Alexandria as a merchant before the Revolution. In answer to a query from the Whitehaven tobacco partnership of Dixon & Littledale, Harry Piper of Alexandria wrote on 14 July 1775: "Mr. [Josiah] Watson has been here and Trading Now about two or three Years, and is generally esteemed by all his acquaintances" (Piper Letterbook, ViU).
26. Hunted again in the above Compa. but catchd nothing.
27. Went to Church.
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28. Went to the Vestry at Pohick Church.
After settling on the tithes for the year and disposing of minor business, the vestry discussed the proposed new Pohick Church. Agreement was reached that "notice be given in the Virginia and Maryland Gazettes of the building of the said Church, and that the undertakers may attend at the Vestry House at Pohick on the first friday in March next with Plans and Estimates" (Truro Vestry Book, 136, DLC; see also Va. Gaz., R, 2 Feb. 1769). No division among the vestrymen over this action was recorded.
29. Went a Huntg. with Lord Fairfax & catchd a Fox.
30. At home all day. Colo. Mason & Mr. Cockburne came in the Evening.
Martin Cockburn, son of Dr. Thomas Cockburn, of Jamaica, settled in Virginia after marrying Ann Bronaugh, daughter of Jeremiah Bronaugh, of Fairfax, and cousin of George Mason. His estate was Springfield near Colchester. Cockburn served on the Truro Parish vestry 1770--79.
Remarks--on the--Weather
Novr. 1. Clear, pleasant, & agreeable.
2. Rainy Morning. Wind eastwardly. But clear & pleast. Afternoon.
3. Clear & Pleasant. Wind Southwardly.
4. Do. Do. Do. Do.
5. Do. Do. Do. Do.
6. Do. Do. Do. Do.
7. Do. Do. Do. Do.
8. Cool, the Wind shifting Northwardly.
9. Very cool, & hard frosty Morng. In the Evening Rain (tho not much) & the Wind Eastwardly.
10. Very Cool. Wind at No. West & blowg. hard. With flying Clouds.
11. Moderate. Wind shifting Southwardly. The weather clear.
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12. High wind from the Southwest. And clear, till the Eveng. then Cloudy.
13. Hazy, but otherwise clear and Mild. Wind Southwardly.
14. Cloudy forenoon--but clear, & warm afterwards. Wind Southwardly.
15. Rainy forenoon--that is slow moderate rain--& Wind Southwardly--but clear, cool & windy afternoon from the Northwest.
16. Cold & Windy from the Northwest. Clear also.
17. Lowering Morning, but clear & pleasant afterwards. Wind Southwardly.
18. Clear Morning, but lowering Afternoon. Wind fresh from the Southwest and a good deal of Rain in the Night.
19. Raining more or less all the forenoon. Wind fresh from the No. West with Spits of Snow and some Rain in the Afternoon. Cold.
20. Very Cloudy with great appearances of Snow but none fell. Wind fresh from No. West & very cold.
21. Clear & cool. Wind at No. West--yet pleasant and agreeable--being clear.
22. Sometimes lowering but in genl. clear & pleast. with but little Wind.
23. Clear & pleasant--also Warm--there being no Wind.
24. Clear & pleasant, there being little or no Wind.
25. Warm and lowering with but little Wind. In the Evening Rain as there was in the Night.
26. Heavy & lowering day. Evening & Night Rain with some intermixture of Snow.
27. Wind at No. West & cold, with flying Clouds.
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28. Clear and cold Wind Northwardly till Night, then So. West. Hard frost.
29. Very hard frost, in the Morning but moderate & thawg. afterwd.
30. Pleast. forenoon with the Wind Southwardly but the Afternoon very cold & freezing.
Observations--in--November
Novr. Put up my Beeves & Weathers to Fatten--about the 25th.--of Octr.
Put up Hogs to fatten.
14. Began to gather Corn at Muddy hole in the Neck.
21. Measurd the Cut of Corn in the Neck adjoing. to the Gate, the contents of which was [ ].
Began to gather Corn at the Mill.
Where & how--my time is--Spent.
Decr. 1. Went to the Election of Burgesses for this County, & was there, with Colo. West chosen. Stayd all Night to a Ball wch. I had given.
The election, held at the county courthouse in Alexandria, had been called by the new governor, Lord Botetourt. White adult males who owned a minimal amount of real property were allowed to vote. This property restriction satisfied two convictions long held in English tradition: only a man who owned property would be free from being influenced at the polls by an employer or landlord, and those who held property held the interests of the society at heart. Free Negroes and mulattoes, whether they owned property or not, lost their franchise in Virginia in 1723 (HENING, 4:133). Although many women in colonial Virginia owned real property in their own right (Martha Custis, for instance, while she was a widow), their sex barred them from the polls.
In accordance with the English belief that secrecy bred corruption, all voting was done in public. The election proceedings were the responsibility of the county sheriff. As the clerks (one provided by each candidate) sat
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together at a table, each voter would step forward and announce his two choices, which were then marked down by the clerks on their respective poll sheets. As each vote was given and recorded, the candidate chosen would often thank the voter, and toward the end of a close election, when every vote would elicit a round of cheering, the crowd sometimes got rather unruly. During the voting in the 1755 Fairfax County burgess poll, GW got into a violent argument over the candidacy of his friend George William Fairfax (FREEMAN, 2:146).
In this election GW and Col. John West were standing for reelection. A third candidate was GW's neighbor and fox-hunting companion Capt. John Posey, who was trying for the second time to unseat West, possibly because West's nephew, John West, Jr., was pressing Posey over an inheritance left to Posey's wife by her first husband, George Harrison, who was John West, Jr.'s uncle. The final poll this day was: GW, 205; John West, 175; John Posey, 132. GW spent about £25 on his election, including cakes and drink (unspecified) and £1 each for his clerk, John Orr, and his "fidler [at] the ball" (FREEMAN, 2:146, 3:141, 209; Posey to GW, 25 May 1771, DLC:GW; LEDGER A, 281, 287; HENING, 4:476, 7:518). For detailed descriptions of elections in colonial Virginia, see SYDNOR.
2. Returnd home after dinner accompanied by Colo. Mason Mr. Cockburn & Messrs. Henderson Ross & Lawson.
Alexander Henderson (d. 1815) emigrated from Scotland in 1756 and settled as a merchant at Colchester. He was Fairfax County justice of the peace 1770-post 1785; Fairfax County representative in the House of Delegates 1781, 1783; Truro Parish vestryman 1765--85; and churchwarden 1769--70, 1779--80.
3. Went a fox huntg. in Company with Lord & Colo. Fairfax Captn. McCarty & Messrs. Henderson & Ross. Started nothg. My Br. came in the Afternoon.
4. At Home all day.
5. Fox hunting with Lord Fairfax & his Brothr. & Colo. Fairfax. Started a Fox & lost it. Dind at Belvoir & came in the Evg.
6. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run, & Mill.
7. At home all day--alone.
8. Fox huntg. with Lord Fairfax & Brothr. & Colo. Fairfax all of whom dind here. Started nothing.
9. Rid to Muddy hole, Doeg run, & the Mill.
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10. Went a fox hunting in the Neck & catchd a fox. Afterwards went to the Plantatin. there. Doctr. Rumney came to Dr. & Mr. Alexr. in the Eg.
11. They went away after breakfast--alone aftds.
12. Rid to the Mill Doeg run & Muddy hole. Miss Carlyle & Miss Dalton came here.
Elizabeth Dalton was the daughter of John Dalton of Alexandria.
13. Set of abt. 12 Oclock for Towlston to hunt with Mr. Bryan Fairfax. Got there in the Afternn.
14. Stayd there all day. In the Evg. went to see his new Mill.
15. Returnd home, by the way (that is near Muddy hole) started & catchd a Fox.
16. At home all day. Jacky Custis came home from Mr. Boucher's.
17. Rid out with my Gun but killd nothg. Mary Wilson came to live here as a Ho. keeper a[t] 15/. pr. Month.
Mrs. Mary Wilson was probably a widow. She left her position at Mount Vernon in June 1769 (LEDGER A, 288).
18. At home all day. Miss Sally Carlyle & Miss Betcy Dalton went away & Mr. Stedlar came.
19. Went up to Court & returnd at Night.
Although today was the third Monday in the month, the day on which the Fairfax County court normally began its monthly sessions, the court apparently did not meet today or any other day in December because of a lack of pressing business.
Snowing.
Today GW bought "Fish &ca. of the New Englandman," which apparently visited Mount Vernon several times (LEDGER A, 112, 286).
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23. Went a Pheasant Huntg. Carrd. hounds & they started & followd a Deer.
24. Rid to the Mill & Doeg run.
25. At home all day.
26. Ditto--Do.--L. W--n. set of for Staffd.
27. Ditto--Do.--except Shooting between breakfast & Dinner.
28. At home all day alone.
29. Went a fox hunting. Started one but did not catch it. In the Afternoon Messrs. Dalton, Piper & Riddell came here. Also Mr. Mag[owa]n.
Mr. Riddell is probably either John or Henry. John was a merchant in Dumfries. Henry, to whom GW later wrote concerning the seating of his western lands, was a merchant at Piscataway, Md., and the chief Maryland factor for Glassford & Co. of Glasgow, Scot. (GW to Henry Riddell, 22 Feb. 1774, DLC:GW; MACMASTER, 61:153 n. 32).
30. At home with them all day.
31. Went a hunting & catchd a bitch fox--the above Gentlemn. with me.
GW played cards on this date, losing an unspecified amount (LEDGER A, 286).
Remarks--on the--Weather
Decr. 1st. Ground exceedg. hard froze. Weathr. very cold--& Snowing at times. The Eveng. of this day was remarkably cold.
2. Weather clear & very cold. Wind at No. West. River half froze over.
3. Night exceeding hard--but this day somewhat more moderate Wind Southwardly.
4. Close Rain all day with the Wind chiefly at No. East--but afterwards shifting to No. West & clearing.
5. Clear & tolerably pleast. Wind abt. West. Ground hard froze.
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6. Hard frost--& cool Morning--but mild afternoon. Wind Southwardly.
7. Constant slow rain all day--with the Wind variable--but chiefly Eastwardly.
8. Clear, & tolerably pleasant, although the Wind was fresh from the No. West.
9. Very cloudy & like to rain but none fell.
10. Also Cloudy, with sometimes Sunshine & Warm--being still. No frost.
11. Again cloudy & like for rain but none fell. Wind shifting to the No. West but not cold. No frost.
12. Lowering Morning, but clear & calm Noon. No Wind nor frost.
13. Fine mild & warm forenoon, Wind Southwardly--but lowg. afternoon wind No. Et. & Cold.
14. Snowd the best part of last Night and till 2 Oclock this day.
15. Snowd again this Morng. & cold Wind Northwardly. Snow 8 or 10 Inches deep.
16. Clear & cool tho the Wind was Southwardly.
17. Wind Southwardly yet cold & raw with great appearances of Snow.
18. A Little rain fell in the Night & this day lowering. But mild & thawg. Wind So.
19. Clear & pleast. forenoon. Lowering Aftern. with a good deal of Snow in the Night.
20. Snowing best part of the day--abt. 6 or 8 Inches deep.
21. Snowing on and of all day. With but little Wind.
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22. Snowing fast the forepart of the day with the Wind at No. West. Snow very deep; I suppose 15 or 18 Inches generally.
23. Clear & cold. Wind at No. West & fresh. Towards Evening it shifted Southwardly.
24. More moderate. Wind Southwardly. Clear Morng. & Eveng.-- threatng. Noon.
25. Clear, with the Wind moderately from the No. West and not very cold.
26. Wind rather to the East of North and Cloudy, but not cold. Frost this Mg.
27. No frost. Foggy & misty all day and thawing fast.
28. Raining more or less all Night, Snow mostly gone--off the open ground entirely. Good deal of Rain this day also--no frt.
29. Cloudy--Misting--& sometimes rain with the wind southwardly. No frost.
30. Clear. Wind at No. West, & fresh in the Morning but incling. Southwardly in the afternoon. No frost.
31. No frost. Wind southwardly--& Cloudy--but no rain. Evening clear.
Observation's--in--Decr.
13th. Killd Hogs.
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Where & how--my time--is Spent
Jany. 1st. At home alone. Mr. Magowan returnd from Alexandria in the Evening.
2. Went to Colo. Fairfax's with the Family and stayd all Night.
3. Came home again. Colo. Carlyle & Mr. Ramsay returnd with us.
The visit may have been more than social. About three weeks later, on 29 Jan., GW wrote William Ramsay to say that it was "out of my power . . . to furnish you & Mr. Fairfax with the sum asked." Then shifting to a subject closer to his heart, GW continued: "Having once or twice of late heard you speak highly in praise of the [New] Jersey College as if you had a desire of sending your Son William there (who I am told is a youth fond of study & instruction, & disposed to a sedentary Studious Life; in following of which he may not only promote his own happiness, but the future welfare of others) I shou'd be glad, if you have no other objection to it than what may arise from the expence, if you wou'd send him there as soon as it is convenient & depend upon me for Twenty five pounds this [Virginia] Currency a year for his support so long as it may be necessary for the completion of his Education. . . . No other return is expected or wished for, for this offer, than that you will accept it with the same freedom & good will with which it is made, & that you may not even consider it in the light of an obligation, or mention it as such; for be assur'd that from me it never will be known" (DLC:GW).
4. Went a fox huntg. with the above Gentlemen, & were met by the two Colo. Fairfax's but found nothing. Messrs. C & R. went home.
5. Calm Morning with heavy Clouds & gr. appearance of Rain. Abt. 10 Oclock the Wind comg. to No. Wt. & blowg. fresh dispeld the Clouds toward the afternoon. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run and the Mill and in the Afternoon went into the Neck.
6. The two Colo. Fairfax's & Mrs. Fairfax & Dr. Rumney dind here & spent the Evening.
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THE TWO COLO. FAIRFAX'S: Robert and George William Fairfax.
Rumney brought two musk capsules for Patsy Custis on this visit (receipt from William Rumney, 18 Feb. 1769, ViHi: Custis Papers).
7. After Dinner the Compy. from Belvoir returnd home. Doctr. Rumney stayd.
8. At home all day with Doctr. Rumney.
9. At home all day. Opening the Avenue to the House--& for bringing the Road along.
10. Went a Fox huntg, with L[und] W[ashington]--Jackey Custis, & Mr. Manley. Found nothing.
11. Went a fox hunting in the Neck with Mr. Peake, but found nothing.
12. Went out in the Morng. with the Hounds in order to meet Colo. Fairfax but did not. In Hell hole started a fox and after an hours chase run him into a hole, & left him. In the afternoon went to Alexa. to the Monthly Ball.
13. Havg. lodgd at Captn. Daltons was confind there till the Afternoon by Rain & then came Ho[me].
John Dalton lived on the north side of Cameron Street between Water (now Lee) and Fairfax streets (MOORE [1], 71--72).
14. At home all day. And alone.
15. Ditto Do. Do.
16. Went a ducking in the forenoon--otherwise at home all day. In the Afternoon Mr. B. Fairfax came here.
During this month Bryan Fairfax bought a hunting horn from GW for 6s. and paid him 2s. 3d. lost at cards (LEDGER A, 287).
17. Fox huntg. in the Neck with Mr. Fairfax Triplet & Peake-started nothing.
18. Fox huntg. again in the above Compa. and Harn. Manley-started a Fox and lost it. The above dind here as Mr. Wagener also did.
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MR. WAGENER: Probably Peter Wagener (1742--1798), who was a member of the committee of associators of Fairfax County, served as county lieutenant of Fairfax during the Revolution, and married a daughter of Daniel McCarty. He is generally referred to in the diaries as "Mr. Wagener." His father, Peter Wagener (1717--1774), Occoquan Creek, came to America from England in 1738 and served as vestryman in Truro Parish 1771--74. GW usually calls him "Major Wagener" in the diaries.
19. Fox hunting in the same Company--fd. nothing. Mr. Fairfax & Mr. Wagr. dind here.
20. Fox huntg. again with Mr. Wagener Mr. Fairfax and Mr. Clarke. The two last dind here. Mr. Wagener went home.
MR. CLARKE: perhaps a member of the Clarke family of Salem, Mass., and Barbados, who were related by marriage to the Fairfaxes and the Washingtons.
21. Fox huntg. again upon long Branch with Mr. Fairfax Mr. Clarke Mr. Mac[ar]ty & Mr. Chichester. All went home from the field. Found Doctr. Rumney here.
LONG BRANCH: a tributary of Accotink Creek near Capt. McCarty's home, Mount Air.
22. Went to Pohick Church. Doctr. Rumney stayd all day & Night.
23. At home. Captn. McCarty & Wife, Mr. Chichesr. & his dind and stayd all Night.
24. At home. The above Company dind here & went home in the afternoon.
25. Hunting below Accatinck with Captn. McCarty Mr. Chichester & Mr. Wagener with their dogs. Found a fox & killd it in abt. an hour and 35 Minutes.
26. At home all day. Jacky Custis set of for School & Mr. Robt. Alexr. came here in the Aft.
27. At home again all day--Mr. Alexander Staying.
28. Went a Huntg. with Mr. Alexander. Traild a fox for two hours & then lost it. Mr. Alexander went home from the field.
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Dr. Hugh Mercer practiced medicine in Fredericksburg after serving in the French and Indian War. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift for Robert W. de Forest, 1906)
29. Ground froze. Wheater clear. Wind tolerable fresh at No. West but not very Cold. At home all day--alone.
30. At home all day, Mr. Campbell the Comptroller dind here & in the afternoon Doctr. Mercer came.
Hugh Mercer (c.1725--1777) was born in Aberdeenshire. Scot., and studied medicine at the University of Aberdeen from 1740 to 1744. In April 1746 Dr. Mercer server as a surgeon's mate with Prince Charles Stuart's forces at the bloody Battle of Culloden, where the prince's army was destroyed. Soon thereafter Mercer immigrated to America, settling on the Pennsylvania frontier. There he practiced medicine until the outbreak of the French and Indian War, when he joined the Pennsylvania forces as an officer. During this service he became acquainted with GW. After retiring from the military,
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he settled in Fredericksburg, where he opened an apothecary shop and practiced medicine. Dr. Mercer was not related to John Mercer of Marlborough.
31. Doctr. Rumney dind and lodgd here and in the afternoon Mr. Addisons and Mr. Baynes Sons came and lodgd here.
Rumney and Mercer apparently consulted with one another today about Patsy Custis's case and decided on a new way of treating her epilepsy, because four days later Rumney recorded giving her mercurial pills, purging pills, and ingredients for a decoction (receipt from William Rumney, 18 Feb. 1769, ViHi: Custis Papers). Unfortunately, those medicines, like the others tried previously, would give Patsy no relief from her fits.
The youngest son of Thomas Addison (1679--1727) of Oxon Hill, Md., was Rev. Henry Addison (1717--1789), rector of St. John's Parish, Prince George's County, Md., from 1742 to 1775. At this time Addison, a friend of Jonathan Boucher, had placed his two sons in Boucher's school in Caroline County, Va.; the Addison boys appearing here are probably those sons. Col. John Baynes (born c. 1726), a local Maryland merchant with Whitehaven connections who worked out of his store at Piscataway, Prince George's County, Md., had at least one son, Joseph Noble Baynes, who was about 18 years old in 1769 and, like the Addison boys, was probably a schoolmate of John Parke Custis (BOUCHER [1], 51; MACMASTER, 61:151, 309 n. 107, 317 n.140).
An Acct. of the--Weather in Jan.
Jany. 1st. Ground but little froze, & soon thawed, day clear & pleasant--Wind Southwardly.
2. Perfectly calm, clear, and warm--the Morning was a little frosty--but gd. soon thawd.
3. A large white frost--the gd. a little froze, but soon thawd. Morng. calm g: clear--afternoon lowering, & Wind Southwardly.
4. Lowering Morning without frost, but clear afternoon. Wind Southwardly.
5. Calm Morning with heavy Clouds & gt. appearances of Rain. Abt. 10 Oclock the wind comg. out fresh from the No. Wt. the Clouds were dispeld & the afternoon clear & cool.
6. Ground hard froze--but soon thawd the Morning being clear & moderate--the Wind Still--afternoon a little Muddy.
7. Wind at Southwest & moderate. Raing. slowly most part of the day.
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8. Rainy morning with little or no Wind. Abt. 10 Oclock the wind came out at No. Wt. but neither blew hard nor cold. In the Eveng. it cl[eared].
9. Hard frost. Clear & cold wind comg. keen from the No. Wt. More moderate towards the Afternoon with less Wind--but gd. not much thawed.
10. White Frost & Ground hard froze. A little thawd in the Afternoon. Cloudy & Still all day. In the Eveng. Wind at No. Et.
11. Rain from about 9 Oclock in the Morng. with very little Wind.
12. Clear & Calm morning but lowering Afternoon.
13. Raining all the forenoon, & till three Oclock in the Afternoon with very little Intermisn. Much rain fell in this time.
14. Cloudy & sometimes misty with little or no Wind as there was not yesterday.
15. Cloudy, & sometimes dropping--quite Calm and Warm.
16. Very cloudy and little Wind--sometimes droppg, of Rain & sometimes snow.
17. Clear. Wind high from the No. West & cool. Towards the afternoon wind lowered.
18. Ground froze. Wind fresh from the So. West & clear till the Afternoon then Muddy.
19. Clear--the Ground froze--and Wind at No. West but not hard. Afternoon hazy.
20. Clear and but little Wind--that variable. Ground froze.
21. Very little or no Wind. Clear and very Warm. A large white frost but the ground very little froze.
22. Clear, still & warm in the Morning. Wind brisk from the So. West in the Afternoon & in the Night very hard with a little Rain.
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23. Ground very slightly froze. Wind came out at No. Wt. this morning, & blew very hard, Day clear.
24. Ground very hard froze. Day clear and very cold. Wind still at No. West but not so hard as yesterday.
25. Forenoon cloudy & cold--afternoon clear & more moderate. Wind variable but chiefly Easterwardly. Grd. hard froze.
26. Cloudy Morning. Wind Northwardly and Cold--with a mixture of hail & rain in the Afternoon. Ground hard froze.
27. Raining moderately all day with little Wind & that chiefly Southwardly and warm.
28. Clear & cool forenoon. Wind at No. West. Cloudy & threatning afternoon.
29. Ground froze. Weathr. clear. Wind tolerable brisk at No. West--but not very cold.
30. Clear and pleasant Wind Southwardly. Ground hard froze.
31. Clear forenoon and ground froze; afternoon lowering & Raw wind Southwardly.
Remarks & Observations--in Jan.
Jany. 4. Finishd measuring Corn in the Neck--total quantity 694 Barrels. About this time Muddy hole People began clearing Ground.
5. Began clearing Ground in the Neck. Mill People getting Rails to fence Corn field by Mr. Manleys.
9. Began to open the Avenue in front of the House in order to bring the Road along it.
10. Finishd gathering Corn at Doeg run Quarter. 242 Barrels.
A Very spewing frost among Wheat particularly in the little field at Doeg run. Note the consequence of this.
SPEWING FROST: Farmers now refer to this process, which lifts and injures the roots of plants, as "heaving."
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16. Began to open my New Road that is to cut the Bank down this side Hell hole.
18. Another Spewing frost.
22. The hound bitch Musick got out of her confinemt, & was lind by Pilot.
26. She was lined by Mr. Fairfax's Hound Rockwood.
27. The black hound bitch Countess was lined by the above Dog Rockwd.
28. Countess was again lind by Rockwood.
This day recd. 505 Bushels of Oats from the Eastn. Shore for 500 that was put on board.
The freight of the oats was £6 5s. (LEDGER A, 287).
Where & how--my time is--Spent
Feby. 1st. Doctrs. Mercer & Rumney went away as did Mr. Addison's sons &ca. I dind at Belvoir & returnd in the Evening.
Before Mercer left, GW paid him £6 for seeing Patsy (LEDGER A, 287).
2. Rid to Muddy hole, Doeg Run, and the Mill.
3. Went a Gunning up the Creek--killd 7 Ducks. In the Afternoon Colo. F. Lewis & son Fieldg. & Mr. Rozer came here.
Fielding Lewis, Jr. (1751--1803), was the eldest son of GW's sister Betty and Col. Fielding Lewis. About 1769 Fielding Jr. married Ann (Nancy) Alexander, daughter of Mary Dent and Gerard Alexander of Alexandria, and settled in Fairfax County (SORLEY, 142).
MR. ROZER: probably Henry Rozer (Rozier) of Prince George's County, Md.
4. Mr. Rozer went away after breakfast, the others stayd. At home all day.
GW today recorded losing 19s. at cards (LEDGER A, 287).
5. At home all day with Colo. Lewis &ca.
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Col. and Mrs. Fielding Lewis--she was Washington's sister, Betty--lived in Fredericksburg. (Kenmore Association, Inc.)
6. At home all day with &ca.
7. At home as above.
8. Colo. Lewis and son set of to go home but being stopd at Colchester by Ice returnd in the afternoon. I rid as far as the Mill with them.
9. Went a Ducking with Colo. Lewis. His son & Betcy Dandridge went to the Monthly Ball at Alexandria.
10. Went a shooting again. In the Afternoon fieldg. Lewis returnd from Ball.
11. Ducking till Dinner. Mr. Piper dind here. Betsy Dandridge came home in the Evening.
12. Mr. Piper went away after Breakfast. At home all day with Colo. Lewis & Son.
13. Colo. Lewis & Son set of for home. Rid into the Neck and to Muddy hole & Doeg Run.
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14. Went a fox hunting--but started nothing. The two Colo. Fairfax's dind here.
15. Rid to the Mill Doeg run, & Muddy hole.
16. At home all day, Joshua Evans who came here last Night put an Iron Ring upon Patcy (for Fits) and went away after Breakfast.
Joshua Evans is probably the blacksmith of that name who was living in Loudoun County at this time and died there in 1773 (Loudoun County Wills, Book B, 71--79, Vi Microfilm). According to an English folk tradition dating from the fourteenth century, certain rings called cramp rings could relieve or cure epileptic convulsions when worn on a finger. These rings varied in design and composition, depending on a particular blessing, inscription, or material for their supposed efficacy (JONES [2], 154--55, 162--65, 522--26). GW today paid Evans £1 10s. for his service (LEDGER A, 287).
17. Rid out with my hounds. Started a fox and lost it, after an hours chase. Doctr. Rumney came in the Afternoon.
18. Went a hunting with Doctr. Rumney. Started a fox or rather 2 or 3 & catchd none. Dogs mostly got after Deer & never joind.
On this date GW paid Rumney for his medicines and visits during the past 12 months: £4 18s. on his own account and £19 6s. 6d. for Patsy Custis (LEDGER A, 287).
19. Went to Pohick Church & returnd to Dinner.
20. Went up to Alexandria to Court. Returnd home in the Evening.
While GW was in town, he apparently visited Dr. Rumney, who today supplied more ingredients for decoctions and another box of pills for Patsy Custis (receipt from William Rumney, 21 Sept. 1770, ViHi: Custis Papers). The February court lasted three days (Fairfax County Order Book for 1768--70, 76--92, Vi Microfilm).
21. Went to Court again and returnd home at Night.
The court today ordered GW and Col. John West to "settle & adjust accounts" in a dispute between William Payne and Francis Dade and to report at the next court, their decision to be the court's official judgment in the case. The report was not made until 18 April, when Dade was ordered to pay Payne 992 pounds of tobacco plus costs (Fairfax County Order Book for 1768--70, 85, 125, Vi Microfilm).
22. At Court again & home in the Eveng.
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23. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg run and the Mill.
24. At home all day without Company.
25. At home all day receiving my Goods from Captn. Johnstouns Craft.
Capt. John Johnstoun, master of the ship Lord Camden, brought goods from London shipped by Robert Cary & Co. for GW. The goods totaled £315 13s. 6d. (LEDGER A, 198).
26. At home all day alone.
27. Fox hunting with Colo. G. Fairfax & Mr. Warnr. Washington. Started & killd a Dog fox after havg. him on foot three hours & hard runng. an hour and a Qr. Dined at Colo. Fairfax's.
28. At home all day. Mr. Warnr. Washington & Lady & Miss Betcy Washington came here and staid all Night.
BETCY WASHINGTON: probably Warner Washington's niece Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Washington (c. 1718--1763) of Middlesex County.
An Acct. of the Weather--in Feby.
Feby. 1st. Ground not froze. Day calm & warm & mostly clear--but sometimes lowering.
2. The Ground slightly froze, Wind fresh from the northwest. Cloudy and cold.
3. Hard frost. Wind sharp & fresh from the No. West. Moderate & very pleast. afternn.
4. Ground froze. Cloudy with great appearances of Rain. Calm & still forenoon. Wind Eastwardly afterwards.
5. A little Snow & Rain in the Night. Wind hard (& cold) from the No. West. All day.
6. Clear and very cold--Wind being hard from the No. West. Gd. very hd. Froze.
7. Ground very hard froze havg. thawd none yesterday. Weathr. exceeding cold wind being still hard from No. Wt.
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8. No thaw yet. Grd. close blockd up and very cold. Wind still at No. Wt. but not so hard. Afternoon somewhat more moderate--quite clear. On the 6th. at Night the River was almost froze across & on the 7th. & last Night quite.
9. No thaw. Ground very hard froze. Weather clear with little Wind in the forenoon but No. Wt. in the Aftn.
10. Wind at No. West & cold. Ground hard froze & no thaw, weathr. Clear.
11. Ground hard froze in the Morning, & but little thawd afterwards. Wind at No. West in the Morng. & So. West in the aftern.
12. Ground still froze hard & no thaw; Morning cloudy with the Wind at No. Wt. as it contind. to be all day. Afternoon clear.
13. Clear & pleasant--with but little Wind and that Southwardly.
14. Raw, cloudy, & still forenoon. Cold afternoon and wind at No. West.
15. Cold Morning with Snow from 8 till one with the wind Northwardly--then clear with the wind Eastwardly & warmr.
16. Very hard frost. The River which hath never been clear of Ice since the 6th. was quite shut up today. Morng. clear & cold, wind Northly.--afternn. wind Southly.
17. Clear, still, warm, & pleasant. Ground still froze but from the continued frost not slopy.
18. Again Calm clear warm, & pleasant being hazy.
19. Warm. Wind at So. West--fresh in the forepart of the day--the latter part Cloudy with the Wind at No. Et. At Night Rain.
20. Rain more or less all Night with the wind fresh at So. West which cleard the river for the first time (since the frost set in) of Ice. Morning lowering but clear, calm, & pleast, day--no frost.
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21. No frost. Fine clear Morng. Lowering day with the Wind fresh at South.
22. No frost. Rain in the Night. Morng. exceedg, fine & calm. Day clear & pleast.
23. No frost. Day clear & pleast. Wind southwardly. In the Eveng. a little lowering.
24. Morning cloudy but not frozen. Aft[ernoon] clear & cooler than for some days past wind being at No. West.
25. A large white frost & grd. a little froze but not very cold. Wind first Northwardly & then Eastwardly and lowering.
26. A good deal of Rain fell last Night & some today. The Wind at So. West and fresh. No frost.
27. Cloudy Morning, but clear day--the wind being No. West & westwardly but not cold nor hard.
28. No frost. Lowering Morning with the wind at So. Et.--afterwards clearer, with the Wind at So. and warmer.
Remarks & Observations in Feby.
Killd a Wether which waid alive--
being a middlesized one
Note--the above at a low estimate, appears to be no more than the worth of a fat Wether--it being imagind, that they woud average the above weight and 3d. pr. lb. is a low price at this Season of the year.
25. Finishd the New road leadg. across Hell hole, to the House.
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Where & how--my time is Spent--
Mar. 1. Rid to Muddy hole--Doeg Run & Mill Plantations with Mr. W[arne]r Washington, who with his Lady & Miss Betcy Washington that came yesterday also dind & lodgd here today &ca. Mr. Willm. Crawford came in the Afternoon.
2. At home all day with the above Company.
3. Went to the Vestry at Pohick Church and returnd abt. 11 Oclock at Night. Found Mr. Tibbles here.
GW was late in returning because the proposed location of the new Pohick Church was not wearing well with the minority of vestrymen who lived conveniently near the old church. After prolonged debate lasting well into the evening, the vestry finally accepted Daniel French's bid for building the new church, but "not having compleated their business," they adjourned till "Fryday the Seventh Day of April next" to sign the articles of agreement (Truro Vestry Book, 137, DLC). For the tradition that GW led the Crossroads majority and George Mason led the old-location minority, see SLAUGHTER [1], 63--64; MVAR, 1964, 22--25.
MR. TIBBLES: GW to Thomas Lewis, 5 May 1774, refers to "Mr. Theobald (or Tibbles, as he is commonly called)," who was a partner of Michael Cresap in a western land speculation scheme (DLC:GW).
4. Warnr. Washington & Lady & Captn. Crawford & Mr. Tibbles went away after Brea[kfast]. Myself at home all day.
5. Went up to Alexa. after fieldg. Lewis & brot. him down to Dinner where I found Mr. Wr. Washington--who returnd after Din[ner].
6. Set out with Fieldg. Lewis for Fredg. where we reachd after dinner at Peyton's on Acquia--i.e. reachd my Mother's.
Peyton's ordinary, on Aquia Creek in Stafford County, was about 16 miles above Fredericksburg on the main road from Alexandria (see RICE, 2:93, 177). While GW was at Ferry Farm he gave his mother £3 cash (LEDGER A, 287).
7. Went to Fredericksburg & remaind there all day--ding. at Colo. Lewis's.
8. Still there, dind at the same place, spending the Evening at Weedon's at the Club.
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George Weedon (c.1734--1793) kept a "large and commodious" tavern on the main street of Fredericksburg (now Caroline Street) "nearly opposite" the town hall and public market. Frequented "by the first gentlemen" of Virginia and "neighboring colonies," it contained "a well accustomed billiard room" and was the place where local horse races were arranged ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 12 Sept. 1766 and P, 15 Sept. 1775; Fredericksburg Va. Herald, 23 Oct. 1788). His fellow Freemasons sometimes adjourned there for food and entertainment after meeting at the town hall (GOOLRICK, 37). Born in Westmoreland County, Weedon served in the Virginia Regiment during the French and Indian War, being commissioned an ensign in 1755 and later rising to the rank of captain. Before April 1764 he married Catharine Gordon (d. 1797) of Fredericksburg, and by 1766 he was running the tavern on the main street, which her parents had previously owned and operated (KING [2]).
THE CLUB: It was a common practice among Virginia gentlemen of this time, when dining or supping at a tavern, to do so in groups either at a private table or, at a large tavern like Weedon's, in a private room. They would be served as a unit by the innkeeper and then would club for the cost of the food, drink, and room; that is, they would divide the total bill equally (GIBBS, 98--107). On this evening GW paid 2s. 6d. as his share of the club and lost 15. 6d. at cards (LEDGER A, 287).
9. Set of for Robt. Ashbys, and after dining by the way, reachd it a little after dark.
Capt. Robert Ashby (c.1707--1792) was the second son of Thomas Ashby (see entry for 12 Mar. 1748). Robert had worked as a marker for GW during the survey of the Fairfax lands in 1748 and was now living at Yew Hill, Fauquier County, about eight miles south of Ashby's Gap on the southern road to Winchester.
10. Went out to run out the bounds of the Land I bot. of Carters Estate but the Weathr. being very cold & windy was obligd to return.
George Carter, the youngest son of Robert "King" Carter, died intestate in England c.1742. To settle his estate the Virginia Assembly passed an act (HENING, 5:300) in 1744 directing trustees to sell Carter's vast holdings of more than 20,000 acres of land in Prince William, Fairfax, and Frederick counties. Twenty years later less than half of the lands had been sold, and Carter's heirs petitioned the Assembly to name a new set of trustees to sell the remaining acreage. An act was passed in 1766 (HENING, 8:215) naming Robert Burwell, Fielding Lewis, and GW as the new trustees. In Nov. 1767 they met at Capt. Robert Ashby's home in Fauquier County to sell the remaining lands and GW bought 2,682 acres "of Geo Carter's Estate" for himself ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 19 Nov. 1767; LEDGER A, 257).
11. Went out again on the same business & returnd at Night to Captn. Ashbys.
12. At Captn. Ashbys all day. In the afternoon Captn. Marshal came & spent the Evening.
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Thomas Marshall (1730--1802), father of Chief Justice John Marshall, was a burgess for Fauquier County 1761--67, 1769--73, and 1775--76. He was a delegate to the first three Virginia Conventions in 1775, and served as colonel of the Third Virginia Regiment during the Revolution. In the 1780s he moved with his family to Kentucky and represented Fayette County in the Virginia House of Delegates. At the time of this entry, Marshall was living at Rosebank near present-day Markham, Va., about five miles from Robert Ashby's Yew Hill home.
13. Out a Surveying till Night with sevel. attending.
14. Out in like manner.
15. Out again with many People attending.
16. Ditto--Ditto--Ditto.
17. Executing Leases to those who had taken Lotts--being at Captn. Ashbys.
GW had cut up his purchase of Carter's land into lots of about 100 acres each and was leasing them on a long-term basis to local farmers for about £4 Virginia currency per lot. On this day GW made at least 11 leases, some of which were for more than one lot. In GW's lease to George Russell, a fairly typical one, Russell was to be charged 30s. for each hand over four that was worked on the lot. Within ten years Russell was to plant and tend "at least Fifty Winter Apple trees at Thirty feet distance every way from each other and One hundred Peach trees at Sixteen feet distance every way from each other" and to build "a Good dwelling house at least Sixteen feet square of framed Work or Loggs Sawed and well hewed and a Barne or Tobacco house of Convenient Size or other houses and Buildings Equal thereto." GW retained the right to "all Mines Minerals and Quaries," as well as most of the timber, and reserved to himself "the Priviledge of hunting and fowling in or upon any part" of Russell's lot (17 Mar. 1769, ViWaC).
18. Went up to Greenway Court where I dined and stayd all Night. Met Colo. Lewis here.
Greenway Court was not only the residence of Lord Fairfax but also the permanent location of the proprietor's land office. There GW and Fielding Lewis, in their capacity as trustees for the sale of George Carter's estate, paid Fairfax the balance of quitrents owed by the estate since 1746 (receipt from Thomas, Lord Fairfax, to GW and Lewis, 18 Mar. 1769, DNA).
19. Went with Colo. Lewis to his Plantations where I stayd all day & Night.
20. Executing in the forenoon Deeds, & settling with those who had purchd. Carters Land upon Opechon. In the afternoon rid to Valentine Crawfd.
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Washington's plat of George Carter's land on Opequon Creek. (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Gratz Collection)
Opequon Creek, then in Frederick County, now divides Berkeley and Jefferson counties, W.Va. It rises a few miles southeast of Winchester and flows into the Potomac 15 or 16 miles above Harper's Ferry (KERCHEVAL, 305; NORRIS [1], 29).
21. Went & laid of 4 Lots at the head of Bullskin for several Tenents.
22. Filling up leases for them at Val Crawfords all day.
23. Set of homewards. Breakfasted at Mr. Ariss's dind undr. the Ridges & lodgd at Wests.
John Ariss (d. 1799), originally of Westmoreland County, was one of the most successful architects and builders in Maryland and northern Virginia. In
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1769 he moved from Richmond County to Frederick (later Berkeley) County. Although he has been credited with participating in work on the Mount Vernon mansion house 1757--59 and 1773--87, no documentary evidence has been found to support such a view (WATERMAN, 243--300, 419). In 1788 he leased 700 acres on GW's Bullskin tract at £60 a year (LEDGER B, 281).
24. Reachd home before dinner. Found Colo. Bassett, Lady & 2 Childn. Betcy & Nancy here also Mr. W[arne]r Washington & Jacky Custis.
Betcy and Nancy are Elizabeth Bassett (1758--1773), who died in childhood, and Anna Maria Bassett (1763--1773), who was the second Bassett daughter so named, the first, born in 1760, having died in infancy.
25. Went a fox hunting with Colo. Bassett & Mr. Bryan Fairfax--who also came here last night. Started & run a fox into a hole after an hours chase. Mr. Fairfax went home after dinner. Dog fox killd.
26. Took an airing with Colo. Bassett on horse back. Mr. R. Alexander came in the Evg.
27. Went a Fox hunting--found and was run out of hearing by some of the Dogs.
28. Hunting again. Found a fox & killd it in an hour and an half. Mr. Magowan & Vale. Crawford came here today.
On 26 Jan. of this year GW wrote to Rev. Jonathan Boucher that Magowan "has been fortunate in a Presentation to a good Parish. . . and is now living therein" (WRITINGS, 2:498--99). This was the parish of St. James (commonly called Herring Greek Parish) which lay between Herring Creek and the West River in Anne Arundel County, Md. Magowan had apparently passed up Frederick Parish, Va., which was much larger in area and probably not as wealthy as St. James.
29. Rid with Colo. Bassett into the Neck. Vale. Crawford went to Colo. Fairfax's.
30. Dined at Colo. Fairfax's along with Colo. Bassett & Lady--returnd in the Eveng.
31. Hunting-found a fox & killd him in a hour. This & the last were both Dog Foxes. Mr. Magowan went to Alexandria.
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An Acct. of the Weather--in March
Mar. 1. No frost but raw & cold. Wind North in the Morning--but No. East afterwards and very cloudy--with Misling Rain at Night.
2. Not much Rain in the Night but some hard showers today, with the Wind Southwardly in the forepart of the day and No. Wt. afterwds.--then growing clear & cold.
3. The ground slightly froze. Wind still at No. West--but not cold. Weathr. clear.
4. Ground again slightly froze. Wind at No. Et., & day lowering. In the Afternoon fine Rain or Mist & wind fresh from the same point. Evening calm but still misty.
5. Morning clear & Wind Southwardly. Abt. 10 Oclock the Wind came hard from the Westward & contd. all day but not cold.
6. Ground a little froze. Wind Westwardly but not hard. Pleast. till Evening then raw cold & cloudy. Wind Eastwardly.
7. Ground slightly froze. Weathr. raw cold cloudy, & in the Afternn. Snowg.; wind Northwd.
8. Ground coverd two or 3 Inches with Snow but not being cold it thawd fast after the morng. when the Sun broke out.
9. Ground hard froze--& very raw cold, and cloudy till 12 oclock then more moderate. Wind southwardly and clear.
10. Exceeding high & cold wind from the No. West all day. Ground hard froze.
11. Ground excessive hard froze & Morning very cold--wind being fresh from the No. Wt. but the Afternoon more moderate wind falling.
12. Ground hard froze. Calm Mild & pleasant with passive clouds & sunshine.
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13. Ground hard froze but the Weather very mild go pleasant after the Morning.
14. Very pleasant and warm there being but little Wind.
15. Again warm & pleasant with but little Wind.
16. Morning lowering and sometimes raining with high squals of wind.
17. Morning pretty sharp wind having shifted to the No. West in the Night--but the day clear still & pleasant.
18. Lowering with a little rain in the afternn. Wind southwardly and Evening clear.
19. A most delightful morning, & pleast. clear day. Afternoon lowering & windy.
20. A little cool but still clear and pleasant.
21. Clear and very warm the first part of the day. Windy the
latter part from the Westward & at Night cool wind at No. West.
22. Cool. Wind still at North West go clear.
23. Clear & pleasant. But little wind & that southwardly.
24. Wind Southwardly, & little of it. Day very warm and clear.
25. Southwardly wind & Warm. Day clear but very smoky as it hath been for sevl. days past.
26. Very warm & clear except smokey. Wind still to the southward.
27. Lowering Morning with rain from 10 Oclock from the No. East all day & Night.
28. Rather cool. Wind at No. West but not hard.
29. Fine warm Morning go Wind afterwards from So. West & cooler.
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30. A little Rain in the Morning, but clear afterwards with the Wind pretty fresh, & somewhat cool from No. Wt.
31. A fine warm & pleasant day with but little wind and that southwardly.
Remarks & Observations--in Mar[ch]
Mar. 2. Began to List Corn Ground at the Mill.
6. Began to List Do. at Muddy hole.
10. And from that to the 18 laying of Lotts & leasing them in Fauquier & Loudoun Countys on the Land which I bought of Carters Estate.
20. & from that to the 23d. doing the like on my Land at Bullskin in Frederick County.
24. Returnd home from my Journey to Frederick &ca. and found that the Hound Bitch Maiden had taken Dog promiscuously. That the Bitch Lady was in Heat & had also been promiscuously lined, & therefore I did not shut her up--That Dutchess was shut up, and had been lind twice by Drunkard, but was out one Night in her heat, & supposd to be lind by other Dog's--that Truelove was also in the House--as was Mopsy likewise (who had been lind to Pilot before she was shut up).
26. The Bitch Musick brought five Puppies one of which being thought not true was drownd immediately. The others being somewhat like the Dog (Rockwood of Mr. Fairfaxs) which got them were saved.
27. The Hound Bitch Countess brought 7 puppies and was with the Puppies carried away the next day by Alexr.
Mar. 31. To this time Mopsy had been lind several times by Lawlor as Truelove had been by Drunkard--but as this Bitch got [out] one Night during her Heat it is presumable she was lind by other Dogs especially Pilot, the Master Dog, & one who was seen lying down by her in the Morning.
Began about the 28th. to Plow behind the Quarter for oats & grass seeds.
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Where & how--my time is--Spent
April 1st. At home all day with Colo. Bassett &ca. and Betcy Washington who came home with us on Thursday last.
GW on this date lost £1 45. 6d. at cards (LEDGER A, 290).
2. At home all day. In the afternoon Mr. Rozer Mr. Carroll--Mr. Sydebotham & Mr. Magowan came here.
Several Carroll families were living in Maryland at this time. The visitor may have been Charles Carroll (1702--1782) Of Annapolis; his son Charles Carroll (1737--1832) of Carrollton in Frederick County, Md., a signer of the Declaration of Independence; Daniel Carroll (1730--1796), of Frederick (later Montgomery) County, Md., later a commissioner of the federal district; or John Carroll (1735--1815), brother of Daniel, later first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States.
William Sydebotham, of Maryland, supplied goods to Maryland troops during the Revolution. After the war he was a claimant against the property of the Loyalist Rev. Jonathan Boucher.
3. Colo. Bassett and family set of homeward as Jacky Custis did to School & the above Gentlemen for Dumfries. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run & Mill.
4. After an early Dinner went to Belvoir to pay a visit to Colo. R. Fairfax, returnd at Night.
5. Run the back line of Spencer and Washingtons Patent & came home to Dinner.
The back line of the Spencer-Washington grant was the northern boundary.
6. At home all day. Mr. Magowan returnd from Dumfries.
7. Went a fox hunting in the Morning & catchd a dog fox after running him an hour and treeing twice. After this went to an intended meeting of the Vestry but there was none. When I came home found Mr. Buchanon & Captn. McGachin here--also Captn. Weeden and my Br. Charles.
The vestry did not meet because they lacked a quorum and hence could not legally sign the articles of agreement with Daniel French for constructing the new Pohick Church (Truro Vestry Book, 139--42, DLC).
Captain William McGachin (also McCachen), a sea captain, often supplied GW with goods from London. In 1763 and for some years earlier, he commanded
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a convict ship, a duty he greatly disliked. GW recommended him to his London merchants, Robert Cary & Co., for the command of one of their ships plying between London and the Potomac, "because a personal acquaintance with Mr. McGachin added to his general good Character enables me to introduce him to you as a Gentleman of known Skill, deligence and Integrety" (GW to Cary & Co., 4 Oct. 1763, DLC:GW).
8. The two first went to Occaquan works & returnd in the Afternoon. At home all day.
9. At home all day with the above Gentlemen & Mr. Tibbles. In the afternoon Captn. Jno. West came here.
10. Captn. McGachin & Mr. Buchanan & Mr. Tibbles went away. We were at home all day.
11. Went a fox hunting & took a fox alive after running him to a Tree. Brot. him home.
12. Chased the above fox an Hour & 45 Minutes when he treed again after which we lost him. Mr. B. Fairfax came this afternoon.
13. Went a Huntg. with him in the Neck & killd a Dog fox after treeing him in 35 Min[utes]. Mr. W[arner] Washington Dind here & both of them stayd all Night. My Br. & Captn. Weeden went away this Morning.
Warner Washington's wife Hannah Fairfax Washington was visiting her brother at Belvoir, where she had given birth the week before to a third daughter, Catharine.
14. Mr. Fairfax & Mr. Washington went away and we set out to go to Captn. McCartys but Patcy being taken with a fit on the road by the Mill we turnd back.
15. Rid to Muddy hole--Doeg run and the Mill.
16. Went to Pohick Church and returnd home to Dinner.
17. Went up to Court & lodgd at Mr. Jno. Wests at Night.
The court met two days in April. GW was present from the beginning today, but he came late the next day, arriving after five items of business were finished (Fairfax County Order Book for 1768--70, 120--27, Vi Microfilm). John West, Jr., and his wife Catharine Colvill West lived near Cameron (GW to West, Dec. 1767, DLC and 4 July 1773, NNebgGW). GW today lost
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£2 15s. 6d. at cards and apparently lost £1 is. more on the following day (LEDGER A, 290).
18. Went to Court again and come home in the Evening with Colo. Mason--Mr. Auge. Smith Mr. Ross & Mr. Denneson. Found Mr. Stedlar here.
MR. AUGE. SMITH: probably Augustine Smith (1739--1774) of Shooter's Hill plantation in Middlesex County, the eldest son of John Smith of Cabin Point, Westmoreland County (TYLER [2], 95)' MR. DENNESON: Since he and Mr. Ross went home together from Mount Vernon (see next entry), this is probably James Dennistone (or Dennistown), a merchant of Colchester. Both Ross and Dennistone signed the nonimportation association in Williamsburg, 22 June 1770, and both men, along with Alexander Henderson, represented Colchester on a committee appointed by the merchants to consider the general state of trade in the colony.
19. Mr. Wr. Washington came early in the Morng. Mr. Ross & Mr. Denneson went home, & Colo. Mason & myself went to settle the Bounds of our Land.
Mason owned land on the north side of the tract GW had bought from Sampson Darrell (LEDGER A, 61).
20. Mr. Smith & Mr. Washington went away as did Mr. Stedlar. Colo. Mason & myself again went into the woods a Surveying.
21. At home with Colo. Mason who went away in the Afternoon.
Mason today signed an agreement promising to sell GW a strip of 100 acres on Little Hunting Creek, adjoining the Darrell tract, for £100 (MASON [2], 1:102; LEDGER A. 61).
22. Surveying in the Woods all day. Mr. Chichester Mr. Ball Mr. Hale g: Miss Sinai McCarty dind here.
MR. BALL: probably Sinah McCarty's first cousin, Burgess Ball (1749--1800), of Lancaster County, who on 2 July 1770 married Richard Chichester's niece, Mary Chichester. MR. HALE: possibly William Heale (many spellings, including Hale), originally of Lancaster County, who was settled in Fauquier County by 1777. Although her name was often spelled "Sinai," Miss McCarty was named after her mother, Sinah Ball McCarty (see HAYDEN, 92, 111--16; HODGES, 274).
23. Dined at Belvoir. Met Majr. Wagener coming to dine with me. Doctr. Rumney came.
24. Measuring the Road to Poseys ferry and seeing how a new one coud be laid out. Captn. McCarty dind here.
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25. At home all day alone. The above two Gentlemen went away yesterday afternn.
26. At home. Mr. Martin Cockburn & Pierce Baily dind here & went away afterwards.
27. Rid to the Neck Muddy hole & Doeg Run. Captn. McCarty & wife dind here.
28. At home all day. Doctr. Rumney came here in the afternoon.
29. Went up to Alexandria and Mr. Jno. Wests & returnd to Dinner.
John West, Jr., today agreed in writing to sell GW about 200 acres of land lying on the Potomac River next to the Mount Vernon tract for 43s. an acre. This land had been part of John Posey's plantation by virtue of his wife Martha's inheritance from her first husband, George Harrison. She had been given use of it for her lifetime only, and during the past year she had died. According to the terms of Harrison's will, the land then automatically passed to John West, Jr., who as Harrison's nephew was his nearest male descendant (Harrison's will, 21 Nov. 1748, Fairfax County Wills, Book A-1, 260--61, Vi Microfilm). However, West was prevented from deeding the property to GW at this time because of a bitter dispute between West and Posey over the ownership of a thin strip along the Potomac, containing about 6 acres, on which Posey's house and ferry were located. Posey had bought that strip from Thomas Marshall 21 Sept. 1757 for £6 sterling (Fairfax County Deeds, Book D-1, 477--78, Vi Microfilm), but West claimed that it belonged to him, saying that Marshall had no right to sell it to Posey because it was included in the bounds of Harrison's land, which Harrison had bought from William Spencer before Marshall bought Spencer's remaining land in the area. West had recently brought suit to force Posey off the strip, and GW was obliged to await the outcome of that case so that there would be no further confusion over titles or acreages (West's agreement with GW, 29 April 1769, owned by Mr. Sol Feinstone, Washington Crossing, Pa.; West's agreement with GW, 18 Sept. 1770, PHi: Gratz Collection).
30. Set of for Williamsburg with Betcy Dandridge & was forcd into Peytons Ordy. at Aquia where we lodgd.
GW was going to Williamsburg to attend the House of Burgesses, scheduled to convene 8 May. This session promised to be a stormy one because of the deepening crisis in the American colonies over the Townshend Acts, which remained in effect despite American requests for their repeal. Leaders in several colonies north of Virginia had begun to organize nonimportation associations to boycott British goods until Parliament rescinded the offensive duties, and GW, who had heard of those endeavors, was convinced that some kind of nonimportation association was now needed in Virginia. "Addresses
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to the Throne, and remonstrances to Parliament," he wrote to George Mason on 5 April, "we have already . . . proved the inefficacy of; how far then their attention to our rights & priviledges is to be awakened or alarmed by starving their Trade & manufactures, remains to be tryed" (DLC:GW). GW made this trip to Williamsburg in his chair. (LEDGER A, 191).
An Acct.--of the Weather--in April
Apl. 1st. Raining all the forenoon with but little Wind & weather warm. In the Afternoon it ceasd but continued cloudy.
2. Clear, still, warm and very pleasant growing weather.
3. Clear, Warm and pleasant. Wind southwardly.
4. Clear & warm. Wind in the same place & fresh.
5. Cloudy & Lowering. Wind strong from the So. West. At Night very squally with a little Rain when the Wind shifted to No. West & turnd very cold for the Season.
6. Cold & clear--with a frost to kill the fruit. Wind still at No. West & fresh.
7. Another frost to freeze the Ground & very cold in the Morning but cloudy & more moderate afterwards.
8. A harder frost than yesterdays & very cold--Wind fresh from the No. West.
9. Still cool but not equal to three days past--clear & the wind getting abt. Southwardly.
10. Warm, clear & pleasant with very little wind.
11. Warm clear and pleasant with the Wind tho not much of it Southwardly.
12. But little wind and that from the same Quarter.
13. Clear & pleasant morning but showery day with thunder Morng. & Evening. In the Afternoon a severe Wind & exceeding
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hard rain for about 20 Minutes from the So. West. Afterwards clear & cool wind shiftg. to No. West.
14. Clear Morning but cool.
15. Clear & pleasant Morning but raining afternoon. Clear & cool Evening. Wind at No. West.
16. Clear & somewhat cool. Wind Westwardly and at Night No. West.
17. Very cold and disagreeable Wind being fresh & raw from the No. West.
18. Wind at So. Et. in the first part of the day. Raw cold & showery at 2 & 3 Oclock & clear & cold from the No. West afterwards. A large frost this Morning.
19. Clear and very cold. Wind at No. West and fresh-more moderate at Noon.
20. Rather warmer this morning but very lowering, with rain abt. 10 Oclock from the No. Et. Abt. 12 clear with the wind at No. West and towards Night very raw & cold.
21. Wind fresh from the No. West & very raw & cold all day--more moderate at Night.
22. Wind Southwardly, clear, & much warmer than it hath been for two or three days past.
23. Morning lowering with Rain, but soon cleard, Wind being fresh from the So. West & warm.
24. Wind very fresh from the So. West & west with Rain in the forenoon but clear afterwards.
25. Raining most part of the day with the wind Eastwardly & cold.
26. Cool in the Morning, wind being at No. West & clear, but mild pleasant & calm in the Afternoon.
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27. Lowering Morning & sometimes Raining with the wind Eastwardly. In the Afternoon slow settled Rain.
28. Raining of and on all day sometimes pretty fast but always misting. Wind in the same Quartr.
29. Misty all day with the wind still Eastwardly & fresh.
30. Wind still Eastwardly & Morning Lowering. Abt. 12 it began to rain & contd. to do so all this afternoon.
Remarks & Observations--in April
Aprl. 3. Sowed what St. Foin seed I had in the Lucern patch.
4. Got done threshing at Doeg run Plantation.
Sowed some St. Foine in the Lucerne patch.
11. The white fish ran plentifully at my sein landing having catchd abt. 300 at one Hawl.
14. Began to Plant corn at Muddy hole.
15. Began to Plant Do. at the Mill.
Sowed Oats in the Inclosure behind the Quarter.
18. Sowed Clover and Burnet Seeds on Do.
Sent Negroe George into the Neck.
BURNET: Sanguisorba minor, a perennial affording both grain and hay, which GW and other farmers tried in the latter part of the eighteenth century. It had been pretty well discontinued by 1820.
22. The Herrings run in great abundance.
27. Finished planting Corn in the Neck.
30. Finishd Ditto at Muddy hole.
Where & how--my time is--Spent
May 1. Set out from Peytons & passing thro Fredericksburg reachd Hubbards Ordy.
This engraving of Williamsburg public buildings, found in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, played a major part in the modern restoration of that town. (Colonial Williamsburg Photograph)
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2. Got to Eltham--after foundg. my Horse.
GW crossed the Pamunkey at Sweet Hall as he had during the previous year, but since his last trip the name of the ferry there had changed from Claiborne's to Ruffin's. Robert Ruffin, a wealthy planter formerly of Dinwiddie County, had recently acquired Sweet Hall and the ferry from Claiborne and had moved there with his wife Mary, daughter of John and Mary Clack and widow of Col. John Lightfoot (d. 1751) of Brunswick County ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 24 Nov. 1768; P, 23 May 1777; RUFFIN, 252). At Ruflin's on this day GW spent 4s. for ferriages and 15s. to care for a sick horse (LEDGER A, 290).
3. Went into Williamsburg and dined with the Council spent the Evening in the Daphne.
The Daphne was a room in the Raleigh Tavern, on Duke of Gloucester Street about half a block from the Capitol. Owned at this time by Anthony Hay (d. 1770), a former cabinetmaker, the Raleigh was a center of social, political, and business activities in Williamsburg. Public auctions were often held in front of it, and many important meetings and fashionable balls took place inside its elegant rooms (RALEIGH TAVERN, 7--10). While GW was at the Raleigh on this date, he bought subscriptions to three Williamsburg purse races from Hay (LEDGER A, 290). "There are races at Williamsburgh twice a year," a visitor to the town about this time observed, "that is, every spring and fall, or autumn. Adjoining to the town is a very excellent course, for either two, three or four mile heats. Their purses are generally raised by subscription, and are gained by the horse that wins two four-mile heats out of three; they amount to an hundred pounds each for the first day's running, and fifty each day after; the races commonly continuing for a week" (SMYTH, 1:17--19).
GW also amused himself frequently at the card table during this visit to Williamsburg, winning £4 17s. 6d. this day but losing £1 the next (LEDGER A, 290). He did not lodge at the Raleigh but stayed as usual at Mrs. Campbell's place (LEDGER A, 291).
4. Dined with the Speaker and spent the Evening (that is supped) at Mrs. Campbells.
GW today borrowed £50 from Fielding Lewis to pay Peyton Randolph for a "tenth of 100 Tickets taken in Partnership with himself and others in Colo. Byrds Lottery" (LEDGER A, 290).
5. Dined at the Governors and supped at Mr. Carters.
Robert Carter (1728--1804) of Nomini Hall in Westmoreland County, a grandson of Robert "King" Carter, had become a member of the council in 1758 and now lived in a handsome town house next to the Governor's Palace. He returned to live at Nomini Hall in 1771 but remained on the council until the Revolution (MORTON, 42--45).
6. Dined at Mrs. Campbells & spent the Eveng. there without supping.
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Robert Carter, of Nomini Hall in Westmoreland County. (Virginia Historical Society)
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7. Dine at Ayscoughs and supped there also.
8. Dined at Anthony Hays and Supped at Mrs. Campbells.
The Raleigh Tavern had been named in honor of Sir Walter Raleigh many years earlier by one of Hay's predecessors, and it was known as the Raleigh throughout the rest of its existence. However, GW and others often referred to the tavern by the name of its current proprietor.
The House of Burgesses sat today as scheduled. Governor Botetourt gave a brief address and committees were appointed. GW was placed on the committee of propositions and grievances and the committee of privileges and elections (H.B.J., 1766--69, 187--92). Later this day he lost £1 at cards but won £1 5s. the next (LEDGER A, 290).
9. Dined at the Palace, & spent the Evening in my own Room.
The burgesses on this day began the routine business of considering various petitions and claims from citizens.
10. Dined at Mrs. Campbells and spent the Evening at Hay's.
GW paid £1 today for two pairs of snap earrings George Mason had asked him to buy (LEDGER A, 290).
11. Again dined at Mrs. Campbells, and spent the Evening at Hays.
12. Dined with Mr. Wythe and Supped at Hays.
A nineteenth-century painting of George Wythe, copied from a John Trumbull portrait. (Independence National Historical Park Collection)
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George Wythe, now clerk of the House of Burgesses and a prominent Williamsburg lawyer, lived in a brick mansion on the Palace green.
13. Dined at Mrs. Campbells and went over to Gloucester to Colo. W. Lewis's afterwards.
Col. Warner Lewis (b. 1720), son of Col. John and Frances Fielding Lewis, lived at Warner Hall in Gloucester County. He was the elder brother of Fielding Lewis, husband of GW's sister Betty (SORLEY, 67--68).
Today being Friday, the burgesses adjourned for the weekend after attending to a few items of routine business.
14. At Colo. Lewis's all day.
GW won £1 at cards on this date (LEDGER A, 290).
15. Returnd to Williamsburg by nine oclock in the Morng. after Breakfasting in York Town. Dined at Mrs. Campbells & supped at Hays.
The burgesses resumed their session at the usual hour of 11:00 A.M. GW and several other members were today added to the committee on religion, which handled matters relating to the organization of parishes (H.B.J., 1766--69, 211).
16. Rid over my dower Land in York, to shew that, and the Mill, to the Gentlemen appointed by the Genl. Court to value & report thereon. Came in to Breakfast. Dined at the Speakers and spent the Evening at Hays.
GW had been trying for at least the last two years to rent out the dower property in York County, because it was too far from Mount Vernon for him to inspect as often as he thought he should ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 2 April 1767). "Middling Land under a Mans own eye," he later remarked, "is more profitable than rich Land at a distance" (GW to John Parke Custis, 24 July 1776, ViHi). He had now decided to rent the property to Jacky Custis and thus consolidate all the Custis lands in York County under his name, if a place could be found near Mount Vernon to which the dower slaves on the York plantations could be moved and if the General Court, to which GW was responsible for the administration of Jacky's estate, approved the transaction (GW to John Posey, 11 June 1769, DLC:GW; receipt from Edmund Pendleton, 23 Nov. 1769, ViHi: Custis Papers). Both conditions were fulfilled by 1771 when GW began to charge Jacky's account £150 a year for the use of the "Land and Mill in York County as settled with the Genl. Court" (CUSTIS ACCOUNT BOOK). Claiborne's plantation in King William County was rented to Jacky in 1778 (GW to James Hill, 27 Oct. 1778, DLC:GW).
The burgesses on this date sat as a committee of the whole to consider various British treason acts being cited in London as legal grounds for bringing leaders of colonial protests against Parliament's taxes to England for trial. After a debate, four resolutions were put before the house and were promptly passed. Known as the Virginia Resolves, they declared that the burgesses, with the consent of the governor and the council, had the
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sole right to impose taxes on the inhabitants of Virginia; that Virginians had a right to petition the king for redress of grievances; that Virginians could be tried for treason and other crimes only by established procedures in the established courts within the colony; and that an address should be sent to the king beseeching him "as the Father of all his people . . . to quiet the Minds of his loyal Subjects of this Colony, and to avert from them, those Dangers and Miseries which will ensue, from seizing and carrying beyond the Sea, any Persons residing in America, suspected of any Crime whatsoever, to be tried in any other Manner, than by the ancient and long established Course of Proceeding." Before adjournment, the resolves were ordered to be sent to the assemblies of the other colonies, and a committee was appointed to write the petition to the king (H.B.J., 1766--69, 214--15).
17. Dined at the Treasurers and was upon a Committee at Hays till 10 oclock.
The address to the king was presented to the burgesses today and accepted without dissent. The house then turned to other business, but about noon Speaker Randolph received a message from Governor Botetourt commanding the burgesses to come immediately to the council chamber. When they were assembled there, Botetourt spoke: "Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the House of Burgesses, I have heard of your Resolves, and augur ill of their Effect. You have made it my Duty to dissolve you; and you are dissolved accordingly" (H.B.J., 1766--69, 215--18). With that statement this session of the house came to an abrupt end, but most of the dissolved burgesses, including GW, promptly reassembled a few doors down the street at Hay's Raleigh Tavern, meeting unofficially in the Apollo Room to consider "their distressed Situation." Peyton Randolph was elected moderator of the group, and a committee was appointed to prepare a plan for a Virginia nonimportation association (H.B.J., 1766--69, xxxix--xl).
18. Dined at Mrs. Dawsons & went to Bed by 8 Oclock.
Another meeting of the dissolved burgesses was held in the Apollo Room today beginning at 10:00 A.M. The committee appointed on the previous day presented a nonimportation plan, and after being "read, seriously considered, and approved," it was signed by 88 "of the principal Gentlemen of the Colony," including GW. The subscribers promised that "by their own Example, as all other legal Ways and Means in their Power," they would "promote and encourage Industry and Frugality, and discourage all Manner of Luxury and Extravagence." No member of the association was henceforth to import directly or indirectly any article taxed by Parliament for the purpose of raising a revenue in America (except inexpensive paper) or any untaxed article appearing on a long detailed list of European agricultural and manufactured goods. Forbidden items that had been previously ordered could be received, but after I Sept. 1769, none in the colony, regardless of date of importation, was to be bought. These agreements were to remain in effect until one month after the repeal of the Townshend Acts or until the members of the association decided to dissolve it, but in the latter case the prohibition against taxed articles would remain in effect until repeal of the taxes (H.B.J., 1766--69, xl--xliii).
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GW today bought a copy of John Dickinson's recent pamphlet, Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies. He also purchased a pair of gloves, medicines, and coffee and paid his bill at Hay's: £2 12s. 9d., including 20s. "arisg. from the Associaters meetg. there" (LEDGER A, 290).
19. Dined again at Mrs. Dawson's and went to the Queens Birth Night at the Palace.
Today "being the QUEEN'S birthday, the flag was displayed on the Capitol; and in the evening . . . the Governour gave a splendid ball and entertainment at the Palace, to a very numerous and polite company of Ladies and Gentlemen" ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 25 May 1769).
20. Left Williamsburg on my return home. Dined at Colo. Bassetts & stayd the rest of the day there.
GW paid two accounts before leaving town: £6 15s. to Mrs. Campbell for his board and lodging and £2 6s. to the barber George Lafong for dressing his hair. He also lent £5 in cash to a friend, Robert Rutherford, burgess from Frederick County in the past session (LEDGER A, 291). At Eltham he paid Mrs. Bassett £3 2s. 3d. for a piece of chintz, a hairpin, and a hair comb (LEDGER A, 291).
21. Crossd over to my own Plantation. Dined at Todds & lodgd at Port Royal.
22. Reachd home after going as far as Colo. Harrisons with a view of crossing thro Maryland & being disappointed was obl[iged] to come up the Virginia side. Found Mrs. Bushrod Mrs. W. Washington & their families here--also Mr. Boucher Mr. Addison, Mr. Magowan and Doctr. Rumney--Jacky Custis.
Mildred Washington Bushrod (c.1720--1785), of Gloucester County, a cousin of GW, was the sister of Warner Washington, Sr., and the widow of John Bushrod (d. 1760) of Westmoreland County. She had been his second wife, and he her second husband, but she had no children by either of her two marriages, John Bushrod's daughters Hannah and Elizabeth having been born to his first wife, Jenny Corbin Bushrod (KENNER, 177--78; GW to Ruthey Jones, 25 Sept. 1783, DLC:GW). After John Bushrod died, Mildred apparently returned to Gloucester County, where she was listed on the tax roll for 1770 as owning 1,280 acres of land and a sedan chair (GLOUCESTER, 1:92). Her family on this visit may be children of her other brother, Henry Washington of Middlesex County, who at his death in 1763 had left a son, Thacker, and three underage daughters, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Ann (WAYLAND [1], 325).
MR. ADDISON: probably Rev. Henry Addison (1717--1789), who in 1751 married Rachel Dulany (d. 1774), eldest daughter of Daniel Dulany the elder. The Addison and Dulany families of Maryland were at this time allied in a bitter struggle to oust the rector of Saint Anne's Parish, the parish
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serving the town of Annapolis. For a new rector they were looking to Addison to bring in Jonathan Boucher, who was willing to open a school in Annapolis for the sons of the Addison and Dulany families (BOUCHER [1], 50--57; LAND, 280--82).
23. Mr. Addison and Mr. Boucher went away. At home myself all day.
24. At home all day. Mr. Magowan went down to Dumfries.
25. Rid to Muddy hole, Doeg Run and Mill & returnd to Dinner.
26. Rid into the Neck and from there went up to a Race at Cameron.
27. Went in to Alexandria to a Barbecue and stayed all Night.
GW on this date won 8s. playing cards (LEDGER A, 291).
28. Returnd home early in the Morning & went to Pohick Church returning to Dinner.
29. At home all day.
30. Rid to Muddy hole about 11 Oclock and returnd to Dinner.
31. Set of with Mrs. Washington & Patcy Mr. W. Washington & wife Mrs. Bushrod & Miss Washington & Mr. Magowan for Towlston in order to stand for Mr. B. Fairfax's 3d. Son which I did together with my Wife, Mr. W[arne]r Washington & his Lady.
MR. B. FAIRFAX'S 3D. SON: Ferdinando Fairfax (1769--1820), who is here becoming a godson of GW, married Elizabeth Cary, was the heir of George William Fairfax, and was a principal mourner at GW's funeral.
An Acct.--of the Weather--in May
May 1. Threatning Morning but clear and pleasant about 10 with little wind and that westwardly.
2. Clear and tolerably warm in the forenoon, but very cold in the Evening the Wind getting to No. Wt. and North.
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3. Cool and clear with the Wind Northwardly. Evening more moderate.
4. Clear and pleasant but rather cool.
5. Clear. Wind Southwardly--and warm.
6. Threatning Morning, & black clouds. Abt. 12 or one clock it began to rain & contd. to do so of & on moderately till 4 & then cleard.
7. Warm & pleasant with little or no Wind.
8. Warm clear and pleasant. Wind Southwardly.
9. Lowering in the Morning but clear afterwards & somewhat cooler than yesterday.
10. Warm and Sultry. Wind Southwardly & clear.
11. Wind fresh & warm from the So. West till the afternn. then cool & shifting to the Eastward.
12. Morning lowering & cool--with rain abt. one & 2 oclock. Clear again abt. 4 with a pleast. afternoon.
13. Clear & pleast. Morning--as it continued to be all day. Evening cool.
14. Wind fresh from the southwest with a little thunder & some Rain.
15. Warm forenoon with a fine Shower abt. two or 3 Oclock & pleast. afterwards.
16. Brisk southwardly Wind. Warm & lowering.
17. Wind southwardly and very warm. About five in the Afternoon a pleasant shower & still Warm after it.
18. Very Warm. Wind Southwardly. Fast & flying Clouds.
19. Warm with frequent Showers, and thunder and lightning. Wind southwardly.
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20. Wind Northwardly & cool--with thunder and lightning in the Night & high E. Wind.
21. Wind at No. West and cold--with flying clouds.
22. Cool Morning with the Wind Northwardly but warmer afterwards and wind at So. West.
23. Clear and rather cool notwithstandg. the Wind was at So. West and fresh.
24. Wind Westwardly with several showers of Rain. In the Evening the Wind shifted No. Wt.
25. Very cool Morning. Wind still at No. Wt. and clear.
26. Cool in the Morning but warm afterwards & clear. Wind Westwardly.
27. Lowering with the Wind at So. West & Warm--in the Afternoon a little sprinkling.
28. Cooler. Wind Westwardly--and lowering. In the Afternoon and Night fine Rain but cool. Wind Eastwardly.
29. Misty and Cloudy all day with Showers in the Afternoon. Wind still Eastwardly.
30. Cool & clear. Wind being at No. West.
31. Very cool and Wind Eastwardly. Weather lowering and like for Rain.
Remarks & Occurances in May
22. Returnd home from Williamsburg and found my Wheat much better in general; than ever it was at this Season before--being Ranker, better spread over the ground & broader in the Blade than usual.
It was also observable that in general the head was shot out, and in many places in Blossom.
27. Finishd breaking up my Corn Ground at the Mill.
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29. Mopsy the Hound Bitch and Truelove another Hound brought 12 Puppies--that is Mopsy had five and the other seven.
30. Finishd breaking up my Corn ground in the Neck with my Plows.
Where & how--my time is--Spent
June 1. Set of from Towlston with the Compy. that went up yesterday on our return home and reachd Mt. Vernon abt. 6 oclock.
2. Went to Alexandria to Mr. Saml. Johnsons Funeral Sermon & returned to Dinr.
Samuel Johnston (Johnson) had been living on part of the Clifton's Neck land that GW bought in 1760. He remained as a tenant, paying GW 1,013 pounds of tobacco annually for his lot, which was probably at least 100 acres. In 1762 Johnston leased two more lots in Clifton's Neck from GW at the same rental fee. Johnston also ran a ferry from his land to the Maryland shore. His son, Samuel Jr., worked for GW in his wheat and tobacco crops from 1762 to 1764. Johnston was survived by his widow, Hannah, seven children (at least four of whom were married), and two grandchildren (LEDGER A, 77, 132, 134, 200; KING [4], 27).
3. Mr. Warnr. Washington & family--Mrs. Bushrod and hers--& Mr. Magowan all went away this day. I rid to Muddy hole Doeg run and the Mill.
4. At home all day--alone.
5. Dined at Belvoir--Mrs. Washington and Patcy Custis going with me.
6. At home all day--Mrs. Fairfax, Colo. Fairfax & Mr. Wormely the elder ding. here & returning in the afternoon.
Ralph Wormeley (1715--1790), one of the wealthiest planters in the colony, lived at his family's old home, Rosegill, on the south bank of the Rappahannock River near Urbanna. He served as burgess from Middlesex County 1742--64 and later became comptroller of the Rappahannock River Naval District. He was twice married: in 1736 to Sally Berkeley, daughter of Edmund Berkeley of Middlesex County, and after her death (c.1741), to Jane, probably daughter of James Bowles of St. Mary's County, Md.
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Ralph Wormeley of Rosegill. (Virginia Historical Society)
7. Rid into the Neck and to Muddy hole & returnd to Dinner.
8. Went with Mrs. Washington & Patcy Custis on a visit to Mr. Wm. Digges & returnd in the Afternoon.
9. Rid to Captn. Posey's--from thence to the Mill & then home.
John Posey had recently gone to Maryland, where he married Elizabeth Adair of Chestertown. He had not yet brought his bride home to Rover's Delight, but GW today saw the sad state of affairs that would greet the newly married couple there. Almost everything not mortgaged to GW had been attached by the Fairfax County sheriff to be sold for payment of various debts, and, according to Posey's son Hanson, the slaves would be without bread in a few days and the horses had nothing to eat at all. Furthermore, several merchants had brought suit against Posey and GW in the county court to force a sale of the mortgaged property. No action had been taken on the suit to date, but clearly matters had, as GW wrote to Posey two days later, "come to a Crisis." He must either find money to pay all his debts before the end of the year or sell his lands and slaves (11 June 1769, DLC:GW).
10. At home all day.
11. Went to Pohick Church. Dined at Captn. McCarty's Stood for Mr. Chichesters Child & came home in the Aftern.
The second son of Richard and Sarah McCarty Chichester, born 27 Feb. 1769, is here being christened Daniel McCarty Chichester in his grandfather's home.
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12. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run, and the Mill. Doctr. Rumney (& Mr. Stedlar, who came yesterday afternoon) Mr. Robt. Scott & Mr. Hy. Peake Dind here. Also Sally Carlyle.
Robert Scott was a Scottish merchant of Dumfries.
13. Went into the Neck.
14. Rid to Muddy hole, Doeg Run, and Mill & from thence went to Belvoir to pay my respects to Lord Fairfax. Dind there & returnd in the Afternoon. S. Carlyle wt. Ho[me].
15. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg run and Mill & returnd to Dinner.
16. At home all day. Mr. Robt. Alexander & his Brothr. Geo. Dind here and went away in the Afternoon.
17th. Rid to Muddy hole, Doeg Run, & Mill Plantation.
18. At home all day--alone.
19. Went up to Court & returnd in the Evening.
The June court lasted until 24 June. GW and his fellow justice Alexander Henderson arrived today immediately after the first item of business was finished (Fairfax County Order Book for 1768--72, 143--92, Vi Microfilm).
In Alexandria today GW settled with Peirce Bayly for this year's taxes. His personal bill was £1 10s. cash for the public tax on his chariot and chair, £2 2s. cash for miscellaneous fees, and 4,754 pounds of tobacco for the county and parish levies: 534 pounds to Fairfax County for 89 tithables at 6 pounds each, 1,140 pounds to Fairfax Parish for 19 tithables at 60 pounds each, and 3,080 to Truro Parish for 70 tithables at 44 pounds each (LEDGER A, 291, 293).
20. Went up to Court again & returnd in the Evening with Colo. Mason, Mr. Scott and Mr. Bryan Fairfax.
GW was again a little late for court, being recorded present with John Carlyle shortly after it began (Fairfax County Order Book for 1768--70, 153, Vi Microfilm).
21. Mr. Fairfax went away in the Morning to Court. The other Gentln. stayd all day.
GW remained at Mount Vernon with his company.
22. Colo. Mason & Mr. Scott went away & I to Court again.
GW arrived after the court's second item of business for the day (Fairfax County Order Book for 1768--70, 168, Vi Microfilm).
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23. Went to Court again and returnd in the afternoon.
GW, Col. John West, and Charles Broadwater were recorded present about a fifth of the way through today's court proceedings (Fairfax County Order Book for 1768--70, 180, Vi Microfilm).
24. Rid to Muddy hole, Doeg Run, & Mill & returnd to Dinner. Lord Fairfax, the two Colo. Fairfax's & Mr. Digges dind here & returnd.
25. I dined at Belvoir & returnd in the Eveng.
26. At home all day--Measuring salt from a Bermudian.
A BERMUDIAN: GW is here receiving salt from a Bermudian vessel, which likely came from Turks Islands in the British West Indies.
27. Rid into the Neck, and to Muddy hole.
28. Rid to the Harvest Field at Doeg Run & returnd to Dinner.
29. Went to the same place again, & Returnd also to Dinner. In the Afternoon Doctr. Rumney came on a visit to Betty.
30. Went into the Neck where my Harvest People had movd to and returnd to Dinner. Doctr. Rumney went away after Breakfast.
Acct. of the Weather--in June
June 1st. Still cloudy and like for Rain with the Wind Eastwardly and cold.
2. Clear, and cool in the Morning--but warmer afterwards. Wind Northwardly.
3. Clear, and not so cool as yesterday. Midday warm--Wind being at So. Wt.
4. Clear and pleasant, being neither cold nor Warm. Wind abt. So. West.
5. Wind fresh from the So. West and warm. The forenoon clear--afternoon having appearances of Rain with rumbg. of Thunder.
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6. Wind very fresh from the So. West with but little Clouds & in general warm.
7. But little wind & that being Southwardly made the weather Warm & almost Sultry.
8. Wind in the same place and Weather Warm. In the Afternoon the Wind being fresh and a cloud rising to the So. West we had a fine shower in the Night with some thunder & much lightning.
9. Warm & fine growing weather, but little wind in the forepart of the day & that Southwardly--fresher in the afternoon.
10. Wind fresh from the So. West with Clouds a little sprinkle & some thunder. About sun set the wind shifted to the No. Wt.
11. Clear morning, with lowering afternoon. Wind Southwardly.
12. Warm and lowering--also Smoky. Wind southwardly & but little of it.
13. The Wind shifting to the Northward in the Night it became cool in the morning; but at Midday it grew a little warm although the wind hung to the Northwd. all day and was perfectly clear.
14. Clear and Temperate. But little Wind and that Eastwardly--but varying.
15. Close still and warm. But little wind & that Southwardly.
16th. Very warm & some slight appearances of Rain--with little or no Wind till the Eveng. then pretty fresh from the Southward.
17. Very warm again with little or no Wind in the forenoon but tolerably fresh. Southwardly Wind afterwards.
18. Wind getting to Northwest and blowg. fresh all day the Air grew cool & was clear.
19. There being but little wind and that southwardly it grew very warm again.
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20. Very Hot with very little wind & that to the Southward.
21. Again Hot with the Wind in the same Quarter.
22. There being flying showers abt. in the Night & Morning tho not hard the Wind shifted to the Northward & grew cool or Rather to the Eastward.
23. Warm wind getting to the Southward again.
24. Very warm with great appearan<ces> of rain, but none fell here. Still & calm.
25. Also very warm with the same shows but no rain fell here. Still & calm.
26. Small breeze from the southward but very hot and sultry notwithstanding w[ith] appearances of Rain.
27. Very hot and Sultry; indeed extreamly so. A small breeze from the Southwd.
28. Sun very hot, but the Heat corrected in some degree by a southerly Breeze. In the afternoon frequent Showers of Rain--but little of it here--with pretty smart Wind from the So. West.
29. Wind getting to the Northward, this day was something more temperate & yet warm. In the Night abt. 11 Oclock a fine Rain.
30. A shower in the Morng. with Thunder & a Rainbow in the West. In the Eveng. one or two other showers wt. some Thun[der].
Remarks & Occurances in June
June 2d. Finishd breaking up my Corn gd. with the Plows at Muddy hole.
3d. Finishd going over the field abt. the Overseers House at the Mill with the Hoes.
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6. Went over my plowed Corn at Doeg Run a 2d. time with the Plows.
7. Rid into the Neck, and went all ovr. my Wheat there, which in general I think very good; and at this time free from any appearance of Rust. I think it is observable that the Wheat on the River side appeard to be better head than the other tho not superior in look in any other respect to many other parts of the field.
8. Got over the little field at the Mill with the Hoes, commonly calld the Clover patch.
9. Finish plowing the Field round the Overseers House at the Mill a 2d. time.
This day I went through all my Wheat at the Mill, & find it very likely and promising, & entirely free from any appearance of Rust--the head beginning to expand by the plumping of the grain.
10. Got over my Corn Ground at Doeg Run Quarter a second time with the Plows and began it a third time with the Harrows.
Also got over all the old ground Corn at the same place with the Hoes.
12. Went over all my Wheat at Muddy hole and at Doeg Run & found it at both places good and promising, and entirely clear from every appearance of Rust.
I also found that the Straw at the lower joints was turnd, & turning yellow--that the blade was putting on a yellowish Hue--and that the head was in general grey--& turning yellowish the grain being mostly plump and the departments strutting with the Ripening Corn.
13. Went through my Wheat in the Neck and found it also clear of the Rust, & in much the same state of that of Muddy hole and Doeg run as described yesterday.
This day I put on board my Schooner from the Neck 500 Bushels of Indian Corn for Mr. Ross.
Hector Ross bought 100 barrels of corn from GW at 10s. a barrel, a total of £50 to which £4 3s. 4d. was added for freight (LEDGER A, 276).
17. Finishd going over my Corn at Muddy hole with the Hoes. Also went over my Corn at the Mill this day with the Hoes.
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22. Went over my Corn at the Mill the second time with the Plows that is finishd doing so--and began with the Harrows in the field about the Ovr. House.
24. Finishd going over my Corn in the Neck with the Hoes as also with the Plows the second time.
Worked over all the Swamps (North of the Meadow) at Doeg Run with the Hoes.
Jonathan Palmer who came to the House that was provided for him last Night began Working with my People this day.
On this day GW debited Jonathan Palmer, his newly hired master carpenter, "2 Barrels of Herrings delivered per your order to the Waggoner that brought his [Palmer's] family down" (LEDGER A, 294). The house, although not recorded by GW in their contract, was provided rent-free.
27. James Cleveland spaed the three hound Bitches Musick, Tipsey, & Maiden as also two hound puppies which came from Musick & Rockwood.
Note--the Bitch Tipsey was going into heat but had not been lind.
Began in the Afternoon to cut my wheat at Doeg Run Quarter with Jonathan Palmer and 6 other Cradlers.
James Cleveland was employed by GW as the overseer of the River Farm on Clifton's Neck from 1765 to 1775, when he was put in charge of an expedition of workers to GW's lands on the Ohio.
28. Elijah Houghton joind the above at the same place. The whole made but a bad days work. They complaind of the Straw cutting very hard.
Note. The wheat this year appeard different from what it did last year the Straw being quite changd (even the Knots and joints nearly so) when the Grain was not hard. On the Contrary last year--the grain was tolerably hard whilst part of the Straw retaind a good deal of green.
Elijah Houghton was retained by GW as a harvester and paid at the rate of 5s. per day, with an allowance of three Spanish dollars for travel. LEDGER A, 292, shows that on 13 July 1769 he was paid £3 13s.
29. Eliab Roberts, William Acres, Joseph Wilson & Azel Martin set into work today--& I think workd but indifferently. The Wheat on the other side the Run was not cut down. Michael Davy Schomberg & Ned Holt were left with Morris's People to finish it.
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Eliab Roberts, William Acres, Joseph Wilson, and Azel Martin were retained by GW as harvesters at the rate of 5s. per day, with an allowance of three Spanish dollars each for travel. The men were paid £4 13s., £3 16s. 4d., £1 15s., and £4 13s., respectively, for their work (LEDGER A, 292). Besides these men and Elijah Houghton, GW also retained Thomas Williams, Thomas Pursel (Pursley), John Pursel, and "Young Palmer," probably a son of Jonathan Palmer (LEDGER A, 292). Michael, Davy, and Schomberg were GW's slaves. Michael was a carpenter and tradesman; Davy, a mulatto, was a servant at the home house plantation 1762--64, a field hand on the Mill plantation 1765--69, and subsequently served for many years as overseer of various Mount Vernon farms; Schomberg was a field hand on River Farm. Ned Holt, who appears in GW's tithable list for 1761 as being at the home plantation, was probably one of GW's slaves.
30. The Rest of the Cradlers & hands went into the Neck & began there abt. 10 Oclock--Making a poor days Work--having cut only that piece of New Ground containing 14 Acres next the widow Sheridines.
Mrs. Barberry (Barbara?) Sheridine, whose husband John had recently died, continued to live on the land in Clifton's Neck which her father-in-law was renting from GW. Several years later she married Samuel Haley, and the couple remained there until the Revolution.
Where & how--my time is--Spent
July 1st. Went into the Neck to my Harvest People & returnd to Dinner.
2. At home all day--the Captn. of the Burmudian dining here.
THE CAPTN. OF THE BURMUDIAN: Captain Burch, from whom GW bought 562 barrels of salt, a cotton line, and 40 yards of nautical rope, totaling £35 7s. 6d. (LEDGER A, 291).
3. Rid round to my Harvest field in the Neck with Mrs. Washington, Patcy & Mill[y] Posey. Returnd to Dinner.
4. Went over into the Neck again & returnd to Dinner with the Captn. of the Burmudian.
5. Went into the Field in the Neck and returnd to Dinner. The Captn. dind here agn.
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6. Went into my Harvest field in the Neck. On my return to Dinner found Mr. Chichester, his wife and Nancy McCarty here, who stayd all Night.
Anne McCarty, called "Nancy" by GW, was a daughter of Capt. Daniel McCarty and thus a younger sister of Mrs. Chichester.
7. The above Company going away after Breakfast I went over into the Neck & returnd to Dinner.
8. Rid to Muddy hole in the Afternoon where We began to Cut Wheat.
9. At home all day.
10. Rid to Muddy hole in the forenoon. After dinner rid to Captn. Posey's where Mr. Jno. West was Surveying--and then to my wheat field again. Sally Carlyle came in the Afternoon.
John West, Jr., and Philip Alexander, attorney for John Posey, were today surveying the strip where Posey's house and ferry were located in preparation for a hearing of West's suit to evict Posey from the property (the dated survey is at ViMtV). Posey had by now returned home from Maryland but was unwilling yet to face the reality of his heavy debts, boasting to the assembled company at Rover's Delight today that his new wife had brought him much wealth, including "300 half Joes." GW knew that Posey was bluffing, having heard that his wife had not and would not convey any of her estate to him (GW to Posey, 26 July 1769, DLC:GW).
11. Rid to Muddy hole and returnd to Dinner. Found Mr. & Mrs. Ramsay & Mr. Stedlar here.
12. Mr. & Mrs. Ramsay & Mrs. Washington rid with me to Muddy hole & retd. to Dr.
Mrs. William Ramsay is Ann McCarty Ramsay, daughter of Maj. Denis McCarty (d. 1743), of Cedar Grove, and Sarah Ball McCarty. Through her mother, Mrs. Ramsay was distantly related to GW.
13. Mr. & Mrs. Ramsay & Sally Carlyle went away. I rid to the Mill where I was cutting of Wheat & returnd to Dinner when I found Mr. Frans. Thornton & my Br. Charles and his son--with whom rid out after Dinnr.
There were several Francis Thorntons. This is probably the one who died about 1795, the oldest son of Col. Francis Thornton of Spotsylvania County. His sister Mildred was Charles Washington's wife. The son of Charles Washington who appears here is probably George Augustine Washington (c. 1758--
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1793), who was about eleven years old at this time. A younger son, Samuel, would have been rather small to travel with his father.
14. Rid out in the fore and afternoon with my Brothr. & Mr. Thornton--to the Wheat field.
15. At home all day. Mr. Thornton & my Brothr. & son set of homewards after Dinner.
16. At Home all day. In the Morning Mr. Vale. Crawford came here--and in the afternoon Colo. Fairfax & Lady.
17. Went up to Alexandria to Court with Colo. Fairfax & returnd in the Evening with him & Mr. Magowan.
The July court met three days. Today GW, George Mason, and Daniel McCarty were recorded as present about two-thirds of the way through the proceedings (Fairfax County Order Book for 1768--70, 192--210, Vi Microfilm).
18. Colo. Fairfax and Lady went home & I to Court again. Returnd in the Evg. with Colo. Richd. Lee.
GW arrived at court shortly after it began today (Fairfax County Order Book for 1768--70, 199, Vi Microfilm). Richard Lee (1726--1795), son of Henry and Mary Bland Lee and an elder brother of Col. Henry Lee of Leesylvania, lived at Lee Hall in Westmoreland County, near present-day Hague, Va. Known as Squire Lee, he was a Westmoreland burgess 1754--74, naval officer of the South Potomac district, and a member of the Ohio Company. He today paid GW 16s. for a spinning wheel (LEDGER A, 292).
19. Again went up to Court and returnd in the Afternoon.
20. At home all day. Majr. Waggener came here to Dinner & stay'd all Night.
21. At home all day. Majr. Wagener & Mr. Magowan went away after Breakfast.
22. At home all day.
23. Went to Pohick Church and returnd to Dinner. Mr. Magowan w. us.
24. Went to an intended Vestry at the cross Roads--but disappointed of one by Mr. Henderson's refusg. to Act.
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The vestry meeting was to be held at the Crossroads in order to decide on a site "to fix the new Church upon convenient to the said Cross Roads" and to lay out a churchyard (Truro Vestry Book, 138, DLC). GW and his associates had been able to muster only six of the seven vestrymen who supported the Crossroads location. When Alexander Henderson, apparently one of the five vestrymen who had been resisting the new location, realized his presence made a quorum, he prevented the meeting from coming to order by "refusing to act."
25. At home all day writing Letters & Invoices for England.
GW today ordered goods for Mount Vernon and the Custis plantations from Robert Cary & Co. and Capel & Osgood Hanbury. In his letter to Cary & Co., he requested that if any items on the invoices, except paper, "are Tax'd by Act of Parliament for the purpose of Raising a Revenue in America, it is my express desire and request, that they may not be sent, as I have very heartly enterd into an Association . . . not to Import any Article which now is or hereafter shall be Taxed for this purpose untill the said Act or Acts are repeal'd. I am therefore particular in mentioning this matter as I am fully determined to adhere religiously to it, and may perhaps have wrote for some things unwittingly which may be under these Circumstances" (DLC:GW).
26. Rid to my Meadow at the Mill & to Doeg Run after Dinner.
27. Went up in the afternoon to Alexa. with Mrs. Washington & Patcy Custis. Mr. Magowan returnd to Maryland.
Jacky Custis, who had been at Mount Vernon during the past few days for a short vacation from school, apparently returned to Boucher's today, taking with him £1 5s. pocket money and £42 1s. 11d. to pay his schooling and boarding expenses for a year (Jonathan Boucher to GW, 20 July 1769, DLC:GW; LEDGER A, 292).
28. Rid into the Neck and to Muddy hole.
29. At home all day posting my Books.
30. At Home all day preparing for my journey to the Springs.
31. Set out with Mrs. Washington & Patcy Custis for the Frederick Springs. Dind at Wm. Car Lains, & lodgd at Mr. Chs. Wests.
The family was going to Warm Springs in order to test the efficacy of the waters in relieving Patsy's epileptic fits (GW to John Armstrong, 18 Aug. 1769, PHi: Gratz Collection). GW had intended to leave on 27 July but had been delayed by other matters (GW to Jonathan Boucher, 13 July 1769, FORD [3], 12).
William Carr Lane and his brother James Lane (sometimes called James Jr.) owned the Newgate (sometimes called the Eagle) Tavern, one of the largest taverns in the Northern Neck at this time. It was on the Colchester
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road at Newgate, about 12 miles below Charles West's ordinary, and was kept at this time by Robert Sanford and his wife Kerrenhappuck (MCDONALD, 472--73, 482--84).
Acct. of the Weather--in July
July 1st. The Rains wch. lately fell, & the wind getting Northwardly coold the air & made it tolerably pleasant.
2. Clear, warm, and still, their being very little wind & that southwardly.
3. Very warm, & clear with but little Wind and that Southwardly.
4. Very sultry, with a breeze of Wind from the southward. Clouds & a little rain to the westward (with some Thunder) but none here.
5. Hot and sultry in the Morning but cool afterwards. In the afternoon a little Rain from the Westward--but not much.
6. The wind being pretty fresh from the No. Wt. the day was cool & pleasant.
7. Wind continuing from the same Quarter. This day was also tolerably pleasant.
8. Calm but not hot. Afternoon Cloudy with much apps. of Rain--wind being Ea<st.>
9. Wind being Eastwardly, about ½ after Six it set into Raining and continued to rain slowly till 9 or 10 constantly & in light fine showers afterwards all day.
10. Light thin showers at times till between 2 and 3 Oclock when it broke away.
11. Clear cool and pleasant--Wind being Northwardly.
12. Wind being in the same place--the day was also clear & pleast.
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13. Clear and not warm although the wind had got south-wardly.
14. Wind fresh from the Southwest with appearances and some drops of Rain in the Evening.
15. Very warm and close with gt. appearances of Rain and frequent showers to the Westward but very little here.
16. Warm with some Appearances of Clouds--but no Rain. Wind abt. S.W.
17. Close & Sultry in the forenoon with frequent light showers in the Afternoon & cooler.
18. Cool, clear & pleasant after the Morning which was Misty.
19. Wind being Northwardly the day was cool and pleasant--also clear.
20. About Noon it raind 10 or 15 Minutes pretty smartly and then cleard. Wind being pretty fresh from So. Wt.
21. Thunder in the Morning with the Appearance of a Settled Rain it beging. & contg. moderately for half an hour or more then cleard. Wind still contg. at So. Wt.
22. Wind fresh from the southwest and pleasant. Few Clouds but hazy.
23. Close and Sultry with Rain in the Night.
24. Warm with a shower about 3 oclock in the Afternoon.
25. Clear and pleasant.
26. Ditto--Ditto--Wind Southly.
27. Clear and pleast. Wind variable.
28. Clear and warm. Wind Southwardly.
29. Wind at southwest. Cloudy Morning. Rainy Midday, but clear Afternoon and warm.
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30. Clear, Still, & warm Morning. About 3 oclock a shower of Rain for a few Minutes with high wind from the So. Wt. and pleasant afterwards.
31. Clear and Cool--the Wind being fresh from the Northwest.
Remarks & Occurrences--in July
July 1st. Thoms. Williams, and Thomas Pursley set into Cradling today. The Grain being wet, there was no tying it up till about 10 Oclock--nor did we attempt to stack or House any till the afternoon & then old Palmer & others thought the straw & grain rather too Green.
Thomas Williams and Thomas Pursel (Pursley) were retained by GW as harvesters at the rate of 5s. per day, with an allowance of three Spanish dollars each for travel. LEDGER A, 292, shows that they were paid £3 4s. 8d. and £4 5s., respectively, for their work.
2. Sunday.
3. Finishd stacking what was left out on Saturday--also finishd cuttg. and getting to the stacks all the Wheat that was in the half Cut on the River by Dinner and in the afternoon went in to the half of the other Cut adjoing. and got about half of it cut down and Stack'd.
4. Finishd Cutting, getting in, and Stacking this half by Dinner, and finding our progress very slow & that the Cradlers were too many for the other workers, we reduced them to Ten after Dinner, after which about one half of the other half of the Second Cut was got in, and securd the work all going on well together but then the wheat was thinner which enabled the Rakers and carryers to keep up better.
A Dog coming here which I suspected to be Mad, I shot him. Several of the Hounds running upon him may have got bit. Note the consequences.
5. Finishd the other half of the Cut between Eleven and 12 (that is Cutting Binding and stacking) and went into the half of the 3d. Cut by the gate just at 12 Oclock with all hands.
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6. Finishd the half cut by the Gate before breakfast & the rest of the other half afterwards, just getting into the last Cut before sunset.
8. Finishd the whole field about one oclock. And began about five Oclock to cut in Muddy hole field.
12. Finishd cutting and stacking Muddy hole wheat and dischargd Elijah Houghton--Thomas Williams--and William Acres.
13. Went to cutting the Wheat at the Mill with the Residue.
15. Finishd at Do. by Breakfast time and went from hence to Doeg run Plantation & Cut the small field in this side the Run before Dinner. Note--from the Remarks and observations made this year in Harvesting my Wheat, it appeard evident that 10 and sometimes 9 Cradlers (according as the Wheat was thick or thin) were full surf. to keep the rest of my hands employd--and it likewise appeard that it was evidently to my advantage to employ my own hands to Cradle the Wheat rather than to hire white men to do it--and to get Rakers and binders if it be necessary to hire any at all, as these may be got for 2 shillg. or half a Crown a day whereas the Wages of the White Cradlers are exorbitantly high--but if Wheat of different kinds are sowed so as to prevent the Harvest coming on at once it is my opinion that hirelings of all kinds may be dispensed with. Two Rakers in the generality of the Wheat is sufficient to Rake & bind after a Cradle--and the rest of the hands can manage (after the Water Carriers & Cooks are taken out) to get the Wheat into convent, places & attend the Stackers.
Two, and sometimes three Stackers will Stack as fast as it is cut & I am of opinion that two brisk hands is sufft. for this purpose.
From experience it has been found advantageous, to put the Cradlers and their attendants into at least 3 Gangs. The Stops & delays by this means are not so frequent & the Work much better attended to as every Mans Work is distinguishable and the whole Cradles not always stopping for every little disorder that happens to each respective one as is the case when they cut altogether.
17. Began my Hay Harvest at Doeg Run Plantation.
21. Began to Sow Wheat at Muddy hole Plantation.
22. Began to Sow Ditto at Doeg Run Quarter.
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28. The young Hound Bitch Chaunter was lined by Lord Fairfax's Rockwood (who appears to have the Mange) twice this day.
Got over my Corn in the Neck with the Plows the 3d. time.
29. Chaunter again lined by Rockwood. The black bitch Countess appeard to be going proud, was shut up in order to go to the same Dog.
30. Chaunter lined again--by Rockwood.
Where & how--my time is--spent--
Augt. 1st. Set out from Chs. Wests. Dined at Snickers and got to Mr. W[arne]r Washington's abt. 5 Oclock.
Edward Snickers (d. 1791) settled at a site near Buck Marsh Run in Frederick (now Clarke) County, where he later built his home, Springfield. Snickers' Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains was named after him. Warner Washington was living in Frederick (now Clarke) County, probably on the 3,000-acre plot he purchased in 1770 from his brother-in-law, George William Fairfax. On this land was built Warner's home, Fairfield, a few miles northwest of Snickers's ordinary.
2. Remaind there all day. Mr. Washington returnd from Winchester in the Afternoon.
3. At Mr. Washington's all this day also.
4. Still at Mr. Washington's. Mr. Thurston & Lady dining there. Note I was detained this day & yesterday by the Waggon's which had my Goods in for the springs loosing 2 Hs.
After stopping at Mount Vernon in mid-February of 1768, Thruston had attended the March meeting of the Frederick Parish vestry, Frederick County, where he offered to take the vacant rectorship. The vestry, having given Walter Magowan nine months to take orders, asked Thruston to come back in November. In May 1768 Thruston bought more than 1,000 acres of land in Frederick (now Clarke) County, located between Snickers' Gap and Warner Washington's home, Fairfield. Thruston returned to the Frederick Parish vestry in Nov. 1768, accepted an offer of the rectorship, and resigned his post in Petsworth Parish, Gloucester County, the following month. His "Lady" was Ann Alexander Thruston, his second wife, whom he had married in 1766.
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Samuel Vaughan drew this plan of the Warm Springs, now Berkeley Springs, W. Va., in his journal for 1787. (Collection of the descendants of Samuel Vaughan)
5. Prosecuted our Journey to the springs (by Jacob Hites). Bated at Opeekon and lodged at Joshua Hedges.
Jacob Hite, son of Jost Hite, was a resident of Frederick County. In 1772 he became a justice of the peace of newly formed Berkeley County. Hite married Frances Madison Beale, aunt of President James Madison, and moved with his family to South Carolina in 1773, where most were killed by Indians during the Revolution.
6. Arrivd at the Springs about One Oclock & dind w. Colo. F[airfa]x.
7. Rid out into the Country to seek a good Pasture for my Horses & engagd to send them to one John Higgens's.
8. Sent my Horses to the above place with the Coachman.
9. Mr. Barcley dined with us--& Mr. Maze.
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John Barclay was an Anglican clergyman who came to Virginia by 1756 and was for a brief time in charge of Cumberland Parish, Lunenburg County. Some time before 12 Oct. 1760 he was appointed to All Hallows Parish, Anne Arundel County, Md., and in 1763 to St. Luke's Parish, Queen Anne County, Md. In 1761 Barclay was named one of the commissioners to run the line between Maryland and Pennsylvania. On 4 May 1768, he married Rachel Goldsborough, daughter of Nicholas and Sarah Goldsborough of Maryland (RIGHTMYER, 158--59).
Robert Mease (or Maze) was an Alexandria merchant and a partner in the mercantile firm of McCrea & Mease.
10. Mr. Barcley dined with us again as did Mr. Power and Mr. Geo. Thornton.
George Thornton, of Spotsylvania County, one of Charles Washington's brothers-in-law, married Mary Alexander in 1773. A prominent businessman in Fredericksburg for many years, he was a partner about 1772--74 with William Triplett of King George County in two stores, one in Fredericksburg and one in nearby Falmouth. After 1777 he was a partner with other gentlemen in a Fredericksburg brewery (CROZIER [2], 330, 344, 381). Appointed a major in the Spotsylvania County militia 16 Nov. 1780, he died soon afterwards, reportedly "from drinking cold water on a forced march" (WILSON, 66).
11. Lord Fairfax & Colo. Geo. Fairfax dined with us.
12. Mr. Barclay dined with us this day also.
13. We dined with Lord Fairfax.
14. Colo. Loyd, Mr. Cadwallader & Lady, Mrs. Dalton & Daughter & Miss Terrett dind with us.
Col. Edward Lloyd III (d. 1770) was of a prominent Maryland family and one of a long line of Edward Lloyds of Wye House, Talbot County, Md. He was married in 1739 to Anne Rousby of Patuxent, Md. He had been a member of the Maryland General Assembly, a member of the council, and receiver general of the province. He was in ill health at the time of this visit and died a few months later. His daughter Elizabeth had been married the previous year to John Cadwalader (1742--1786), of Philadelphia.
Mrs. Dalton is the wife of Capt. John Dalton of Alexandria and the daughter of Thomas Shaw (d. 1777). Miss Terret is probably a daughter of William Henry Terret (d. 1758), of Fairfax County, an original member of the Fairfax County court in 1742 and clerk of the Truro Parish vestry 1745--55.
15. Had my Horses brought in to carry Colo. Loyd as far as Hedges on his return home & rid with him as far as Sleepy Creek. Returnd to Dinner & had Mr. Barclay & a Mr. Brown to dine with me.
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16. Horses returnd from carrying Colo. Loyd. Mr. Barclay--Mr. Goldsbury Mr. Hardwick, Mr. Jno. Lewis & Mr. Wn. Washington Junr. dined here.
MR. GOLDSBURY: probably one of the brothers of John Barclay's wife, Rachel Goldsborough Barclay. Her three brothers were Nicholas, Thomas, and Foster Goldsborough (HANSON, 294--96).
John Lewis (1747--1825), only son of Fielding Lewis by his first wife, Catherine Washington Lewis, lived in Fredericksburg until 1811, when he removed to Kentucky. He was married five times (SEE SORLEY, 131--32).
17. Mr. Jno. Lewis & W. Washington dind here. We drank Tea with My Lord.
18. Mr. Barclay, Mr. Wodrow & Mr. Wood dined here. My Lord the two Colo. Fx's & others drank Tea here.
MR. WODROW: probably either Alexander or Andrew Wodrow. Alexander Wodrow served as provisioner of the garrison at Fort Cumberland during the French and Indian War and voted for GW in the Frederick County burgesses election of 1758. In 1774 he served on the committee of safety of King George County. Andrew Wodrow, perhaps a younger brother or son of Alexander, was clerk of the King George County committee of safety in 1775 and served in the Revolution as major and lieutenant colonel of the Virginia militia 1779--81 and as brigadier quartermaster of the Hampshire County militia. He was clerk of the Hampshire County court from c.1787 to c.1793 and represented the county at the Virginia Constitutional Convention in 1788.
James Wood (1741-1813) was the son of James Wood (d. 1759), the founder of Winchester, Virginia. He was a Frederick County burgess from 1766--76 and signed the nonimportation agreement this year and 1770. He later served throughout the Revolution and was later elected governor of Virginia.
19. Rid with Mrs. Washington & others to the Cacapehon Mountain--to see the prospect from thence. Mr. Barclay, Mr. Thruston & Mr. Power dined with us.
20. Went to Church in the fore and Afternoon. Mr. Jno. Lewis dind here. Lord Fairfax the two Colo. Fairfaxs & others drank Tea here.
21. Mr. Maze & Lady, Mr. Sebastian, Mr. Barclay, Mr. Allison dind here. Lord Fairfax &ca. drank Tea here.
Rev. Benjamin Sebastian (c.1745--1834) Was rector of Frederick Parish in Frederick County, 1766--67 and of St. Stephen's Parish in Northumberland County, 1767--77. He removed to Maryland and then to Kentucky, where he
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practiced law and served as a judge during the 1790s (GOODWIN, 305). Allison is probably John Allison, a merchant of Alexandria.
22. Mr. Jno. Lewis dined here.
23. Dined alone--Patcy unwell.
Patsy had "found little benefit" from taking the waters, but the Washingtons had decided to continue the experiment for another week or two in order to be sure there was no help for her here. The springs at this time were crowded with people from all walks of life seeking to restore their health. The waters, GW wrote to a friend, "are applied . . . in all cases, altho there be a moral certainty of their hurting in some. Many poor, miserable objects are now attending here, which I hope will receive the desired benefit, as I dare say they are deprivd of the means of obtaining any other relief, from their Indigent Circumstances" (GW to John Armstrong, 18 Aug. 1769, PHi: Gratz Collection).
24. Rid to Cacapeon with Lord Fairfax, the 2 Colo. Fairfaxs, Mr. Kimble Mrs. Washington & Patcy Custis.
MR. KIMBLE: possibly Peter Kemble (1704--1789), president of the royal council of New Jersey.
25. Dined here Mr. Jno. Lewis and Mr. Flint.
Mr. Flint may be John, John Jr., or Thomas Flint of Frederick County, Md. John Flint was registrar of Prince George's Parish, and Thomas Flint kept a school in Frederick County. A Pennsylvania traveler recorded having been to "Flints on Potomak abot. 12 Miles above Fort Frederick, civil people" (KENNY, 200). This location was at the mouth of the Monocacy River and midway between Mount Vernon and the Pennsylvania line.
26. Dined alone.
27. Dined with Lord Fairfax & drank Tea there also.
28. Lord Fairfax, Colo. R. Fairfax, Mr. Allan, Mr. Meldrum & Colo. Stephen dined here.
Rev. William Meldrum, licensed by the bishop of London to preach in Virginia in 1756, served as rector of Frederick Parish in Frederick County for a time before 1765.
29. Dined alone.
30. Old Mr. Flint dined with us, otherwise we were alone.
31. Mr. Johnston, Mr. Wodrow, Captn. Dalton, his Daughter & Miss Terrett Dined here.
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Acct. of the Weather--in August
Augt. 1st. Very cool Morning, & not an unpleasant day.
2. Cool Morning & Evening again but midling warm Midday.
3. Clear with more warmth--but not hot.
4. Tolerably warm with the Mornings & Evenings still cool.
5. Warm morning & hot day with a thunder shower--to the Westward.
6. Warm again, with appearances of Rain but none fell.
7. Warm, but a brisk breeze about Noon.
8. Again Warm with a breeze as usual at & before noon.
9. Warm with appearances of Rain in the afternoon, but none fell.
10. Exceeding hot and Sultry, but the Heat corrected a little by the Breeze at Noon.
11. Lowering Morning with a thunder shower in the Afternoon & exceedg. Hott.
12. Again very warm--but a breeze as usual & noon wch. however sometimes dies away.
13. Very Warm with the accustomed breeze down the Vale of the Mountains.
14. Very warm forenoon with a shower or two in the Afternoon with thunder & sharpe Lightning.
15. Cool forenoon--the Wind being northwardly & fresh--but warm afternoon the wind dying away.
16. Wind Northwardly & fresh. Clouds in the Evening but no Rain here.
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17. Wind Eastwardly fresh & Cool especially in the Evening & night.
18. Morning Cool, but Midday warm notwithstanding the Wind blew fresh.
19. Morning tolerably pleasant, but very warm Evening. Wind fresh.
20. Morning Warm. Abt. Noon a shower with rumbling thunder. The afternoon wet.
21. Tolerably cool & pleasant. Wind northwardly. Night Cool.
22. Cool and pleasant. Night rather cold.
23. Clear, cool, and pleasant. Wind northwardly.
24. Clear & tolerably warm with but little wind.
25. A fine Shower from the Westward about One oclock with slighter ones afterwards.
26. Morning lowering but clear & cool afterwards.
27. Clear and cool especially in the Evening & morning.
28. Cool morning but Warm Midday & Cloudy afternoon.
29. Cloudy Morning with a Shower of Rain. Clear & warm afterwards.
30. Clear but warm wind being southwardly.
31. Clear and warm with but little Wind and that Southwardly.
Where & how--my time is--Spent
Septr. 1st. Mrs. Washington, Patcy & myself dined at Mr. Maze's.
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2. Dined at home. Vale. Crawford dined with us.
3. Went to Church in the fore & afternoon and dined with Lord Fairfax.
4. Rid to the Pasture where my Horses were from thence to Mr. Flints & to the Pensylvania line & returnd to Dinnr. with Mr. Allan.
5. Dined at home alone except Mr. Flint.
6. Colo. Robt. Fairfax dined here.
7. Dined alone. Vale. Crawfords Waggon came up for my Goods in the Evening.
8. Day too unlikely to set out, therefore waited. Dined alone.
9. Set out on my return home about 8 Oclock but broke the Chariot & made it 11. before we got a Mile. Reachd Joshua Hedges.
10. Got to Mr. Warner Washingtons--I calling by Vale. Crawfords & Mrs. Stephenson's.
Onora Stephenson (née Grimes, d. 1776) was the mother of William and Valentine Crawford and the widow of Richard Stephenson (d. 1765), by whom she had five sons, Richard, James, John, Hugh, and Marcus.
11. Continued my Journey and reached Chas. Wests Ordinary after baiting under the Ridge at the blacksmiths shop.
12. Breakfasted at Wm. Carr Lanes & arrived at home about 3 Oclock in the Afternoon.
13. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run and Mill Plantations.
14. Went to Alexandria to the Election of Burgesses for Fairfax & was chosen together with Colo. West without a Poll, their being no opposition.
This election was called in consequence of Governor Botetourt's dissolution of the last House of Burgesses in May 1769. When there was no opposition in a burgess election (which was seldom) the sheriff took the vote "by view," although it is not clear whether GW was reelected by voice vote or by a show of hands.
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15. Returnd home. Mr. Grayson & Mr. Robt. Harrison came down in the afternoon.
Robert Hanson Harrison (1745--1790), originally of Charles County, Md., was an Alexandria lawyer. He was a signer of the Fairfax County nonimportation association in 1770. He served as GW's private secretary with the rank of lieutenant colonel 1775--81 and was chief justice of the Maryland General Court 1781.
16. Mr. Robt. Alexander came before Sun Rise this Morning we all went a fox huntg. Started one & run him into a hollow tree, in an hour & 20 minutes. Chase him in the afternn. & killd in an h[our and] ½.
17. At home all day. Mr. Harrison went away in the morning before breakfast. So did Mr. Alexander, and Mr. Grayson went away in the Afternoon.
GW today recorded winning 3s. 9d. at cards (LEDGER A, 296).
18. Went to court at Alexandria and returnd home in the Evening.
The court was in session 18--20 Sept. (Fairfax County Order Book for 1768--70, 224--40, Vi Microfilm).
19. Went to Court again today. Stayd all Night & Went to see slight of hand performd.
20. Returnd home early this morning by a Messenger from Mrs. Washington. Mr. George Alexander dined here & went away in the afternoon.
21. Captn. Posey calld here in the morng. & we went to a Vestry. Upon my return found Mr. B. Fairfax & Mr. P. Wagener.
The meeting was again scheduled to be held at the Crossroads, and the "Cross-Roads majority" of seven, which was also the minimum needed for a quorum, finally appeared in full strength. These seven, in the name of the vestry, chose the spot for building the Pohick Church which stands today. At the same time they signed the building contract with Daniel French, giving him 36 months to complete the church, which was to be 66 feet long and 45 feet wide, with 28-foot-high walls (SLAUGHTER [1], 73).
22. Went a huntg. & killd a bitch fox in abt. an hour. Returnd home with an Ague upon me. Mr. Montgomery came to dinner.
Thomas Montgomerie was a prominent merchant in Dumfries. The purpose of his visit today was apparently to discuss the troubled affairs of Mrs. Margaret
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Savage,the elderly wife of Dr. William Savage, formerly of Dumfries. Mrs. Savage's first husband, Rev. Charles Green, had established a trusteeship for her, and after his death in 1765, GW and George William Fairfax became her trustees, giving the Fairfax County court a bond to guarantee that they would pay her an annuity out of the estate's proceeds (will of Green, 26 April 1763, Fairfax County Wills, Book B-1, 398--99, Vi Microfilm; GW and George W. Fairfax to William Savage, 25 April 1767, DLC: GW). Sometime before 24 April 1767, she married Dr. Savage, who subsequently took control of Green's estate and assumed responsibility for paying his wife's annuity, giving a bond for that purpose to GW and Bryan Fairfax, who were to be her trustees henceforth. By the terms of the doctor's bond, Mrs. Savage was to receive £100 at the beginning of each year (GW to William Savage, 28 June 1768, DLC:GW). However, since 1767, neither of the annuities that had come due had been paid, and during the latter half of 1768, Dr. Savage had taken his wife to Ireland to live, leaving his affairs in Virginia to the care of Thomas Montgomerie (GW to William Ellzey, 3 Oct. 1769, DLC:GW; Va. Gaz., R, 13 Oct. 1768). At Mount Vernon on this or the following day, GW and Bryan Fairfax, still holding Savage's bond, probably tried to convince Montgomerie to pay the annuities or at least one of them, but they had no success, for although Mrs. Savage had repeatedly told both GW and Fairfax in private that she wanted her money, the doctor insisted that she was willing to give up her annuities and had apparently given instructions not to pay them (GW to Margaret Savage, 28 June 1768, and Thomas Montgomerie to GW, 5 Oct. 1769, DLC:GW). The dispute, being complicated by Mrs. Savage's vacillation in the matter and her absence from the colony, would continue in and out of court for several years.
23. Went a huntg. again with the Compy. aforesaid & suppose we killd a fox but coud not find it. Returnd with my Ague again. Mr. Wagener went ho[me].
24. Mr. Fairfax & Mr. Montgomery both went away after breakfast.
25. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run & Mill.
26. Rid into the Neck. Found Mr. Stedlar here upon my Return. Mr. Geo. Alexander dined & lodgd here.
27. Rid to Muddy hole, Doeg run and Mill. Mr. Alexr. went away this morng. & Colo. Fairfax & Lady & Sally & Nancy Carlyle dind here.
GW today paid Stedlar £8 12s. for teaching Jacky Custis music for eight months and £10 15s. for teaching Patsy ten months (LEDGER A, 296).
28. Mr. Stedlar went away. I rid to Alexandria to see how my House went on. Returnd to Dinr.
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GW had paid £48 10s. in 1764 for two lots on Pitt Street in Alexandria: No. 112 at the corner of Prince Street and No. 118 at the corner of Cameron Street (LEDGER A, 180; plan of Alexandria, MOORE [1], 22--23). The lot at the corner of Prince Street would remain vacant for most of GW's lifetime, but during the spring of this year he had engaged to have a small town house built on the other one. Construction of the house, which would continue until sometime in 1771, was primarily the responsibility of two Alexandria men: Edward Rigdon (d. 1772), a joiner, who was paid £30 19s. 2d., and Richard Lake--variously spelled Leak and Leake--(d. 1775), who was paid a total of £59 16s. 1½d. (LEDGER A, 278, 323, 333; Fairfax County Wills, Book C-1, 136--37, 225, Vi Microfilm). Lake had been granted a license to keep an ordinary in Alexandria during the previous fall but apparently did not remain long in that business, as his license was not renewed (Fairfax County Order Book for 1768--70, 66, Vi Microfilm).
29. Miss Sally Carlyle went away. I rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run and Mill.
30. Went a Hunting. Catchd a Rakoon but never found a Fox. One Doctr. Harris of Goochland dined here.
Several Virginia doctors of this name served in the Revolution. Samuel Harris was an army surgeon; Simeon Harris was surgeon of the 4th Virginia Regiment; and Simon Harris was a navy surgeon who served on the Revenge (GWATHMEY).
Acct. of the Weather--in Septembr.
Septr. 1. Cloudy forenoon, but clear afterwards & warm. Wind Southwardly.
2. Rain last Night and constant Rain all day & warm.
3. Clear and Cool. Wind fresh from the Northwest.
4. Cool Morning, but warm midday and clear--with but little Wind.
5. Clear and warm with but little wind & that appearing to be Southwardly.
6. Cloudy Morning and Rainy day with very little wind & not cold.
7. Raining more or less till abt. 5 Oclock in the afternoon when the Sun appeard.
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8. Cloudy & sometimes Misting with exceeding high wind from North & No. Et.
9. Morning cool--but clear and pleasant afterwards.
10. Frosty Morning & cool, but warm & clear afterwards.
11. Frost again, but clear, pleasant & rather warm afterwards.
12. Clear and pleasant with the Wind pretty brisk from the Southwards.
13. Clear and pleasant with but little wind & that Northwardly.
14. Clear warm and still.
15. Also clear and Warm with but little Wind and that South-wardly.
16. Clear and tolerably warm. Wind fresh from the So. Et.
17. Clear and pleasant. Wind Northwardly.
18. Wind still Northwardly tho but little of it. Day lowering & the Evening very Cloudy.
19. A pretty heavy Rain fell in the Night. The day clear, still & pleasant.
20. Showers this Morning with the Wind brisk from the So. West in the forenoon & at North West towds. night.
21. Wind Northwardly and day for the most part Cloudy & threatning but no Rain.
22. Clear with the Wind pretty fresh from the Eastward.
23. Clear, Calm and pleasant.
24. Clear and pleasant. Wind Northwardly but not cold nor hard.
25. Clear, pleasant and still.
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26. Clear and pleasant with but little wind.
27. Also clear, still and pleasant.
28. Much as yesterday with a light breeze from the Southward.
29. A Breeze from So. West in the Morning with some appearance of Rain--but clear & calm in the afternoon.
30. Light showers between day break and Sun Rising--with thin Mists afterwards till Ten Oclock. Wind in the Morning about No. Et. and in the afternoon So. Et. but at no time fresh.
Remarks & Occurences--in Sepr.
Septr. 1st. Finished Sowing Wheat at my Mill Plantation in all Bushels 75.
4. Finished Sowing Wheat at Muddy hole with 96
11. Began to get Fodder at the Mill.
12. Sowed all the Corn ground at Doeg Run with Wheat except some of the Swamps which were left for Barley 65½
Began to get Fodder at Muddy hole.
14. Finished sowing Corn Gd. Wheat in the Neck.
15. Began to get Fodder there.
27. Finished sowing the Fallowed Gd. in the Neck with Bushels 151 which makes in all sowed there 387½
Finished getting Fodder at the Mill.
29. Finished getting Ditto at Muddy hole.
30. Finished getting Do. at Doeg Run.
Note. The Fallowed Ground above mentioned containd abt. 40 Acres & lay in that part of the 211 Acre Field next to Abednego Adams about 30 Acres of which was old Ground the Rest New.
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This Land recd. its first Plowing in the month of Septr. & that part of it which the Corn Rows run through receivd no other Plowing. All the Wheat was Sowed--which was then plowed in and afterwards Harrowed. The other Part was cross Plowed, then sowed and Plowed in, and the end of the Field next to Abednego Adams Harrowed in the following manner--to wit--five Ridges, on Lands of eight feet each, harrowed, five others not harrowed--then 5 Harrowed & five not so for a good way. This was done to see which method was best that is whether the Wheat woud thrive better in the one way than the other & whether the Land was not preservd more by Harrowing than lying in Furrows.
This land of Abednego Adams is probably land willed to his wife Mary Peake Adams by her father in 1761. After her death, Adams married Hannah Moss, of Fairfax County, and settled at Mount Gilead in Loudoun County.
Where & how--my time--is Spent
Octr. 1. Dined at Belvoir with Mrs. Washington and Patcy Custis. Returnd in the Evening.
2. Colo. Carlyle and two Daughters--Captn. Brady and Captn. Posey dined here.
CAPTN. BRADY: possibly William Brady, captain of the Berkeley County militia, later captain in Stephenson's Rifles and captain of the 11th Virginia Regiment in the Continental line. Brady resigned in 1778 and was awarded 4,000 acres of land.
Posey had been drinking heavily in recent weeks and had often been absent from his home, but he came to Mount Vernon today, as GW reported to Robert Hanson Harrison on 7 Oct., "perfectly Sober and proposed of his own voluntary motion to sell his Estate finding it in vain to struggle on longer against the Terms of Debt that oppresses him." The sale was to begin on 23 Oct. (DLC:GW).
3. Rid to Muddy hole, Doeg Run, and Mill.
4. Rid to Alexandria to see how my Carpenters went on with my Ho. Returnd to Dinr.
5. Went after Blew Wings with Humphrey Peake. Killd 3 & returnd by Muddy hole.
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Page from Francis Price's The British Carpenter, London, 1768, showing suggested window treatments. (Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University)
6. Went a hunting but found nothing after which Rid to Muddy hole, D. Run & Mill.
7. At home all day.
8. Likewise at home all day. In the afternoon Mr. Robt. Alexander came.
9. Went a fox hunting & finding a Deer the Dogs ran it to the Water but we never see it. Mr. Alexr. went home.
10. Went to Captn. Poseys to run the Lines of the Land he bought of Mr. Marshall. Dined there.
This land was the small strip on the Potomac involved in John West, Jr.'s suit against Posey. GW's survey of this day, made "at the particular request of Captn. Posey," differed slightly from the one West and Alexander had made earlier (the dated survey is at ViMtV).
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11. At home all day.
12. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run and Mill. Captn. Posey dined here <afterw>ard.
13. Captn. Marshall came over here & dined & I rid with him round his Land.
Thomas Hanson Marshall owned 480½ acres that bordered the Mount Vernon tract on the west, lying on both sides of the road that ran from Gum Spring to Dogue Creek. GW had long wished to acquire that land, but Marshall, who was in no great want of money, had been reluctant to let it go unless he could make an exchange for land adjoining his Maryland plantation (Marshall to GW, 21 June 1760, DLC:GW, GW to Lund Washington, 15 Aug. 1778, DLC:GW; GW to Lund Washington, 18 Dec. 1778, NjP: de Coppet Collection). Consequently, GW persuaded his fellow fox hunter Robert Alexander to promise to sell him, at £2 Maryland currency an acre, 300 to 4000 acres of a tract next to Marshall's plantation that Alexander's wife, Mariamne Stoddert Alexander, had inherited. It was the offer of Mrs. Alexander's land that today brought Marshall to Mount Vernon, where he verbally agreed to give GW that part of his land lying south of the Gum Spring road in return for an equal acreage from the Alexander tract, provided that he could obtain immediate use of the Alexander land (LEDGER A, 96; Marshall to GW, 18 June 1769 and 8 Mar. 1770, DLC:GW).
14. Went a Fox hunting. Started a Dog Fox by old Palmers & run it back of Mr. Clifton & there catched it. Went afterwards into the Neck. Mr. Matthew Campbell dined here.
15. At home all day alone. My Brother Charles came at Night.
16. Went up to Court and returnd at Night.
The court met 16--19 and 24 Oct. (Fairfax County Order Book for 1768--70, 240--47, Vi Microfilm).
17. Went to Court again and returnd. Mr. Fairfax & Mr. Magowan came here.
GW was present when the court began today but soon excused himself from the bench because the suit that various merchants had brought against Posey and him was to be heard, despite the fact that Posey had already volunteered to sell his mortgaged property for the benefit of GW and his other creditors. The justices ordered that 23 Oct. should be the date of sale and authorized GW to hold the sale by himself if necessary (Fairfax County Order Book for 1768--70, 243--45, Vi Microfilm).
18. Went a Fox huntg. with Mr. Fairfax & Mr. Magowan. Found & killd a Dog Fox.
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19. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run, & Mill after Mr. Fairfax went away.
20. At Home all day.
21. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run and Mill. Mr. Magowan went to Colchester.
22. At home all day--alone.
23. Went to Poseys Sale. Returnd at Night with Colo. Mason Mr. Ross, Mr. Sebastian Mr. Harrison Mr. Magowan & Colo. Masons Son George.
According to the court's order for the sale, GW was to be the first creditor paid out of the proceeds, with the residue going to the merchants who had brought suit to force the sale. However, GW was not to receive everything that Posey owed him, because the court's order covered only three main portions of the debt: the loans for which GW had mortgages, £820 Virginia currency plus interest of £153 11s. 7d. Virginia; Posey's bond to George Mason for which GW as his security was responsible, £200 sterling plus interest of £20 12s. 7d. sterling; and GW's cost in the merchants' suit, £1 17s. Virginia for lawyers' fees. In a new statement of Posey's account, GW wrote off about £70 Virginia in miscellaneous debts and charged him only with the items in the court's order. That balance was completely discharged during the three days of the sale. GW took £571 16s. Virginia in "sundries" that he bought at the sale for himself, £140 13s. 10d. Virginia in cash, and the remainder in bonds and credits from various gentlemen. GW's "sundries" included the 200 acres of land that Posey had purchased from Charles Washington in 1759, but the strip of land on which Posey's house and ferry were located was not sold to anyone because of John West, Jr.'s suit (Fairfax County Order Book for 1768--70, 243--45, Vi Microfilm; LEDGER A, 256).
24. Went to the Sale again. Mr. Harrison Mr. Sebastian & Mr. Magowan came home with me also Robt. Alexander. Found Doctr. Rumney here.
At the sale today GW paid George Mason £100 for the 100 acres of land Mason had previously agreed to sell him (LEDGER A, 61). Mason had sent GW the deed for this tract ten days earlier, and it was registered in the Fairfax County court 22 Nov. 1769, being proved by Robert Hanson Harrison, William Carlin, and Humphrey Peake (Mason to GW, 14 Oct. 1769, NN: Washington Collection; Fairfax County Order Book for 1768--70, 256, Vi Microfilm).
25. Went to the Sale again. Mr. Harrison & Mr. Magowan returnd home with me.
On this and the following day GW paid Robert Alexander a total of £418 148. Maryland currency for his wife's land: £218 14s. in cash and £200 sent to
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Fielding Lewis, Jr., on Alexander's account. Lund Washington gave Alexander £81 6s. more on 22 Nov., making the total price of the land £500 (LEDGER A, 96).
26. At home all day, Mr. Harrison went away in the Afternoon.
27. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run and Mill also to my New Purchase of Poseys Land. Mr. Stedlar went away.
28. At home all day. Mr. Magowan went home.
29. At home all day. Captn. McCarty came in the Afternoon.
30. Set out on my Journey to Williamsburg & reached Colo. Henry Lees to a Late Dinner.
Governor Botetourt had summoned the burgesses to a new session beginning 7 Nov. On this trip GW took Mrs. Washington and Patsy with him, traveling in a handsome green chariot trimmed with gold that had arrived from England some time during the past 12 months (invoice of goods shipped to GW. Sept. 1768, DLC:GW).
31. Set out from thence abt. Nine Oclock and reachd no further than Peyton's Ordy. on Aquia being stopd by Rain.
Acct. of the Weather--in October
Octr. 1. Clear, Wind being fresh from the No. West till the Evening.
2. Wind fresh from the Southwest all day--and clear.
3. Wind Northwardly and cold in the forenoon, but mild afterwards.
4. Still & clear till Evening then Cloudy with drops of Rain.
5. Clear & perfectly calm till Evening, then a little Wind from the No. West.
6. Cool Morning with the Wind fresh from the Northwest. Evening more moderate wind getting southwardly.
7. Wind southwardly with apps. of Rain. A large circle rd. the Moon.
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8. Cloudy with the Wind southwardly the forenoon & Eastwardly afterwards.
9. Rain in the Night--but not much, & Misting all the forenoon with the Wd. at Et. then shifting to the southward & clearg.
10. Wind Eastwardly but not fresh. Warm--with a little, fine Rain in the Afternoon.
11. Misty and foggy all day with sometimes fine Rain.
12. Wind very fresh from the So. West & very warm with flying Clouds.
13. Wind tolerably fresh & cool from the No. West with Clouds also.
14. Wind Eastwardly & very Cloudy in the Afternoon, it set in to raining & continued to do so most part of the Night. Warmer than yesterday.
15. Wind at No. West again but not hard. Clear & pleasant.
16. Pleast. Morning, but Wind got very suddenly & very hard from the No. West & also very cold.
17. A very hard & killing frost last night. Ice ½ Inch thick this Morng. Wind at No. West in the fore part of the day but Southwardly afterwards and raw.
18. Wind southwardly & fresh. Day tolerably pleasant.
19. Wind Eastwardly & very cloudy.
20. Raining in the Night and Misty all day. Wind still Eastwardly.
21. Clear warm & pleasant. Wind Southwardly.
22. The Weather clear & pleasant with but little Wind and that Southwardly.
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23. Pleast. Morning but the Wind hard from the No. West all day & cold. Weather clear.
24. Cold, the Wind being exceeding fresh from the No. West & cold & cl.
25. Clear & tolerably pleasant Wind being moderate & So. Westwardly.
26. Clear & very pleasant wind southwardly & warm.
27. Much such a day as the former there being but little Wind & that Southwardly.
28. Warm and pleasant. Little or no Wind & clear day but lowg. Eveng.
29. Clear & pleasant with but little wind & that southwardly.
30. Cloudy Morning and drisling afternoon. Wind Eastwardly.
31. Cloudy & misty Morning and rainy afternoon. Wind still Eastwdly.
Remarks & Occurs. in Octr.
Octr. 4. Finished getting Fodder in the Neck.
12. Finished Hoeing over my Swamps at Doeg Run & preparing them for Barley.
20. Sowed (at the rate of about two Bushels to the Acre) some large Salt on a piece of fallowed gd. in the Neck that was old & much worn.
Note, the manner in which I did this, was as follows--the Ground being plowed into 8 feet Lands; I sowed two of them and left two, sowed two, and left two alternately sticking Stakes at the Head of the Lands that were Sowed with Salt. This Salt was Sowed on a piece of Flat Ground that has been very much worn and was harrowed after the Wheat had been plowed in.
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Where & how--my time is--Spent
Novr. 1. Came from Peyton's to Colo. Lewis's after breakfasting at my Mother's.
2. At Fredericksburg all day.
3. About one Oclock set out and reachd Parker's Ordy.
Jacky Custis met the family in Fredericksburg, having come from Boucher's school by prior arrangement to join in the trip to Williamsburg (GW to Jonathan Boucher, 3 Oct. 1769, MoSW: Meissner Collection; GW to Boucher, 14 Oct. 1769, NN: Washington Collection).
4. Set out from thence after Breakfast. Dined at Todds Bridge & lodgd at King Wm. Court House.
5. Breakfasted at the Causey & Dind at Eltham & lodgd there.
GW's expenses today included 16s. at Ruffin's ferry and 3s. 1½d. for "Seeing Tyger" (LEDGER A, 296). This animal may have been a North American cougar which American colonists often called red tiger.
6. Came to Williamsburg. Dind at Mr. Carters with Lord Botetout Govr. Eden &ca. and suppd at Mrs. Vobes with Colo. Fitzhugh.
Mrs. Washington and Patsy remained at Eltham today, while Jacky accompanied GW to town, where they lodged at Mrs. Campbell's place (LEDGER A, 296' 299).
Sir Robert Eden (1741--1784), proprietary governor of Maryland 1769--76, was, according to his later friend Jonathan Boucher, "a handsome, lively, and sensible man. . . . He had been in the Army, and had contracted such habits of expense and dissipation as were fatal to his fortunes, and at length to life. Yet with all his follies and foibles, which were indeed abundant, he had such a warmth and affectionateness of heart, that it was impossible not to love him" (BOUCHER [1], 67). Eden's military experience included service with the Coldstream Guards in Germany during the Seven Years' War. In 1765 he had married Caroline Calvert, sister of the current proprietor of Maryland, Frederick Calvert, sixth Baron Baltimore (1732--1771), from whom Eden had received his appointment as governor.
Jane Vobe (died c. 1789) operated a well-furnished tavern on Waller Street near the theater, and according to a traveler who had stopped there four years earlier, it was a place "where all the best people resorted" (FRENCH TRAVELLER, 741). Mrs. Vobe was in business as early as May 1757, when GW first patronized her tavern, and she remained at this location until 1771 (LEDGER A, 35).
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Col. Fitzhugh is probably Henry Fitzhugh (1723--1783) of Stafford County. He was the son of Henry Fitzhugh of Bedford and married Sarah Battaile, daughter of Capt. Nicholas Battaile, in 1746. Fitzhugh was a colonel in the Stafford County militia and furnished supplies to the American army during the Revolution.
7. Dined at the Governors & supped at Anthony Hayes.
The burgesses convened today. A moderate tone was set for this session by Governor Botetourt's opening remarks to the house. Parliament, he assured the burgesses, would soon repeal all taxes for raising a revenue in America except the one on tea, and he pledged his own strong support for this action. The burgesses were not fully appeased by his speech, continuing to object to the tea tax, and no steps were taken to dissolve or modify the association. But Botetourt was personally popular with the burgesses, and they chose not to make an issue of the remaining tax at this time. The session would be a long one devoted to the colony's normal business. GW was today appointed to the same three committees on which he had served during the last session: religion, privileges and elections, and propositions and grievances (H.B.J., 1766--69, 225--30).
8. Dined at the Speakers & supped at Mrs. Campbells.
9. Dined at Mrs. Dawsons and supped at Mrs. Campbells.
10. Dined at the Treasurers and supped at Mrs. Campbells.
GW today paid 5s. to have his watch repaired and gave Jacky £2 in cash for pocket money. Another £1 10s. were lost at the card table (LEDGER A, 296).
11. Clear & pleast. Dined at Mrs. Dawsons and went up to Eltham.
Today being Saturday, the burgesses adjourned, after transacting the lengthy business of the day, until 11:00 A.M. Monday morning (H.B.J., 1766--69, 247--53).
12. Stayd at Eltham all day.
13. Came to Town abt. 11. Oclock. Dined & supp'd at Mrs. Campbells.
Jacky stayed at Eltham with his mother and sister.
14. Dined and Supped at Mrs. Campbells.
GW on this date paid 2s. 6d. to a tailor and lost 7s. 6d. at cards. "Coffee &ca. at Mrs. Campbells" cost him 2s. (LEDGER A, 296).
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At Eltham, Patsy was today visited by Dr. John de Sequeyra (1712--1795) of Williamsburg, who prescribed some medicine for her (receipt from Sequeyra, 16 Dec. 1769, ViHi: Custis Papers). Sequeyra (also Siquiyra, Siqueyra, or Sequayra), scion of a distinguished Sephardi Jewish family of physicians in England, was born in London, received his M.D. degree in 1739 from the University of Leyden, and settled in Virginia in 1745. He was one of the attending physicians during Lord Botetourt's last illness and in 1773 became the first visiting physician to the new hospital for the insane in Williamsburg, the first such public hospital in the American colonies (GILL, 95; ROTH, 14:1179).
15. Dined at Mr. Wythes and supped at Anthony Hays.
16. Dined at Mrs. Campbells at or after 5 Oclock, and spent the Evening there without supping.
17. Dined at Mrs. Campbells after 4 & spent the Evening there without supping--Having 1 Bowl of P. & Toddy.
18. Had a Mutton Chop at Mrs. Campbells with Colo. Bassetts abt. One Clock & then came up to Eltham.
The burgesses adjourned today until 11:00 A.M. Monday (H.B.J., 1766--69, 268--71).
19. Went to Church & returnd to Eltham to Dinner w. Mr. Dangerfd. & the Parson.
MR. DANGERFD.: probably William Daingerfield, who at this time was a New Kent County militia colonel and justice of the peace and a vestryman for Blisland Parish. In 1770 he moved to the plantation of Belvidera in Spotsylvania County, which had been inherited by his wife, Sarah Taliaferro Daingerfield. The parson for Blisland Parish in New Kent and James City counties was Rev. Price Davies.
20. At Eltham all day--occasiond by Rain.
The burgesses met today as scheduled (H.B.J., 1766--69, 271--75).
21. Came to Town with Mrs. Washington P & Jacky Custis. I dind at Mrs. Campbells. Mrs. W &ca. dined at Mrs. Dawsons. I spent the Eveng. (without suppg.) at Mrs. Campbells.
Patsy and Jacky lodged with GW at Mrs. Campbell's place (CUSTIS ACCOUNT BOOK). Mrs. Washington may have stayed there also since GW apparently had a private room, or she may have been the guest of Mrs. Dawson or some other acquaintance in the city. GW today bought a padlock for 2s. 6d. (LEDGER A, 296).
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When he bought this book in 1769, the methodical Washington recorded not only the year of purchase but the cost--five shillings sterling. (Boston Athenaeum)
22. Dined at Mrs. Dawsons all of Us. I & J. P. Custis supped at Mrs. Campbells.
23. Dined with Mrs. Washington &ca. at the Speakers by Candlelight & spent the Evg. there also.
GW on this date paid Edmund Pendleton £9 13s. for representing the Custis estate in some legal matters, including asking the General Court whether or not Jacky should rent the dower lands (receipt from Edmund Pendleton, ViHi: Custis Papers).
24. J. P. Custis and I dined with others at the Govrs. I spent the Evening at Hayes.
GW and Thomas Nelson, Jr., of York County were today ordered by the burgesses to prepare "a Bill for laying a Tax upon Dogs." Nelson presented the bill to the house 1 Dec., but it was defeated (H.B.J., 1766--69, 289, 309).
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Dr. Sequeyra saw Patsy on 24, 25, 26, and 28 Nov. and 1 Dec. (receipt from John de Sequeyra, 16 Dec. 1769, ViHi: Custis Papers).
25. Dined at Mrs. Campbells with Mrs. Washington & JPC[ustis] as also did Colo. & Mrs. Bassett. Spent the Evening in my own Room.
26. Dined at Colo. Burwells. Mrs. Washington JPC[ ustis ] & Mrs. Bassett dined at Mrs. Campbells. I spent the Evening in my own Room.
Col. Lewis Burwell (1716--c.1784) of James City County lived at Kingsmill plantation on the James River about four miles southeast of Williamsburg. He was a burgess for James City County 1758--74 and a member of the board of visitors and governors of the College of William and Mary from before 1769 to 1775. Heavily in debt at this time, he was selling much of his property to balance his books, but Kingsmill was not sacrificed until 1781 (MAYS, 1:213, 359; KINGS' MILL, 24).
The House of Burgesses did not meet today, it being Sunday (H.B.J., 1766--69, 295).
27. Dined at Mrs. Dawson's with Mrs. Washington & the Children. Supped with J. P. Custis at Mrs. Campbells.
28. Dined at Mrs. Campbells by Candlelight. Spent the Evening there without Supping.
29. Dined at the Treasurers. Mrs. Washington & Mr. & Miss Custis dind at Mrs. Dawson's. I supped at the Treasurers.
30. Dined at the Presidents & spent the Evening there without Suppg.
Acct. of the Weather--in Novr.
Novr. 1. Very Cloudy & sometimes Misty with but little Wind & that Eastwardly.
2. Misty & Raining all day. Wind Eastwardly tho but little of it.
3. Raing. in the Morning & misty afterwards till 4 Oclock, then clear. Wind Westwardly.
4. Clear. Wind westwardly.
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5. Clear, Calm, & pleasant.
6. Lowering with a good deal of Rain Lightning & some thunder in the Night.
7. Tolerably pleasant, & clear, Wind Northwardly.
8. Clear and very pleasant with but little wind and that Southwardly.
9. Very pleast. Morning with the Wind at south. Afternoon Lowering with an Eastwardly wind & a good deal of Rain in the Night.
10. Clear & pleasant but somewhat cool Wind being Northwardly.
11. Clear and pleasant Morning but lowering & threatning afternoon.
12. Rain in the Night. Wind high from the Northwest--but not very cold.
13. Cool Morning but more moderate afternoon. Wind South-wardly.
14. Raw & cold Wind at Southwest & like for Snow but turnd to Rain abt. 10 Oclock & cd. to Rain till two.
15. Wind Westwardly & cold. Ice upon the Waters & ground froze.
16. Clear and pleasant, tho somewhat cool wind being westwardly & No. Wt.
17. Clear & not so cool as yesterday tho the wind was in the same Qr.
18. Morning clear and pleasant but Wind Eastwardly--after which it grew Raw Cold & Cloudy threatning Rain.
19. Cold & disagreeable. Wind Eastwardly & very fresh. Very Cloudy also.
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20. A good deal of Rain in the Night & more or less all day. Wind still East.
21. A great deal of Rain fell last Night. Wind at No. West & After noon clear & cool. Morning Cloudy.
22. Clear & pleasant (but somewhat cool). Little or no Wind.
23. Clear and pleasant with but little Wind till late in the Night, when it shifted to No. Wt. & blew hard & Cold.
24. Wind No. & No. Wt. & very cold but clear.
25. A Remarkable white Frost.
26. Clear forenoon & pleasant with little or no wind. The Afternoon lowering & threatning Rain.
27. Much Rain fell in the Night, & showery all day, with the wind Southwardly & Warm with Lightng. and thunder. Wind shiftg. in the Eveng.
28. Clear and Cold. Wind Northwardly.
29. Clear and Cold. The afternoon lowering & like to Rain.
30. Misting all day but not Cold there being but little Wind.
Where & how--my time is--Spent
Decr. 1. Dined at Mrs. Campbells with the Speaker, Treasurer & other Company. Mrs. Washington & Childn. Dined at the Attorneys. Myself & J. P. Custis suppd at Mrs. Campbells.
2. Mrs. Washington & children, myself, Colo. Basset, Mrs. Basset & Betcy Bassett all Eat Oysters at Mrs. Campbells abt. One oclock and afterwards went up to Eltham.
The burgesses once more adjourned until 11:00 A.M. Monday. Before the family left town, GW paid Miss P. Davenport £3 3s. 8d. for clothing furnished
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Patsy and Mrs. Washington. He also paid 3s. for postage and gave Jacky £1 in cash. Mrs. Washington and Patsy had received spending money earlier in the week (H.B.J., 1766--69, 311--12; LEDGER A, 299; receipt from Davenport, 2 Dec. 1769, ViHi: Custis Papers).
3. At Eltham all day.
4. Returnd to Town and dined at Mrs. Campbells. Spent Eveng. there also witht. Supg.
Mrs. Washington and the children remained at Eltham. In town GW bought an ornamental comb for Patsy at John Carter's store on Duke of Gloucester Street (LEDGER A, 299; CUSTIS ACCOUNT BOOK).
5. Dined at Mrs. Campbells & spent the Evening there without supping--in.
GW on this date paid Alexander Craig, a Williamsburg saddler, 9s. 6d. on his own account and 16s. for Jacky (LEDGER A, 299; receipt of Craig, 10 and 30 Nov. 1769, ViHi: Custis Papers). In the House of Burgesses, GW and Richard Henry Lee of Westmoreland County were ordered to prepare "a Bill for clearing and making navigable the River Potowmack, from the great Falls . . . up to Fort Cumberland" (H.B.J., 1766--69, 314).
6. Dined at Mr. Cockes & spent the Eveng. there.
7. Dined at Mrs. Campbells & the Evening spent in my Room.
8. Dined at Mrs. Campbells & was engagd. at Charltons abt. Colo. Moore's Lotty. the Evg.
Bernard Moore, of Chelsea in King William County, was forced to raffle all his property in a lottery to pay his debts, part of which were owed to the administrators of Speaker John Robinson's estate (MAYS, 1:144, 182, 205--6). GW was a manager for the lottery.
In the House of Burgesses today Richard Henry Lee introduced the Potomac navigation bill (H.B.J., 1766--69, 322).
9. Dined at Mrs. Campbells and suppd there with the speaker &ca.
10. Dined at the Speakers & spent the Evening in my own Room.
Today being Sunday, the burgesses did not meet. GW recorded under this date the payment of 7s. 6d. to Benjamin Bucktrout, Williamsburg cabinetmaker and merchant, for repairing a coach house belonging to the printer William Rind (d. 1773). GW may have kept his new chariot there while he was in town (LEDGER A, 299).
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11. Dined at Mr. Wythes--and the Eveng. Spent in my own Room.
12. Dined at Mrs. Campbells and Spent the Evening in my own Room.
Dr. Sequeyra visited Patsy today and on 14 Dec., probably at Eltham (receipt of John de Sequeyra, 16 Dec. 1769, ViHi: Custis Papers; CUSTIS ACCOUNT BOOK and LEDGER A, 299). In the House of Burgesses, GW presented a petition on behalf of Daniel McCarty asking the burgesses to dock the entail on 2,000 acres of land McCarty had inherited from his grandfather and to put under entail in place of that land 1,000 acres in Fauquier County he had bought from his son-in-law Richard Chichester. GW and Richard Henry Lee were ordered to prepare a bill for that purpose (H.B.J., 1766--69, 332--33; McCarty to GW, 6 Dec. 1769, DLC:GW).
13. Dined at Mrs. Campbells and went to the Ball at the Capitol.
Today in the House of Burgesses, GW introduced Daniel McCarty's bill, and the Potomac navigation bill was referred for study to a committee composed of GW, Richard Henry Lee, and the burgesses from Frederick and Hampshire counties. The house also approved an address to the king and a memorial to the governor recommending that the colony's western boundary be changed by running a line from "the Western Termination of the North-Carolina line . . . to the River Ohio" (H.B.J., 1766--69, 334--36). The ball was given in the evening by the burgesses for the governor, the council, and the ladies and gentlemen of the town, and the Capitol was illuminated for the occasion. Of the ladies who attended, "near one hundred, appeared in homespun gowns" to show their support of the nonimportation agreement. "It were to be wished," William Rind's Virginia Gazette observed the following day, "that all assemblies of American Ladies would exhibit a like example of public virtue and private oeconomy, so amiably united" (R and P&D, 14 Dec. 1769). GW paid £1 toward the subscription for this ball on 16 Dec. (LEDGER A, 299).
14. Dined at Mrs. Campbells & spent part of the Evening in drawing Colo. Moores Lottery.
Richard Henry Lee today reported from the committee on the Potomac navigation bill that the committee had studied the bill and made several amendments to it. The house then approved the amended bill and ordered it to be engrossed for a final vote. However, no such vote was taken during this session, and the bill died for lack of further action (H.B.J., 1766--69, 338).
15. Dined at the Attorney's and went to Southalls in the Evening to draw Colo. Moores Lottery.
James Barrett Southall (b. 1726) was at this time operating a tavern on Duke of Gloucester Street which he had leased from the heirs of its original proprietor,
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Henry Wetherburn. Located in the block nearest the Capitol, the tavern had become very popular by 1760, when Wetherburn died, and it continued to have an excellent reputation under Southall, who took it over sometime before June 1767. An experienced innkeeper, Southall had been in business elsewhere in Williamsburg as early as 1757, when GW paid him for supper and club. He remained at the Wetherburn Tavern until 1771 (LEDGER A, 35; GIBBS, 196--97, 204--5).
Daniel McCarty's bill was on this day referred to a committee composed of all the burgesses from Westmoreland, Fairfax, Prince William, and Loudoun counties. The committee must have met immediately because before the house adjourned for the day Richard Henry Lee reported the committee had finished its work. The members had found the allegations of the bill to be true and had recommended an amendment to it. The amended bill was then approved by the house and ordered to be engrossed for a final vote (H.B.J., 1766--69, 340--42).
16. Dined at Mrs. Campbells & drawg. Colo. Moores Lottery till 10 Oclock & then compleated it.
GW was today given permission by the House of Burgesses to be absent for a week, and he paid most of his bills in town as if he intended to go home (H.B.J., 1766--69, 343). The barber George Lafong was given £5 9s. 1d. to settle his account against GW, Jacky, and Patsy; James Craig, a Williamsburg jeweler, received £3 for two mourning rings bought for Harrison Manley and 2s. 6d. for repairing Jacky's buttons; Anthony Hay was paid 14s. for three suppers and other expenses at the Raleigh; and Patsy's medical bills were discharged: £10 15s. to Dr. Sequeyra and £2 13s. 3d. to Dr. William Pasteur, probably for medicines from his apothecary shop on Duke of Gloucester Street (LEDGER A, 299; CUSTIS ACCOUNT BOOK) . Pasteur, who died in 1791, was the son of a Swiss immigrant. He had been apprenticed to a Williamsburg doctor at an early age and had opened his shop by 1759 (BLANTON, 321--22). GW also paid Pasteur 6s. 4d. on his own account (LEDGER A, 299).
17. Dined at the Palace and went up in the Afternoon to Colo. Bassetts.
The burgesses did not meet today, Sunday. GW paid Mrs. Campbell's account against him, Jacky, and Patsy, a total of £42 12s. 6d. (LEDGER A, 299).
18. Came to Town again abt. 12 Oclock. Dind at Mrs. Campbells, & spent the Evening in my own Room a writing.
GW apparently missed today's meeting of the House of Burgesses, a very brief one (H.B.J., 1766--69, 344--45).
19. Dined at Mrs. Campbells an hour after Candlelight & spent the Eveng. in my own Room.
Daniel McCarty's bill was passed today, and GW was ordered to take it to the council for approval (H.B.J., 1766--69, 347). However, that approval was not forthcoming. The councillors used their prerogative to reject the bill without
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explanation, and it failed to become law (H.B.J., 1770--72, 55--56). GW apparently attended the two remaining days of this session of the burgesses.
20. Dined at Mrs. Campbells and spt. the Evening in my own Room.
GW today paid 8s. 3d. for "Barber & Washing" (LEDGER A, 299).
21. Dined at Mrs. Campbells & came up to Eltham after the House adjournd.
Governor Botetourt was reluctant to let the burgesses go home at this time, despite the fact that they had sat six days a week for over six weeks. Apparently many matters remained to be considered. "The Inclination of this Assembly," he told them today, "could alone have engaged me to have interrupted the Business of this Session; but as I understand that it is generally desired to adjourn over the Christmas Holidays, and not to meet again till the Month of May, I do direct both Houses to adjourn themselves to the 21st Day of May next" (H.B.J., 1766--69, 355). Before GW left town, he paid Mrs. Campbell £1 10s. 6d. for his expenses at her place since 17 Dec. (LEDGER A, 299).
22. Sett of for home. Dined at Todds Bridge and lodgd at Hubbards.
Jacky Custis had apparently returned to Boucher's school before this date and was not with the family today.
23. Breakfasted at Caroline Ct. House and reachd Fredericksburg abt. 4 Oclock in the Aftern. ding. at Colo. Lewis.
Caroline Court House was about halfway between Todd's Bridge and Fredericksburg, but lay a few miles east of the main road (RICE, 2:176 and pl. 117; Va. Gaz., R, 19 Oct. 1769). GW's expenses there on this day were 8s. 9d. (LEDGER A, 299). The chief tavern at the Court House had been established about 1733 by Samuel Coleman (1704--1748) and was now owned by his son Francis Coleman (d. 177), a lawyer who served a term as a Caroline burgess 1769--70 (CAMPBELL [1], 410--13; KING [3], 258--59).
24. Went to Prayers, & dined afterwds. at Colo. Lewis. Spent the Evening with Mr. Jones at Julians.
Edward Jones was Mary Ball Washington's overseer at the Ferry Farm. Mrs. Julian kept a tavern on the main street of Fredericksburg until about 1777 ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 9 July 1772, and D&H, 15 Aug. 1777).
25. Dined & spent the Evening at Colo. Lewis's.
GW today recorded winning £2 5s. at cards (LEDGER A, 299).
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26. Dined at Colo. Lewis & went over the River and lodgd at my Mothers.
GW today paid 2s. 6d. to a barber and 3s. 9d. for having his chariot repaired (LEDGER A, 299).
27. Dined and lodgd at Dumfries with Mr. Boucher & J. P. Custis who overtook us on the Road.
Before GW left his mother he gave her £6 in cash (LEDGER A, 299).
28. Reached home to Dinner with Mr. Boucher & ca.
29. At Home all day.
30. Mr. Boucher went away. I Rid to My Mill with [ ] Ball and agreed with [him] to Build here.
GW had decided in the spring to replace his small plantation mill with a merchant mill which could manufacture large quantities of high-grade flour suitable for sale in the colony or for export to lucrative markets abroad (GW to Charles West, 6 June 1769, DLC:GW). By grinding his own wheat he might increase his profit from each year's crop, and if he bought wheat from other farmers and sold flour ground from it, he could make even more money. The new mill was to be built downstream from the old one, near the point where narrow, shallow Dogue Run widened into navigable Dogue Creek, a convenient location for water transportation. But the exact site would not be determined until the terrain in the area had been thoroughly studied.
The millwright was John Ball of Frederick County, who about this time was sending goods by wagon from the Shenandoah Valley to Falmouth (MALONE, 701). He was also probably the John Ball (1742--1806) who settled on Licking Run, Fauquier County, in 1771 (deed of James and Sarah Duff to John Ball, 2 April 1771, Fauquier County Deeds, Book 4, 158, Vi Microfilm). A son of William Ball (1718--1785) of Lancaster County, this John Ball married Sarah Ellen Payne in 1767 and later became a captain in the Fauquier militia (SNODDY, 308; GWATHMEY, 35). His eldest son, William, may have been the William Ball who was engaged to rebuild GW's mill in 1791 (George Augustine Washington's agreement with William Ball, 16 April 1791, DLC:GW).
31. At Home all day.
Acct. of the Weather--in Decr.
Decr. 1. Cloudy & misty the Chief part of the day.
2. Lowering Forenoon with some Intervals [of] Sun in the Afternoon. Warm. Wind So. Wt.
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3. Wind at No. Et. & Raining more or less all day.
4. Lowering & Misty day. But little wind and that at No. Wt.
5. Also lowering & disagreeable Afternoon the Morng. being clear & fine.
6. Cold & Raw. Cloudy afternoon with some Rain.
7. Clear and tolerable pleasant.
8. Clear but cool the Wind at No. West.
9. Clear and Cool the Wind Westwardly.
10. Also clear & cool. Wind in the same quarter.
11. Fine Morning, disagreeable Noon, & Rainy Afternoon. Wind Eastwardly.
12. Wind Southwest--& Misty, Rainy & sometimes Sunshine. Night warm.
13. Wind shifted to No. West in the Morning and blew hard growing amazingly Cold in the Night.
14. Ground exceeding hard froze and day cold (& clear) but not equal to Yesterday Afternoon.
15. Still cold but more moderate than yesterday. The Afternoon lowering & exceeding like for Snow.
16. Clear and more pleasant.
17. Clear & pleasant with but little Wind. Evening Cool.
18. Clear, warm & pleasant in the forenoon. Wind southwardly and Afternoon Lowering. Night Raining.
19. Misting & Raining by turns all day--the Wind being at No. East.
20. Cold Raw and Cloudy Wind what there was of it, Northwardly. Evening more moderate & clearing.
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21. Very pleasant, being clear & wind Southwardly.
22. Wind at No. Et. Cloudy & Cold with a little appearance of the Sun.
23. Exceeding cold Morning. Very cloudy with great appearance of Snow. Wind Northwardly.
24. Clear and more moderate but still cool. A very white frost & Wind Northwardly--but little of it.
25. A very white Frost, clear, still, & very pleasant till the Evening then cloudy and boisterous.
26. Clear but cool the Wind blowing fresh from the No. West till the Eveng.
27. A Very white frost but still clear & exceeding pleast. Gd. Hard froze.
28. Ground exceeding hard froze & a very white frost. The day lowerg. & very threatning of Snow. Wind East.
29. Remarkably fine, clear & still.
30. Wind at No. West & fresh & day Cold.
31. Clear, still & remarkably fine and pleasant.
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Where & how my time is Spent
Jany. 1. At home all day alone.
2. At home all day. Mr. Peake dined here.
3. At home all day alone.
4. Went a hunting with Jno. Custis & Lund Washington. Started a Deer & then a Fox but got neither.
5. Rid to Muddy hole & Doeg Run. Carrd. the Dogs with me but found nothing. Mr. Warnr. Washington & Mr. Thruston came in the Evening.
6. The two Colo. Fairfaxs and Mrs. Fairfax dind here as did Mr. R. Alexander & the two Gentn. that came the day before. The Belvoir Family returnd after Dinner.
7. Mr. Washng. & Mr. Thruston went to Belvoir.
GW today paid the Rev. Mr. Thruston £10 for his share of lands on the Ohio to be granted under the Proclamation of 1763 (LEDGER A, 302).
8. Went a huntg. with Mr. Alexander, J. P. Custis & Ld. W[ashingto]n, killd a fox (a dog one) after 3 hours chase. Mr. Alexr. went away and Wn. & Thruston came in the Aftern.
9. Went a ducking but got nothing the Creeks and Rivers being froze. Mr. Robt. Adam dined here & returnd.
10. Mr. W[ashingto]n & Mr. Thruston set of home. I went a hunting in the Neck & visited the Plantn. there. Found & killd a bitch fox after treeing it 3 times, & chasg. it abt. 3 Hr.
11. At home all day alone.
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A large part of Washington's pleasure in fox hunting lay in the breeding of fine hunting dogs. (Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union)
12. Ditto--Ditto.
13. Dined at Belvoir with Mrs. Washington Mr. & Miss Custis & returnd afterwds.
14. At home all day alone.
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15. Went up to Alexandria, expecting Court but there was none.
16. Rid to the Mill Doeg Run and Muddy hole.
17. At home all day alone.
18. Went to the Plantn. in the Neck.
GW today paid a Mr. Awbrey 10s. for prescribing medicines for Patsy Custis (CUSTIS ACCOUNT BOOK).
19. At home all day alone.
20. Went a hunting with Jacky Custis & catchd a Bitch Fox after three hours chace. Founded it on the Ck. by J. Soals.
Joseph Soal, a cobbler, rented a plantation from GW in 1769 and 1770 (LEDGER A, 304).
21. At home all day alone.
22. Rid to Posey's Barn and the Mill.
23. Went a hunting after breakfast & found a Fox at Muddy hole & killd her (it being a Bitch) after a chace of better than two hours & after treeing her twice the last of which times she fell dead out of the Tree after being therein sevl. minutes apparently we[ll]. Rid to the Mill afterwards. Mr. Semple & Mr. Robt. Adam dind here.
John Semple (d. 1773) was a Scottish speculator who moved from Charles County, Md., to Prince William County, Va., in 1763 and took over the iron furnace and gristmills on Occoquan Creek that John Ballendine had previously operated. About that same time, Semple acquired Keep Triste iron furnace, on the Virginia shore of the Potomac River a short distance above Harpers Ferry, and in May 1765 he bought from Thomas Colvill the tract of land called Merryland lying in nearby Frederick County, Md. (SKAGGS, 63:28 n.15). He was also an active promoter of a scheme to improve the navigation of the Potomac by forming a company to build locks around the falls and probably discussed the idea with GW on this visit (Semple to GW, 8 Jan. 1770, MnHi).
24. At home all day alone.
25. At home all day alone.
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26. Ditto. Do. Do.
27. Went a hunting, & after trailing a fox a good while the Dogs Raizd a Deer & run out of the Neck with it & did not (some of them at least) come home till the next day.
28. At home all day. In the Afternoon Mr. Semple came here.
29. Dined at Belvoir (with J. P. Custis) & returnd in the Afternoon.
30. Went a hunting, & having found a Deer by Piney Cover. It run to the head of Accatinck before we coud stop the Dogs. Mr. Peake dined here.
Piney Cover was a densely wooded area along Piney Branch, a small stream flowing southeast into Dogue Run about a mile above GW's present mill. The head of navigation on Accotink Creek was about 2 miles southwest of the mouth of Piney Branch.
31. At home alone.
Acct. of the Weather in January
Jany. 1st. Constant Rain the whole day with high & boisterous Wind from the No. Et.
2. Clear and Gold, wind high from the No. West. River froze over.
3. Wind in the same Quarter & very fresh remarkably cold frosty.
4. But very little Wind, & that Southwardly. Day clear & more moderate but the ground very little thawed.
5. Clear & pleasant. Wind Southwardly--the Ground notwithstanding close blockd up.
6. Cloudy Morning, & Rainy Afternoon wind Eastwardly.
7. Again Cloudy in the Morning & rainy Afternoon. River opened.
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8. Clear and Cold. Wind at No. West.
9. Clear & cold Wind Northwardly & fresh River shut up again.
10. Remarkably fine & pleasant being perfectly calm & clear till the Evening then lowering.
11. Raining moderately all day with but little wind and that about So. Wt.
12. Much such a day as yesterday except that what little Wind blew appeard to come [from] the No. East.
13. Cloudy with great appearances of Snow in the forenoon but clear afterwards. Wind at No. West & very cold.
14. Exceeding hard frost River shut up. Wind at No. West and very cold.
15. Exceeding cold tho but little Wind that however at No. West.
16. Very Cold. Wind still at No. West but not hard--yet piercing--clear.
17. Clear & very cold Wind from the same place. Ground not the least thawed.
18. Clear & pleasant in the Morning Cloudy Afternoon & cold. Wind at N. Et.
19. Slightly snowing in the Morning & cloudy afterwards with but little Wind & that Southwardly.
20. Cloudy & still in the morning but a cold Southwesterly wind & wild sky afterwards.
21. Clear & tolerably pleasant Wind being about So. Wt. & yet cool.
22. Clear and tolerably pleasant with variable Wind which abt. Sunset was at No. Et.
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23. Clear and very pleasant Wind being Southwardly & thawing.
24. Very warm & thawing in the forenoon. Frequent showers in the afternoon & wind shifting from south to North & growing Cold. Ice breaking in the River for the first time since the 14.
25. Cold and disagreeable with a fine kind of Sleety Snow. Wind Northward<ly> & very cloudy.
26. Raw, cold & cloudy the first part of the day--but clearg. afterwards. Wd. N. W.
27. Wind Southwardly, pleast. & thawing.
28. Wind at No. West--tolerably fresh in the Morning but not cold. Still afterwards & pleasant.
29. Rather lowering, but moderate & pleasant, with but little Wind & that Southwardly. Ice broken again.
30. Clear and tolerably pleasant but the Wind very high in the Afternoon from the Westward.
31. Clear and cool again, wind No. West.
Where & how my time is Spent
Feby. 1. Went a huntg. (being joind by Mr. Peake Wm. Triplet & Harrison Manley) & after a Chace of near five hours we killd a Fox. Mr. Piper & Mr. Adams came here this afternoon.
2. Mr. Adam & myself walkd to the Mill & up Doeg Run before Dinner.
Robert Adam, who owned a merchant mill and a bakery near Alexandria, would be a major buyer of flour from GW's new mill.
3. At home all day, the above Gentlemn. returnd after dinner to Alexandria.
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4. At home all day. Carlin the Taylor came here in the afternoon and stayed all Night.
William Carlin of Alexandria made clothing for GW, Jacky, Patsy, and some of the Mount Vernon house servants 1764--72 (LEDGER A, 184; LEDGER B, 47; GW's account with Carlin 26 Sept. 1772, ViMtV).
GW today recorded winning £1 5s. at cards (LEDGER A, 302).
5. At home all day. In the Evening Sally Carlyle & Betty Dalton came here.
6. Rid to Muddy hole. Sally Carlyle went to Belvoir--Betty Dalton stayd.
7. Rid to Alexandria to a Meeting of the Trustees. Returnd in the Evening & found Captn. McCarty here.
GW had been appointed a trustee of Alexandria on 16 Dec. 1766, replacing George Johnston of Belvale. However, there is no record in the trustees' minutes of his ever officially attending one of their meetings, even on this day, nor is there any record of his formally resigning the office or being replaced. The business of the trustees today was routine: the draining of marshland, the building of a warehouse, the collection of debts owed to the town, the appointment of a clerk, and the appointment of Jonathan Hall as a trustee in place of John Kirkpatrick (Alexandria town trustees' minutes, 1749--80, 61, 75--76, Vi).
In Alexandria today GW paid several accounts including one for a pair of shoes for Jacky Custis (LEDGER A, 302).
8. Captn. McCarty, Doctr. Rumney and Mr. Jno. Ballendine Dined and lodged here.
Ballendine, having been forced by financial difficulties to transfer his Occoquan mills and iron furnace to John Semple, had since 1765 established another commercial complex farther up the Potomac River at Little Falls. At this time it consisted of merchant mills capable of grinding 50,000 bushels of wheat a year, a bakery with three ovens, a landing for large vessels complete with granaries and countinghouses, and a "public house, well finished, with 10 fire places, good cellars, and . . . a fine French cook." In addition, he was currently building another gristmill and a sawmill and had the rights to 40 lots in the town of Philee, which was planned for the area ( Va, Gaz., R, 29 Nov. 1770). Financial troubles, however, were again plaguing him. His debts were great, and his many creditors were beginning to press him. Nevertheless, like Semple, he was, and until 1775 would remain, a leading promoter of the Potomac navigation scheme.
9. Went a hunting--found a fox and lost it. Mr. Ballendine & the Doctr. still here. Captn. McCarty went from the field.
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10. Jacky Custis returnd to Mr. Bouchers to School. Mr. Ballendine and myself leveled Doeg Run in ordr. to fix on a Mill seat. Returnd to Dinr. wt. the Doctr.
Jacky's departure had been delayed for several weeks, first by the freezing over of the fords between Mount Vernon and Caroline County, then by the heavy snowfall of 4 Feb. (GW to Jonathan Boucher, 3--10 Feb. 1770, NN). He took 10s. in pocket money with him today and rode on a newly repaired saddle (CUSTIS ACCOUNT BOOK).
11. The Doctr. still here. Mr. Ballendine went away early in the Morng. At home all day.
12. At home all day with the Doctr.
13. At home all day with the Doctr. Mr. Fairfax came in the Afternoon.
14. Went into the Neck with Mr. Fairfax a huntg. but was forcd back by Rain. Doctr. Rumney returnd to Alexandria after breakfast this day.
15. Went a huntg. again with Mr. Fairfax & found a fox at the head of the blind Pocoson which we suppose was killd in an hour but coud not find it. Mr. Peake dind here & Mr. R. Alexr. came after.
The mouth of the blind pocosin was on the Potomac shore below the mansion house, at the southwest corner of the Mount Vernon tract (survey by GW for John Posey, 10 Oct. 1769, ViMtV).
16. Huntg. again--found a bitch fox at Piney branch & killd it in an hour. Mr. Fairfax returnd from there and Mr. Alexr. went away [after] dinner.
17. At home all day alone.
18. Went to Pohick Church and returnd to Dinner.
19. Went to Court at Alexandria and returnd in the Evening.
The February court met 19--24 Feb. (Fairfax County Order Book for 176870, 285--331, Vi Microfilm). GW today collected a debt, paid one, and spent 1s. 6d. to have a coffeepot mended (LEDGER A, 302).
20. Went up to Court again and stayd all Night. Lodgd at Captn. Daltons.
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21. Came home in the Evening--Mr. Ross with me.
22. Went up to Court again. Mr. Ross returnd to Colchester. Returnd in the Evening and found my Brothers Saml. & John & the latters wife & Daughter Mr. Lawe. Washington & Daughter & the Revd. Mr. Smith here.
John Augustine and Hannah Bushrod Washington had two daughters: Jane Washington (1759--1791) and Mildred Washington (born c.1760). The daughter of Lawrence Washington of Chotank who came with him on this day is apparently Mary Townshend Washington, who married Robert Stith of King George County in 1773 (see main entry for 10 April 1770). The Rev. Mr. Smith is Thomas Smith of Cople Parish, Westmoreland County.
23. At home all day with the above Com[pany].
24. Went out with the hounds but found nothing.
25. At home all day.
26. At home all day.
27. Ditto. Ditto.
28. Went out with Guns returnd about 12 Oclock without killg. of any thing. My Brothers and the Company that came with them still here.
Acct. of the Weather in February
Feby. 1. Clear & tolerably pleasant there being but little Wind, that however was Northwardly & cool.
2. Cloudy with appearances of Snow but clear & pleasant in the Afternoon but little Wind stirring.
3. Cloudy with a slight mixture of fine hail & Rain. But little Wind & that southly.
4. Snowing more or less all day--the snow about 8 Inches deep. Wind Northward.
5. Cool and Clear Wind No. West.
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6. Pleasant Wind Southwardly and clear.
7. Clear Morning but lowering afternn. intermixed with Snow. Not very cold.
8. Misty kind of Rain at times with a Southwardly Wind and thawing.
9. Still giving and damp with the Wind Northwardly but not cold. Snow almost gone.
10. Heavy damp Morning, with little or no wind, Evening clear and pleast.
11. Still, Mild and pleasant with Clouds.
12. Wind at No. East and slow rain all day which Increasd in the Evening.
13. Rain in the Morning with the Wind abt. So. West. Cloudy & sometimes misty.
14. Cloudy Morning, and from nine or 10 Oclock, constant Rain till abt. One then appearance of fair weather. Wind Southwardly.
15. Calm, clear, and Warm Morning. About 10 Oclock the Wind came out at No. West and blew pretty fresh but not Cold tho it clouded.
16. Cloudy & cool forenoon, Wind being still at No. West, and sometimes pretty fresh. Afternoon clear.
17. Wind at No. West but neither fresh nor cold. Clear, & the Eveng. very pleast.
18. Clear and exceeding pleasant with the wind at So. and but little of it.
19. Fresh Wind from So. with more or less Rain all day. In the Afternoon late the Weather cleard the wind coming out hard & very cold from the No. West.
20. Hard frost. Wind fresh and cold from the No. West. Indeed it might be said that the Wind was high till the Eveng.
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21. But little Wind. Clear and pleast.
22. Lowering forenoon & Rainy Afternoon.
23. Foggy kind of Morning but clear & pleasant afterwards.
24. Rain in the Night & high Wind from the No. West afterwards & Cold afternoon clear.
25. Clear & cold in the forenoon wind being at No. West. Lowerg afternoon.
26. Hard frost. The Wind shifting in the Night to No. West--but the latter part of the day pleast. The Wind getting Southwardly.
27. Clear forenoon but lowering afternoon with the Wind raising from So. Wt. to No. West & Cool.
28. Clear and pleasant with but little Wind & that Southwardly.
Remarks & Occurs. in Feby.
Feby. 2d. Agreed with Joseph Goart, to come down and raise Stone out of my Quarry for my Mill at the Rate of Three pounds pr. Month 26 days to the Month and lost time to be made up.
The walls of the new mill were to be built with local sandstone, which the residents of the area called freestone because of its abundance and the ease with which it could be cut and carved (STUDEBAKER, 37). GW's quarry may have been on the banks of the Potomac River west of his mansion house, where a large bed of freestone was located (GW to Daniel Carroll, 16 Dec. 1793, DLC:GW). Goart, whose name GW variously spelled Gort, Goord, Goort, and Gourt, began his work on 6 Mar. (LEDGER A, 314, 333, 340).
3. Agreed with Mr. Robt. Adam for the Fish catchd at the Fishing Landing I bought of Posey, on the following terms--to wit
He is obligd to take all I catch at that place provided the quantity does not exceed 500 Barls. and will take more than this qty. if he can get Cask to put them in. He is to take them as fast as they are catchd with out giving any interruption to my people; and is to have the use of the Fish House for his Salt, fish, &ca. taking care to have the House clear at least before the next Fishing Season.
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In consideration of which he is to pay me Ten pounds for the use of the House, give 3/ a thousd. for the Herrings (Virg. Money) and 8/4 a hundred (Maryland Curry.) for the whitefish.
Mr. Piper and Lund Washington present.
The fishery was on the 200-acre tract of land GW had acquired at Posey's sale the previous October ( Va. Gaz., R, 19 Oct. 1769). Taken by seining in the Potomac, the fish were packed with salt in large barrels to be sold to local planters for their slaves or to be shipped abroad, often to the West Indies (Robert Adam to GW, 24 June 1771, DLC:GW). Between 13 April and the end of May, Adam received 473,750 herring and 4,623 shad (whitefish), and on 1 Oct. GW was credited with £102 Virginia currency for his fish and rent of his fish house. For shad he was paid 8s. 4d. Virginia per hundred, a better rate than the 8s. 4d. Maryland per hundred given above (LEDGER A, 310).
Where & how my time is Spent
Mar. 1. My Brothers and the Company with them went away about 10 O clock. I went to level the Ground on the other side of Doeg Run. Mr. Magowan & Captn. Wm. Crawford came here this afternoon.
GW was taking elevations west of Dogue Run to determine the best route for a millrace to his new mill. Several months earlier he had been thinking of supplying the new mill with water by having a race dug to it from the pond near his old mill (GW to Charles West, 6 June 1769, DLC:GW). But now he had another plan in mind. The dam near the old mill would be replaced with one farther up Dogue Run, a short distance above the place where it is joined by Piney Branch. From the new Dogue Run dam, a race would be dug southwest to a point on Piney Branch, a few hundred yards above its mouth, where a second dam would be built. Then the race, which would be about two miles in total length, would parallel Dogue Run along the higher ground west of the run down to the new mill, where it would pass through the building into Dogue Creek (VAUGHAN, 56; Warrington Gillingham's map of Mount Vernon, MUIR, between pp. 90 and 91). The idea for this arrangement may have come from John Ball or John Ballendine. Its advantage over GW's first idea was that it would make possible a higher head of water at the mill, because the race would begin at a greater elevation on Dogue Run and would remain near that level by following the higher terrain to the west.
Crawford came today to report on his surveys for GW in western Pennsylvania.
2. At home all day with the two.
3. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto.
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4. Mr. Crawford set of for Williamsburg & Mr. Magowan for Colchester the last of whom returnd.
GW lent Crawford £5 for his journey, which the captain repaid upon his return to Mount Vernon later in the month (LEDGER A, 302).
5. Mr. Magowan went to Dumfries and I to Mr. Rt. Alexanders on a hunting Party where I met Mr. B. Fairfax but first I went over to George Town returng. to Mr. Alexanders at Night.
Established in 1751, Georgetown, Md. (now part of Washington, D.C.), was at this time a small but active trading community at the mouth of Rock Creek, eight miles up the Potomac River from Alexandria. At Georgetown today GW paid John Jost £6 10s. Maryland currency for a rifle and apparently dined at one of the town's two taverns. He also played cards either at Georgetown or at Robert Alexander's house, winning £1 5s. (LEDGER A, 302; RICE, 2:87--88).
6. Went out a hunting with Mr. Alexander [and] his Brothers. Found two or three Foxes but killd neither.
7. Went a hunting again. Found a Fox and run it 6 hours & then lost [it]. I returnd home this Evening.
8. Went to Belvoir with Mr. Magowan, dined and Returnd in the afternoon.
9. At home all day.
10. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run and the Mill. Mr. Magowan went home.
11. At home all day alone.
12. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run and the Mill.
13. Went a huntg. above Darrels Hills & to G. Alexrs. Pocoson. Found a fox by two Dogs in Cliftons Neck but lost it upon joing. the Pack. Returnd abt. 5 Oclock & found Colo. Mason & Mr. Christian here.
Francis Christian, a dancing master from Richmond County who had married Katherine Chinn of Lancaster County in 1750, came this day with Mason to discuss a series of dancing classes to be held during the next few months for the young people of the neighborhood. Some of the classes would meet at Gunston Hall, some at Mount Vernon, and some possibly at other nearby homes (CARTER [3], 2:737; HAYDEN, 76).
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Detail of an early map, showing the Mount Vernon neighborhood. For an accurate map of the area based on recent research, see 1:213. (Library of Congress)
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14. At home all day. Colo. Mason & Mr. Christian dined here & returnd afterwards.
15. At home all day alone.
16. Went to doeg run and took the hounds with me--found a fox by the Widow Ashfords & soon lost him. Upon my return home found Colo. Lewis my Br[other] Ch[arle]s & Mr. Brooke here. In the Evening Mr. Jno. West & Mr. Stedlar came--also Mr. Whiting.
Elizabeth Ashford (died c.1773) is the widow of John Ashford who sold land on Dogue Run to GW in 1761. Mr. Brooke is probably Richard Brooke (died c.1792), a prominent Spotsylvania County landowner who lived near Fredericksburg, and Mr. Whiting is probably Francis Whiting, of Frederick County (later Berkeley County).
GW lost 6s. 3d. at cards on this day (LEDGER A, 302).
17. Rid with Mr. West to Mr. Triplets to settle the Lines of Harrisons Patent. Passd by the Mill with Colo. Lewis. Mr. Whiting went home this Mor<n>ing & Mr. West in the Afternn. from T[riplet]s.
Harrison's patent, a grant of 266 acres made to William Harrison 4 Dec. 1706, lay northwest of Dogue Run between the lands that GW had bought from Pearson and the Ashfords in 1761--62 and Trenn's land, which he had bought in 1764. Part of the patent was now owned by John West Jr.'s mother, Sybil, a daughter of William Harrison, and the remainder by William Triplett (Lord Fairfax's grant to GW, 4 Mar. 1771, Northern Neck Deeds and Grants, Book I, 187, Vi Microfilm; deed of Sybil West to Triplett, 26 Mar. 1777, Fairfax County Deeds, Book M-1, 315--16, Vi Microfilm). The boundaries of the patent were surveyed on this day because GW's proposed new millrace and dams would be near the southeast line and might infringe upon it.
18. Went to Pohick Church and retur<nd> to Dinner. Colo. Lewis &ca. went away this Morning & Jno. Ball the Millright came in the afternoon.
19. Went to the Mill with Jno. Ball to take the Level of the Run on the otherside. Did not get home till Night.
20. Went up to Court & returnd in the Evening.
The court was in session 19--23 Mar. GW attended only on this day, arriving late with John West, Jr. (Fairfax County Order Book for 1768--70, 331--55, Vi Microfilm).
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21. Joind some dogs that were self hunting & from thence went to the Mill & was levelling all the remainder of the day with Jno. Ball &ca.
22. Rid to the Mill and laid of with the Millwright the foundation for the New Mill House. Upon my return found Captn. Crawford here.
The site selected for the new mill was about one-third of a mile down Dogue Run, on the opposite bank, from the old mill. There, as planned, the tidal waters of the navigable portion of the stream, Dogue Creek, would flow up to the tailrace, enabling flat-bottom boats to deliver grain to the mill's door, from whence it would be "hoisted . . . to the garners above" (advertisement, 1 Feb. 1796, WRITINGS, 34:433--41). The same boats would carry flour down to the mouth of the creek, where a brig or schooner would take the cargo aboard and transport it to the markets at Alexandria, Norfolk, or elsewhere. The site of the new mill was also convenient for land traffic, because the road from Gum Spring to Colchester passed between it and the edge of the creek, being only a few feet from both. The foundations of the building, as laid off on this day, measured roughly 40 by 50 feet (BURSON, blueprint no. 2). When finished, the mill would be 2½ stories high, equipped with a breast wheel 16 feet in diameter and two sets of millstones, one to be used exclusively for merchant work and the other for custom work, that is, grinding local farmers' grain in return for one-eighth of the amount brought in, the legal toll at this time (HENING, 6:58). This custom business would be still another source of income provided by the new mill.
23. At home all day. Captn. Crawford and Mr. Manley here.
On this day GW gave Crawford £8 15s. Pennsylvania currency to buy surveying instruments in Philadelphia and £57 Pennsylvania currency to survey and obtain rights to some tracts of land along the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers for him (LEDGER A, 316). Crawford later returned the £57 when doubt arose over whether those lands would be in Pennsylvania after the colony's western boundary was established, but GW continued to be interested in the area for some time (William Crawford to GW, 5 May 1770, DLC:GW). That interest was apparently shared by Harrison Manley, on whose account GW today advanced Crawford £27 Virginia currency plus £10 Virginia currency for Lund Washington and £15 Pennsylvania currency for Samuel Washington (LEDGER A, 115, 313, 315).
24. Surveying the vacancy's of waste Land by Mr. Triplet & straitning the Mill Race.
GW had found there was a small parcel of unclaimed land between Harrison's patent and Dogue Run, and he was now surveying it with the intention of obtaining a grant from Lord Fairfax and thus providing more room along the run to accommodate his new millrace and dams (grant of Lord Fairfax to GW, 4 Mar. 1771, Northern Neck Deeds and Grants, Book I, 187, Vi Microfilm).
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25. At home all day. In the afternoon Messrs. B. Fairfax & Robt. & Philip Alexander came here.
26. Went a hunting with the above Gentln. & killd a fox after two hours chace. The two Mr. Triplets Peake &ca. were with us. T. Triplet & H. Manley dind he<re>.
27. Again went a hunting with the above Compy. but found no Fox. Mr. Geo. Alexander & Mr. Peake dind here with the other Compa.--as Mr. Ramsay did.
28. Went a huntg. again & killd a fox. All the Compy. went home from the field.
29. Running some Lines by Mr. Wm. Triplets all day.
30. At Home. The two Colo. Fairfax's & Mrs. Fairfax dind here & returnd in the afternoon.
31. At home all day writing.
Acct. of the Weather in March
Mar. 1st. Wind Northwardly. Cold & Cloudy with Snow every now and then.
2. Cloudy with a Mixture of Hail Rain & Snow, but not much of it.
3. Clear and tolerably pleasant, but a little Cool. Wind being rather fresh from the No. West.
4. Cloudy Morning, then Snow, after that Snow and Rain mixd, and lastly constant Rain.
5. Snow about 3 Inches deep. Weather clear. Wind Westwardly in the forenoon but calm warm and thawing afterwards.
6. Clear and pleasant with the wind at South.
7. Clear & calm in the Morning, with a Northwardly Wind afterwards but pleasant Notwithstanding.
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8. Clear & pleasant with the Wind Southwardly.
9. Clear and very pleasant with the Wind still Southwardly. In the Afternoon the Wind fresh with appearances of Rain.
10. Lowering and very smoky all day. Wind very fresh from the Southward in the forenoon but quite calm afterwards.
11. Raining a little, and misting all the forenoon, which ceased in the Afternoon, but still kept cloudy. Wind variable but for the most part about North.
12. Cloudy Morning with but little Wind. Clear afternoon with the wind fresh at No. West & Cold.
13. Ground hard froze--but the morning calm, clear and pleasant. The afternoon raw & cold with the Wind fresh from So. West & very cloudy. In the Night Snow abt. an Inch deep.
14. Cloudy all day, & sometimes dropg. Rain. Wind being Eastwardly & fresh.
15. Wind Eastwardly--from thence shifting to North & No. Wt. Constant Snow about abt. Sun rise till 12 or one Oclock then ceasing but cloudy & cold afterwards.
16. Wind blowing fresh & clear all day from the No. West.
17. Ground hard froze and Morning Cool. Wind being fresh from the No. West. Afternoon being pleast. & little Wind--also clear.
18. Clear, warm & pleasant, there being but little Wind.
19. Cloudy all day--till Evening at least with much appearance of Rain in the Morning, but high Wind at No. West in the afternoon.
20. Clear & pleasant Morning with the Wind at South but lowering Afternoon & very cloudy Evening.
21. The Morning was fine, but the Wind and Weather was variable. Afterwards sometimes cloudy & then clear & sometimes calm & then the Wind woud be fresh.
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22. Wind at No. West and very hard. Snowd fast till abt. 9 or 10 Oclock then clear and cold. Wind still high.
23. Clear, and hard frost. Morning calm and pleasant but high & boisterous wind in the Afternoon from the No. West.
24. Ground very hard froze. The morning again clear and calm but the Wind hard from the No. West after 9 Oclock.
25. Clear, calm, warm and pleasant in the Evening. The Wind blew pretty fresh from the Southward.
26. Very smoky. Calm and some appearance of Rain, but none fell till in the Night & not much then.
27. Close warm Morning, & Rain (tho not hard) about 10 or 11 Oclock. No. Wind and the Afternoon clear.
28. Clear & still Morning with some Wind in the Afternoon from the Westward.
29. Hazy but pleasant notwithstanding. Wind westwardly & fresh.
30. Clear & pleasant with but little wind.
31. Clear and pleasant with but little wind and that Southwardly.
Remarks & Occurans. in Mar.
6th. Joseph Gort a stone Mason came here to raise Stone.
Began to Enlist Corn Ground at Muddy hole Plantation.
Began to Enlist Ditto in the Neck that is to lay of the Ground.
Began the same Work at Doeg Run Plantation.
Goart worked one month and was paid £3 as he and GW had agreed on 2 Feb. (LEDGER A, 314). But, instead of cutting stone in GW's quarry, Goart took it from quarries on George William Fairfax's land, where the stone could be obtained much more easily. Fairfax allowed his quarries to be used as a favor to GW and charged him nothing for that privilege (GW to Fairfax, 27 June 1770, IaST).
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26. Countess a hound Bitch after being confind sometime got loose and was lined before it was discovered by my Water dog once and a small foist looking yellow cur twice.
GW had paid £1 16s. for a spaniel on 5 Feb. (LEDGER A, 302).
28. She was lined by Ranger a dog I had from Mr. Fairfax.
I planted three french Walnuts in the New Garden, & on that side next the work House.
FRENCH WALNUT: Juglans regia, now the English walnut but often called the French or Eurasian walnut.
Where & how my time is Spent
Apl. 1. Went to Pohick Church and returnd home to Dinner.
2. Rid to see Mr. Humphrey Peake who lay ill. Returnd to Dinner.
3. Rid to see Mr. Peake again with Mrs. Washington. Returnd to Dinner.
4. Rid to the Mill--Doeg Run and Muddy hole.
5. Rid into the Neck and called to see Mr. Peake in my way.
6. Went a hunting but found nothing. Returnd to Dinner.
7. Run round the Lines of the Land I bought of the Ashfords. In the Evening Doctr. Craik his Wife and daughter & Mr. Phil Fendall came here.
Dr. James Craik had married Mariamne Ewell (1740--1814), daughter of Charles Ewell of Prince William County, in Nov. 1760. Her mother, Sarah Ball Ewell, was a granddaughter of GW's maternal grandfather, Joseph Ball. The Craiks eventually had nine children, of whom three were daughters: Nancy, Sarah, and Mariamne (HAYDEN, 341--43).
Philip Richard Fendall (b. 1734) was at this time a merchant and clerk of court in Charles County, Md. (MD. ARCHIVES, 62:280, 462). Son of Benjamin and Elinor Lee Fendall, he had married his cousin Sarah Lettice Lee, daughter of Squire Richard Lee of Blenheim, Charles County, Md. (LEE [1], 108 n.20).
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8. Major Wagener came here to Dinner, & the others went away after.
9. Major Wagener went away after breakfast. I rid to Muddy hole & from thence to the Mill.
10. Miss Polly Washington set of home. I rid to the Genl. Muster at Cameron.
Polly Washington must be Mary Townshend Washington, who apparently continued at Mount Vernon after her father and the rest of her party left on 1 Mar. General musters of county militias during this period were held once a year in March or April. Because GW was a county magistrate and held no rank in the Fairfax militia, he was exempt by law from attending its musters (HENING, 7:534, 8:242--45). He probably went to Cameron today to see friends or to conduct some business (LEDGER A, 314).
11. Rid to Doeg Run Qrs. & returnd to Dinner. Mr. John West came in the Afternoon.
12. Mr. West & I run and markd the Dividing Line between my Part & that of Spencer's Tract at least began to do it but cd. not finish it.
GW had long been frustrated in attempts to plot accurately the dividing line between the two halves of the Spencer-Washington grant, because about 1741 the northern boundary of the grant had been moved south nearly 200 rods to accommodate other grants (R. O. Brooke's survey, c.1741, CALLAHAN, facing p. 3). Thus, GW did not know whether to run the line as if it were coming from the center of the original northern boundary as stipulated in the 1690 division or from the center of the revised boundary (survey and division by George Brent, 18 Sept. and 23 Dec. 1690, ViMtV). In addition, many of the marking trees mentioned in the old surveys had disappeared or could not be found (survey by GW, 1--2 Oct. 1759, ViMtV). Determined to establish at last the exact western boundary of the Mount Vernon tract, GW had invited John West, Jr., and Thomas Hanson Marshall, the two gentlemen who now owned the portions of the old Spencer tract lying on the line, to join him in making the survey begun today. Marshall declined to come, giving first his own illness and then his wife's as his excuse, probably a legitimate one in the latter case, at least, because Mrs. Marshall died 5 Dec. 1770 (Marshall to GW, 8 and 11 April 1770, DLC:GW; GERALD, 173). None of the Spencer tract now remained in that family's possession, Col. Nicholas Spencer's grandson William having sold it in various parcels 1738--39. Those besides West and Marshall who now owned parts of the tract were Daniel French, Harrison Manley, the Wade sisters, and GW.
13. We finished to day what we began yesterday & he and Mr. Robt. Adam dined and lodged here.
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GW and West probably decided to use Brent's original dividing line, running it as accurately as possible, because West's and Marshall's tracts had been bought from William Spencer before the northern boundary had been changed (deed of Spencer to George Harrison, 25--26 May 1739, Prince William County Deeds, Book D, 94--100, Vi Microfilm; deed of Spencer to Thomas Marshall, 20--21 Nov. 1739, Prince William County Deeds, Book D, 289--94, Vi Microfilm).
14. Rid to the Mill & fishing Landg. at Poseys. Mr. Stedlar came in the afternoon and Mr. West & Mr. Adam went away in the Morng. before breakfast.
Rid to the Mill & came home by the Fishery at Poseys, found Mr. Stedlar here; & in the Afternoon the Stone Masons came to go about my Mill.
STONE MASONS: See "Remarks" entry for 14 April 1770.
15. At home all day. Mr. Grayson came here in the Afternoon.
William Grayson had brought suit in Fairfax County court against John Ballendine for recovery of a debt, and the case was to be heard on the following day along with several similar cases involving creditors of Ballendine (Fairfax County Order Book for 1770--72, 4, Vi Microfilm).
16. Went up to Alexandria to Court & stayed all Night.
The court met 16--17 April. On this day John Ballendine, having been convicted in several cases of debt and being insolvent, was committed to the county jail. After staying there for 20 days, he could, according to law, be released by a warrant from two or more justices, and his creditors could then sue to have his property seized and sold for their benefit (Fairfax County Order Book for 1770--72, 1--15, Vi Microfilm; HENING, 8:329).
17. Returnd home in the Afternoon with Mr. Josh. Gallaway, & Colo. R. Lee.
In court today Thomas Montgomerie of Dumfries had recorded a letter from Margaret Savage which granted him power of attorney in her affairs (Fairfax County Order Book for 1770--72, 15, Vi Microfilm). Mrs. Savage's husband had apparently coerced or coaxed her into taking this step, which put her trustees, GW and Bryan Fairfax, in the awkward position of having to demand payment of her annuity from Montgomerie as Dr. Savage's agent and then giving the money to him as Mrs. Savage's legal representative. Knowing that Montgomerie had no obligation to send Mrs. Savage her money, GW and Fairfax tried to postpone dealing with him until they could get some clarification of the matter from Mrs. Savage (GW to Bryan Fairfax, 12 Dec. 1770; GW to Margaret Savage, 5 Sept. 1771; and Margaret Savage to GW, 19 Aug. 1772, DLC:GW).
Joseph Galloway (c. 1731--1803) of Philadelphia was a rich and powerful lawyer with scholarly tastes. At this time he was Speaker of the Pennsylvania
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Assembly and vice-president of the American Philosophical Society. He also had a great interest in western lands and was a member of the Grand Ohio Company, commonly known as the Walpole Company.
18. The above Gentlemen went away after breakfast. Patsy Custis, & Milly Posey went to Colo. Mason's to the Dancing School. Mr. Magowan who I found here yesterday stayed. Mr. Ball & one of his People set in to Work today--as did the Mason's to raising stone yesterday.
GW today paid Francis Christian £2 to admit Patsy and Milly to his school (LEDGER A, 314). Christian's dancing classes often lasted several days in each home, and the days were usually long. In a class which he held in Westmoreland County in 1773, "the Scholars" began soon after breakfast by having "their Lesson singly round." Then, "there were several Minuets danced with great ease and propriety; after which the whole company Joined in countrydances." The class continued until 7:30 P.M. with breaks for dinner and candle lighting. Christian was observed to be "punctual, and rigid in his discipline, so strict indeed that he struck two of the young Misses for a fault in the course of their performance" (FITHIAN, 44--45).
MR. BALL: see "Remarks" for 16 and 18 April 1770.
19. Mr. Magowan & Mr. Adam dind here. The Mason's began to Dig the foundation of my Mill at 2/6 pr. day. I rid to the Mill & doeg Run.
20. Rid to see Mr. Peake who was Sick from thence to the Mill & home by Posey's. Mr. Adams dind here.
21. Rid to where they were digging the foundation of my Mill and home again by the Millwright and the fishery at Poseys.
22. At home all day. Mr. Adam & Doctr. Rumney dined here and the latter lodged here also & Captn. Posey.
23. Rid to see Mr. Peake, from thence to Muddy hole & Doeg Run to the Mill & then home by the fishg. Landing. Mr. Adam dined and lodgd here. Captn. Posey also lodgd here.
Although the strip of land on which Posey's house and ferry were located was still involved in the court suit of John West, Jr., GW today agreed to rent it from Posey for £10 a year (LEDGER A, 256). Posey apparently moved to Queenstown on the Eastern Shore of Maryland some time during the next year (John Posey to GW, 25 May 1771, DLC:GW).
24. Went the same Round as yesterday. Captn. McCarty & Captn. Posey dined here & the Doctr. lodgd here.
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25. The Doctr. went away after breakfast and I rid the same round. Colo. Robt. Fairfax calld here in the forenoon but did not stay dinner.
26. Rid my usual rounds before Dinner and the same after dinnr.
27. Went to Belvoir--dined and returnd afterwards.
28. Rid to the Millwrights Mill, & to Mr. Peakes before dinner and to the fishery at Posey, & to the Mill again in the afternoon.
29. At home all day. Doctr. Rumney dined and lodged here & Mr. Matthw. Campbell lodged here.
30. The Doctr. stayed till after dinner and then returnd to Alexandria. I rid to the Mill & my usual rounds before dinner and to the Mill after Dinner.
Acct. of the Weather in April
April 1. Raw & cold Wind at No. Et. with great appearances (sometimes of falling Weather--at other times clear).
2. This Morning the Snow was an Inch or two deep & continued Snowing (fine Snow) all day with the Wind Northwardly & cold but the Snow did not Increase much in depth.
3. Clear and very cold, the Wind blowing hard at No. West notwithstanding wch. the Snow was almost wholely gone before Night.
4. The Ground froze very hard. The Weather clear and exceeding cold. The Wind blowing fresh at No. West.
5. Wind still Westwardly & cool, but not equal to the former days.
6. Warm and pleasant, tho the Wind was still Westwardly and fresh.
7. Cool. Wind blowing fresh at No. West. Weather clear.
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8. Lowering & much like Snow. Wind blowing cold & Raw from the No. & N. Et.
9. Cold & disagreeable Wind blowing fresh from the No. West again.
10. Just such a day as yesterday but if anything colder.
11. Wind still in the same place but not so cold as yesterday.
12. Wind at So. West and Weather warmer than the preceeding days.
13. Wind at South, the day very hot & sultry--with thunder, lightning & a Shower of Rain about three oclock.
14. Cooler than yesterday & lowering with the Wind abt. No. Et. In the Afternoon it began Raining & continued to do so more or less through the Night.
15. Misty & lowering all day with but little Wind & that from the Southward.
16. Lowering Morning but clear & Warm afterwards, the Wind being southwardly.
17. Also warm, notwithstanding the Wind was westwardly & varying to the North and blowing very fresh.
18. Cold & Raw all day. Wind Eastwardly in the Morning & Southwardly afterwards--much like Rain.
19. Clear & pleasant weather turning warm again.
20. Clear & warm in the forenoon--it being still. But cooler in the Afternoon. Wind being tolerably fresh from the Eastward.
21. Warm and still all the day till the Afternoon, then a floury of wind which soon subsided.
22. Very warm and still with some appearances of Rain.
23. Very warm in the forenoon clear and still with severe wind & some Rain from the No. West just at Night.
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24. Wind at No. West & cool compard with the preceeding days.
25. Wind Northwardly & cool in the M[orning] but warmer in the afternoon. Wind shifting Southwardly.
26. Something warmer than yesterday but rather cool still. Wind fresh from the Southeast & cloudy in the afternoon.
27. Wind pretty brisk & cool from the southward. Day cloudy and from abt. 4 Oclock in the Afternoon slow Rain.
28. Morning Calm, clear and pleast. Afterwards cool & windy from the Northwest.
29. High Wind from the Northwest all day, & cold.
30. Wind in the same place and very cold & hard. A smart frost this morning.
Remarks & Occurrances in Apl.
9th. Finished listing Ground for Corn at Muddy hole.
The Hound Bitch Singer was lind by Jowler.
11. The Bitch Truelove was lined twice by Ringwood. She had been frequently shut up with forrister--but it is thought he never lined her.
13. Forrister was seen lined to Truelove.
Began my Fishery at Poseys for Mr. Robt. Adam.
14. She was again lined by Ringwood and Singer I saw lined by Jowler.
This day I began to draw the Water of my Meadow by breaking the Dam or stop that confind it.
Hull & the other Stone Mason came here to set about my Mill --but did not began work till the 17th.
GW is having his old millpond drained. John Hull was paid £31 153. 1d. in September for work done on the new mill, which probably included wages for both stonemasons between April and September. Hull's partner could be Joseph Goart, who continued doing occasional work for GW through the spring of the next year (LEDGER A, 320, 333, 340).
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15. Singer was again lined by Jowler & Truelover by Ringwood.
16. Mr. Ball the Millwright and one of his People came here to work.
Ball at one time or another had five of his own men working on the mill: Thomas Ball for 38½ days, Richard Talbott for 31 days, John Grinstead for 24½ days, Reason Porter for 19½ days, and Edward Todd for 9 days. The helper who came this day was probably Grinstead, Porter, or Todd. Ball himself worked for 38 days on the mill (LEDGER A, 324).
17. Hull & his Partner began to raise stone.
18. Ball and his Apprentice set abt. the shaft for the Mill &ca. Jowler lined Singer & Ringwood Truelove again.
The shaft was the large wooden axle on which the waterwheel was to turn.
19. The Mason's went to digging the foundation of my Mill at 2/6 pr. day. Jowler lined Singer & Forrister lined truelove.
20. Jowler again lined Singer.
21. Richd. Talbot & one other of Ball's hands came here in the Afternoon.
23. Began to Plant Corn in the Neck--at Muddy hole, and at Doeg Run.
Mr. Ball, Talbot & Grinnel were levalling the Mill Race. His other hand went for their Tools to Cameron. T. Ball came this Aftern.
Thomas Bird set to work on the foundation of the Mill at 1/3 pr. day.
GRINNEL: This name does not appear in GW's ledger for this year and may be a garbling of the last name of Ball's helper, John Grinstead. T. BALL: The John Ball who settled in Fauquier County in 1771 had a younger brother Thomas (SNODDY, 308; see main entry for 30 Dec. 1769).
Thomas Byrd was paid £1 1s. 3d. in May for his work at the mill, and during the summer he received £3 15s. 6d. more for helping to harvest GW's wheat (LEDGER A, 321).
26. He began to work on my Mill Race at 1/3 pr. Rod & to find himself and Sciagusta a prisoner from the Indians came here, and began to work with my People.
Work on the millrace began near the mill, and during the next year it progressed slowly north toward Piney Branch and the upper part of Dogue
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Run. The race was dug several feet into the ground along its two-mile route, except where occasional low-lying areas had to be crossed. In those places earth embankments were raised to keep the water at a constant level, thus preventing any great lowering of the head of water at the mill. The sides of the race were probably supported by timber in both the banked and excavated sections (Lund Washington to GW, 2 Sept. 1778, ViMtV). TO FIND HIMSELF means that Byrd was to supply his own food. "Sciagusta did not work long, as he received but three shillings for his services" (DIARIES, 1:376 n.1; LEDGER A, 314). Other ditchers hired during the next two weeks to work on the millrace would prove to be no more eager to stick to this backbreaking task.
27. As it Raind from abt. 3 or 4 Oclock in the Afternoon I presume work was stoped by the Millwrights and Masons.
28. Clevelands Waggon & Team began to Work for me at [ ] pr. day.
Reason--one of Balls Men did no work by a Boyl under his Arm.
James Cleveland's wagon and team worked ten days at 10s. a day between this date and 9 May. GW had also employed them on 19 and 20 April at 12s. 6d. a day, and on 15 April they had carried two loads for him at 1s. 6d. a load (LEDGER A, 312).
29. Coxe Rice came to Work at the rate of 30/. pr. Month & Victuals found him.
Reason Porter went to work again today.
Rice, who may have been hired to help with the mill, was to receive his meals as well as wages for his work, but it is apparent, as he is not mentioned in GW's ledger, that he quit before earning any money.
Where & how my time is Spent
May 1st. Rid in the forenoon to where the Millwrights & Masons were at Work--also the Ditchers & the fish Landing at Poseys. In the afternoon rid to the Mill only. Mrs. W. Washington & her youngest Child & Mrs. Bushrod & Katy Washington came in the Eveng.
Mrs. Warner Washington's youngest child at this time was Catharine Washington (b. 1769). KATY WASHINGTON: Catherine Washington, daughter of the deceased Henry Washington of Middlesex County and niece of Mrs. Mildred Bushrod.
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2. Mrs. Washington went to Belvoir & Mrs. Bushrod continued here. I rid to the Mill and Ditcher[s] in the forenoon, and afternoon.
3. Went the above rounds before dinner--but did not go out afterwards.
4. Rid to the Masons & Ditchers before dinner.
5. Rid to the Mill Rights--Masons & Ditchers before dinner, & to Doeg Run Qr.
6. At home all day. Colo. Robt. Fairfax Mrs. Fairfax Mrs. W. Washington & the two Miss Carlyles came from Belvoir & dined here. Colo. Fairfax Mrs. Fairfax & Nancy Carlyle returnd after dinr. Mrs. W. & Sally stayed.
7. Rid to the Mill ditchers, &ca. before dinner & to the Mill afterwards.
8. Went the same rounds again and promised the ditchers 18d. a Rod if they woud be brisk and stick to it.
Miss Betty Ramsay & Milly Hunter also Anthy. Ramsay came here today. The latter returnd after dinner. The others stayed.
For GW's difficulties with the ditchers, see "Remarks" entries for 1--8 May 1770.
Amelia Hunter, a daughter of the Alexandria physician John Hunter and his wife Elizabeth, married a Mr. Terrett sometime before May 1776 (will of John Hunter, 10 June 1763, Fairfax County Wills, Book B-1, 364--65, Vi Microfilm; will of George Hunter, 17 May 1776, Fairfax County Wills, Book C-1, 257--58, Vi Microfilm). Anthony Ramsay of Alexandria was a lawyer who had been admitted to the bar of the Fairfax County court 19 Feb. 1770 (Fairfax County Order Book for 1768--70, 286, Vi Microfilm). Young Ramsay, the eldest son of William Ramsay, died during the winter of 1772-73.
9. Mr. Christian danced here--(who) (besides his Scholars, and those already mentioned to be here) Mrs. Peake & Niece Mr. Massey--Mr. Piper & Mr. Adams dined here.
Mrs. Humphrey Peake's sister, Sarah Stonestreet, married Richard Edelen of Maryland; the niece is probably a daughter of that marriage, possibly Frances Edelin (see main entry for 28 Dec. 1771).
Rev. Lee Massey (1732--1814), rector of Truro Parish 1767--77, lived at this time on the Occoquan with his first wife, Mary Johnston Massey, daughter of George and Mary Johnston of Alexandria (will of Mary Johnston, 20 Nov. 1769, Fairfax County Wills, Book C-1, 73, Vi Microfilm; Mason
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Family Bible, MASON [2], 1:480--81). After her death he married a Miss Burwell, who soon died also; he then married Elizabeth Bronaugh of Prince William County (MEADE [1], 2:239--40). A lawyer in early life, Massey had been chosen successor to Rev. Charles Green by the Truro vestrymen in Feb. 1766 and had been sent to England for ordination, officially becoming rector the next February (Truro Vestry Book, 110, 119, DLC).
10. Rid to the Mill. Mr. Christian & some of his scholars went away this afternoon. Mrs. W--n & Mrs. B[ushrod] went to B[elvoir].
11. The rest of the Scholars went away after breakfast. Mrs. Washn. & Mr. W. Washington came this Afternoon. Mr. Semple who came last Night went away after Bt. I rid to the Mill &ca. before & after Dinner.
12. At home all day. Mr. Stedlar here. Mr. & Mrs. Washington & Mrs. Bushrod went to Colchester & returnd in the Afternn.
13. Went to Church with all the Compy. here. Dind at Belvoir & returnd in the Afternoon.
14. Rid to Muddy hole to my Ditchers & the Mill. Mr. Washington wife & Child & Mrs. Bushrod &ca. went away.
15. Rid to the Ditchers & Mill before Dinner--at home afterwards.
16. Rid by Muddy hole to the Mill and to the Ditchers & came home by Poseys.
17. Rid to the Mill and Ditchers again.
18. Did the same. Returnd to Dinner with Mr. Ross. Found Mr. Ramsay there. Went in the Afternoon to McCartys Sale of Poseys Effects. He & Mr. Ramsay returnd with me & lodgd.
Daniel McCarty and Bryan Fairfax had given special bail for John Posey in several suits decided against him during Feb. 1770 (Fairfax County Order Book for 1768--70, 234--35, 305--14, Vi Microfilm).
19. Set of for Williamsburg--dind at Dumfries--calld at My Mothers and lodgd at Colo. Lewis's in Fredericksbg.
The burgesses were to begin meeting again on 21 May. Before GW left home, he gave Lund Washington, who was to be in charge of his business at Mount
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A French officer sketched this plan of Dumfries during the Revolution. (Map Division, Library of Congress)
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Vernon while he was gone, £30 in cash to be accounted for (LEDGER A, 313, 314).
20. Breakfasted at Mr. Bouchers--dind at Coleman's & lodgd at Todds bridge.
Jonathan Boucher had been trying for several years to obtain the rectorate of St. Anne's Parish in Annapolis, Md., which offered a better livelihood than he had in Caroline County. Now, through the influence of Rev. Henry Addison, he was near to achieving that aim. At breakfast on this day, he and GW apparently discussed the matter and agreed that, if the move was made, Jacky would go to Annapolis also and continue his schooling under Boucher there, provided that Mrs. Washington approved. But GW was unwilling to agree with the tutor on another point. Boucher had been recently urging the Washingtons to allow him to take Jacky on an extended tour of Europe beginning about 1772. GW did not dispute the educational advantages of such a tour, but he was concerned that its cost would be more than Jacky's estate could afford. Any decision about the trip, he told Boucher, would have to wait until he consulted friends in Williamsburg (Boucher to GW, 9 and 21 May 1770, DLC:GW; GW to Boucher, 2--9 June 1770, NN).
This Coleman tavern was probably at Bowling Green, on the main road from Fredericksburg to Williamsburg, about three miles from Caroline Court House (see main entry for 25 June 1770 and Va. Gaz., R, 19 Oct. 1769). The Bowling Green tavern was owned by John Hoomes (d. 1805), "a very wealthy person" who was now living in Sussex County (RICE, 2:98, 176). He had advertised the tavern for lease during the previous October, and apparently a member of the local Coleman family, possibly Francis Coleman of Caroline Court House, had taken it over and had opened it since GW's last trip to Williamsburg, when he had eaten at the Court House ( Va. Gaz., R, 19 Oct. 1769). GW and most other travelers through this area preferred to stop at Bowling Green when the tavern there was open, because going to the Court House required a side trip of several miles.
21. Breakfasted at King Wm. Ct. House & dind & lodgd at Eltham.
GW today spent 3s. at Ruffin's ferry and somewhere on his route bought a pair of shoes costing 6s. for the mulatto manservant, Billy, who accompanied him (LEDGER A, 314).
22. Reached Williamsburg to Breakfast & dined at the Club at Mrs. Campb[ells] and supped at the Raleigh.
GW lodged at Mrs. Campbell's tavern for his stay in town. The House of Burgesses, which had convened the previous day as scheduled, dealt mostly with private bills during this session and transacted relatively "little business of a public nature" (GW to George W. Fairfax, 27 June 1770, IaST).
23. Dined at Mrs. Dawson's and spent the Evening in my own Room.
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24. Dined at the Treasurers, & spent the Evening in my own Room.
Between this date and 29 May, GW bought four play tickets for 30s.; clubbed twice at the Raleigh, purchased a vial of red ink costing 1s. 3d., and paid 2s. for postage and coffee (LEDGER A, 314).
25. Dined at the Palace & attended a Committee of the Association at Hayes. Spent the Eveng. there.
A general meeting of the Virginia nonimportation association had been held in Williamsburg 22 May, and a committee of 20 gentlemen, including GW, had been appointed to revise the agreement that the associators had signed the previous year ( Va. Gaz., R, 3 May 1770; CARTER [3], 1:418). Changes were needed, it was generally agreed, because the agreement was causing much confusion and dissatisfaction in the colony and there were many violations of its terms by Virginians. Men in some of the other colonies were complaining that "if some prudent steps are not taken to regulate importation, in a short time Virginia will be remarkable, only, for resolving" ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 14 June 1770, supp.). However, the members of the committee were deeply divided in opinion about how the nonimportation agreement should be changed. Some members, led by Treasurer Robert Carter Nicholas and Edmund Pendleton, wanted to moderate or abolish it as a gesture of compromise to Parliament for repealing all the disputed taxes except the one on tea. Other members insisted there could be no compromise of principle as long as the tea tax remained, and they favored strengthening the association's agreement with stricter terms and stricter means of enforcement (CARTER [3], 1:418). GW seems to have agreed with this last viewpoint, but he was willing to relax the association in order to obtain a more general adherence to it (GW to Jonathan Boucher, 30 July 1770, IEN; GW to Robert Cary & Co., 20 Aug. 1770, DLC:GW).
26. Took a Snack at Mrs. Dawson's & went up to Eltham in the Afternn.
The House of Burgesses adjourned after today's meeting until 11:00 A.M. Monday, 28 May (H.B.J., 1770--72, 20).
27. At Eltham all day.
28. Returnd to Williamsburg by 9 Oclock. Dined at the Speakers and attended a Committee of the Associn. at Hayes till 11 Oclock.
29. Dined at Mrs. Dawson's and spent the Evening in my own Room.
30. Dined at the Club and spent the Eveng. in my own Room.
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Although drawn a few years later, this map is a good depiction of Williamsburg during Washington's service in the House of Burgesses. (Princeton University Library, Berthier Papers)
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GW today paid £1 10s. to Col. John Henry (d. 1773), father of Patrick Henry, for a copy of his map of Virginia which had been published the previous February by Thomas Jefferys of London.
31. Dined at the Attorneys and attended a Committee of the Association at Hayes till One Oclock.
Acct. of the Weather in May
May 1st. A hard frost which destroyd all the Peaches &ca. from the Water. Wind still at No. Wt. & West but neither so cold nor hard as the two preceeding days.
2. Calm and tolerably pleasant again altho the Morning was cool.
3. Wind fresh and cool from the So. West--which shifted to the So. Et. and East, & began to Rain briskly abt. Sunset attended with thunder & Lightg.
4. Very Cloudy, Misty & sometimes raining. Wind pretty fresh from the Northwest & cool.
5. Cloudy in the forenoon, & cool. Wind being at No. West--but clear and warm afterwards with but little Wind.
6. More moderate & pleasant in the forenoon--but cool & windy in the Evening--also Cloudy.
7. Cool in the Morning but Hot afterwards with appearances of Rain.
8. Very warm & clear in the forenoon with but little Wind--but a severe Gust of wind & Rain in the Afternn. from the So. West--which moderated abt. dark.
9. Raining more or less all day with the wind fresh and variable.
10. Drizzling several times with the Wind westwardly but not so cool as yesterday.
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11. Cloudy & sometimes Misty in the Afternoon. The forenoon clear & wind at No. West but variable.
12. Cloudy & sometimes Misting in the Morning but clear and pleasant afterwards.
13. Clear and very warm with but little Wind and that Southwardly.
14. Very like for Rain in the Morning but cleard afterwards. Wind fresh all day from the East and cool--especially towards Night.
15. A Lowery cloudy Morning but clear afternoon & tolerably warm.
16. Much such a day as yesterday, but a good deal warmer.
17. Misty kind of Morning but clear warm and calm afterwards.
18. Clear and Warm in the forenoon with but little Wind which howevr. after a little sprinkle came out violent from the No. West & contd. so all the Afternoon.
19. Clear & cool till abt. Noon. Wind blowg. fresh from No. West--then calm and warm. Eveng. still cool.
20. Morning & Evening Cool. Mid day warm--there being but little Wd.
21. Still & Calm forenoon Wind pretty fresh from the Eastward afterwards.
22. Clear and rather Cool Wind being fresh from the westward.
23. Clear and still cool for the Season notwithstanding the wind was Southwardly.
24. Warm with some appears, of Rain of which a little fell in the Night.
25. Very warm. Wind being Southwardly--a little Rain in the Morning.
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26. Wind very fast from the Westwd. all day and towards Evening Cool with appearances of Rain but none fell.
27. Cool and clear all day. Wind being still to the westward.
28. Lowering kind of a Morning but clear afterwards & cool all day.
29. Not as cool as yesterday. Wind variable with appearances of Rain.
30. Wind Eastwardly. Cool and cloudy with Rain towards Night which continued all Night.
31. Raining more or less all day with the wind westwardly.
Remarks & Occurs. in May
May 1st. John Harvey went to Ditchg. on my Mill Race at 1/3 pr. Rod.
Harvey settled 12 Aug. 1770 for £1 in return for his labor for GW (LEDGER A, 288).
3. The Mason's went to laying Stone in the walls of the water Pit (dry Stone). Mr. Flemings ship Carpenter finishd his work here and returnd home havg. been employd 31¼ days. Went to Flatting Sand &ca. round to the mill. Carrd a Load of sand this day.
The water pit was the trough in which the new mill's waterwheel was to turn. DRY STONE: The stones in the pit were fitted together without mortar. The ship carpenter was an indentured servant of Thomas Fleming (d. 1786), shipwright formerly of Annapolis and now of Alexandria. During the past several weeks, Fleming's carpenter had sheathed the bottom of GW's schooner and had made needed repairs (LEDGER A, 135, 314; LEDGER B, 10). FLATTING SAND &cA.: GW had materials needed by the stonemasons brought by flatboat up Dogue Creek to the site of the new mill. The sand was to be mixed with lime and water to form mortar needed to build the exterior walls of the mill.
3. Thomas Emmerson set into ditchg. on my Mill Race on the same terms as above that is 1/3 pr. Rod & finding himself. Finished planting Corn at Muddy hole Plantation.
Thomas Emmison had been hired by Lund Washington in 1764 to work on a mill then being built, apparently under Lund's general supervision, for
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William Fitzhugh of Chatham, Stafford County (Lund Washington's account book, 1762--85, MdAN). Lund was probably also responsible for engaging Emmison to help dig GW's millrace, but Emmison, like Coxe Rice, must have done little or no work for GW; he, too, is not mentioned in GW's ledger.
4. Began to flat Stone round--as also to carry wood round for burning Lyme. William Crook began to Work on my Mill Race on the same terms above mentioned.
Freestone from George William Fairfax's quarries and firewood for GW's limekiln are now being brought upstream by the flatboats. GW had oyster shells burned in the kiln to produce lime for making mortar. William Crook was another ditcher who apparently did not stick to his task long enough to justify an entry for payment in GW's ledger.
5. Richard Talbot, one of Mr. Balls hands was absent from work. John Harvey was also absent from his ditching. Finished Planting Corn at Doeg Run Plantation this day--viz the 5th. Richd. Talbot was not at work but went up to Alexandria.
7. Got the Battoe, & the two Boats round to the Mill with stone. William Crook nor Thoms. Emmerson were at work on the Mill Race today.
8. Neither of the above Persons were at work on the Race today. But Abel Cellicoe and one of his Sons set into ditching on the Race. Finished Planting of Corn in the Neck this day. Got two Boats load of Lime, Wood & one of Stone to the Mill--but the Battoe was stopd by Wind.
Abel Callico had worked for Lund Washington on Fitzhugh's mill in 1764, but neither he nor his son proved to be of much help in digging GW's millrace, as they also failed to merit any pay (Lund Washington's account book, 1762--85, 36, MdAN).
9. Dischargd Clevelands Waggon. Ball & his People Went about 12 Oclock to Framing the Mill Work.
10. Mr. Christian went away this afternoon. I rid to the Mill.
11. Eight hands were at work upon dry Mill Race today.
GW had given up hiring ditchers and had set some of his slaves to digging the race.
12. Seven hands were at Work this day upon my Mill Race.
14. Ten or Eleven hands were at Work to day.
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15. About 10 hands at Work to day on the Race.
16. Jonathan Palmer and his Family movd to Poseys to live. Abt. 7 hands at Work to day.
17. 10 hands at work to day. The H<oist> frame & Mill beam were put up to day. Began also to raise Scaffolds for the Masons this day.
18th. Mr. Ball & his People went into the Woods again to get Scantling to carry on his work there not being sufft. for that purpose.
The scantling was being taken for the new mill from the land Thomas Hanson Marshall had agreed to give GW in exchange for the Maryland property GW had bought from Robert Alexander. This was the most convenient location from which to get the timber. However, because Alexander had not yet given Marshall either use of or title to the land in Maryland, the deal was still pending, and GW was obliged to pay Marshall £5 for the trees cut here. Most of the timber for the mill had been obtained during the previous summer from land belonging indisputably to GW (LEDGER A, 139; GW to Marshall, 16 Mar. 1770, DLC:GW).
Set of for Williamsburg to the Assembly.
Where & how my time is Spent
June 1st. Dined at the Club at Mrs. Campbells (Williamsburg) and attended a Meeting of the Association at the Capitol at 6 Oclock & contd. there till Eleven Oclock.
At this general meeting, it was resolved "THAT a friendly Invitation be given to all Gentlemen Merchants, Traders, and others, to meet the associators, in Williamsburg, on Friday the 15th Instant, in order to consult and advise touching an ASSOCIATION, and to accede thereto in such Manner as may best answer the Purposes of the same" ( Va. Gaz., R, 31 May 1770).
2. Dined at the Club & spent the Evening in my own Room.
GW wrote to Jonathan Boucher on this date, telling him that he had discussed the proposed European tour with several gentlemen in town and they had confirmed his suspicion that the expense would exceed Jacky's income. But he did not close the door on the matter. He would gladly approve the trip, he said, if a way could be found to reduce its cost and to gain the concurrence of the General Court (GW to Boucher, 2--9 June 1770, NN).
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Consideration of the tour would drag on inconclusively for several months.
GW on this date paid accounts with a Williamsburg tailor and a blacksmith (LEDGER A, 318).
3. Dined at the Club and spent the Evening in my own Room.
The burgesses were again adjourned for Sunday (H.B.J., 1770--72, 44).
4. Dined at the Club and spent the Evening at the Councills Ball at the Capitol.
GW today paid Edmund Pendleton £1 1s. 6d. for a legal opinion on John West, Jr.'s agreement to sell his land adjoining Mount Vernon (LEDGER A, 318). The council's ball was held this evening in honor of the king's birthday. Attending, besides the members of the council, were the governor, the burgesses, and "the magistrates and other principal inhabitants" of Williamsburg ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 7 June 1770).
[5.] Dined at the Club & spent the Evening in my own Room.
6. Dined at the Club and spent the Evening in my own Room.
7. Dined with the Council and spent the Evening in my own Room.
8. Dined at the Club and Spent the Evening in my own Room.
9. Had a cold Cut at Mrs. Campbells and went up to Eltham in the afternoon.
The burgesses adjourned today until Monday morning, 11 June (H.B.J., 1770--72, 61).
10. Dined at Eltham and in the Afternoon went to see Mrs. Dandridge & returnd to Eltham again.
11. Went over to Colo. Thos. Moores Sale & purchasd two Negroes--to Wit Frank & James & returnd to Eltham again at Night.
All of Moore's estate, including 26 slaves and about 1,000 acres of land on the Mattaponi River, was offered for sale at West Point today in order to pay some of his many debts ( Va. Gaz., R, 31 May 1770). The Negro Frank cost £31 and James, a boy, cost £55. GW also bought a bay mare at the sale for £8 5s. All sums were credited against Moore's debt to the Custis estate (LEDGER A, 204).
12. Came to Williamsburg to Breakfast. Dined at the Club and spent the Evening in my own Room.
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13. Dined at the Club and spent the Evening in my own Room.
GW on this date received £357 10s. in cash from Joseph Valentine, manager of the Custis plantations (LEDGER A, 318).
14. Dined at the Speakers and went to Bed by 8 Oclock.
15. Dined at the Treasurers and went to a meeting of the Association at which till 11 Oclock then wt. to Bed.
The treasurer of the colony today gave GW £70 on an order from Richard Starke, clerk of the committees of privileges and elections and of propositions and grievances. Starke had given this order to GW 21 Dec. 1769 to pay two years' rent on a house and lots belonging to Jacky Custis, where Starke's mother lived (LEDGER A, 303, 318; GW to Starke, 14 Dec. 1767, DLC:GW). The treasurer also gave GW £4 19s. 6d. on this date as his bounty for making hemp (LEDGER A, 318; see entry for 7 Aug. 1765).
16. Dined at the Club at Mrs. Campbells and went to the Play in the Evening.
GW today paid 6s. 3d. to a blacksmith and spent 15s. 6d. for tickets and other expenses at the play (LEDGER A, 318).
The American Company of Comedians had arrived in town from Philadelphia on 13 June and today opened the theater with The Beggar's Opera and "other entertainments" ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 14 June 1770). Written by the English playwright John Gay (1685--1732), The Beggar's Opera is a burlesque of conventional Italian opera, "a Newgate pastoral, among the whores and thieves there." It was first performed in 1728 and became one of the most popular plays of the century, being included in the repertoire of almost every English acting company (GAY, 1--4).
17. Went to Church in the Forenoon & from thence to Colo. Burwells where I dind & lodgd.
The day being Sunday, the burgesses did not meet (H.B.J., 1770--72, 77). GW probably attended Bruton Parish Church before going to dine at Kingsmill.
18. Came into Williamsburg in the Morning. Dined at the Club and went to the Play in the Afternoon.
In the House of Burgesses today a bill for dividing Frederick Parish was referred to a special committee of six members, one of whom was GW (H.B.J., 1770--72, 78--79). No expenses for the play appear under this date in GW's ledger, but he did record paying the jeweler James Craig £1 10s. for a pair of gold earrings for Patsy Custis and £2 15s. for other merchandise. GW also bought Patsy a tortoiseshell comb costing 3s. 7½d. (LEDGER A, 318; receipt from Craig, ViHi: Custis Papers; CUSTIS ACCOUNT BOOK).
19. Dined at the Club and went to the Play.
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Playbill for a performance of The Beggar's Opera in Williamsburg. (Colonial Williamsburg Photograph)
GW on this date spent 7s. 6d. for a play ticket and paid several small accounts in town: 5s. 7d. to Anthony Hay, £2 19s. 6d. to the printer William Rind, and 10s. to the saddler Alexander Craig (LEDGER A, 318).
20. Dined at the Presidents and went to the Play Afterwards.
The House of Burgesses on this date gave permission to GW and two other members to be absent for the remainder of the session (H.B.J., 1770--72, 83). GW spent £1 today for play tickets and discharged two old debts totaling almost £88: one for lottery tickets sold for the benefit of Bernard Moore and the other for shingles bought of John Washington of Suffolk (LEDGER A, 318).
21. Dined at the Club at Mrs. Campbells at 8 Oclock & went to Bed directly after.
GW today received £60 15s. 6d. from the treasurer of the colony in payment for his burgess's wages and traveling expenses since 30 april 1769 (LEDGER A, 191, 303).
22. Dined at the Club and went to the Play after meeting the Associates at the Capitol.
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On this day a new nonimportation agreement was signed by 164 persons, including GW, and a copy was sent to Governor Botetourt. The new association, GW wrote to George W. Fairfax on 27 June, "is form'd, much upon the old plan, but more relax'd" (IaST). Previously prohibited items now to be allowed included barley, pork, sugar, pewter, trinkets and jewelry, plate and gold, bridles, and cheap hats, shoes, boots, and saddles. Price limitations on several types of cheap cloth were eased somewhat, but horses were added to the list of prohibited imports. To enforce the agreement, the associators in each county were to elect a committee of five men, who would inspect invoices and other papers relating to imports and publish the names of signers who violated the terms (a printed copy of the agreement is in DLC: GW). GW, like many Virginians, was not entirely pleased with this compromise plan, but he was satisfied that "it was the best that the friends to the cause coud obtain . . . and tho too much relaxd from the Spirit, with which a measure of this sort ought to be conducted, yet, will be attended with better effects (I expect) than the last; inasmuch as it will become general, & adopted by the Trade" (GW to Jonathan Boucher, 30 July 1770, IEN).
Joseph Valentine today paid GW £52 10s. in cash (LEDGER A, 318).
23. Dined at Mrs. Campbells & set off homewards after it--reaching Colo. Bassetts.
In the House of Burgesses today, the report of the committee on the bill to divide Frederick Parish was given by James Mercer of Hampshire County. The house accepted several amendments suggested by the committee and ordered the bill to be engrossed. It was passed on the following day and was approved by the council soon afterwards (H.B.J., 1770--72, 94, 96, 98; HENING, 8:425--28). Before GW left Williamsburg, he paid several more bills, including £2 for play tickets, probably for the previous day's performance; £3 7s. 6d. to his barber George Lafong; £16 13s. 4d. for lodging and food at Mrs. Campbell's tavern; and 14s. to the printers Alexander Purdie and John Dixon (LEDGER A, 318; receipt from Christiana Campbell, NNPM). The House of Burgesses remained in session until 28 June.
24. Dined at Todds bridge & lodged at Hubbards.
25. Breakfasted at the Bolling green. Dined at Colo. Lewis's and lodgd at my Mothers.
GW ate breakfast in Coleman's tavern. During the day he paid 8s. to a blacksmith and gave his mother 7s. (LEDGER A, 318).
26. Breakfasted at my Mothers and dined at home before three Oclock.
27. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run and the Mill before Dinner & to where my People were cuttg. Hay at the upper Meadow.
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A miniature of Col. Burwell Bassett by Charles Willson Peale. (Society of the Cincinnati, Anderson House Museum)
28. Rid into the Neck between breakfast and Dinner. Mr. Addison and Mr. Boucher, who came yesterday in the Afternoon went away today after Breakfast.
Jonathan Boucher had been installed as rector of St. Anne's Parish in Annapolis 12 June, and now, accompanied by his sponsor Rev. Henry Addison, he was returning to Caroline County to settle his affairs there (ST. ANN'S, 10:135; BOUCHER [1], 59--60). Mrs. Washington had by this time given her permission for Jacky to go with him to Annapolis, and GW today paid Boucher £75 on the boy's account (LEDGER A, 318).
29. Dined at Belvoir. Went on Board the Boston frigate to Drink Tea and returnd in the Afternoon.
The Boston was a British man-of-war commanded by Sir Thomas Adams. Sent from England to serve three years on station in American waters, she had arrived at Hampton in early March of this year ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 2 Nov. 1769 and 8 Mar. 1770).
30. Went into the Neck between breakfast and Dinner.
Acct. of the Weather in June
June 1st. Cloudy & Misty all day. In the Evening a pretty hard shower of Rain.
2. Clear & exceeding pleasant--being also Warm & growing.
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3. Clear & pleasantly warm. The Wind being at So. West & rather fresh in the Afternoon.
4. Clear in the forenoon but cloudy & lowering afterwards with the Wind westwardly.
5. Lowering Morning & sometimes slight Showers--with the Wind about Southwest.
6. Clear and pleasant with the wind Eastwardly, which occasiond towards Night a lowering sky & Cool Air.
7. Raining more or less all day & sometimes very hard. Wind Eastwardly but not very cool.
8. Cloudy & now and then Misty. In the Evening very hard rain. Wind abt. So. West.
9. Very warm with but little Wind & that southwardly. In the Eveng. a little Rain.
10. Winds variable in the Afternoon & all Night Rain.
11. Raining till 10 Oclock with the Wind at So. Et. Afterwards clear with little or no wind.
12. Clear and Cool. Wind Westwardly.
13. Wind Southwardly and very warm & sultry--especially in the Afternoon--with appears. of Rain.
14. Wind Northwardly, & Cool in the Morning--but warm afterwards.
15. Clear, and tolerably pleasant Afternoon somewhat Cool.
16. Clear & Pleasant forenoon. Appearances of Rain afterwards but none Fell.
17. Cloudy forenoon--but clear afterwards and very warm, wind Eastwardly.
18. Calm and clear till the Afternoon then Showers--but very hot.
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19. Warm and sometimes slight Showers.
20. Clear and Warmer in the Afternn.
21. Lowering Morning, but clear day and Warm.
22. Forenoon clear--Afternoon promising Rain, but none fell. Both very warm.
23. Very warm with Clouds and a little Rain at Night.
24. Cool & cloudy with a good deal of Rain about Noon. Wind fresh & variable.
25. Cool and clear. Wind Northwardly & fresh.
26. Clear and not very warm. Wind at So. West.
27. Clear and warm with the Wind Southwardly. Some appearances of Rain but none fell.
28. Lowering Morning but clear afterwards and Hott.
29. Clear and very warm. Wind being southwardly and but little of it.
30. Cooler than yesterday. Wind being fresh from the westward.
Remarks & Occurans. in June
June 25. Began to cut my Meadow at Doeg Run Quarter.
29. Finish'd it, & got the Hay all Stack'd.
30. Got my Mill Walls up to the 2d. Floor of the House--and then quitted it for Harvest.
Began my Wheat Harvest in the Neck.
This fragment of remarks and occurrences is in the possession of the superintendent of schools, Exeter, N.H.
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Where & how my time is Spent
July 1st. At home--Sir Thomas Adams--the two Colo. Fairfax's & Mr. Waker a Midshipman dined here.
2. Went into my Wheat field before diner. Mr. Davis a Midshipman dined here.
3. One of the Bostons Midshipmen breakfasted here. Between breakfast and Dinner I went into my Harvest field.
4. Went into my Harvest field between breakfast and Dinner.
5. Sir Thomas Adams and Mr. Glasford his first Lieutt. Breakfasted here. Sir Thos. returnd after it, but Mr. Glasford dined here as did the 2 Lieutt. Mr. Sartell Mr. Johnston of Marines Mr. Norris 8: Mr. Richmore--two Midshipmen.
6. At home all day. Mr. Stedlar came to dinner. Mr. Wallace Burser to the Boston came in the Afternoon & purchased & Killed my Bull--the 4 quarters of which weighed 710 lbs. Nett.
MY BULL: see "Remarks" entry for 6 July 1770.
7. At home all day. In the Afternoon Mr. Edward Smith came.
This visitor may be Edward Smith (1752--1826), a son of John Smith of Cabin Point (TYLER [2], 49, 99--100).
8. Went to Pohick Church & returnd to Dinner. Mr. Smith went to Colo. Fairfax's & returnd to Dinner & Mr. Stedlar went away after Breakft.
GW had paid Stedlar £21 10s. on the previous day for music lessons given to Jacky and Patsy Custis. Today he let Patsy have £2 2s. pocket money and her friend Milly Posey £s. 6d. (LEDGER A, 319).
9. Warm with but little Wind & that Southwardly. Rid to Belvoir to Breakfast in order to take leave of Sir Thos. Adams & Colo. R. Fairfax who was going to the Springs. Returnd by the Mill, Doeg Run & Muddy hole Plantations to Dinr.
10. Clear and pleasant. In the Afternoon rid to the Harvest field at Muddy hole. On my return found Mr. Montgomerie & Sally Carlyle here.
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11. Mr. Montgomerie went away about 11 Oclock. Mr. Christian & all his scholars except Miss French came here to Dancing--also Miss Bronaugh.
Elizabeth French, daughter of Daniel and Penelope Manley French, was a "celebrated Fortune . . . whom half the world was in pursuit of" for, as her father's only child, she would eventually bring all his land and wealth to the young man who married her (GW to Burwell Bassett, 15 Feb. 1773, NjMoNP). Elizabeth Bronaugh (1738--1805) of Prince William County, a cousin of George Mason, later became Rev. Lee Massey's third wife (HAYDEN, 534).
2. Rid to my Harvest field at Muddy hole. Upon my return to Dinner found Mrs. Ambler & her daughter here who dind & went away afterwards.
Mary Cary Ambler (1732/33--1781) of Jamestown was a younger sister of Sally Fairfax and the widow of Edward Ambler (1732--1768). Mrs. Ambler and her daughter Sarah (1760--1782) were at this time visiting the Fairfaxes at Belvoir (CARY, 108).
13. Mr. Christian and all his Scholars except Peggy Massey went away. I rid to the Harvest field at M. Hole.
Peggy Massey was a daughter of Rev. Lee Massey (DLC: Toner Collection).
14. Rid to my Harvest People at the Mill in the forenoon & in the afternn. likewise with Mrs. W., Peggy Massey & P[atsy].
15. At home all day alone except Miss Massey being here.
16. Went to Alexandria to Court and returnd again in the Afternoon.
The court met only on this day in July. Because the governor and his council had issued a new commission of the peace for the Fairfax County court on 13 June, GW and the other justices present today took their oaths of office again as they were required to do (Fairfax County Order Book for 1770--72, 48--49, Vi Microfilm; VA. EXEC. JLS., 6:348). Commissions were reissued from time to time in order to add the names of new justices and eliminate those of the inactive or deceased.
While GW was in town today he settled his tax account with William Adams, sheriff for Fairfax Parish, and George Darrell, sub-sheriff for Truro Parish. This year he paid 658 pounds of tobacco to the colony for 94 tithables at 7 pounds each, 846 pounds to Fairfax County for the same number of tithables at 9 pounds each, 1,000 pounds to Fairfax Parish for 20 tithables at 50 pounds each, and 4,662 pounds to Truro Parish for 74 tithables at 63 pounds each, or a total of 7,166 pounds of tobacco for his personal taxes this year. He also paid £1 10s. cash for the public tax on his chariot and chair and £2 16s. cash for miscellaneous fees (LEDGER A, 293, 319).
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17. At home all day. Major Wagener dined here, & went away in the Afternn.
18. Rid to Harvest People at Doeg Run & returnd to Dinner.
19. At home all day. Alone--except P[eggy] M[assey].
20. Was riding out to the Mill &ca. met an Augusta Man with Horses with whom I returnd & purchasd four.
In GW's ledger entry for this date, he records purchasing horses from two men: David McCrae, two horses for £21 4s., and Samuel McChesney, two horses for £13 10s. (LEDGER A, 319). McChesney was a trader in Augusta County about this time ( Va. Gaz., Pi, 9 Feb. 1775).
21. At home alone.
22. At home all day alone except that Miss Massey, still here & Mr. Semple came just after we had dind & went away after dinner was got for him.
23. Miss Massey went away, and in the Evening Mr. Boucher, Majr. Taylor and Jackey Custis came here.
Boucher was now moving from Caroline County to Annapolis, where Jacky, as had been agreed, was going also to continue his studies under Boucher's direction. Major Taylor may be James Taylor (1732--1814), Caroline County sheriff and militia officer (GRINNAN, 366--67; VA. EXEC. JLS., 6:331; CAMPBELL [1], 369--70).
24. Colo. Fairfax & Lady and Mrs. Ambler dined here--with the Gentlemen that came yesterday & went away after.
25. Mr. Boucher & Major Taylor went away after Breakfast. Mr. Alexander (Robt.) who lodged here Last Night and went over to give Notice to his Tenant of Mr. Marshalls want of part of his Tenement dined here and went home afterwards.
Alexander's notice was a legal warning to the planter who was renting Mrs. Alexander's Maryland land that before the end of the year he would have to vacate the portion that GW had bought to exchange with Thomas Hanson Marshall. Marshall may have begun to use the property in 1772 (GW to Lund Washington, 18 Dec. 1778, DLC:GW). Nevertheless, the exchange still could nor be concluded because Alexander would not give Marshall a deed, claiming that his wife refused to consent to the transaction of her own free will as required by law. GW admonished Alexander for not prevailing on her "to do an act of justice, in fulfilling his Bargains and complying with his wishes," but the matter remained unresolved until 1779, when Lund
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Washington, acting on GW's behalf, bought all Marshall's approximately 480½ acres of land adjoining Mount Vernon for £5,304 in the inflated Virginia currency of the war years (GW to Alexander, 20 Mar. 1777, DLC:GW; deed from GW to Lund Washington, 25 Feb. 1785, Fairfax County Deeds, Book P-1, 415--17, Vi Microfilm). The £500 that GW had given Alexander for the Maryland land was charged to Alexander's account with interest and was finally repaid in 1789 by Col. William Lyles of Alexandria, who had assumed the debt (LEDGER B, 41, 361).
26. Jackey Custis went away after Breakfast to Annapolis to School.
Jacky took £2 13s. pocket money with him (LEDGER A, 319).
27. Went with Mrs. Washington and Patcy Custis to Belvoir to Dinner and returned in the Afternoon.
28. Went up to Alexandria with the Association Papers. Dined at Mr. Ramsays calld at Mr. Jno. Wests and returnd home in the Evening.
GW was apparently taking printed copies of the nonimportation agreement to Alexandria to be circulated and signed. At least 333 signatures were eventually obtained, and sometime before 11 Oct. an association committee was elected for the county. Its members were GW, George Mason, John West, Peter Wagener, and John Dalton ( Va. Gaz., R, 11 Oct. 1770; six signed copies of the agreement are in DLC:GW, and one is in DLC: U.S. Broadsides).
29. Captn. Ingles, and his Master, Mr. Bruce and Mr. John West dind here. All of whom returnd afterwards.
CAPTN. INGLES: probably Samuel Inglis, a Norfolk merchant who dealt in flour, wheat, corn, hemp, and West Indian goods ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 24 Jan. 1771, 7 July 1774, and P, 26 May 1775). There was a Captain Inglis of the British navy serving in American waters at this time as commander of the armed schooner Sultana, but he apparently visited Virginia only in the falls of 1769 and 1770 ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 2 Nov. 1769, 18 Oct. 1770; R, 29 Nov. 1770). Several Captain Bruces skippered merchant vessels in the colonial trade before the Revolution, including the impetuous James Bruce, captain of one of the ships involved in the Boston Tea Party of 1773 (ship list for Hampton, P.R.O., C.O.5/1350, ft. 9--10; Va. Gaz., P&D, 15 Sept. 1768, 31 Jan. 1771, and D&H, 11 Oct. 1776; LABAREE [2], 137).
30. After an Early Dinner (which Mr. Peake took with us), we set of for Fredericksburg that is Mrs. Washington, P. Custis & myself. Reachd Mr. Lawson's.
GW had asked the original officers of the Virginia Regiment to meet him at Fredericksburg 1 Aug. to discuss matters relating to bounty lands in the Ohio Valley that Gov. Robert Dinwiddie had promised members of the regiment
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in 1754 in order to encourage enlistment during the French and Indian War ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 21 June 1770; Proclamation, 19 Feb. 1754, P.R.O., C.O.5/ 1348, 334--36). Surveying and distribution of the lands had been delayed first by war and then by the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. However, much of the territory was opened by treaties signed with the Indians at Hard Labour and Fort Stanwix in 1768. In Dec. 1769 GW brought the Virginia soldiers' claims to the attention of the current Virginia governor, Lord Botetourt (8 Dec. 1769, DLC:GW), and in the same month presented the governor and the council a petition "in behalf of himself and the Officers and Soldiers who first imbarked in the service of this Colony . . . praying that the Two Hundred Thousand Acres of land which was given to them by Governor Dinwiddie's Proclamation . . . may be allotted to them, in one or more Surveys, on the Monongahela and its waters from the long narrows to or above a place commonly called the great Canhawa [Kanawha]" (VA. EXEG. JLS., 6:337).
The council agreed to the petition, specifying that the grant should be limited to veterans who had entered the service before the battle at Great Meadows in July 1754 and that the 200,000 acres should be "taken up in one or more Surveys, not exceeding twenty, on the great Canhawa and the other places particularized in their Petition so as not to interfere with prior Settlements or surveys actually and legally made." It was also suggested that GW should arrange for a surveyor and insert a notice in the Virginia Gazette requiring eligible officers and soldiers to present their claims to him (VA. EXEC. JLS., 6:338). GW advertised for the claims in Purdie and Dixon's newspaper 21 Dec. 1769 and in Rind's newspaper every week from 28 Dec. 1769 to 26 Apr. 1770 (LEDGER A, 322). However, he decided that before beginning the expensive and troublesome business of surveying, he must assemble the officers "to consert measures how we shall proceed" (Andrew Lewis to GW, 1 Mar. 1770, ViU). The meeting at Fredericksburg was the result of that decision.
31. Got to my Mothers to Dinner and staid there all Night.
Patsy Custis became gravely ill today, suffering not only from "her old complaint" of epilepsy, but also "ague and fever" (GW to Jonathan Boucher, 15 Aug. 1770, excerpt, American Art Assoc. Catalogue, 21--22 Jan. 1926, item 294). Dr. Hugh Mercer of Fredericksburg was promptly summoned to Ferry Farm, where he bled the patient and gave her medicines. Patsy remained under his care until the family returned home nine days later (receipt from Mercer, 8 Aug. 1770, Villi: Custis Papers). The grip that epilepsy now had on Patsy is documented by a record of her seizures that GW kept 29 June-22 Sept. 1770 on the margins of the printed calendar pages in his almanac. Of the 86 days included in that period, Patsy had "fits" on 26, often two a day. For 31 July GW entered the notation "1 very bad Do.," indicating the exceptional severity of this day's attack.
Acct. of the Weather in July
July 1st. Lowering Morning and wind at East. Abt. 12 Oclock it began to Rain & continued to do so till after 3 Oclock.
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2. Cloudy Morning but afterwards clear & warm. Then thunder but no Rain.
3. Clear & very Cool--the Wind being at No. West & fresh.
4. Also clear but not so Cool as Yesterday. Wind in the same place but not fresh.
5. Cloudy & lowering all day--but no Rain. Wind Southwardly.
6. Cloudy & misty all day with some pretty smart showers of Rain. Wind still to the Southward.
7. Raining more or less till 3 Oclock then clear. With but little Wind.
8. Clear and pleasant with but little wind and that Southwardly.
9. Clear and Warm--with but little wind and that Southwardly.
10. Clear and tolerably pleasant not being warm. Wind Southwardly.
11. Clear & warm--especially in the afternoon. There being but little wind & that Southwardly.
12. Warm with thunder at the forenoon & moderate Rain (a good deal of it) in the Afternoon with hard thunder.
13. Still warm with appearances of Rain but none fell.
14. Clear and Warm the Wind being Southwardly.
15. Warm, and clear notwithstanding the Wind blew fresh from the Eastward.
16. Clear and Warm. Wind Southwardly.
17. Rather lowering all day with appearances of Rain--but none fell--tho it thunderd a little in the Afternoon.
18. Hot and Sultry with but little [wind] and that Southwardly.
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19. Very hot and Sultry with but little wind.
20. Exceeding hot and Sultry with a southerly Breeze.
21 Also very hot with a black Cloud to the westward and great appearance [of rain]--but none fell here.
22. Clear and Warm in the forenoon with a Black Cloud to the Westward but no Rain here.
23. Again appearances of Rain to the Westward with only a sprinkle here.
24. Clear and Warm all day with but little Wind.
25. Light showers in the afternoon and sevl. of them but not sufft. to wet the Ground.
26. Sevl. very fine Showers but rather heavy in the Afternoon from the Southwest. With wind.
27. Clear and warm with but little Wind--that Northwardly.
28. Very warm. Wind Southwardly in the Afternoon Thunder, lightning and Rain.
29. Clear and Warm. Wind Southwardly again.
30. Exceedingly warm--especially in the Afternoon there being but little wind & that Southwardly.
31. Again very warm & still--especially in the Evening and Night.
Remarks & Occuran. in July
July 2. Prosecuting my wheat Harvest which I began on Saturday last in the Neck.
5. Stately A Hound Bitch was lind by Jowler.
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6. She was again lined by the same Dog. I killed and sold my English Bull to the Boston's Crew at 20/. p. Ct. His 4 Quarters weighd 711 lbs. Nett.
The Boston's purser paid GW £7 2s. in cash for the bull. GW had bought an English bull, probably this one, in Dec. 1765 for £3 (LEDGER A, 222, 318).
10. About Ten Oclock finished Cutting and Securing my Wheat in the Neck and about Eleven began the field at Muddy hole.
13. Finished cutting and Securing my Wheat at Muddy hole.
14. Began my Harvest at the Mill but did not quite finish the field on the other side by the New Mill.
17. Finished my Harvest at the Mill about 10 or 11 Oclock and began to cut the Wheat at Doeg Run Abt, 12 Oclock.
20. Compleated my Wheat Harvest altogether & exceeding bad I am apprehensive it will turn out--owing I am of opinion to the frequent Rains in the Month of June. The Heads containd but few grains--the Grain but little flower being for the most part perishd and Milldewed. The frequent Rains had by beating down the straw been the occasion of much loss in the Field both by shattering and unclean cutting & to compleat all I was too late in beginning my Harvest by 3 or 4 day as it ought where a Harvest is to continue 3 Weeks to be begun always before it is ripe as the loss in the shrinkage of Green Wheat is not equal to that of its shattering & various other Accidents when it is over-ripe & the straw falling.
23. Began to Cut my Meadw. at the Mill.
31st. Finished Do. Also laid the 2d. Floor of my Mill.
Where & how my time is Spent
Augt. 1. Dined at my Mother's. Went over to Fredericksburg afterwards & returnd in the Evening back again.
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2. Met the Officers of the first Virga. Troops at Captn. Weedens where we dined & did not finish till abt. Sun set. Mrs. Washington & Patcy dind at Colo. Lewis's where we lodgd.
Meeting a day later than scheduled, the officers and representatives of officers who were present accepted William Crawford as surveyor for the veterans' bounty lands and resolved that GW should make a journey to the Ohio Valley with Crawford and Dr. James Craik to locate the best areas for the surveys. It was also agreed that the costs involved would be divided proportionately among the officers according to their original ranks, the field officers paying the most and the subalterns the least. GW was empowered to begin collecting the money immediately (minutes of the officers of the Virginia Regiment, 5 Mar. 1771, DLC:GW; LEDGER A, 322).
3. Dined at my Brother Charles's--spent the Evening there & lodgd at Colo. Lew(is).
Charles Washington was now a leading citizen of Fredericksburg, being both a vestryman of St. George's Parish and a Spotsylvania County justice. He owned at least 759 acres of land in the county outside Fredericksburg, and in Aug. 1761 he had bought lots numbered 87 and 88 in town for £80 from Warner Lewis of Gloucester County (deed of Charles and Mildred Washington to Thomas Strachan, 20 April 1780, and deed of Lewis to Charles Washington, 3 Aug. 1761, CROZIER [2], 222, 353). Located on Fauquier Street between Princess Ann and Caroline streets, those lots include the site of the Rising Sun Tavern, which according to popular tradition Charles Washington built and operated (WAYLAND [1], 153--55).
GW today paid James Hunter of King George County £10 5s. for "Mill spindles Gudgeons &ca." to be used in his new mill. This sum was apparently the balance due for the parts, because about six weeks earlier GW had sent Hunter £15 on account of the mill (LEDGER A, 318, 319).
4. Dined at the Barbicue with a great deal of other Company and stayd there till Sunset.
5. Went to Church (in Fredg.) and dind with Colo. Lewis.
St. George's Church, built in 1732, had as its minister at this time James Marye, Jr. (1731--1780), who had succeeded his father as parish rector in 1767 (MEADE [1], 68--69).
6. Dined with Mr. James Mercer.
James Mercer (1735--1793), a younger brother of Lt. Col. George Mercer but no relation of Hugh Mercer, was a prominent Fredericksburg lawyer. Educated at the College of William and Mary, he served 1762--76 as a burgess from Hampshire County, where he owned land (GARNETT [1], 90). During 1769 he had bought five lots in Fredericksburg: two from GW, and three, including the ones on which his house and his study stood, from Fielding Lewis (deed of Lewis to Mercer,
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4 Sept. 1769, and deed of GW to Mercer, 13 Oct. 1769, CROZIER [2], 268--70). James Mercer had probably attended the meeting at Weedon's tavern on Aug., because although he had not been a member of the original Virginia Regiment, he was now handling the affairs of his brother George, who had joined the regiment in 1754 and was now living in England.
7. Dined at Colo. Lewis's--Colo. Dangerfield & Lady & Miss Boucher comg. there to see us.
COLO. DANGERFIELD & LADY: possibly Col. William and Sarah Taliaferro Daingerfield, of Belvidera, just south of Fredericksburg. But more likely they are Col. William's first cousin, also a Col. William, and his wife, Mary Willis Daingerfield (d. 1781), of Coventry in Spotsylvania County. It was this William who served with GW in the Virginia Regiment (see entry for 3 May 1762). Mary Willis Daingerfield was a granddaughter of GW's uncle by marriage, Col. Henry Willis. The Daingerfields' daughter Catherine later married George Lewis, son of Fielding and Betty Lewis. Miss Jane Boucher (1742--1794) lived with her older brother, Rev. Jonathan Boucher.
While the Washingtons were in Fredericksburg they purchased clothing and other items. Today GW bought silk and earrings for Patsy, paid George Weedon £6 for a tent and a marquee, and had a watch repaired for 5s. He also visited a barber and clubbed at Weedon's tavern in the evening (LEDGER a, 319).
8. Dined at Colo. Lewis's.
GW apparently clubbed at Weedon's again this evening and played cards, winning 5s. (LEDGER A, 320).
9. Breakfasted at my Mothers--dined at Dumfries & came home by Night.
10. Rid to Muddy hole--Doeg Run and the Mill.
11. Rid into the Neck.
12. Rid to Belvoir after Dinner to see Sir Thos. Adams who was sick there.
Adams's frigate, the Boston, returned to Hampton Roads without him, while he tried to recover his health at Belvoir. He rejoined the vessel in early September and sailed her soon afterwards to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he died in October ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 6 Sept. and 18 Oct. 1770, and R, 1 Nov. 1770).
13. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run and the Mill.
14. At home all day writing Invoices and Letters.
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GW was again preparing invoices to be sent to Robert Cary & Co. in London. In his covering letter dated 20 Aug. 1770, he complained about the cost and quality of goods he had received from the company and about the prices paid for tobacco from the Custis plantations. He also noted that some of the items on his enclosed invoices were currently prohibited by the Virginia association and were to be sent only if the Townshend Acts were totally repealed before his goods were shipped, "as it will not be in my power to receive any Articles contrary to our Non-Importation Agreement, to which I have Subscribd, & shall religiously adhere to, if it was, as I coud wish it to be, ten times as strict" (DLC:GW).
15. Rid to the Mill--by the Ferry and returnd to Dinner. Miss Betty Dalton came here.
16. Rid to the Mill and to the Ditchers.
17. At home all day.
18. Rid to the Mill-Ditchers-Doeg run and Muddy hole.
19. Went to Pohick Church. Calld in our way at Belvoir to take leave of Sir Thos. Returnd to Dinner.
20. Went up to Alexandria to Court. Returnd in the Evening with Jacky Custis & Mr. Magowan.
The August court was in session 20--23 Aug. (Fairfax County Order Book for 1770--72, 49--77, Vi Microfilm).
Jacky came from Annapolis to attend dancing lessons that Christian was to give during the next few days at a neighbor's house. On his way home he had visited Magowan on the West River, and his former tutor had then accompanied him to Mount Vernon (GW to Jonathan Boucher, 15 Aug. 1770, excerpt, American Art Assoc. Catalogue, 21--22 Jan. 1926, item 294; Jonathan Boucher to GW, 18 Aug. 1770, DLC:GW).
21. Went up to Court again and returnd in the Afternoon. Found Mr. Beal here along with Mr. Magowan.
Many members of the Beall family were living at this time in Prince George's and Frederick counties, Md. (BRUMBAUGH, 1--89. 177--257). The Mr. Beall who was at Mount Vernon today was probably Samuel Beall, Jr. (17401825), of Frederick County (see main entry for 27 Aug. 1770; MASON [2], 1:xxxiv; BEALL, 79--82).
22. Mr. Beal went away after Breakfast. I continued at home all day.
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23. I went up to Alexandria calling by Mr. Jno. Wests going & coming. Returnd again at Night--with Mr. B. Fairfax.
GW was again going to court, arriving there near the end of this day's proceedings (Fairfax County Order Book for 1770--72, 76, Vi Microfilm).
24. Went out a huntg. with Mr. Fairfax. Killd a young fox without running him and returnd to Dinner. Doctr. Rumney dind here & lodged.
25. Mr. Fairfax--Doctr. Rumney--Mr. Magowan and Jacky Custis all went away after Breakfast. I rid into the Neck and to Muddy hole.
Jacky was returning to school in Annapolis.
26. At home all day alone.
27. Went by my Mill & Doeg Run to Colchesters--there to settle a dispute betwen. Doctr. Ross & Company & Mr. Semple.
In Feb. 1763 Dr. David Ross of Bladensburg, Md., became a partner with Richard Henderson of Bladensburg and Samuel Beall, Jr., and Joseph Chapline (d. 1769), both of Frederick County, Md., in a company that built and operated the Antietam (or Frederick) ironworks on the Potomac River near the mouth of Antietam Creek (SINGEWALD, 144--45). By 1770 John Semple was selling pig iron from his Keep Triste furnace to the forge at the Antietam works, and those sales may have led to this dispute with Dr. Ross and his company (proposal of John Scruple on Potomac navigation, c.1770, MnHi). But the quarrel probably concerned rights to ore deposits or land, possibly the Merryland tract Semple had bought from Thomas Colvill in 1765 (GW to John Rumney, 24 Jan. 1788, DLC:GW). GW was assisted in arbitrating the dispute by George Mason; Robert Mundell, a merchant from Port Tobacco, Md.; and Hector Ross of Colchester, who was no relation to Dr. Ross. After meeting for six days the arbitrators were unable to resolve the matter and adjourned until 24 Jan. 1771.
28. At Colchester all day--upon the same business.
29. Still at Colchester upon this Affair Colo. Lewis My Sister & Brothr. Chas. passd this in their way to Mount Vernon.
On this date GW paid Dr. Ross £38 1s. 9½d. Maryland currency for about 3,000 pounds of iron (LEDGER A, 320).
30. Still at Colchester upon the business before mentioned.
31. At the same place and on the same business.
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Acct. of the Weather in August
Augt. 1. Clear with the Wind very fresh from the So. West but very warm notwithstanding.
2. Again very warm with a brisk westwardly breeze.
3. More moderate--the Wind being Northwardly--cloudy with some thunder but no Rain.
4. Warm again but no appearance of Rain tho the wind was favourable for it.
5. Very warm but clear and little wind--that southwardly.
6. Clear and Warm--with but little [ ].
7. Clear in the Morning but very cloudy and like for Rain afterwards--tho little or none fell. Wind Eastwardly.
8. Cool and Clear. Wind fresh from the Northwest.
9. Clear and cool wind still continuing Northwardly.
10. Something warmer with but little wind.
11. Warm again--with some slight appearances of Rain.
Warm and still with Clouds.
13. Wind abt. So. West afterwards Shifting Eastwardly & blewg. fresh.
14. Cloudy all day. In the afternoon a hard shower of Rain for a few Minutes.
15. Cloudy all day with a good deal of Rain about but little or none fell here.
16. Some Rain again [in] the Night with hard winds.
17. Showery in the Morning and abt. in Places all day but little here.
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18. Very Cloudy all day at least the forepart of it but clear afterwards. Ground by this got thoroughly wet.
19. Showers again with the Wind fresh from the southward.
20. Very warm all Day. In the Night a good deal of Rain and a sudden change in the Air.
21. Very Cool and Cloudy. Wind being Northwardly & Eastwardly.
22. Cloudy & very cool all day. Being a close & constant Rain. Wind Eastwardly.
23. Warmer, Wind being Southwardly. Morning Misty & cloudy all day.
24. Misty Morning, and sometimes slight showers in the forenoon but clear & warm afternoon.
25. Cloudy generally through the day with the Wind pretty brisk from the Southwest especialy in the Morning.
26. Clear and Warm wind being still to the Southward.
27. Very Hot & even Sultry in the Evening with Clouds to the westward & some Rain.
28. Still warm but not so hot as yesterday. Raining most part of the Night.
29. Raining in the Morning but clear & cool afterwards.
30. Very cool. Wind being at No. West.
31. A Slight frost in the Morning but clear and cool all day.
Remarks & Occurances Augt.
Augt. 1. Began to Sow Wheat at Muddy hole--the Ground Grassy & in bad order.
Began to Sow Ditto at Doeg Run Quarter where the Ground was exceeding foul, Grassy, & hard.
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8. Began to sow Wheat in the Neck in that Cut upon the Creek above Carneys Gut. The Ground here was tolerably clear and in Good Order the Grass and Weeds being Choped over.
Carney's Gut, named for GW's former tenant John Carney, is on the east side of Little Hunting Creek a short distance above the creek's mouth (see illus., p. 3).
10 & 11th. I rid over all my Corn Ground as well that in the Neck as those at Muddy hole & Doeg Run, and was surprizd to see how much it had fired; especially in Land that was any thing Stiff and poor. It was observable also, that in most of these places there appeard no shoots upon the Stalks and upon the whole the prospect [was] exceedingly shocking. It is further to be observd, that the Corn, in flat stiff places was fired even where it had not been lately workd but more so where it was. Why Corn in so short a droughth shoud fire so badly is difficult to Acct. for Unless it is owning to the great and frequent Rains which fell all the first part of the year and at the same time that it made the Corn Luxurient & exceeding tender baked the Ground hard & prevented the frequent and constant working of it that it ought to have had.
Nothing appears [more] clearly from the experience of this year than that a wet June is very injurious to both Corn and Wheat. The former is run too much into stalk by it--made tender & unable to stand the droughts which follow after & besides this is generally overcome with grass and Weeds. The Latter (that is Wheat) by being injurd in the blossom produces poor perished grain & but little of it--the head being subject to the spot & other defects.
My Corn this year has not been so well cultivated as it ought wch. partly has been owing to two causes--first the exceeding wet weather all the Month of June prevented my Plows from working constantly where the Land was level and next my force of Horses was rather inadequate to the Task & I think more than 35 or 40 Acres of Corn Land (where it is any thing stiff) ought not to be allotted to a plow and two middling good Horses. Finishd Sowg. the Cut upon the Creek above Carneys Gut. Finished the Remainder of that Cut on the other side the Gut.
17. Finished the Cut at Doeg Run abt. John Gists Houses.
25. I examined my Corn fields & perceivd that the late Rains had made a great alteration for the better. Many stalks were
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putting out entire New Shoots with young and tender Silk--but as the Tassels of most of all the Corn (especially in that field in the Neck) was entirely dry. The question is whether the Corn for want of the Farina will ever fill. This is a matter worthy of attention & should be observed accordingly.
29. The Rain that Fell last Night made the Ground too wet for plowing.
Where & how my time is Spent
Septr. 1st. Returnd from the Arbitration at Colchester. In the Evening my Brothr. Saml. & his wife & children came hither from Fredericksburg in their way to Frederick.
Samuel Washington, the brother of George Washington. (Dr. and Mrs. John A. Washington)
Charles Washington. From an unknown original reproduced in Charles H. Callahan, Washington the Man and the Mason, Washington, D.C., 1913. (University of Virginia Library)
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Samuel Washington moved his family about this time to Harewood in Frederick County, where he lived until his death in 1781 (see "Remarks" entry for 6 Oct. 1770). His present wife was his fourth, Anne Steptoe Washington, daughter of Col. James Steptoe of Westmoreland County and widow of Willoughby Allerton (d. 1759), also of Westmoreland. The children who came today were probably Thornton Washington (c. 1760--1787), Samuel's son by his second wife Mildred Thornton Washington, and Ferdinand Washington (1767--1788), his eldest surviving son by Anne Steptoe Washington, but there may have been others (WAYLAND [1], 143).
2. At home all day with the Company before Mentioned. Mr. Adam's Miller came here & went to see my Mill.
3. Went in the Evening a fishing with my Brothers Saml. & Charles.
4. Rid to My Mill and back to Dinner.
5. At Home all day playing Cards.
6. Rid to the Mill with Colo. Lewis &ca. returnd to Dinner.
7. Went a fishing into the Mouth of Doegs Creek.
8. A Fishing along towards Sheridine Point. Dined upon the Point.
Sheridine Point (now called Sheridan Point) is on the Potomac about a mile above the mouth of Little Hunting Creek. Part of GW's Clifton's Neck property, it was apparently so named because it was part of the plantation that John Sheridine, Sr., was renting from GW. The point was at this time the site of a fishing landing.
9. Colo. Lewis, my Sister & Brother Charles went away. At Home all day.
10. My Brothr. Saml. & self rid to the Mill & Back to Dinner.
11. Rid to the Mill and Ditchers again.
12. Rid to the Mill & Ditchers. Mr. Christian & his Scholars came here to Dancing.
Jacky Custis had again come home from Annapolis for dancing lessons (John Parke Custis to GW, 30 Aug. 1770, PHi: Gratz Collection).
13. Rid to the Mill Ditchers & Morris and Muddy hole--also the Mill in the Afternoon. Mr. Christian went away this afternoon.
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George Washington enjoyed fishing with friends, a pastime suggested by this contemporary print. From The Sportsman's Dictionary, London, 1735. (Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union)
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14. Rid to the Mill and Ditchers in the forenoon with my Brother. In the Afternoon went a fishing.
15. Rid to Alexandria with my Brothr. & returnd to Dinner.
16. At home all day. My Brothr. Sam. and his wife set of in my Chariot for his House in Fredk. Mr. Renney came here this afternoon.
Rev. Robert Renney (d. 1774) served St. Margaret's Church, Westminster Parish, Anne Arundel County, Md., 1767--74 (RIGHTMYER, 209).
17. Went up to Court, and returnd in the Evening with Mr. Nash & Mr. Peachy.
The court met 17--20 Sept. (Fairfax County Order Book for 1770--72, 78--97, Vi Microfilm). In Alexandria on this day Hector Ross put some of John Ballendine's property up for sale to the highest bidder to settle debts that Ballendine owed him. To be sold were 17 slaves, including 9 skilled craftsmen, and a tract of about 400 acres of land near the Little Falls of the Potomac ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 30 Aug. 1770).
MR. NASH: probably one of the several Nashes living in Richmond County at this time, but he could be Col. John Nash, Jr., a prominent citizen of Prince Edward County (RICHMOND COUNTY, 186--87; HENNEMAN, 6:175). MR. PEACHY: probably Col. William Peachey (1729--1802) of Richmond County, but possibly one of his brothers: Samuel Peachey (b. 1732) of Prince William or Essex County; Thomas Griffin Peachey (1734--1810), clerk of Amherst County; or LeRoy Peachey (b. 1736), clerk of Richmond County. William Peachey had been a captain under GW in the Virginia Regiment and was now adjutant general of militia for the colony's Middle District, the area between the James and Rappahannock rivers east of the Blue Ridge (KEEPER, 38--41 n.33; Va. Gaz., P&D, 11 May 1769; R, 15 Feb. 1770; and R, 14 Feb. 1771).
18. Mr. Renny & Jacky Custis set out for Annapolis. Mr. Nash &ca. went home & I to Court again & returnd in the afternoon.
Jacky had received 17s. pocket money on the previous day (LEDGER A, 320). GW was late in arriving for this day's court session (Fairfax County Order Book for 1770--72, 81, Vi Microfilm).
GW today began to rent from John West, Jr., the undisputed part of the land near Mount Vernon that West had earlier promised to sell him. The rent of this tract of about 200 acres was fixed at £12 10s. a year, and GW was to be allowed to take timber off the land as he pleased. West's earlier agreement to sell all the land to GW at 43s. an acre, after the conclusion of West's suit with Posey, was still in force, and West today specifically reaffirmed his promise to include Posey's small strip in the sale if he should recover it. The case was to be heard before the General Court in Williamsburg this fall (agreement of West with GW, 18 Sept. 1770, PHi: Gratz Collection).
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19. Rid to the Mill & Ditchers & come home to Dinner.
20. Rid to the Mill & Ditchers again & went by Poseys. Doctr. Rumney came.
21. Rid to the Mill and Ditchers. Doctr. Rumney went away.
Before Rumney left, GW paid him for services and medicines furnished since February: £6 4s. 6d. on his own account, £5 is, for Patsy Custis, and £1 for Fielding Lewis (LEDGER A, 320).
22. Rid to my Mill in the forenoon & afternoon. James McCarmack came here last Night & returnd today.
On this day GW docked Jonathan Palmer £5 for "Six Weeks lost by Sickness and going to Loudoun Court" (LEDGER A, 294). He then renegotiated his contract with Palmer, which was renewed annually through 1773. In June 1774 Palmer returned to help bring in the wheat harvest at a wage of 5s. per day (LEDGER B, 28).
James McCormack (died c.1789) had served under GW in the Virginia Regiment during 1754 and now lived with his wife Mercy, widow of Joshua Hains, on Bullskin Run in Frederick County (VIRKUS, 5:471; TORRENCE, 271).
23. At Home all day Mr. Campbell and Captn. Sanford dind here.
Capt. Lawrence Sanford, a shipmaster who had been sailing out of Alexandria for the past six years, currently commanded the brig Swift of Alexandria owned by Joseph Thompson & Co. (Sanford's deposition, 19 Oct. 1779, NAVAL OFFICE, 294--95; ship lists for South Potomac Naval District, P.R.O., C.O.5/1450, ff. 39--41, and C.O.5/1349, f. 207). He had taken a shipment of fish to the West Indies for GW during the previous year and today was arranging to take some herring jointly owned by GW and Matthew Campbell to Jamaica for sale (GW to Sanford, 26 Sept. 1769, DLC:GW). On 26 Sept. GW instructed Sanford by letter to bring him some West Indian goods on the return voyage: a hogshead of rum, a "Barrel of good Spirits," 200 pounds of coffee, 200 pounds of sugar, and 100 or 200 oranges "if to be had good." Those items were to be paid for out of GW's share of the herring sales, his balance to be rendered in cash (DLC:GW). The Swift returned with GW's goods a few months later, but GW received no cash balance, because the cost of his goods, £50 10s. 1d., exceeded his eventual proceeds from the deal, £40 15s. 9d. (Robert McMickan to GW, 7 Dec. 1770, MiU-C: Haskell Collection; Robert McMickan & Co.'s account with GW, 6 Dec. 1770--16 Feb. 1771, ViMtV).
24. At home all day alone.
25. Rid to the Mill and Ditchers in the forenoon.
26. Rid by Posey's and to the Mill & Ditchers again.
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Washington's account with a Jamaican firm that sold sixty-nine barrels of his herring. (Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union)
27. Rid to the Mill and Ditchers. In the afternoon Doctr. Rumney came here.
28. Rid to the Mill and Ditchers. Doctr. Rumney here Sick.
29. At Home all day--Doctr. Rumney still here Sick.
30. At home all day. Mr. Wr. Washington came in the Evening. Doctr. Rumney still here.
Acct. of the Weather in Septr.
Septr. 1st. Cool & clear--wind being still Northwardly.
2. Cool but rather Inclind to be Cloudy Wind being also fresh from the Eastward.
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3. Rain in the forenoon but clear afterwards with but little wind.
4. Showery with the wind at East.
5. Clear and tolerably warm and still.
6. Flying Clouds with the Wind tolerably fresh--but no Rain.
7. Clear with the Wind tolerably fresh from the North North East.
8. Still, Calm, Warm, and clear.
9. Clear and Calm but not so cool as yesterday.
10. Clear and tolerably Cool Wind being at No. East.
11. Cloudy with appearances of Rain but none fell.
12. Rain in the Morning & cloudy afterwards & warm.
13. Still Cloudy with some Shows for Rain but none fell.
14. Clear and pleasant with the wind Southwardly.
15. Clear and warm with but little wind & that Southwardly--warm.
16. Clear in the forenoon and warm with some appearance of Rain in the afternoon.
17. Rain in the Fore & afternoon & Cloudy all day.
18. Clear and cool Wind at No. West.
19. Clear and very cool. Wind still continuing Northwardly.
20. Still cool--but warmer than yesterday--a remarkable great Fog & Dew.
21. Clear & tolerably warm Wind being Southwardly.
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22. Showery in the forenoon with the Wind at Southwest. Clear afterwards.
23. Clear and Cool--Wind Northwardly & westwardly.
24. Raining all day with variable Wind.
25. Raing. a little in the Morning and a good deal in the afternoon and very warm.
26. Clear and Cool Wind Northwardly.
27. Also clear and cool wind still Northwardly.
28. Something warmer and Cloudy with appearances of Rain.
29. Misting and every now and then a little Rain. Very cloudy all day and wind at No. East. In the Evening it began to Rain pretty constant--tho not hard.
30. Tolerably clear and Warm with the Wind Southwardly.
Remarks & Occurs. in Septr.
Septr. 4th. Got on the 2d. Floor (or rather the last Floor the walls being at their Height) of my Mill.
The Hound Bitch stately brought 7 Puppies viz 2 dogs & 5 Bitches 1 of the former dead--remaing. 1 dog & 5 Bitches.
13. Sett 3 Negroe Men, to Wit Harry, George & Frank to Work upon my Mill Race.
14. Two more men came to work on it from the Neck--to wit--Neptune and George.
Morris at Doeg Run began to sow his third Cut of Wheat.
20. Finishd Sowing Wheat in the Neck. Also at Muddy hole. This day also Dominicus Gubner a Dutch Smith set into work at the Rate of £32 pr. Ann he to be found when at Work here and to have the Plantn. on which John Crook livd (to settle his Family at) & Work in any thing he pleases rent free.
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Before this date GW had employed Gubner as a blacksmith on a daily basis, paying him 3s. a day for each of 19 days that he had previously worked in the shop at Mount Vernon (LEDGER A, 325). Under the terms of the one-year contract signed today, Gubner agreed to do blacksmithing for GW on a regular basis, attending to his business in GW's shop "at all hours & seasons that is customary & proper for a Smith to work at" and making up all time lost "by negligence, Sickness, or any private concerns of his own" (DLC:GW). The plantation on which John Crook had lived was apparently part of the Mount Vernon tract; it was first rented by Crook from GW in 1755, two years before GW began to acquire other lands in the area. Crook ceased to live there after 1767 (LEDGER A, 71, 128, 244). Gubner occupied the plantation and worked for GW until the fall of 1773, his contract being twice renewed with no changes in terms (LEDGER B, 34).
22. Receivd from Edwd. Snickers the Millstones he was to get for [me] which were thinner by two Inch<es> than what were bespoke.
GW paid Snickers £20 for these stones when he stopped at Snickers's ordinary 30 Nov. 1770 (LEDGER A, 329).
Where & how my time is Spent
Octr. 1. Rid to my Mill and the Ditchers with Mr. Warnr. Washington. Colo. Fairfax dind here. The Doctr. Rumney still here. Mr. Carr came in the Eveng.
William Carr (d. 1791), a Dumfries merchant, dealt in wheat and flour. He had been a trustee of the town since 1761 and in 1765 served as a commissioner to divide Fairfax Parish from Truro Parish (Carr to GW, 17 Dec. 1770, DLC:GW; HENING, 7:424--28, 8:157--59).
2. At home all day. John Savage formerly a Lieutt. in the Virga. Service & one Wm. Carnes came here to enter their claim to a share in the 200,000 acres of Land. Wr. Washington & Doctr. Rumney here.
Savage was commissioned a lieutenant in the Virginia Regiment 9 Mar. 1754 and promoted to captain in Sept. 1755 but resigned from the regiment the following spring (VA. TROOPS, 284; GW orders, 17 Sept. 1755, DLC:GW; GW to Robert Dinwiddie, 25 June 1756, DLC:GW). He may be the John Savage (d. 1791) who settled on Knobly Mountain, Hampshire County, about 1778 (SAGE AND JONES, 132; SIMS, 226). Carnes (Carns) was a private in the Virginia Regiment as early as 9 July 1754 (VA. TROOPS, 279).
3. At home all day. Mr. Washington--Mr. Carr--Savage & Games went away after Breakfast. The Doctr. still here.
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Dr. James Craik, Washington's former comrade in arms. (Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22, A.F. & A.M., Alexandria, Va.)
4. In the afternoon Doctr. Rumney went away & Doctr. Craik came.
5. Set out in Company with Doctr. Craik for the Settlement on Redstone &ca. dind at Mr. Bryan Fairfax's & lodged at Leesburg.
Several factors induced GW to make the arduous journey through western Pennsylvania and the Ohio country in the fall of 1770. Among the most pressing was the question of locating bounty lands on the Kanawha and Ohio rivers for the officers and soldiers of the Virginia Regiment (see main entry for 30 July 1770). GW felt a special sense of urgency about this business because rumors had recently reached Virginia of a newly established land company in England whose proposed claims appeared to overlap those of the Virginia veterans (see "Remarks" entry for 8 Oct. 1770, n.1; GW to Lord Botetourt, 5 Oct. 1770, PPRF). Furthermore, GW noted, "any considerable delay in the prosecution of our Plan would amount to an absolute defeat of the Grant inasmuch as Emigrants are daily Sealing the choice Spots of Land and waiting for the opportunity . . . of solliciting a legal Title under the advantages of Possession & Improvement--two powerful Plea's in an Infant Country" (GW to Lord Botetourt, 9 Sept. 1770, CLU-C). See also William Nelson to Lord Hillsborough, H.B.J., 1770--72, xxii-xxiii.
GW's own land interests also induced him to make a first hand investigation of conditions in western Pennsylvania. In Sept. 1767 GW had instructed William Crawford, his western land agent, to "look me out a Tract of about 1500, 2000, r more Acres somewhere in your Neighbourhood. . . . Any Person . . . who neglects the present opportunity of hunting out good Lands & in some measure Marking & distinguishing them for their own (in order to keep others from settling them) will never regain it" (GW to Crawford, 21 Sept. 1767, DLC:GW). Crawford proceeded to have a considerable tract
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of land surveyed for GW in the area of Chartier's Creek (see main entry for 15 Oct. 1770). "When you come up," he informed GW, "you will see the hole of your tract finisht" (Crawford to GW, 5 May 1770, DLC:GW).
There are two sets of diary entries for those portions of Oct. and Nov. 1770 covering GW's trip to the Ohio country. Both entries for a day should be consulted.
6. Bated at old Codleys. Dind and lodgd at my Brother Sam's.
GW's expenses at Codley's (Caudley's) were £6 (LEDGER A, 329). Codley's was located at Williams' (later Snickers') Gap in the Blue Ridge. It was near the site of present-day Bluemont, some 15 miles from Samuel Washington's home at Harewood.
7. Dind at Rinkers and lodgd at Saml. Pritchards.
Casper (Jasper) Rinker's house was located approximately ten miles from Winchester on the Winchester-Cumberland road. Rinker, a member of a family of early German settlers in the Shenandoah Valley, was given a grant of land, 2 June 1762, in what is now Hampshire County, W.Va., on the basis of a survey by GW (Northern Neck Deeds and Grants, Book K, 443, Vi Microfilm).
Samuel Pritchard resided on the Cacapon River some 40 miles from Samuel Washington's establishment. Pritchard was a resident of Frederick County as early as 1758, when he cast his vote against GW for burgess ( Va. Mag., 6:169).
8. Vale. Crawford joind us, & he and I went to Colo. Cresaps leaving the Doctr. at Pritchards with my boy Billy who was taken sick.
Thomas Cresap's establishment was at Shawnee Old Town (now Oldtown, Md.). See entry for 21 Mar. 1748. Billy is GW's mulatto body servant William, whom he had bought in 1768 from Mrs. Mary Lee of Westmoreland County, the widow of Col. John Lee, for £61 15s. (LEDGER A, 261). Billy had assumed the surname Lee, and was also referred to by GW as Will or William. He was to accompany his master throughout the Revolutionary War.
9. Went from Colo. Cresaps to Rumney where in the afternoon the Doctr. & my Servant & Baggage arrivd.
The town of Romney on the South Branch of the Potomac River was established in 1762 (HENING, 7:598--600). Here GW apparently met John Savage again, for he today recorded receiving £6 from Savage as part of his share of the surveying costs for the Virginia Regiment's land (LEDGER A, 329).
10. Bought two Horses & sent one of my Servants (Giles) home with those I rid up. Proceeded on our Journey and lodgd at one Wise (now Turners) Mill.
On this day GW paid £16 for a bay and £13 10s. for a gray (LEDGER A, 329). Wise's Mill was on Patterson's Creek.
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In this John Trumbull portrait, Washington's slave Billy Lee is shown at the right. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Charles Allen Munn, 1924)
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11. Set out about 11 Oclock and arrivd at one Gillams on George Creek 10½ Miles from the North Branch & same diste from F[ort] C[umberland].
GILLAMS: probably Joseph Gillam who lived on a branch of George's Creek, a little more than ten miles from the North Branch of the Potomac River. Fort Cumberland is now Cumberland, Md.
12. Started from Gillams between Sunrising & Day Break and arrivd at the Great crossing of Yaugha, about Sun set or before.
The Great Crossing of the Youghiogheny is near present-day Addison, Pa. GW spent 16s. there (LEDGER A, 329).
13. Left this place early in the Morning and arrivd at Captn. Crawfords (known by the name of Stewarts crossing) abt. ½ after four Oclock.
Stewart's Crossing was on the Youghiogheny River below present-day Connellsville, Pa. The site was named for William Stewart, who settled there in 1753 (COOK, 15). Braddock's army had crossed the Youghiogheny at this ford in June 1755 on the way to Fort Duquesne. The area was included in the tract of land on the Youghiogheny surveyed and occupied by William Crawford in 1769 (WHi: Draper Papers, E-11).
14. At Captn. Crawfords all day.
5. Rid to see the Land he got for me & my Brother's.
This land, which William and Valentine Crawford had surveyed for the Washingtons in 1769, is in the vicinity of Perryopolis, Pa., in what is now Fayette County, Pa.
16. At Captn. Crawfords till the Evening--then went to Mr. John Stephenson's.
John Stephenson was William and Valentine Crawford's half brother. After the death of the Crawfords' father, their mother, Onora Grimes Crawford (d. 1776), married Richard Stephenson, by whom she had five sons and one daughter (BUTTERFIELD [1], 93). John Stephenson had served in the French and Indian War and settled in the vicinity of the Great Crossing of the Youghiogheny about 1768. He was involved from time to time in the Crawfords' land activities.
17. Arrivd at Fort--dining at one Widow Miers at Turtle Creek.
GW had arrived at Fort Pitt. The Widow Myers's tavern was probably at Sycamore and Sixth streets within the boundaries of present-day Pittsburgh. It frequently served as a rallying point for frontier militia and was still operating
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Samuel Vaughan sketched the Younghiogheny River and the falls in 1787. (Collection of the descendants of Samuel Vaughan)
in the 1790s. GW spent 3s. 9d. at the tavern (LEDGER A, 329). Turtle Creek enters the Monongahela above the site of Fort Pitt.
18. Dined in the Fort at the Officers Club.
19. Dined at Colo. Croghans abt. 4 Miles from Pittsburg & returnd.
George Croghan was living at Croghan Hall near Pittsburgh. He and GW were old acquaintances from the 1754 campaign against the French, in which Croghan had agreed to provision the Virginia troops. At that time GW had been highly critical of his efforts (GW to William Fairfax, 11 Aug. 1754,
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DLC:GW). After the French and Indian War, Croghan acquired, on paper at least, an empire of some 250,000 acres of land in New York and 200,000 acres in Pennsylvania. By 1770, however, his pyramid of land speculation was crumbling and his creditors were pressing him for payment. In July 1770 he returned from his New York lands to his establishment near Fort Pitt, hoping to confirm title to his Pennsylvania holdings and sell them before returning to develop his tracts in New York. Exaggerated reports of land sales sent out by his agents had evidently reached GW, since at their meeting in mid-October they discussed the possibility of his purchasing a tract from Croghan. He wrote Croghan, 24 Nov., from Stewart's Crossing on his return from the Ohio, that he would be willing to buy a single tract of 15,000 acres. Since Croghan had had difficulty in securing an uncontested title to the Pennsylvania lands he had acquired from the Indians, GW added cautiously that the acres would be purchased only when legal title could be confirmed (DLC:GW). Croghan was optimistic after GW's visit: "I am likely to sell another Tract to Col. Washington and his Friends--if I do that, I expect to have One good Nights Rest before Christmas, which is more than I have had for eight Months past I assure you" (Croghan to Samuel Wharton, Jr., 25 Oct. 1770, PHi: Sarah A. G. Smith Family Papers). However, GW soon began to have serious doubts about the validity of Croghan's title and by late 1771 decided against purchasing the tract (William Crawford to GW, 2 Aug. 1771; GW to Crawford, 6 Dec. 1771, DLC:GW).
20. Set out for the Big Kanhawa with Dr. Craik Captn. Crawford & others. Incampd abt. 14 Miles off.
21. Got abt. 32 Miles further and Incampd abt. 3 Miles below little Bever Ck.
Little Beaver Creek empties into the Ohio from the north, about 42 miles from Fort Pitt (POWNALL, 166).
22. Reachd the Mingo Town abt. 29 Miles by my Computation.
Mingo Town (now Mingo Junction, Ohio) was an Indian village several miles below Steubenville, Ohio. "This was the only Indian village in 1766 on the banks of the Ohio from that place to Fort Pitt; it contained at that time 60 families" (CRAMER, 25n). Mingo Town appears on Thomas Hutchins's 1778 map of the Ohio.
23. Stayd at this place till One Clock in the Afternoon & padled abt. 12 Miles down the River & Incamped.
24. We reachd the Mouth of a Creek calld Fox Grape vine Creek (10 Miles up which is a Town of Delawares calld Franks Town) abt. 3 Oclock in the afternoon--distant from our last Camp abt. 26 Miles.
Fox Grape Vine Creek, also called Captina Creek, flows into the Ohio from the west. Frank's Town was a well-known Delaware village about six miles
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from the Juniata River. Originally called Assunepachla, it was referred to as Frank's Town, for the Pennsylvania trader Frank Stevens, as early as 1734. Apparently it was deserted by the Delawares before Braddock's Defeat in 1755. A Delaware village called Frank's Town on Captina Creek does not appear on early maps but it is possible that the Delawares had established such a settlement in the area. It may have been another name for the Grape Vine Town. "As late as 1772 the Rev. David Jones, a Baptist missionary, on his way to preach to the Ohio Indians, met a Frank Stephens at the mouth of Captina Creek (on the west side of the Ohio River, twenty miles below Wheeling). This man was an Indian, who had received his English name from that of Frank Stevens, the Trader. Possibly he may have been a half-blood son of the trader" (HANNA, 1:259--60).
25. Incampd in the long reach abt. 30 Miles from our last lodge according to my Computation.
The "long reach" of the Ohio is a section of the river with relatively few curves stretching approximately from Paden City to Raven Rock, W.Va. Its length is 18 to 20 miles.
26. Incampd at the Mouth of a Creek about 4 Miles above the Mouth of Muskingham distant abt. 32 Miles.
The Muskingum River joins the Ohio River from the Ohio side at Marietta.
27. Incampd at the Mouth of great Hockhocking distant from our last Incampment abt. 32 Miles.
The Little Hocking enters the Ohio from the west about 19 miles below Marietta. The Great Hockhocking is now the Hocking River. It flows into the Ohio at Hockingport, Ohio, some 26 miles below Marietta.
28. Meeting with Kiashuta & other Indian Hunters we proceeded only 10 Miles to day, & Incampd below the Mouth of a Ck. on the west the name of wch. I know not.
GW had met Guyasuta during his journey to the French commandant in 1753 (see entry for 30 Nov. 1753, n.49). After joining the French in 1755, Guyasuta had actively engaged in hostilities against the British during the French and Indian War and was a leader in Pontiac's rebellion. After the war he was again friendly to the English and aided the firm of Baynton, Wharton, & Morgan in opening up the Illinois trade. He maintained his allegiance to the British during the Revolution and participated in the attack against Hannastown, Pa., in 1782. After the Revolution he settled in the area of Pittsburgh and died there about 1800.
29. Went round what is calld the Great Bent & Campd two Miles below it distant from our last Incampment abt. 29 Miles.
The Great Bend of the Ohio is in the region of Meigs County, Ohio.
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30. Incampd Early Just by the old Shawna Town distant from our last no more than 15 Miles.
Shawnee Town appears on Lewis Evans's 1766 map of the middle colonies just north of the confluence of the Ohio and the Great Kanawha rivers. It is not the Lower Shawnee Town at the mouth of the Scioto River.
31. Went out a Hunting & met the Canoe at the Mouth of the big Kanhawa distant only 5 Miles makg. the whole distance from Fort Pitt accordg. to my Acct. 266 Miles.
GW's calculations on the distance from Fort Pitt to the mouth of the Great Kanawha at present-day Point Pleasant, W.Va., agree substantially with those of Capt. Harry Gordon, chief engineer of the Northern Department in North America. In Gordon's table of distances it is logged as 266¼ miles (POWNALL, 166).
Acct. of the Weather in October
Octr. 1st. Wind Southwardly and warm with flying Clouds.
2. Raining, Hailing, or Snowing the whole day--with the wind Northerly Cold & exceeding disagreeable.
3. Clear but cold. Wind being very high from the Northwest.
4. Clear and pleasant. Wind being fresh and very fresh.
5. Clear, warm & remarkably pleasant with very little or no Wind.
6. Again clear pleasant and still.
7. As pleasant as the two preceeding days.
8. Pleasant forenoon--but the wind Rising. About Noon it Clouded & threatned hard for Rain. Towards Night it raind a little & ceasd but contd. Cloudy.
9. Exceeding Cloudy & heavy in the forenoon & constant Rain in the Afternoon.
10. Cloudy with Rain & sunshine alternately.
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11. Wet Morning with flying Clouds afterwards. Towards the Evening the Wind sprung out at No. West.
12. Rain in the Night with flying Clouds accompanied with a little Rain now and then all day. Cold & Raw.
13. Clear and pleasant. Wind tolerably fresh from the Westward all day.
14. Very pleasant but wind fresh in the Afternoon.
15. Exceeding Cloudy & sometimes droppg. Rain but afterwds. clear.
16. Frosty Morning--but clear and pleasant afterwards.
17. Exceeding warm & very pleasant till the Evening then lowering.
18. Misty & Cloudy in the Evening. The Forepart of the day being very warm.
19. Misty & Cloudy all day.
20. Misty--but the Evening clear tho somewhat Cool.
21. Cloudy & very raw & cold in the forenoon. About Midnight it began to Snow & contd. to do so more or less all the remaing. part of the Night & next day.
22. Very raw & cold. Cloudy, & some times Snowing & sometimes Raining.
23. Exceeding Cloudy & like for Snow & sometimes really doing so.
24. Clear & pleasant Morning but cloudy & cold afterwards.
25. Rain in the Night but clear & warm till abt. Noon--then Windy & cloudy.
26. Clear and pleasant all day.
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27. A little Gloomy in the Morning but clear, still, & pleast. afterwards.
28. Much such a day as the preceeding one.
29th. Pleasant forenoon & clear but Cloudy and Wet afternoon.
30. Raining in the Night. Raw cold & cloudy forenoon but clear & pleasant afternoon.
31. Remarkably clear & pleasant with but little wind.
Remarks & Occurrs. in October
Octr. 5th.1 Began a journey to the Ohio in Company with Doctr. Craik his Servant, & two of mine with a lead Horse with Baggage. Dind at Towlston2 and lodgd at Leesburg distant from Mount Vernon abt. 45 Miles. Here my Portmanteau horse faild in his stomach.
1 For additional annotation of GW's diary entries for October, see the previous section.
2 Towlston Grange was Bryan Fairfax's home in Fairfax County.
6. Fed our Horses on the Top of the Ridge at one Codleys & arrivd at my Brother Samls. on Worthingtons Marsh1 a little after they had dind the distance being about 30 Miles. From hence I dispatchd a Messenger to Colo. Stephens2 apprising him of my arrival and Intended Journey.
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7. My Portmanteau Horse being unable to proceed, I left him at my Brothers & got one of his & proceedd, by Jolliffs1 & Jasper Rinkers to Saml. Pritchards on Cacapehen; distant according to Acct. 39 Miles; but by my Computation 42 thus reckond 15 to Jolliffs, 14 to Rinkers; & 13 to Pritchards. At Rinkers which appears to be a cleanly House my boy was taken Sick but continued on to Pritchards. Pritchards is also a pretty good House, their being fine Pasturage good fences, & Beds tolerably clean.
8. My Servant being unable to Travel I left him at Pritchards with Doctr. Craik & proceedd. myself with Vale. Crawford to Colo. Cresaps in ordr. to learn from him (being just arrivd from England) the particulars of the Grant said to be lately sold to Walpole1 & others, for a certain Tract of Country on the Ohio. The distance from Pritchards to Cresaps according to Computation is 26 Miles, thus reckond; to the Fort at Henry Enochs2 8 Miles (road exceedg, bad) 12 to Cox's3 at the Mouth of little Cacapehon and 6 afterwards.
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Virginia Regiment and the lands ceded to the "Suffering Traders" by the Six Nations, although some of these claims were recognized by the Walpole associates and concessions made to their holders (see SOSIN, 181--209; ABERNETHY, 40--58; George Mercer to GW, 18 Dec.1770, DLC:GW). For the reaction in Virginia to the proposed grant, see William Nelson to Lord Hillsborough, 18 Oct. 1770, H.B.J., 1770--72, xxii--xxv.
Thomas Cresap had spent much of 1770 in England and had made a particular inquiry into the affairs of the new company (BAILEY [4], 127). During their meeting on 8 Oct., Cresap gave GW extensive information about the new company including the fact that shares in the enterprise might be available from the members (see George Croghan to Joseph Wharton, Jr., 25 Oct. 1770, PHi: Sarah A. G. Smith Family Papers; GW to George Mercer, 22 Nov. 1771, DLC:GW). That GW was interested at least for a time in acquiring some interest in the Walpole company is indicated by the fact that he wrote to Croghan, 24 Nov. 1770, inquiring the latter's price for his share in the new company (DLC:GW). He made similar inquiries of George Mercer in 1771 (GW to Mercer, 22 Nov. 1771, DLC:GW).
9. Went up to Rumney in order to buy work Horses, & meet Doctr. Craik and my Baggage. Arrivd there abt. 12 distance 16 Miles. In the Afternoon Doctr. Craik my Servt. (much amended) and the Baggage, arrivd from Pritchards; said to be 28 Miles.
10. Having purchasd two Horses, and recoverd another which had been gone from me near 3 Years, I dispatchd my boy Giles with my two Riding Horses home, & proceeded on my journey; arriving at one Wises (now Turners) Mill about 22 Miles it being Reckond Seven to the place where Cox's Fort formerly stood; 10 to One Parkers; & five afterwards. The Road from the South Branch to Pattersons C[ree]k is Hilly--down the C[ree]k on which is good Land, Sloppy to Parkers & from Parkers to Turners Hilly again.
11. The Morning being wet & heavy we did not set of till 11 Oclock & arrivd that Night at one Killams on a branch of Georges
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C[ree]k, distant 10½ Measurd Miles from the North Branch of Potomack where we cross at the lower end of my Decd. Brother Auge. Bottom, known by the name of Pendergrasses.1 This Crossing is two Miles from the aforesaid Mill & the Road bad as it likewise is to Killams, the Country being very Hilly & stony.
From Killams to Fort Cumberland is the same distance that it is to the Crossing above mentiond, & the Road from thence to Jolliffs by the old Town much better.
12. We left Killams early in the Morning--breakfasted at the little Meadows 10 Miles of, and lodgd at the great Crossings 20 Miles further, which we found a tolerable good days work.
The Country we traveld over today was very Mountainous & stony, with but very little good Land, & that lying in Spots.
13. Set out about Sunrise, breakfasted at the Great Meadows 13 Miles of, & reachd Captn. Crawfords about 5 Oclock.
The Lands we travelld over to day till we had crossd the Laurel Hill1 (except in smal spots) was very Mountainous & indifferent--but when we came down the Hill to the Plantation of Mr. Thos. Gist2 the L[an]d, appeard charming; that which lay level being as rich & black as any thing coud possibly be. The more Hilly kind, tho of a different complexion must be good, as well from the Crops it produces, as from the beautiful white Oaks that grows thereon. Tho white Oak in generl. indicates poor Land, yet this does not appear to be of that cold kind. The Land from Gists to Crawfords is very broken tho not Mountainous--in Spots exceeding Rich, & in general free from Stone. Crawfords is very fine Land; lying on Yaughyaughgane at a place commonly called Stewards Crossing.
1 Laurel Hill was a western ridge of the Alleghenies.
Sunday 14th. At Captn. Crawfords all day. Went to see a Coal Mine not far from his house on the Banks of the River. The
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Coal seemd to be of the very best kind, burning freely & abundance of it.
Monday 15th. Went to view some Land which Captn. Crawford had taken up for me near the Yaughyaughgane distant about 12 Miles.1 This Tract which contains about 1600 Acres Includes some as fine Land as ever I saw--a great deal of Rich Meadow and in general, is leveller than the Country about it. This Tract is well Waterd, and has a valuable Mill Seat (except that the stream is rather too slight, and it is said not constant more than 7 or 8 Months in the Year; but on acct. of the Fall, & other conveniences, no place can exceed it).
In going to this Land I passd through two other Tracts which Captn. Crawford had taken up for my Brothers Saml. and John. That belonging to the former, was not so rich as some I had seen; but very valuable on acct. of its levelness and little Stone, the Soil & Timber being good. That of the latter, had some Bottom Land up on sml. Runs that was very good (tho narrow) the Hills very rich, but the Land in genl. broken. I intended to have visited the Land which Crawford had procurd for Lund Washington this day also, but time falling short I was obligd to Postpone it making it in the Night before I got back to Crawfords where I found Colo. Stephen.
The Lands which I passd over today were generally Hilly, and the growth chiefly white Oak, but very good notwithstanding; & what is extraordinary, & contrary to the property of all other Lands I ever saw before, the Hills are the richest Land, the soil upon the sides and Summits of them, being as black as a Coal, & the Growth Walnut, Cherry, Spice Bushes &ca. The flats are not so rich, & a good deal more mixd with stone.
Tuesday 16. At Captn. Crawfords till the Evening, when I went to Mr. John Stephenson (on my way to Pittsburg) & lodgd. This day was visited by one Mr. Ennis who had traveld down the little Kanhawa (almost) from the head to the Mouth, on which he says the Lands are broken, the bottoms neither very wide nor rich, but covd. with Beach. At the Mouth the Lands are good, & continue so up the River; & about Weeling, & Fishing Ck., is according to his Acct. a body of fine Land. I also saw a Son of Captn. John Hardens who said he had been from the Mouth of little Kanhawa to the big, but his description of the Lands seemed
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A plan of Fort Pitt, drawn by Samuel Vaughan. (Collection of the descendants of Samuel Vaughan)
to be so vague and indeterminate, that it was1 much doubted whether he ever was there or not. He says however that at the Mouth of the Big Kanhawa there may be abt. 20 or 25,000 acres of Land had in a Body that is good--that you are not above five or 6 Miles to the Hills, & that the Falls of the Kanhawa are not above 10 Miles up it.
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Wednesday 17. Doctr. Craik & myself with Captn. Crawford and others arrivd at Fort Pitt, distant from the Crossing 43½ Measurd Miles. In Riding this distance we pass over a great deal of exceeding fine Land (chiefly White Oak) especially from Sweigley Creek1 to Turtle Creek2 but the whole broken; resembling (as I think all the lands in this Country does) the Loudoun Land for Hills.
We lodgd in what is calld the Town--distant abt. 300 yards from the Fort at one Mr. Semples3 who keeps a very good House of Publick Entertainment. These Houses which are built of Logs, & rangd into Streets are on the Monongahela, & I suppose may be abt. 20 in Number and inhabited by Indian Traders &ca.
The Fort is built in the point between the Rivers Alligany & Monongahela, but not so near the pitch of it as Fort Duquesne stood. It is 5 sided & regular, two of which (next the Land) are of Brick; the others Stockade. A Mote incompasses it. The Garrison consists of two Companies of Royal Irish Commanded by one Captn. Edmondson.4
2 Turtle Creek flows into the Monongahela about 12 miles above Pittsburgh.
Thursday 18th. Dind in the Fort with Colo. Croghan & the Officers of the Garrison. Supped there also meeting with great Civility from the Gentlemen, & engagd to dine with Colo. Croghan the next day at his Seat abt. 4 Miles up the Alligany.
Friday 19th. Recd. a Message from Colo. Croghan, that the White Mingo1 & other Chiefs of the 6 Nations had something to say to me, g: desiring that I woud be at his House abt. 11. (where they were to meet) I went up and receivd a Speech with a String of wampum from the White Mingo to the following effect.
That as I was a Person who some of them remember to have
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seen when I was sent on an Embassy to the French,2 and most of them had heard of; they were come to bid me welcome to this Country, and to desire that the People of Virginia woud consider them as friends & Brothers linked together in one chain--that I wd. inform the Governor, that it was their wish to live in peace and harmy. with the white People, & that tho their had been some unhappy differences between them and the People upon our Frontiers, it was all made up, and they hopd forgotten; and concluded with saying, that, their Brothers of Virginia did not come among them and Trade as the Inhabitants of the other Provences did, from whence they were affraid that we did not look upon them with so friendly an Eye as they coud wish.
To this I answerd (after thanking them for their friendly welcome) that all the Injuries & Affronts that had passd on either side was now totally forgotten, and that I was sure nothing was more wishd and desird by the People of Virginia than to live in the strictest friendship with them. That the Virginians were a People not so much engagd in Trade as the Pensylvanians, &ca., wch. was the Reason of their not being so frequently among them; but that it was possible they might for the time to come have stricter connections with them, and that I woud acquaint the Govr. with their desires.
After dining at Colo. Croghan we returnd to Pittsburg--Colo. Croghan with us, who intended to accompany us part of the Way down the River, having engagd an Indian calld the Pheasant3 & one Joseph Nicholson4 an Interpreter to attend us the whole Voyage. Also a young Indn. Warrior.
2 See GW's diary of his "Journey to the French Commandant," 1753.
4 Joseph Nicholson was well known on the frontier as a trader and interpreter.
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As early as 1766 he was in trade with the Tuscarora (JOHNSON PAPERS, 5:384), and he acted as interpreter on Maj. Gen. Daniel Brodhead's campaign in 1779. In May 1790 he was commissioned to bring the Indian chiefs Cornplanter, Half Town, and New Arrow to Philadelphia to confer with GW, and acted as interpreter during the talks.
Saturday 20th. We Imbarkd in a large Canoe with sufficient Stores of Provision & Necessaries, & the following Persons (besides Doctr. Craik & myself) to wit--Captn. Crawford Josh. Nicholson Robt. Bell--William Harrison--Chs. Morgan & Danl. Reardon a boy of Captn. Crawfords,1 & the Indians who went in a Canoe by themselves. From Fort Pitt we sent our Horses g: boys back to Captn. Crawford wt. orders to meet us there again the 14th. day of November.
Colo. Croghan, Lieutt. Hamilton2 and one Mr. Magee3 set out with us. At two we dind at Mr. Magees & Incampd 10 Miles below, & 4 above the Logs Town. We passd several large Island which appeard to [be] very good, as the bottoms also did on each side of the River alternately; the Hills on one side being opposite to the bottoms on the other which seem generally to be abt. 3 and 4 hundred yards wide, & so vice versa.
Sunday 21. Left our Incampment abt. 6 Oclock & breakfasted at the Logs Town, where we parted with Colo. Croghan&a. abt. 9 Oclock. At 11 we came to the Mouth of big Bever Creek,1 opposite
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to which is a good Situation for a House, & above it, on the same side (that is the west) there appears to be a body of fine Land. About 5 Miles lower down on the East side comes in Racoon C[ree]k2 at the Mouth of which, & up it appears to be a body of good Land also. All the Land between this Creek & the Monongahela & for 15 Miles back, is claimd by Colo. Croghan under a purchase from the Indians (and which sale, he says is confirmd by his Majesty). On this Creek where the Branches thereof interlock with the Waters of Shirtees Creek3 there is, according to Colo. Croghan's Acct. a body of fine Rich level Land. This Tract he wants to sell, & offers it at £5 sterg, pr. hundd. with an exemption of Quitrents for 20 years; after which, to be subject to the payment of 4/2 Sterg. pr. Hundd., provided he can sell it in 10,000 Acre Lots. Note the unsettled state of this Country renders any purchase dangerous.
From Racoon Creek to little Bever Creek4 appears to me to be little short of 10 Miles, & about 3 Miles below this we Incampd; after hiding a Barrl. of Bisquet in an Island5 (in Sight) to lighten our Canoe.
5 Probably Mill Creek Island or Custard's Island.
Monday 22d. As it began to Snow about Midnight, & continued pretty steadily at it, it was about ½ after Seven before we left our Incampment. At the distance of about 8 Miles we came to the Mouth of Yellow Creek1 (to the West) opposite to, or rather below which, appears to be a long bottom of very good Land, and the Assent to the Hills apparently gradual. There is another pretty large bottom of very good Land about two or 3 Miles above this. About 11 or 12 Miles from this, & just above what is calld the long Island2 (which tho so distinguishd is not very remarkable for length breadth or goodness) comes in on the East side the River, a small Creek3 or Run the name of which I coud not learn; and a Mile or two below the Island, on the West Side, comes in big stony Creek (not larger in appearance than the other) on
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neither of which does there seem to be any large bottoms or body's of good Land. About 7 Miles from the last Mentiond Creek 28 from our last Incampment, and about 75 from Pittsburg, we came to the Mingo Town Situate on the West side the River a little above the Cross Creeks4.
This place contains abt. Twenty Cabbins, & 70 Inhabitants of the Six Nation.
Had we set of early, & kept pritty constantly at it, we might have reachd lower than this place today; as the Water in many places run pretty swift, in general more so than yesterday.
The River from Fort Pitt to the Logs Town has some ugly Rifts & Shoals, which we found somewhat difficult to pass, whether from our inexperience of the Channel, or not, I cannot undertake to say. From the Logs Town to the Mouth of little Bever Creek is much the same kind of Water; that is, Rapid in some places--gliding gently along in others, and quite still in many. The Water from little Bever Creek to the Mingo Town, in general, is swifter than we found it the preceeding day, & without any shallows, there being some one part or other always deep which is a natural consequence as the River in all the distance from Fort Pitt to this Town has not widend any at all nor doth the bottoms appear to be any larger. The Hills which come close to the River opposite to each bottom are steep; & on the side in view, in many places, Rocky & cragged; but said to abound in good land on the Top. These are not a range of Hills but broken, & cut in two as if there were frequent water courses running through (which however we did not perceive to be the case consequently they must be small if any). The River along down abounds in Wild Geese, and severl. kinds of Ducks but in no great quantity.5 We killd five wild Turkeys today.
Upon our arrival at the Mingo Town we receivd the disagreeable News of two Traders being killd at a Town calld the Grape Vine Town, 38 Miles below this; which causd us to hesitate whether we shoud proceed or not, & wait for further Intelligence.
2 Probably Brown's Island, 9 miles below Yellow Creek.
3 This stream may be King Creek, flowing into the Ohio from the east (CLELAND, 250).
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Tuesday 23. Several imperfect Accts. coming in agreeing that only one Person was killd, & the Indians not supposing it to be done by their people, we resolvd to pursue our passage, till we coud get some more distinct Acct. of this Transaction. Accordingly abt. 2 Oclock we set out with the two Indians which was to accompany us, in our Canoe, and in about 4 Miles came to the Mouth of a Creek calld Seulf Creek,1 on the East side; at the Mouth of which is a bottom of very good Land, as I am told there likewise is up it.
The Cross Creeks (as they are calld) are not large, that on the West side however is biggest. At the Mingo Town we found, and left 60 odd Warriors of the Six Nations going to the Cherokee Country to proceed to War against the Cuttawba's. About 10 Miles below the Town we came to two other cross Creeks2 that on the West side largest, but not big; & calld by Nicholson French Creek. About 3 Miles or a little better below this, at the lower point of some Islands3 which stand contiguous to each other we were told by the Indians with us that three Men4 from Virginia (by Virginians they mean all the People settled upon Redstone &ca.) had markd the Land from hence all the way to Redstone--that there was a body of exceding fine Land lying about this place and up opposite to the Mingo Town--as also down to the Mouth of Fishing Creek.5 At this Place we Incampd.
1 Probably Beech Bottom Run, near Wellsburg, W.Va.
3 These must be Pike Island and the Twin Islands (see CRAMER, 82).
Wednesday 24th. We left our Incampment before Sunrise, and abt. Six Miles below it, we came to the Mouth of a pretty smart Creek comg. in to the Eastward calld by the Indians Split Island Greek,1 from its running in against an Island. On this C[ree]k
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there is the appearance of good Land a distance up it. Six Miles below this again, we came to another Creek on the West side, calld by Nicholson Weeling2 and abt. a Mile lower down appears to be another small Water coming in on the East side,3 which I remark, because of the Scarcity of them; fie to shew how badly furnishd this Country is with Mill Seats. Two or three Miles below this again, is another Run on the West side; up which is a near way by Land to the Mingo Town; and about 4 Miles lower comes in another on the East at which place is a path leading to the settlement at Redstone. Abt. A Mile & half below this again, comes in the Pipe Creek so calld by the Indians from a Stone which is found here out of which they make Pipes. Opposite to this (that is on the East side), is a bottom of exceeding Rich Land; but as it seems to lye low, I am apprehensive that it is subject to be overflowd. This Bottom ends where the effects of a hurricane appears by the destruction & havock among the Trees.4
Two or three Miles below the Pipe Creek is a pretty large Creek on the West side calld by Nicholson Fox Grape Vine by others Captema Creek on which, 8 Miles up it, is the Town calld the Grape Vine Town; & at the Mouth of it, is the place where it was said the Traders livd, & the one was killd. To this place we came abt. 3 Oclock in the Afternoon, & findg. no body there, we agreed to Camp; that Nicholson and one of the Indians might go up to the Town, & enquire into the truth of the report concerning the Murder.
1 Probably Wheeling Creek and Wheeling Island, site of Wheeling, W.Va.
2 This creek may be McMahon's Creek, 2 miles below Wheeling (CRAMER, 84).
3 McMahon Run enters the Ohio near McMechen, W.Va. (CLELAND, 253).
Thursday 25th. About Seven Oclock Nicholson & the Indian returnd; they found no body at the Town but two Old Indian women (the Men being a Hunting). From these they learnt that the Trader was not killd, but drownd in attempting to Ford the Ohio; and that only one boy, belonging to the Trader, was in these parts; the Trader (fathr. to him) being gone for Horses to take home their Skins.
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About half an hour after 7 we set out from our Incampment around which, and up the Creek is a body of fine Land. In our Passage down to this, we see innumerable quantities of Turkeys, many Deer watering, & brousing on the Shore side, some of which we killd. Neither yesterday nor the day before did we pass any Rifts or very rapid water--the River gliding gently along--nor did we perceive any alteration in the general face of the Country, except that the bottoms seemd to be getting a little longer g: wider, as the Bends of the River grew larger.
About 5 Miles from the Vine Creek comes in a very large Creek to the Eastward calld by the Indian's Cut Creek,1 from a Town, or a Tribe of Indians which they say was cut of entirely in a very bloody battle between them and the Six Nations. This Creek empties just at the lower end of an Island,2 and is 70 or 80 yards wide and I fancy is the Creek commonly calld by the People of Redstone&a. Weeling.3 It extends according to the Indians acct. a great way, & Interlocks with the Branches of Split Island Creek; abounding in very fine bottoms, and exceeding good Land. Just below this, on the west side, comes in a sml. Run;4 & about 5 Miles below it on the West side also another midling large Creek emptys, calld by the Indian broken Timber Creek;5 so named from the Timber that is destroyd on it by a Hurricane; on the head of this was a Town of the Delawares, which is now left. Two Miles lower down, on the same side, is another Creek smaller than the last & bearing (according to the Indians) the same name.6 Opposite to these two Creeks (on the East side) appears to be a large bottom of good Land. About 2 Miles below the last mentiond Creek on the East side, g: at the end of the bottom aforementioned, comes in a sml. Creek or large Run.7 Seven Miles from this comes in Muddy Creek8 on the East Side the River--a pretty large Creek and heads up against, & with, some of the Waters of Monongehela (according to the Indians Acct.) & contains some bottoms of very good Land; but in general the Hills are steep, & Country broken about it. At the Mouth of this Creek is the largest Flat I have seen upon the River; the Bottom extending 2 or 3 Miles up the River above it, & a Mile below; tho it does not seem to be of the Richest kind and yet is exceeding good upon the whole, if it be not too low & subject to Freshes.
About half way in the long reach we Incampd, opposite to the beginning of a large bottom on the East side of the River. At this place we through out some lines at Night & found a Cat fish of the size of our largest River cats hookd to it in the Morning, tho it was of the smallest kind here. We found no Rifts in this days passage,
Washington traversed some of the country shown in this detail from the Fry-Jefferson map when he went to the Ohio in 1770. (Tracy W. McGregor Library, University of Virginia)
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but pretty swift Water in some places, & still in others. We found the bottoms increasd in size, both as to length & breadth, & the River more Chokd up with Fallen Trees & the bottom of the River next the shores rather more Muddy but in general stony as it has been all the way down.
2 Fish Creek Island, Marshall County, W.Va.
3 GW is mistaken. He had already passed Wheeling Creek and Wheeling Island.
4 Probably what is now Johnson's Run, which enters the Ohio from the west in Monroe County, Ohio.
5 Now Bishop Run, Monroe County, Ohio.
6 Opossum Creek, entering the Ohio from Monroe County, Ohio.
7 Proctor's Run, Proctor, W.Va.
8 This stream may be Fishing Creek, entering the Ohio from the east near New Martinsville, W.Va.
Friday 26th. Left our Incampment at half an hour after 6 Oclock & passd a small run1 on the West side about 4 Miles lower. At the lower end of the long reach, & for some distance up it, on the East side, is a large bottom, but low, & coverd with beach next the River shore, which is no Indication of good Land. The long reach is a strait course of the river for abt. 18 or 20 Miles which appears the more extraordinary as the Ohio in general, is remarkably crooked. There are several Islands2 in this reach, some containing an 100 or more Acres of land; but all I apprehend liable to be overflowed.
At the end of this reach we found one Martin & Lindsay two Traders; & from them learnt, that the Person drownd was one Philips attempting in Compa. with Rogers another Indn. Trader, to Swim the River with their Horses at an improper place; Rogers himself narrowly escaping.3 Five Miles lower down, comes in a large Creek from the Eastward, right against an Island of good land,4 at least a Mile or two in length. At the mouth of this Creek (the name of wch. I coud not learn except that it was calld by some Bulls Creek from one Bull that hunted on it) is a bottom of good Land, tho rather two much mixd with Beach. Opposite to this Island the Indians showd us a Buffalo Path, the Tracks of which we see.
Five or Six Miles below the last mentiond Creek we came to the three Island5 (before wch.) we observd a small run on each side coming in. Below these Islands is a large body of flat Land, with a water course running through it on the East Side, and the
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Hills back, neither so high, nor steep in appearance as they are up the River. On the other hand, the bottoms do not appear so rich, tho much longer & wider. The bottom last mentioned is upon a strait reach of the River, I suppose 6 or 8 Miles in length; at the lower end of which, on the East side, comes in a pretty large Run from the size of the Mouth. About this, above--below & back, there seems to be a very large Body of fiat Land with some little risings in it.
About 12 Miles below the three Islands we Incampd just above the Mouth of a Creek6 which appears pretty large at the Mouth and just above an Island. All the Lands from a little below the Creek which I have distinguished by the name of Bull Creek, appears to be level, with some small Hillocks intermixd, as far as we coud see into the Country. We met with no Rifts today, but some pretty strong water upon the whole tolerable gentle. The sides of the River was a good deal incommoded with old Trees, wch. impeded our passage a little.
This day provd clear & pleasant, the only day since the 18th. that it did not Rain or Snow or threaten the one or other very hard.
1 Possibly Grandview Run, near New Matamoras, Ohio (CLELAND, 256).
4 Probably Middle Island and Middle Island Creek.
5 Eureka, Broadback, and Willow islands, commonly called the Three Brothers.
6 Probably the Little Muskingum, which enters the Ohio from the west just above Devol's Island.
Saturday 27. Left our Incampment a Quarter before Seven, and after passing the Creek near wch. we lay, & another much the same size & on the same side (West);1 also an Island2 abt. 2 Miles in length (but not wide) we came to the Mouth of Muskingham,3 distant from our Incampment abt. 4 Miles. This River is abt. 150 yards wide at the Mouth; a gentle currant & clear stream runs out of it, & is navigable a great way into the Country for Canoes.
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From Muskingham to the little Kanhawa4 is about 13 Miles. This is about as wide at the Mouth as the Muskingham, but the water much deeper. It runs up towards the Inhabitants of Monongahela, and according to the Indians Acct. Forks about 40 or 50 Miles up it; and the Ridge between the two Prongs leads directly to the Settlement.5 To this Fork, & above, the Water is navigable for Canoes. On the upper side of this River there appears to be a bottom of exceeding rich Land and the Country from hence quite up to the 3 Islands level & in appearance fine. The River (Ohio) running round it in the nature of a horse shoe, forms a Neck of flat Land wch. added to that rung. up the 2d. long reach (aforementiond) cannot contain less than 50,000 Acres in view.
About 6 or 7 Miles below the Mouth of the Canhawa we came to a small Creek on the west side, which the Indns. calld little Hockhocking; but before we did this, we passd another sml. Creek6 on the same side near the Mouth of the River & a cluster of Islands afterwards. The lands for two or three Miles below the Mouth of the Canhawa on both sides the Ohio, appear broken & indifferent; but opposite to the little hockhocking there is a bottom of exceeding good Land, through wch. there runs a smal water course. I suppose there may be of this bottom & flat Land together, two or three thousand Acres. The lower end of this bottom is opposite to a smal Island wch. I dare say little of it is to be seen when the River is high. About 8 Miles below little Hockhocking we Incampd opposite to the Mouth of the great Hockhocking, which tho so calld is not a large water; tho the Indians say Canoes can go up it 40 or 50 Miles.
Since we left the little Kanhawa the Land neither appear so level nor good. The Bends of the River & Bottoms are longer indeed but not so rich, as in the upper part of the River.
1 Duck Creek is almost opposite Devol's Island.
2 Devol's or Meigs' Island, now called Kerr's Island (COOK, 21).
3 The Muskingum River flows into the Ohio from the west at Marietta, Ohio.
4 The Little Kanawha flows into the Ohio from the east at Parkersburg, W.Va.
5 THE SETTLEMENT: that is, the settled area in the vicinities of Fort Pitt and Red Stone.
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until Washington's party had proceeded down the river to the foot of the large island, when, would have come into view, the 'Four Acre' lying in the Virginia channel, and 'Towhead' just below." Changes in the course of the river have now made both part of Blennerhassett Island (COOK, 22--23). GW later acquired land in this area. On 1 Feb. 1796, he offered for sale "the first large bottom below the mouth of the Little Kenhawa, beginning 3 or 4 miles therefrom, and about 12 or 15 miles below Marietta. Its breadth on the river is 5 miles and 120 poles, and contents 2314 [acres]" (WRITINGS, 34:438).
Sunday 28th. Left our Incampment about 7 Oclock. Two Miles below, a sml. run comes in on the East side1 thro a piece of Land that has a very good appearance, the Bottom beginning above our Incampment, & continuing in appearance wide for 4 Miles down, to a place where there comes in a smal Run2 & to the Hills. And to where we found Kiashuta and his Hunting Party Incampd.
Here we were under a necessity of paying our Compliments, As this person was one of the Six Nation Chiefs, & the head of them upon this River. In the Person of Kiashuta I found an old acquaintance. He being one of the Indians that went with me to the French in 1753. He expressd a satisfaction in seeing me and treated us with great kindness, giving us a Quarter of very fine Buffalo. He insisted upon our spending that Night with him, and in order to retard us as little as possible movd his Camp down the River about 3 Miles just below the Mouth of a Creek the name of which I could not learn (it not being large).3 At this place we all Incampd. After much Councelling the overnight they all came to my fire the next Morning, with great formality; when Kiashuta rehearsing what had passd between me & the Sachems at Colo. Croghan's, thankd me for saying that Peace & friendship was the wish of the People of Virginia (with them) & for recommending it to the Traders to deal with them upon a fair & equitable footing; and then again expressd their desire of having a Trade opend with Virginia, & that the Governor thereof might not only be made acquainted therewith, but of their friendly disposition towards the white People. This I promisd to do.
1 Lee's Creek, Wood County, W.Va.
2 Pond Creek, Wood County, W.Va.
3 Probably Shade River, Meigs County, Ohio.
Monday 29th. The tedious ceremony which the Indians observe in their Councellings & speeches, detained us till 9 Oclock. Opposite to the Creek just below wch. we Incampd, is a pretty long bottom.1 & I believe tolerable wide; but abt. 8 or 9 Miles below the aforemend. Creek, & just below a pavement of Rocks on the
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west side, comes in a Creek2 with fallen Timber at the Mouth, on which the Indians say there is wide bottom's, & good Land. The River bottom's above for some distance is very good, & continues for near half a Mile below the Creek. The pavement of Rocks are only to be seen at low water. Abt. a mile, or a little better below the Mouth of the Creek there is another pavement of Rocks on the East side in a kind of Sedgey Ground. On this Creek many Buffaloes use[d to be] according to the Indians Acct. Six Miles below this comes in a small Creek3 on the west side at the end of a small naked Island, and just above another pavement of Rocks. This Creek comes thro a Bottom of fine Land, & opposite to it (on the East side the River) appears to be large bottom of very fine Land also. At this place begins what they call the great Bent. 5 Miles below this again, on the East side, comes in (abt. 200 yds. above a little stream or Gut) another Creek; which is just below an Island,4 on the upper point of which are some dead standing trees, & a parcel of white bodied Sycamores. In the Mouth of this Creek lyes a Scycamore blown down by the wind. From hence an East line may be Run 3 or 4 Miles; thence a North Line till it strikes the River, which I apprehend woud Include about 3 or 4000 Acres of exceeding valuable Land. At the Mouth of this C[ree]k which is 3 or 4 Miles above two Islands (at the lower end of the last, is a rapid,5 & the Point of the Bend) is the Wariors Path to the Cherokee Country. For two Miles & an half below this the River Runs a No. Et. Course, & finished what they call the Great Bent. Two Miles & an half below this again we Incampd.
1 The Long Bottom is in Meigs County, Ohio.
3 Probably Oldtown Creek, which flows into the Ohio from the west.
Tuesday 30th. We set out at 50 Minutes passd Seven--the Weather being Windy & Cloudy (after a Night of Rain). In about 2 Miles we came to the head of a bottom (in the shape of a horse Shoe) which I judge to be about 6 Miles r[oun]d; the beginning of the bottom appeard to be very good Land, but the lower part (from the Growth) did not seem so friendly. An East
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course from the lower end woud strike the River again above, about the Beging of the bottom.
The upper part of the bottom we Incampd in was an exceeding good one, but the lower part rather thin Land & coverd with Beach. In it is some clear Meadow Land and a Pond or Lake. This bottom begins just below the Rapid at the point of the Great Bent, from whence a N. N. Wt. Course woud answer to run a parrallel to the next turn of the River.
The River from this place narrows very considerably, & for 5 or 6 Miles or more, is scarcely more than 150 or 200 yards over. The Water yesterday, except the Rapid at the Great Bent, & some swift places about the Islands was quite Dead, & as easily passd one way as the other; the Land in general appeard level & good. About 10 Miles below our Incampment & a little lower down than the bottom describd to lye in the shape of a horse Shoe comes in a small Creek on the West side,1 and opposite to this on the East begins a body of flat Land which the Indians tell us runs quite across the Fork to the Falls2 in the Kanhawa, and must at least be 3 days walk across. If so the Flat Land containd therein must be very considerable. A Mile or two below this we Landed, and after getting a little distance from the River we came (without any rising) to a pretty lively kind of Land grown up with Hicky. & Oaks of different kinds, intermixd with Walnut&a. here & there. We also found many shallow Ponds, the sides of which abounding in grass, invited innumerable quantities of wild fowl among which I saw a Couple of Birds in size between a Swan & Goose; & in colour somewhat between the two; being darker than the young Swan and of a more sutty Colour. The Cry of these was as unusual as the Bird itself, as I never heard any noize resembling it before.3 Abt. 5 Miles below this we Incampd. in a bottom of Good Land which holds tolerably flat & rich for some distance out.
1 Probably Leading Creek, entering the Ohio from the east, 18 miles below Letart's Rapids.
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Wednesday 31st. I sent the Canoe along down to the Junction of the two Rivers abt. 5 Miles that is the Kanhawa with the Ohio and set out upon a hunting Party to view the Land.1 We steerd nearly East for about 8 or 9 Miles then bore Southwardly, & westwardly, till we came to our camp at the confluence of the Rivers. The Land from the Rivers appeard but indifferent, & very broken; whether these ridges might not be those that divide the Waters of the Ohio from the Kanhawa is not certain, but I believe they are. If so the Lands may yet be good. If not, that which lyes of the River bottoms is good for little.
November 1st. A little before eight Oclock we set of with our Canoe up the River to discover what kind of Lands lay upon the Kanhawa.1 The Land on both sides this River just at the Mouth is very fine; but on the East side when you get towards the Hills (which I judge to be about 6 or 700 yards from the River) it appears to be wet, & better adapted for Meadow than tillage. This bottom continues up the East side for about 2 Miles, & by going up the Ohio a good Tract might be got of bottom Land Including the old Shawna Town, which is about 3 Miles up the Ohio just above the Mouth of a C[ree]k--where the aforementiond bottom ends on the East side the Kanhawa. An[othe]r begins on the W. which extends up it at least 50 Miles by the Indns. Acct. and of great width (to be ascertaind, as we come down) in many places very rich, in others somewhat wet & pondy; fit for Meadow; but upon the whole exceeding valuable, as the Land after you get out of the Rich bottom is very good for Grain tho not rich. We judgd we went up this River about 10 Miles today. On the East side appear to be some good bottoms but small--neither long nor wide, the Hills back of them rather steep & poor.
Novr. 2d. We proceeded up the River with the Canoe about 4 Miles more, & then incampd & went a Hunting; killd 5 Buffaloes &
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wounded some others--three deer &ca. This Country abounds in Buffalo & wild game of all kinds; as also in all kinds of wild fowl, the<re> being in the Bottoms a great many small grassy Ponds or Lakes which are full of Swans, Geese, & Ducks of different kinds.
Some of our People went up the River 4 or 5 Miles higher & found the same kind of bottom on the West side, & we were told by the Indians that it continued to the Falls which they judgd to be 50 or 60 Miles higher up. This Bottom next the Water (in most places) is very rich. As you approach to the Hills you come (in many) to a thin white Oak Land, & poor. The Hills as far as we coud judge were from half a Mile to a Mile from the River; poor & steep in the parts we see, with Pine growing on them. Whether they are generally so, or not, we cannot tell but I fear they are.
Saturday 3d. We set of down the River on our return homewards, and Incampd at the Mouth; at the Beginning of the Bottom above the Junction of the Rivers, and at the Mouth of a branch on the Eastside, I markd two Maples, an Elm, & Hoopwood Tree as A Cornr. of the Soldiers L[an]d (if we can get it) intending to take all the bottom from hence to the Rapids in the Great Bent into one Survey.1 I also markd at the Mouth of another Gut lower down on the West side (at the lower end of the long bottom) an Ash and hoopwood for the Beginning of another of the Soldiers Survey to extend up so as to Include all the Bottom (in a body) on the West side.
In coming from our last Incampment up the Kanhawa I endeavourd to take the courses & distances of the River by a Pocket Compass, & guessing; which I make thus. N. by W. 2 Mile--NNW 1½ Do. NW ½ Do. to the Mouth of a pretty smart Creek to the Eastward--No. Wt. 2 Do. to another Creek of the same size on the same side--West ½ a Mile--WNW ½ a Mile--N. Wt. 1 Do. WNW 2 Do. W by N 2 Do.--NW 1½ Do. WNW ½ Do. to the Mouth.
Sunday 4. The Ohio from the Mou<th> of the Kanhawa runs thus--North 2 Miles--NNW 1¼ to the Mouth of a Creek & old Shawne Town N 6 W 1½ Miles--NEt. 1 Do.--NE by Et. 1½ NNEt. 4 Do. ENE ¾ of a Mile to the Mouth of a C[ree]k on the
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west side,1 & to the Hills, wch. the Indians say is always a fire to which the Bottom from the Mouth of the Kanhawa continues & then ends. After passing these Hills (which may run on the River near a Mile) there appears to be another pretty good Bottom on the East side. At this place we met a Canoe going to the Illinoies with Sheep and at this place also, that is at the end of the Bottom from the Kanhawa, just as we came to the Hills, we met with a Sycamore abt. 60 yards from the River of a most extraordinary size it measuring (3 feet from the Gd.) 45 feet round, lacking two Inches & not 50 yards from it was another 3 1.4 round (3 feet from the Gd. also).
The 2d. Bottom hinted at the other side (that is the one lying above the Bottom that reaches from the Kanhawa) is that taken notice of the 30th. Ulto. to lye in the shape of a Horse Shoe, & must from its situation, & quantity of level Ground be very valuable, if the Land is but tolerably good.
After passing this bottom & abt. a Mile of Hills we enterd into the 3d. Bottom and Incampd. This bottom reaches within about half a Mile of the Rapid at the point of the Great Bent.2
1 Opposite the mouth of Campaign Creek, Gallia County, Ohio.
Monday 5th. I set of the Canoe with our Baggage & walkd across the Neck on foot with Captn. Crawford distant according to our Walking about 8 Miles as we kept a strait course under the Foot of the Hills which run about So. Et. & was two hours & an half walking of it.1
This is a good Neck of Land the Soil being generally good; & in places very rich. Their is a large proportion of Meadow Ground, and the Land as high, dry, & Level as one coud wish. The growth in most places is beach intermixd with walnut&a. but more especially with Poplar (of which there are numbers very large). The Land towards the upper end is black Oak, & very good. Upon the whole a valuable Tract might be had here, & I judge the quantity to be about 4000 Acres.
After passing this Bottom & the Rapid, as also some Hills wch. just pretty close to the River, we came to that Bottom before remarkd the 29th. Ulto.; which being well describd, there needs no further remark except that the Bottom within view appears to be exceeding rich; but as I was not out upon it, I cannot tell how it
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is back from the River. A little above this Bottom we Incampd--the afternoon being rainy & Night wet.
Tuesday 6th. We left our Incampment a little after daylight, & in about 5 Miles we came to Kiashutes Hunting Camp which was now removd to the Mouth of that Creek noted Octr. 29 for having fallen Timber at the Mouth of it, in a bottom of good land. Between the Bottom last describd & this bottom, there is nothing but Hills on the East side except a little fiat of a 100 Acres or so, between. This Bottom thro which the Creek comes may be about 4 or 5 Miles in length & tolerably wide. Grown up pretty much with Beach tho the Soil is good.
By the kindness, and Idle ceremony of the Indians, I was detaind at Kiashutas Camp all the remaing. part of this day; and having a good deal of conversation with him on the Subject of Land. He informd me, that, it was further from the mouth of the Great Kanhawa to the Fall of that River than it was between the two Kanhawas--that the Bottom on the West side (which begins near the Mouth of the Kanhawa) continues all the way to the Falls without the Interposition of Hills, and widens as it goes, especially from a pretty large Creek that comes in abt. 10 or 15 Miles higher up than where we were--that in the Fork there is a body of go<od>1 Land and at some pretty consider<able> distance above this, the River forks again at an Island, & there begins the Reed or Cain to grow--that the Bottoms on the East side of the River are also very good, but broken with Hills and that the River is easily passd with Canoes to the Falls wch. cannot be less than 100 M<iles> but further it is not possible to go with them and that there is but one ridge f<rom> thence to the Settlements upon the River above, that it is possible for a Man to travel; the Country betw<een> being so much broken with steep Hills & precipices.
He further informd (which < > seemed to be corroborated by all < > with whom I conversd) that the < > back of the Short broken Hills th< > but down upon the Rivers are < > uneven, & not rich, except the < > upon Creeks, till you come towards < > heads of the Creeks; then the La< > grows leveller, and the soil rich < >.
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Wednesday 7th. We set out < > ½ an hour after Seven and af< >sing the Botton through which < > Creek with the fallen Timber at the Mouth Runs & which I believe is calld Buffalo Creek, we came to a range of Hills for a Mile or more in length upon the River (East side) then comes in the Bottom, opposite to wch. the Creek below wch. we lodgd at with the Indians the 28th. Ulto. empties. This also appears to be a bottom of 4 or 5 Miles in length, and tolerable good from the River. When we < > pass this Bottom the Hills (rather < >aller & flatter than usual) comes < >se to the River (East side for 4 or < m>iles) then begins another Bottom < > above, or opposite to a small < >nd; but before we came to this < m>ile, or two, we passd a good smart < > on the East side. This Bottom < > opposite to Great Hockhocking < > above which, & opposite to Dela<ware> Hunting Party, we Incampd.
<Thur>sday 8th. We left our Incamp<ment> as soon as we coud clearly dis<tingu>ish the rocks; and after pas< > Bottom which neither ap< > to be long, wide, nor very < > came to a Second Bottom noticd the 27th. Ulto. opposite to a Creek on the west side called by the Indian's little hockhocking, but may easily be distinguishd by having a lar<ge> Stone just at its Mouth (the upper side). This bottom is about 7 in length and appears to be very wide, and go<od> and must be very valuable if it <is> not liable to be overflowd, some pa<rt> of it appearing low. The lower part of this bottom (as was obser<ved> the 27th. Ulto.) is opposite to a smal barren Island with only a few bu<shes> on it --the upper part of it begin< > at much such another place o< > side (and part of a pretty long < > and at a drain or small run Th<at > comes out of the Hills. This is < > in a Mile or two of the Mouth < > Kanhawa, & the next Bottom < > except a little narrow slipe < > at the foot of the Hills below the < >.
At the Mouth of the Ka<nawha> Captn. Crawford, one of the In<dians> and myself, left the Canoe, in<ten>ding to meet it again at the < > of Muskingham about 13 M<iles> above, but the Indian by < > brought us to the River < > Miles below it. In this excursion we passd over various kinds of Lands some tolerable good white Oak Ground level, & meadowey--some <v>ery Hilly, & broken with Stone; and <s>ome black Oak, thinly timberd but <g>ood for Farming and others abt. < > Mile before we came to the River <w>hich was at a place where there <wa>s no
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bottom) exceeding good, full < >el enough, & well timberd with < > & black Oak; but in all the Gd. < > passd over today, & I suppose < > coud not have walkd less than < > Miles there was no Water. This < >art of the Land where I thoug< > Octr. 27) 50,000 Acres might < >t; but it does not answer my <expe>ctations. However, by falling < > the River too low, I apprehend < > the worst of it; as we were < > the Ridges that divide the Wa< >t Ohio from the Kanhawa; & < > up, towards the 3 Islands, has < > appearance. < >st below the Mouth of Mus< > Incampd.
Friday 9th. The Night proving very Rainy, & Morning wet we did <not> set out till ½ after 10 Oclock, & Incampd by the 3 Islands. Seeing a Bear upon the shore we landed, and followd it abo<ut> half a Mile from the River wch. gave us an opportunity of s<eeing> a little of the Land, which was hilly but rich.
Saturday 10th. After a Nig<ht> of incessant Thunder & Lig<ht>ning, attended with heavy <con>stant Rain till 11 Oclock th< > day, we set of about Twelve < > (the Rain then ceasing) and < > to the lower end of the long distant about 12 Miles--< > little stream, imperceptab<le > the view in our passage do < > now pouring in her mite, < > River raising very fast < > grows so muddy as to ren<der > Water irksome to drink
<Su>nday 11th. The last Night provd <a> Night of incessant Rain attended <w>ith thunder and lightning. The <ri>ver by this Morning had raisd abt. < > feet perpendicular and was <lev>elling fast. The Rain seeming <to a>bate a little and the wind spring<ing> up in our favour we were <te>mpted to set of; but were deceivd < > both; for the Wind soon ceasd, & <the> Rain continued without inter<rup>tion till about 4 Oclock when <it> moderated. However tho we <did> not sit of till Eleven, We got <to the> head of the long reach abt. < >les the River continuing to < > fast, & much choakd with < > wood.
<Mo>nday 12th. There fell a little < > in the Night tho nothing to < > of. Abt. Sun rise we left our <Incam>pment to encounter a very < s>tream which by this time had < > 2 feet perpendicular & running < >t velocity. After contending < w>hole day we were not able to get more than about < > Miles. The water still rising, and the Currt.
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if possible running <w>ith more violence, we came to a res<olu>tion of ordering our Horses <whi<ch> by appointment were to be at P<itts>burg the 14th. Inst.) to meet us at Mingo Town accordingly.
Tuesday 13th. We dispatchd < > young Indian express to Val< > Crawford, who had the charge of<f> them to proceed on < > that place, where we purp<osed> if possible, to get the Canoe <it> being about 50 Miles below < > In pursuance of this resolu<tion> we Imbark'd again, and with <diffi>culty got about 5 Miles furth<er> to the Mouth of the Upperm<ost> broken timber Creek. In < > of last Night the River rose < > perpendicular, and in the w< > with what it rose in the day < > must be now 4 or 5 & twenty fee<t> its usual height, & not a great < > below its banks--in low pl<aces> them.
This day about 3 In the After<noo>n we met two Battoes & a large Ca<noe> going (at a very fast rate) to < > Illinois with Provisions for the <G>arrison at Fort Chartres.1
Wednesday 14th. The River began < >e at a stand between Sunset & dark Night, & contind, for some < > so; falling only 2 feet by Sun < >. About an hour by sun we < > our Incampment and reachd a < > above the Captening, (or Fox grape vine Creek) about 11 Miles; not finding <the w>ater quite so strong as yesterday, <lev>eling with a little assistance from < >ind. About 2 or 3 Miles below <Capte>ning I got out (on the West side) < >kd through a Neck of as good < > as ever I saw, between that & < >k; the Land on the Hill sides < >s rich as the bottoms; than < > nothing can exceed. The bottom < > the Mouth of Captening appears < > equal goodness with the one below < >.
<Thu>rsday 15th. The Canoe set of < > rise, as I did to view that < > opposite to the Mouth of Pike Creek. In <passing
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> Neck I found the lower pa<rt> N<ot> very rich <upon> the Ri<ver > very < > towards the Hills, with < > Land well Timberd; and not < > only in places--the Mid< > back of the Rich bottom < > black & white Oak Land f< >ming, or any purpose w< > & intermixd with Meadow.
The upper end is as rich < > quite to the Hills (which < > as ever I saw, but subjec<t > to freshes. Of this Bottom < > Timberd Land adjoining, I< > may be 12 or 1500 Acres go < > in this manner. Begin< > the Hills juts down to the < > ½ a Mile above Pipe Creek < > west) & a Mile or more to < > of another C[ree]k on the East, < > Bottom above the Capten<ing > East side the River, & just < > destruction of Timber Oc< > Hurricane of Wind--fro< > This bottom there is a r<un > abt. a Mile--then comes in < > mentiond (which I coud g< > on which & up the River < > there appears to be a < > rich at < >e is a run < >--the b<ott>om < > is pretty long but narrow < > Creek (on the West side) calld < > Nicholson the 24th. Ulto., r< > the River having fallen at < >t < >.
<Friday> 16th. Directing the Canoe < > me at the Mouth of the < > by the Indians split Island < > which I have since found < >e one distinguished by the < >t of Redstone &ca. by the < >eling; I set out with Capt<n>. < >n foot, to take a view < > a little distance from the < > doing this we asscended Hills < > to be almost impassable, < > the River with stone & < > Timber. Back of these < gro>und is very uneven, & ex< >n< > spots, not very good; < >ly well Timbered--as far < > see into the Country the < > his kind. Coming on < > split Island Creek) some < > on the Mouth, we had < opportu>nity of observing from < >, which are very high the course of the Creek which Mea<n>ders through a bottom of fine land especially at the Forks where there appears to be a large body of it. The vail (through which this Creek runs) as far as we coud see up it, appears to be wide, & the Soil of the Hills which confines it good, tho very steep in some places. On this Creek, which heads up a little to the Southward of Redstone Settlement, there is, according to the Indians Acct., & all the accts. I coud get, a great deal of fine land. The Body of flat Land at the Forks is but a very little way from the River in a direct line & may contain
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I guess a thousand Acres or more. Below the Mouth of this Creek there is a bottom of pretty good Land but not large and about 5 Miles above at the Mouth of a small run which comes in at the lower point of a Island (& which by mistake I calld, Octr. 23d. Fishing Creek) there is a bottom of as fine land as can possibly be but not large containing not more than two or 300 Acres. At the head of this Bottom & a little below the 2d. cross Creeks we Incampd dista<nt> from our last 13 or fourteen Miles.
Here it was for the 2d. time that the Indian with me spoke of a fine piece of Land and beautiful place for a House & in order to give me a more lively Idea of it, chalk out the situation upon his Deerskin. It lyes upon Bull Creek, at least 30 Miles from the Mouth, but not more than 5 from the Mouth of Muddy Creek, in an ESE direction. The spot he recommends for a House lyes very high commanding a prospect of a great deal of level Land below on the Creek--the Ground about it very rich & a fine spring in the middle of it about which many Buffaloes use & have made great Roads. Bull Creek according to his Acct. runs parrallel with the long reach in the Ohio--not above 6 or 7 Miles from it, having fine bottoms which widen as it extends into the Country & towards the head of it is large bodies of level rich Land.
Saturday 17th. By this Morning the River had fallen (in the whole) 2 or 3 & twenty feet, & was still lowering. Abt. 8 Oclock we set out, & passing the lower cross Creeks we came to a pretty long, & tolerable wide & good bottom on the East side the River; then comes in the Hills; just above which, is Buffalo Creek1 (a Creek I neither see nor remarkd in going down) upon which, and above it, between that & the cross Creeks near the Mingo Town (distant 3 or 4 Miles) is a Bottom of exceeding fine Land but not very large unless it extends up the Creek.
About 3 Oclock we came to the Town without seeing our Horses the Indian (which was sent express for them) having passd through only the morning before (being detained by the Creeks which were too high to ford, without going high up them). Here we resolvd to wait their arrival which was expected tomor<row> & here then will end our Water Voyage along a River the general course of which from Bever Creek to the Kanhawa is about S. Wt. (as near as I coud determine); but in its winding thro a narrow Vale, extreamely serpentine; forming on both sides the River alternately, Necks of very good (so<me> exceeding fine) Bottoms; lying for the most part in the shape of a half Moon, & of various sizes. There is very little difference in the genl. width
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of the River from Fort Pitt to the Kanhawa; but in the depth I believe the odds is considerably in favour of the lower parts; as we found no shallows below the Mingo Town, except in one or two places where the River was broad; & there, I do not know but there might have been a deep Channel in some part of it. Every here and there are Islands some larger, & some smaller, which operating in the nature of Locks or Stops, occasion pretty still water above but for the most part strong & rapid water alongside of them. However there is none of these so swift but that a Vessel may be Rowd or set up with Poles. When the River is in its Natural State, large Canoes that will carry 5 or 6000 weight & more, may be workd against stream by 4 hands 20 & 25 Miles a day; & down, a good deal more. The Indians who are very dexterous (even there women) in the Management of Canoes, have there Hunting Camps & Cabins all along the River for the convenience of Transporting their Skins by Water to Market. In the Fall, so soon as the Hunting Season comes on, they set out with their Familys for this purpose; & in Hunting will move there Camps from place to place till by the Spring they get 2 or 300, or more Miles from there Towns; Then Bever catch it in there way up which frequently brings them into the Month of May, when the Women are employd in Plantg.--the Men at Market, & in Idleness, till the Fall again; when they pursue the same course again. During the Summer Months they live a poor & perishing life.
The Indians who live upon the Ohio (the upper parts of it at least) are composd of Shawnas, Delawares, & some of the Mingos, who getting but little part of the Consideration that was given for the Lands Eastward of the Ohio, view the Settlement of the People upon this River with an uneasy & jealous Eye, & do not scruple to say that they must be compensated for their Right if the People settle thereon, notwithstanding the Cession of the Six Nations thereto. On the other hand, the People from Virginia & elsewhere, are exploring and Marking all the Lands that are valuable not only on Redstone & other Waters of Monongahela but along down the Ohio as low as the little Kanhawa; & by next Summer I suppose will get to the great Kanhawa, at least: how difficult it may be to contend with these People afterwards is easy to be judgd of from every days experience of Lands actually settled, supposing these to be made; then which nothing is more probable if the Indians permit them, from the disposition of the People at present. A few Settlements in the midst of some of the large Bottoms, woud render it impractacable to get any large qty. of Land Together; as the Hills all the way down the River (as
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low as I went) come pretty close and are steep & broken incapable of Settlements tho some of them are rich and only fit to support the Bottoms with Timber and Wood.
The Land back of the Bottoms as far as I have been able to judge, either from my own observations or from information, is nearly the same, that is exceeding une<ven> & Hilly; & I do presume that there is no body's of Flat rich Land to be found till one gets far enough from the River to head the little runs & drains that comes through the Hills; & to the Sources (or near it) of the Creeks & there Branches. This it seems is the case of the Lands upon Monogahela and yaughe. & I fancy holds good upon this River till you get into the Flat Lands (or near them) below the Falls.
The Bottom Land differs a good deal in quality. That highest up the River in general is richest; tho the Bottoms are neither so wide or long, as those below. Walnut, H. Loc<ust> Cherry, & some other Woods, that grow Snarly, & neither Tall nor large, but coverd with Grape Vines (with the Fruit of which this Country at this Instant abounds) are the growth of the Richest Bottoms, but on the other hand these Bottoms appear to me to be the lowest & most subject to Floods. Sugar Tree and Ash, mixd with Walnut &ca. compose the growth of the next richest low grounds and Beach Poplar Oaks &ca. the last. The Soil of this is also good but inferior to either of the other kinds & beach Bottoms are excepted against on Acct. of the difficulty of clearing them there Roots spreading over a large Surface of Ground & being hard to kill.
Sunday, 18th. Agreed with two Delaware Indians to carry up our Canoe to Fort Pitt for the doing of which I was to pay 6 Dollars & give them a Quart Tinn Can.
Monday 19th. The Delawares set of with the Canoe and our Horses not arriving, the day appeard exceeding long & tedious. Upon conversing with Nicholson I found he had been two or three times to Fort Chartres at the Illinois, and got from him the following Acct. of the Lands between this & that; & upon the Shawna River;1 on which he had been a Hunting.
The Lands down the Ohio grow more & more level as you approach the Falls, and about 150 Miles below them, the Country appears quite Flat, & exceeding rich. On the Shawna River (which comes into the Ohio 400 Miles below the Falls2 & about
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1100 from Pittsburg) up which he had hunted 300 & more Miles the Lands are exceeding Level, rich, fine, but a good deal intermixed with Cain or Reed, which mig<ht> render them difficult to clear; that game of all kinds was to be found here in the greatest abundance, especially Buffalo--that from Fort Chartres to Pittsburg by Land, is co<m>puted 800 Miles; & in travelling th<ro> the Country from that place he f<ound> the Soil very rich--the Ground exceeding level to O. Post3 (a French s<ettle>ment) & from Opost to the Lower Sha<w>na Town on Scioto equally flat--that he passd through large Planes 30 Miles in length without a Tree except little Islands of Wood--th<at> in these Planes thousands & 10,000<s> of Buffalo may be seen feeding. That the distance from Fort Cha<rtres> to Opost is about 240 Miles & the Country not very well Waterd--from Opost to the lower Shawna Town about 300 more abounding in good springs & Rivulets--that the remainder of the way to Fort Pitt is Hilly, & the Hills larger as you approach the Fort tho the L[an]d in general is also good.
At Fort Pitt I got the distances from place to place down the Ohio as taken (by) one Mr. Hutchings 4 & which are as follows--wt. some corrections of mine.
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The Distances from For Pitt to the Mouth of the Great Kanhawa are set down agreeable to my own Computation, but from thence to the Mouth of River Ohio are strictly according to Hutchingss. Acct.--which Acct. I take to be erroneous inasmuch as it appears that the Miles in the upper part of the River are very long, & those towards the Canhawa short, which I attribute to his setting of in a falling fresh & running slower as they proceeded on.
The Letters E and W signifie wch. side of the River the respective Waters come in on, that is, whether on the East or West side.
1 The Cumberland River, flowing through Tennessee and Kentucky.
3 Ouabache or Wabash Post, later Vincennes, Ind.
5 From this point GW's table substantially agrees with that appended to the
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Gordon journal, but several fractions of miles are dropped from the last entries.
8 Little Miami River flows into the Ohio at East Cincinnati.
9 Great Miami River enters the Ohio in the extreme southwestern part of Ohio.
11 The Kentucky River flows into the Ohio at Carrollton, Ky.
12 The Wabash River joins the Ohio at the southwest corner of Indiana.
15 Now called the Tennessee River.
17 The Ohio River joins the Mississippi at Cairo, Ill.
Remark & Occurs. in Novr.
Novr. 20th. About One Oclock our Horses arrivd, having been prevented getting to Fort Pitt by the freshes. At Two we set out & got about 10 Miles. The Indians travelling along with us.
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Tuesday 21st. Reach'd Fort Pitt in the Afternoon, distant from our last Incampment about 25 Miles & as near as I can guess 35 from the Mingo Town.
The Land between The Mingo Town & Pittsburg is of different kinds. For 4 or 5 Miles after leaving the first mentiond place we passd over Steep Hilly ground, hurt with stone; coverd with White Oak; & a thin shallow Soil. This was succeeded by a lively White Oak Land, less broken; & this again by Rich Land the growth of which was chiefly white & red Oak, Mixd; which lasted with some Intervals of indifferent Ridges all the way to Pittsburg.
It was very observable that as we left the River; the Land grew better, which is a confirmation of the Accts. I had before receivd, that the good Bodies of Land lay upon the heads of the Runs & Creeks but in all my Travels through this Country, I have seen no large body of level Land. On the Branches of Racoon Creek there appears to be good Meadow Ground and on Shirtees Creek (over both which we passd) the Lands Looks well. The Country between the Mingo Town and Fort Pitt appears to be well supplied with Springs.
Thursday 22. Stayd at Pittsburg all day. Invited the Officers & some other Gentlemen to dinner with me at Samples--among which was one Doctr. Connelly (nephew to Colo. Croghan)1 a very sensible Intelligent Man who had travelld over a good deal of this western Country both by Land & Water & confirms Nicho<l>sons Acct. of the good Land on the Shawana River up which he had been near 400 Miles.
This Country (I mean on the Shawana River) according to Doctr. Connellys acct. must be exceeding desirable on many Accts. The Climate is exceeding fine--the Soil remarkably good. The Lands well Waterd with good streams & full level enough for any kind of Cultivation. Besides these advantages from Nature, it has others not less Important to a new settlement particularly Game which is so plenty as not only to render the Transportation of Provisions there (bread only excepted) altogether unnecessary but to enrich the Adventurers with the Peltry for which there is a constant & good Market.
Doctr. Connelly is so much delighted with the Lands, & Climate on this River; that he seems to wish for nothing more than to induce 100 families to go there to live that he might be among them. A New & most desirable Government might be established here to be bounded (according to his Acct.) by the Ohio Northward & westward. The Ridge that divides the Waters of the
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Tenesee or Cherokee River Southward & Westward & a Line to be Run from the Falls of Ohio, or above so as to cross the Shawana River above the Fork of it.
Docter Connelly gives much the same Acct. of the Land between Fort Chartres in the Illinois Country, and Post St. Vincent (O Post) that Nicholson does, except in the Article of Water, wch. the Doctr. says is bad, & in the Summer Scarce. There being little else than stagnate Water to be met with.
Friday 23d. After settling with the Indians1 & People that attended me down the River & defray the Sundry Expences accruing at Pittsburg, I set of on my return home and after dining at the Widow Mierss. on Turtle Creek reachd Mr. John Stephenson (two or three hours in the Night).
1 GW paid the Indians £10 13s. (LEDGER A, 329).
Saturday 24th. When we came to Stewards Crossing at Crawfords, the River was too high to Ford and his Canoe gone a Drift. However after waiting there 2 or three hours a Canoe was got in which we passd and Swam our Horses. The remainder of this day I spent at Captn. Crawfords it either Raining or Snowing hard all day.
Sunday 25th. I Set out early in order to see Lund Washington's Land, but the Ground & trees being coverd with Snow, I was able to form but an indistinct opinion of it--tho upon the whole it appeard to be a good Tract of Land and as Level as common indeed more so. From this I went to Mr. Thos. Gists, and Dind, & then proceeded on to the Great crossing at Hoglands1 where I arrivd about Eight Oclock.
1 John Hogeland (DLC: Toner Collection).
Munday 26th. Reachd Killams on George's Creek where we met several Families going over the Mountains to live--some witht. having any places provided.
The Snow upon the Alligany Mountains was near knee deep.
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Tuesday 27th. We got to Colo. Cresaps at the Old Town after calling at Fort Cumberland & breakfasting with one Mr. Innis at the New store opposite.1 25 Miles.
1 This was presumably James Innes. THE NEW STORE: operated by the Ohio Company (DIARIES, 1:449 n.3).
Wednesday 28th. The Old Town Gut was so high as to Wet us in crossing it, and when we came to Coxs., the River was Impassable; we were obligd therefore to cross in a Canoe & swim our Horses. At Henry Enochs at the Fork of Cacapehon we dind, & lodgd at Rinkers. The distances thus computed--from the old Town to Coxs. 8 Miles--from thence to Cacapehon 12 and 18 Afterwards in all 38 Miles. The last 18 I do not think long ones.
Thursday 29th. Set out early & reachd my Brothers by one Oclock (about 22 or 3 Miles). Doctr. Craik having Business by Winchester went that way to meet at Snickers tomorrow by 10 Oclock.
Friday 30th. According to Appointment the Doctr. and I met & after Breakfasting at Snickers proceeded on to Wests1 where we arrivd at or about Sunset.
[November]
Where & how my time is Spent
1. Went up the Great Kanhawa abt. 10 Miles with the People that were with me.
2. Hunting the most part of the day. The Canoe went up abt. 5 Miles further.
3. Returnd down the River again and Incampd at the Mouth.
4. Proceeded up the Ohio on our return to Fort Pitt. Incampd abt. 9 Miles below the rapid at the Grt. Bent.
5. Walk'd across a Neck of Land to the Rapid and Incampd about < > Miles above it.
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6. In about 5 Miles we came to Kiashutas Camp & there Halted.
7. Reachd the Mouth of Hockhocking--distant abt. 20 Miles.
8. Came within a Mile of the Mouth of Muskingham 27 Miles.
9. Got to the 3 Islands in the 2d. long reach about 17 Miles.
10. Arrivd at the lower end of the long reach abt. 12 Miles--not setting of till 12 Oclock.
11. Came about 16 Miles after hard working the greatest part of the day.
12. Only got about 5 Miles the Currt. being very strong against us.
13. Reachd the uppermost broken Timber Creek distant about 7 Miles contending with a violent Currt. the whole day.
14. Came to the Captening or Fox Grape Vine Creek distant about 10 Miles.
15. Reachd Weeling (on the West) where there had been an Indian Town & where some of the Shawnes are going to settle in the Spring distant from our last Incampment 12 Miles.
16. Got within 13 Miles of the lower cross Creeks--13 Miles.
17. Reachd the Mingo Town about 13 Miles more.
18. At this place all day waiting for Horses which did not arrive.
19. At the same place, & in the same Situation as yesterday.
20. Our Horses arriving about One Oclock at 2 we set out for Fort Pitt & got about 10 Miles.
21. Reachd Fort Pitt in the Afternoon & lodgd at Samples.
22. Invited the Officers of the Fort and other Gentlemen to dine with me at Samples.
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23. Left Fort Pitt and reachd Mr. John Stephensons.
24. Got to Captn. Crawfords--the Rivr. Youghyaughgane being very high.
25. Reachd Hoglands at the great Crossing.
26. Came to Killams on Georges Creek.
27. Got to the Old Town to Colo. Cresaps distant from Killams about 25 Miles.
28. Reachd Jasper Rinkers about 38 Miles from Cresaps & 30 from Cox's--not long ones.
29. Came to my Brothers (distant about 25 Miles) to Dinner.
30. Reachd Charles Wests 35 Miles from my Brother's.
Acct. of the Weather in Novr.
Novr. 1. Calm, cool, & Cloudy, with great appearances of falling weather.
2. Windy & clear in the forenoon afterwards Rain & Hail--then clear again.
3. Clear & Windy--first from the So. Wt. then No. Wt.
4. Clear and pleasant with but little Wind & that Northwardly.
5. Lowering Morning & rainy afternoon.
6. Cloudy forenoon but clear afterwards with the Wind high from the No. West.
7. Clear & moderate Wind from the West.
8. A lowering threatning Morning but more favourable afternoon & rain at Night.
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9. A Good deal of rain fell in the Night & till 10 Oclock this Morng. after which it contind. drisling more or less all day till abt. Sunset then set in to a close hard Rain.
10. About 1 Oclock it began to thunder & Lighten & contind. to do so incessantly till abt. 8 Oclock with constant hard Rain which lasted till about 11 and then ceasd but contd. cloudy & very warm the remaining part of the day.
11. Abt. 9 Oclock last Night it began to Rain again, & contd. to do so the whole Night, sometimes as if pourd out of Buckets; attended with thunder and lightning.
12. Sometimes Cloudy & sometimes threatning hard for Snow.
13. Clear with the Wind fresh & cool from the No. West.
14. Clear with a little wind from the South & very white frost.
15. Very large frost again with little or no wind & clear.
16. Another white frost and calm and dear after it.
17. White frost with Southerly Wind & clear.
18. A Frost as white as Snow but clear & calm.
19. Another white frost but clear calm and exceeding pleasant.
20. Pleasant forenoon but lowering afterwards.
21. Very cloudy all the Forenoon, & Raining moderately afterwards.
22. Raining moderately all day with the Wind at Northwest.
23. Flying Clouds and windy but nothing falling.
24. First Raining, then Snowing all day.
25. Very Windy all day, & snowing the first part of it. Cold.
26. Very clear, and Cold.
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27. Lowering Morning, & Snowy Afternoon.
28. Morning threatning but clear afterwards with the Wind fresh from the Northward.
29. Clear & Cold in the forepart of the day but tolerably pleasant afterwards.
30. Clear and Pleasant after the morning which was cold.
Where & how my time is Spent.
Decr. 1st. Reachd home from Wests after an absence of 9 Weeks and one Day.
2. At home all day alone.
3. Rid to the Mill in the forenoon, and returnd to Dinner.
4. Rid by Posey's to the Mill, and to the Ditchers. Mr. Boucher and Jacky Custis came here in the Afternoon.
Boucher had not given up the idea of taking Jacky to Europe. At this time he was urging the Washingtons to prepare the boy for travel by having him inoculated for smallpox in Baltimore, where Dr. Henry Stevenson ran a popular inoculation clinic, free of legal restrictions that the burgesses had recently imposed on inoculators in Virginia (Jonathan Boucher to GW, 1 Oct. 1770, DLC: GW; H.B.J., 1770--72, 100). Although the question of Jacky's tour was now no closer to being finally resolved than it had been in the spring, GW favored the inoculation, thinking that Jacky should be protected against smallpox whether he went abroad or not (GW to Boucher, 13 May 1770, WRITINGS, 3:12--15). But Mrs. Washington, while agreeing that the benefits were very desirable, feared exposing her son to the inoculating process, which, as practiced during this period, brought on a fatal case of the disease in 1 of every 50 to 60 inoculations (GW to Boucher, 20 April 1771, CSmH; KING [1], 321). Consequently the decision on this matter, like the one on the tour, was postponed.
5. Mr. Boucher went away again to Maryland. I rid to the Mill.
6. Rid by Muddy hole & Doeg Run to the Mill & returnd by Posey's.
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7. Rid to the Mill and returnd to Dinner.
8. Went a hunting but found nothing. From the Woods I went to my Mill & so home to Dinner. Doc<tor> Ross Dind here & went away after.
9. Went to Pohick Church and returnd to Dinner.
10. Went up to the little Falls to Balendines Sale. Returnd in the Evening.
John Ballendine was today attempting to satisfy all his creditors by leasing his enterprises at the falls and selling much of his other property, including about 100 hogsheads of tobacco, a large amount of wheat and corn, 50 head of sheep, one set each of blacksmith's and cooper's tools, some household furniture, 1,049 acres of land in Prince William County, and 91 acres in Fauquier County. However, he did not succeed in selling everything on this day, nor did all his creditors appear at the falls today to settle their accounts as he had requested, and a second sale and meeting of the creditors had to be called for 16 May 1771 ( Va. Gaz., R, 29 Nov. 1770 and 2 May 1771).
11. Rid to my Mill and Ditchers before Dinner.
12. At home all day. Mr. Semple Dined here, & went away afterwar<ds.> Doctr. Rumney came in the Afternoon and stayd all Night.
13. Doctr. Rumney went away after breakfast and the two Mrs. Fairfax's & Miss Nelly Marbray dind here. Mrs. Geo. Fairfax returnd afterds.
NELLY MARBRAY: possibly a member of the Marbury family of Prince George's County, Md. (MACKENZIE [1], 2:488--89).
14. Mrs. B. Fairfax & Miss Marbray went away after Breakfast & Mr. Peake dind here.
15. I rid to the Mill and Ditchers by Poseys.
16. Dined at Belvoir with Jacky Custis & returnd afterwards.
17. Jacky Custis went to Annapolis & I to Court. Returnd in the afternoon.
Jacky was not eager to return to school. "His mind," GW warned Jonathan Boucher, is "a good deal released from Study, & more than ever turnd to Dogs Horses and Guns" (16 Dec. 1770, NNC). The court met 17--19 Dec. (Fairfax County Order Book for 1770--72, 157--68, Vi Microfilm).
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This view of the water end of a mill house illustrates a metal fish serving as a weather vane (5), the millstones (9), and the waterwheel (10). From Oliver Evans, The Young Mill-Wright and Miller's Guide, Philadelphia, 1795. (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University)
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18. Rid to my Mill and to the Ditchers in the Fore and Afternoon.
GW today completed a land transaction with Valinda Wade, paying her £175 for her share of the Wade family property on Dogue Run, which she and her two sisters, Sarah and Eleanor, had inherited. During the past few years Sarah had died unmarried, and Eleanor, who had married John Barry of Fairfax County, had recently died also, leaving a son William as her only heir. Because the 193-acre tract had never been divided among the sisters, it became, following the deaths of Sarah and Eleanor, the joint property of Valinda and her underage nephew, whose business affairs were handled by his father. With this day's purchase, GW obtained Valinda's right to divide the land with young Barry on an equal basis (deeds of Valinda Wade to GW, 17 Dec. 1770, NjMoNP, and 18 Dec. 1770, CSmH). The property was important to GW not only because it lay near the rest of his land, but because it was involved in a question of riparian rights on Dogue Run. The millrace that GW was currently having dug would, when finished, deliver much water with increased force to the new mill as planned, but it would do so at the cost of diverting water from Dogue Run between the dam and the mill, the stretch on which the Wade-Barry property lay. According to common law, a property owner who suffered damages from having his water diverted without his permission could sue the responsible person every year the water was diverted. Thomas Hanson Marshall, who also owned land on the run in the affected area, apparently would not be able to claim such damages, because his land was uninhabited and mostly woodland, but the owners of the Wade-Barry tract, which was inhabited and farmed, would have grounds to sue GW (Robert H. Harrison to GW, 5 April 1770, DLC:GW).
GW's purchase today from Valinda Wade solved only part of this problem. He still had to come to terms with William Barry's father either by purchasing the other half of the land or making some agreement about the riparian rights. However, John Barry was determined to drive a hard bargain and had refused thus far to cooperate with GW in settling the matter (George W. Fairfax to GW, 12 Mar. 1770, DLC:GW). The dispute would continue for several months.
19. Went to Colchester on an Arbitration between McCraes Exrs. and John Graham--no business done.
Allan Macrae of Dumfries had died in 1766, and the executors of his will were Thomas Lawson, of the Neabsco iron furnace in Prince William County, and Capt. John Lee (1709--1789), who lived on Chopawamsic Creek in Stafford County ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 11 Dec. 1766). John Graham (1711--1787), clerk of the Prince William County court, lived on the south side of Quantico Creek near Dumfries. He came to Virginia from Scotland about 1740 and acquired much land in Prince William County, including the tract on which Dumfries was established in 1749 (W.P.A. [1], 94). The dispute between Graham and Macrae's executors probably concerned debts he owed Macrae's estate; in Mar. 1771 he entrusted three slaves, some livestock and household furniture, and 200 acres of land adjoining Dumfries to two local merchants to be sold for the benefit of his creditors ( Va. Gaz., R, 28 Mar. 1771). The arbitrators of the dispute, in addition to GW, were George Mason of Fairfax
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County and Thomas Ludwell Lee of Stafford County. They met again on 12 Feb. 1771.
20. Returnd home.
21. Rid to the Mill in the fore and Afternoon.
22. Rid to the Mill & Mill Race in the fore and Afternoon.
Jacky Custis had been indulged with a further reprieve from studying and apparently was now at Mount Vernon again; on this date GW recorded giving the boy £2 6s. 3d. "to buy Sundries at Fred[ericksbur]g" (LEDGER A, 329). Jacky was probably sent to that town to spend the holidays visiting friends and relatives and engaging "in his favorite amusement of Hunting." He returned to Annapolis about 2 Jan. with a professed "determination of applying dose to his Studies" (GW to Jonathan Boucher, 2 Jan. 1771, WRITINGS, 3:36--37).
Rid to the Mill before Dinner. At home afterwards alone.
24. Rid to the Mill again in the fore and afternoon.
25. Went to Pohick Church and returnd to Dinner.
26. At Home all day alone.
27. Went a fox Hunting and killd a fox in Company with the two Mr. Triplets and Mr. Peake who dined here.
28. At the Mill in the Forenoon and Afternoon.
29. Went a fox hunting in Company with the two Mr. Triplets & Mr. Peake, found no Fox. Upon my return home found Mr. & Mrs. Cockburn here.
30. Mr. & Mrs. Cockburn went away. My Miller & his wife and Mr. Ball dind here.
GW's miller was William Roberts, a Pennsylvanian who had signed articles of agreement with Lund Washington 13 Oct. 1770 engaging himself to run the new mill at Mount Vernon for £80 a year plus the privilege of feeding a cow and raising domestic fowl at GW's expense (DLC:GW). Roberts was highly skilled in the business of grinding grain, a delicate art requiring great judgment in fixing the speed and interval of the millstones to produce good-quality flour with minimum waste. He was also, like John Ball, a capable millwright who could keep the mill in proper working order, and when he was not grinding grain, he could work in the nearby cooper's shop making
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barrels needed for flour and other products. Aided by an apprentice miller whom he had brought with him. Roberts worked diligently and honestly for GW for several years, but an addiction to liquor eventually proved to be his undoing (GW to Robert Lewis & Sons, 6 Sept. 1783, and 12 April 1785, DLC:GW).
31. I rid to My Mill in the forenoon and Afternoon. Nancy Peake came here.
GW gave Nancy £10 as a loan for her father, Humphrey Peake, who repaid the sum in June (LEDGER A, 307).
Acct. of the Weather in Decemr.
Decr. 1st. Cold & Raw in the forenoon & constant Snow in the Afternoon.
2. Clear, & tolerably pleasant, except being Cool. Wind at No. West.
3. Clear & cool, Wind at No. West, & Ground hard froze As it has been for several days.
4. Clear and Cool, Wind being Northwardly in the forenoon & Southwardly afterwards.
5. Lowering & like for Snow in the forenoon--but clearer afterwards.
6. Warm Morning but Cold & blustering Afternoon. Wind No. West.
7. Tolerably pleasant wind Southerly.
8. Calm and pleasant Morning but windy & cool afterwards.
9. Pleasant day and clear with but little Wind.
10. Very pleasant. Calm, clear & warm.
11. Lowery Morning and dripping Afternoon.
12. Drisling all the forenoon. In the Afternoon Rain.
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13. Clear Morning & pleasant, but Cloudy & blustering afterwards from the No. Wt.
14. Clear and not windy--nor so cold as Yesterday.
15. Calm and Pleasant forenoon--a little lowering in the afternn.
16. Quite Calm, clear, and exceeding pleasant.
17. Very pleasant Morning, but Cloudy & blustering afterwards.
18. Pleasant again tho a little Cool & frosty.
19. Calm, clear, and Pleasant.
20. Very pleasant, being clear and Calm.
21. Lowering Morning with a little Rain--but clear afterwards & windy.
22. High wind all day from the North West--but not very cold.
23. Clear & pleasant Morning but windy afterwards & a little Cloudy.
24. Cloudy & like for Rain but none fell.
25. Snowing in the Morning, but clear afterwards and Cool. Snow about an Inch deep.
26. Clear and pleasant with but little Wind.
27. Frosty Morning but clear and pleasant afterwards.
28. Clear and pleasant with but little Wind.
29. Very pleasant and quite Calm but somewhat lowering.
30. Exceeding pleast. calm and clear.
31. Also dear and Pleasant.
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[Remarks and Occurences in December]
Saturday 1st. Reachd home being absent from it Nine weeks and one day.
11th. Agreed with Christr. Shade to drive my Waggon by the year for the doing of which I am to find him in Bed, Board, & Washing, and to pay him Eighteen pounds a year.
Shade, or "Shields," was employed by GW as his wagoner until the end of 1774 (LEDGER A, 331; LEDGER B, 39).
19. Finishd digging & levelling the Mill Race from Piney Branch.
The Piney Branch dam had also been completed, and water could now be diverted from the branch into the race.
22. Began to Grind Sand in my Mill the Water being let in upon the Fore Bay.
Dry sand was being ground between the new millstones "to smooth down the sharp points" on their faces. When the faces were fully finished and fitted together, they would be furrowed and dressed for grinding grain (CRAIK [1], 298--99). The forebay was a deep reservoir at the end of the millrace, from which water was taken to run the waterwheel.
27. Shut up Singer after She had been first lined by one or two Cur Dogs. Jowler being put in with her lind her several times; and his Puppies if to be distinguished saved.
29. Truelove another Hound Bitch Shut up with Ringwood & by him alone lined.
Repository Symbols
Bibliography
Index
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Virginia from the First Session of the Legislature, in the Year 1619. 13 vols. New York, Philadelphia, Richmond: various publishers, 1819--23.
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Morton. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1956.
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. . . . 2 vols. London: Printed for G. Robinson, J. Robson, and J. Stewell, 1784.
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The index in the final volume of the Diaries will be complete and extensive. Preliminary indexes, such as the one that follows, consist primarily of references to persons. The abbreviation "id." is used for "identification."
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Carter estate, 133, 134; at Frederick County plantation with GW, 134; GW borrows money from, 148; receives money from GW on R. Alexander's account, 190; meets GW at Colchester, 264; account with Rumney paid by GW, 272
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Vernon, 141, 221, 227, 228, 256; land transactions with GW, 143, 246, 271; attends court with GW, 221; runs dividing line between his Harrison patent and GW's land, 221; runs line dividing Spencer-Washington grant, 227, 228
The Diaries of
GEORGE WASHINGTON
Volume III
1771--75, 1780--81
ASSISTANT EDITORS
Beverly H. Runge, Frederick Hall Schmidt,
and Philander D. Chase
George H. Reese, CONSULTING EDITOR
Joan Paterson Kerr, PICTURE EDITOR
DONALD JACKSON, EDITOR
DOROTHY TWOHIG, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF VIRGINIA
CHARLOTTESVILLE
This edition has been prepared by the staff of
The Papers of George Washington,
sponsored by
The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union
and the University of Virginia
with the support of
The National Endowment for the Humanities
and
The National Historical Publications
and Records Commission
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF VIRGINIA
Copyright © 1978 by the Rector and Visitors
of the University of Virginia
First published 1978
Frontispiece: Washington before Yorktown, by Rembrandt Peale.
(Corcoran Gallery of Art, gift of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association)
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Washington, George, Pres. U.S., 1732--1799
The diaries of George Washington.
Includes bibliographies and indexes.
1. Washington, George, Pres. U.S., 1732--1799.
2. Presidents--United States--Biography. I. Jackson, Donald Dean, 1919-- II. Twohig, Dorothy. III. Title
E312.8 1976 973.4'1'0924 [B] 75-41365
ISBN 0--8139--0721--7 (v. 3)
Printed in the United States of America
Administrative Board
Advisory Committee
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Contents
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Illustrations
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Transcription of the diaries has remained as faithful as possible to the original manuscript. Because of the nature of GW's diary entries, absolute consistency in punctuation has been virtually impossible. Where feasible, the punctuation has generally been retained as written. However, in cases where sentences are separated by dashes, a common device in the eighteenth century, the dash has been changed to a period and following word capitalized. Dashes which appear after periods have been dropped. Periods have been inserted at points which are dearly the ends of sentences. In many of the diaries, particularly those dealing with planting and the weather, entries consist of phrases separated by dashes rather than sentences. Generally if the phrase appears to stand alone, a period has been substituted for the dash.
Spelling of all words is retained as it appears in manuscript. Errors in spelling of geographic locations and proper names have been corrected in notes or in brackets only if the spelling in the text makes the word incomprehensible. Washington occasionally, especially in the diaries, placed above an incorrectly written word a symbol sometimes resembling a tilde, sometimes an infinity sign, to indicate an error in orthography. When this device is used the editors have silently corrected the word.
The ampersand has been retained. The thorn has been transcribed as "th." The symbol for per has been written out. When a tilde is used to indicate either a double letter or missing letters, the correction has been made silently or the word has been transcribed as an abbreviation. Capitalization is retained as it appears in the manuscript; if the writer's intention is not clear, modern usage is followed.
Contractions and abbreviations are retained as written; a period is inserted after abbreviations. When an apostrophe has been used in contractions it is retained. Superscripts have been lowered,
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and if the word is an abbreviation a period has been added. When the meaning of an abbreviation is not obvious, it has been expanded in square brackets: H[unting] C[reek]; so[uther]ly.
Other editorial insertions or corrections in the text also appear in square brackets. Missing dates are supplied in square brackets in diary entries. Angle brackets (< >) are used to indicate mutilated material. If it is clear from the context what word or words are missing, or missing material has been filled in from other sources, the words are inserted between the angle brackets.
A space left blank by Washington in the manuscript of the diaries is indicated by a square bracketed gap in the text. In cases where Washington has crossed out words or phrases, the deletions have not been noted. If a deletion contains substantive material it appears in a footnote. Words inadvertently repeated or repeated at the bottom of a page of manuscript have been dropped.
If the intended location of marginal notations is clear, they have been inserted in the proper place without comment; otherwise, insertions appear in footnotes.
In cases where the date is repeated for several entries on the same day, the repetitive date has been omitted and the succeeding entries have been paragraphed.
Because Washington used the blank pages of the Virginia Almanack or occasionally small notebooks to keep his diaries, lack of space sometimes forced him to make entries and memoranda out of order in the volume. The correct position of such entries is often open to question, and the editors have not always agreed with earlier editors of the diaries on this matter. Such divergence of opinion, however, has not been annotated.
Bibliographical references are cited by one or two words, usually the author's last name, in small capitals. If two or more works by authors with the same surname have been used, numbers are assigned: HARRISON [2]. Full publication information is included in the bibliography for each volume. The symbols used to identify repositories in the footnotes precede the bibliography.
Surveying notes and dated memoranda kept in diary form have not been included in this edition of Washington's diaries, although the information contained in them has often been used in annotation.
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Individuals and places mentioned for the first time in this volume have been identified in the footnotes; those which have been identified in the first two volumes may be located by consulting the indexes of those volumes. A cumulative index will be included in the last volume of the Diaries.
The Diaries of
GEORGE WASHINGTON
Volume III
1771--75, 1780--81
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Where & how my time is Spent
Jany. 1st. Rid to my Mill in the forenoon and afternoon.
2. Did the same thing again. Met Colo. Robt. Fairfax there, & upon my return home found Mr. Piper, Mr. Muir, and Doctr. Rumney here who dined & lodged.
Robert Fairfax was preparing at this time to return to his home in England, Leeds Castle, where he lived until his death in 1793 (GW to Jonathan Boucher, 3 Feb. 1771, CSmH). He became the seventh Baron Fairfax when his brother Thomas died in 1781.
Rumney apparently brought a quantity of the "Best Bark" for Patsy Custis. Peruvian bark, also called cinchona, was one of the popular eighteenth-century remedies for epilepsy as well as for malaria. Before Rumney left Mount Vernon, he also furnished Patsy with a fresh assortment of pills, powders, and drops (receipt from William Rumney, 24 June 1772, ViHi: Custis Papers).
3. The above Gentlemen stayed all day and Night. My Brother John and Mr. Lawe. Washington came here to Dinner.
4. After Breakfast Mr. Piper, Mr. Muir and Doctr. Rumney returnd to Alexa. My Brothr. Mr. Lawe. Washington & self went to the Mill.
5. My Brother & Mr. Lawe. Washington set of for Frederick. I went a hunting with the two Mr. Triplets and Mr. Peake but killd nothing.
6. At home all day alone.
7. The Two Colo. Fairfaxs and Mrs. Fairfax dined and lodged here.
Besides the Fairfaxes, Dr. George Steptoe (d. 1784), of Westmoreland County, apparently visited Mount Vernon about this time; on 8
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Jan., GW paid him £2 3s. for examining Patsy Custis and giving her a prescription (LEDGER A, 333; CUSTIS ACCOUNT BOOK). Steptoe had graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1767.
8. The Same Company dined here again but went away in the Evening.
9. Rid to the Mill in the forenoon and Afternoon.
10. Mr. Robt. Adam & Mr. Josh. Watson dined and lodged here. Before they came I had rid to my Mill in the forenoon.
Robert Adam had recently entered into a business partnership with two friends, Matthew Campbell (d. 1782) and James Adam (died c.1787), both merchants of Alexandria. Known as Robert Adam & Co., this firm dealt in several agricultural commodities including wheat, corn, flour, and fish and had plans to import goods from Great Britain and the West Indies for sale in Alexandria. The partnership lasted until the end of 1776, when it was dissolved because of "Declining Business," but Robert Adam continued to operate his own milling and baking enterprises until his death in 1789 (LEDGER A, 324, 326, 341; Va. Gaz., D&H, 14 Feb. 1777; Robert Adam to GW, 10 April 778, DLC:GW).
Joseph Watson (d. 1773), burgess for Dunmore County 1772--73, was a friend of both GW and Robert Adam (Adam to GW, 16 Sept. 1773, DLC:GW; Va. Gaz., P&D, 23 Sept. 1773).
11. The above Gentlemen dined here again to day and went away in the Afternoon. In the forenoon we all went to the Mill.
12. Went a huntg. with the two Mr. Triplets Mr. Manley and Mr. Peake. Run a Deer to the Water but killed nothing.
13. Mrs. Washington Patcy Custis & myself Dined and lodged at Belvoir.
14. Dined there this day also and Returnd home after it.
15. Rid to the Mill & Race in the forenoon and afternoon.
16. Rid to the Mill and up the Mill Race in the Afternoon.
17. Rid to the Mill &ca. in the Afternn. and went up to Alexa. with Mrs. Washington & Patcy Custis in the Afternoon.
18. Rid to my Mill and the Race above it in the forenoon--at home afterwards.
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19. Went a hunting in Compa. with the two Mr. Triplets, Mr. Manley & Mr. Peake. Killed a Fox after two hours Chase. In the Afternoon rid to where my People were at work on the Mill Race.
GW's workers were now extending the millrace a few hundred yards northeast to a point on Dogue Run, a short distance above the mouth of Piney Branch.
20. Went to Pohick Church with Mrs. Washington and returnd to Dinr. Mr. Ball dined here.
21. Went up to Court Mrs. Washington & Patcy Custis with me. Returnd in the Afternoon & Mr. Hr. Ross with us.
The January court met only today. At this session Lund Washington and James Wren, two witnesses to the signing of Valinda Wade's deeds to GW 17--18 Dec. 1770, took oaths verifying those deeds, and the justices ordered the documents to be certified (Fairfax County Order Book for 1770--72, 169--72, Vi Microfilm).
22. Dined at home and afterwards went to Colcherster with Mr. Ross on my way to Dumfries on the Arbitration between Doctr. Ross & Co. and Mr. Semple.
This arbitration, which had been begun in Colchester 27 Aug. 1770, was in GW's opinion "a very disagreeable" one (GW to Charles Washington, 25 Jan. 1771, CSmH). The arbitrators were obliged to meet in Dumfries for a third session beginning on 28 Mar. to settle it.
23. Waited at Colchester till 2 Oclock for Colo. Mason. Dined at Courts's & went to Dumfries afterwards & to the Play of the Recruitg. Officer. Lodgd at Mr. Montgomeries.
William Courts kept an inn, commonly called the Stone House, at the ferry landing in Colchester ( Va. Gaz., P, 8 Sept. 1775). The Recruiting Officer: A Comedy, by George Farquhar, was a genial satire about the British army and its brutal recruiting system. First performed in London in 1706, the play was a great favorite of English and American audiences throughout the eighteenth century (FARQUHAR, 2:33--112). This production was staged by the American Company of Comedians, which had recently left Annapolis and would soon return to Williamsburg for the spring court days.
24. On the Arbitration.
25. Ditto--Ditto.
26. Ditto--Ditto.
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27. Receivg. News of part of my Mill Wall's falling in I came home to Dinner and found Miss Molly Manley here.
Excavation of the mill site in 1932 revealed a layer of "soft aqueous sand" under the wall separating the water pit, where the waterwheel stood, from the cog pit in which the gears needed for transmission of power were located. It was also discovered that there were "bad subsoil conditions generally under the southeast corner of the building," where the raceway exited (BURSON, 10). The wall that fell today was probably one of the two walls meeting at this corner or the wall between the water and cog pits.
28. Returnd to Dumfries on the above Arbitration.
29. Employd therein. In the Evening went to a Play.
30. Employed as above and abt. [ ] Oclock at Night finished all the business we coud at this meeting.
31. Returnd home by my Mill & the Dam where my People were attempting to stop water.
The Dogue Run dam at the head of the millrace was apparently under construction, but the heavy rain that fell 29--30 Jan. had swollen the stream, making the job more difficult.
Acct. of the Weather in Jany.
Jan. 1. Calm & very pleasant--being clear with all.
2. Clear and very pleasant with but little Wind and that Southwardly.
3. Still clear but a little Cooler Wind Shifting to the Northward.
4. A little cool but pleasant notwithstanding being clear.
5. Frosty Morning but clear with the Wind rather fresh from the Southwd.
6. Clear forenoon & pleasant but gloomy Afternoon.
7. Very Raw, Cold & Cloudy in the forenoon but clear afternoon.
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8. A little Cool but clear and tolerably pleasant afterwards.
9. Clear and pleasant with but little Wind & that Southwardly.
10. Very pleasant and warm with but little Wind.
11. Much such a day as yesterday only a little Warmer.
12. Clear, Mild, and pleasant in the forenoon but lowering afterwards.
13. A little Rain last Night but clear again with the Wind at No. West.
14. Cold Morning, and hard frost. The Afternoon somewhat milder the Wind having got about to the Southward again.
15. A little Raw and Cold in the Morning altho the Wind was Southwardly. Afternoon very cloudy and threatning.
16. Constant Rain the whole day with the Wind high from the Eastward. In the Evening it Shifted to the Southward.
17. Clear & pleasant, the Wind what little there was of it being still Southwardly.
18. Ground froze--the Wind being tolerably fresh from the No. West and at times Cloudy. It was cold & Raw.
19. Ground very hard froze. Morng. clear & Gold. Wind (tho not much of it) at No. West. Midday and Afternn. clear & pleast. Wind Southwardly.
20. Ground hard froze. Morning Cloudy & Cold tho the Wind was Southwardly. Afternn. clear & pleast.
21. Clear and Calm forenoon with frozen Ground. Afternn. very lowering and like for falling Weather.
22. Rain the preceeding Night, and Snowing till near 2 Oclock with the Wind varying from East to North.
23. Calm and Cloudy but not very cold. No frost this Morning.
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24. No frost but calm and Cloudy all day.
25. Much such a day as yesterday but somewhat colder & Rawer.
26. Clear and a little Cool in the Morning. Ground frozen and wind (tho not much of it) Northwardly.
27. But a Slight frost and tolerably pleasant. Eveng. somewhat Cool.
28. Hard frost Wind Northwardly clear and Cold.
29. Very hard frost Afternoon lowering Cold and like for Snow.
30. A Great quantity of Rain fell last Night--a good deal the forepart of the day. Afternoon misting and tolerably warm.
31. Morning calm, clear, warm and pleasant but the Afternn. Cloudy cold and Windy from the No. West.
Where and how my time is Spent
Feby. 1st. At the Mill in the forenoon and afternoon. Doctr. Rumney came here before Dinner & stayd all Night.
2. At the Mill and where my People was at Work on the Race in the forenoon & afternoon. Mr. Rutherford & Price Posey came here in the Evening.
Robert Rutherford (1728--1803) was a prominent landowner and burgess from Frederick County. During the French and Indian War he had served for a time as a deputy commissary for the Virginia Regiment and in the fall of 1757, on the recommendation of GW, raised a partisan company called Rutherford's Rangers (GW to Robert Dinwiddie, 5 Oct. 1757, DLC:GW). After the war he married Mary Daubigny Howe, widow of a British army officer, and settled on Flowing Springs farm near Evitt's Run (BUSHONG, 436--37).
John Price Posey (d. 1788), a son of Capt. John Posey, began working about this time in Thomas Lawson's iron and flour business on Neabsco Creek. He was able to obtain the job because GW persuaded Lawson to hire him (Posey to GW, 25 May 1771, DLC:GW).
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3. Val. Crawford came this Afternoon & Price Posey went away in the Morng.
Young Posey was going to Annapolis and apparently carried a letter from GW to Jonathan Boucher, in which GW asked the tutor on behalf of Mrs. Washington to buy two ounces of ether for Patsy Custis, "if such a thing is to be had in Annapolis," and to send it by Price Posey on his return to Virginia (3 Feb. 1771, CSmH). Ether, like valerian and musk, was thought to be a strong antispasmodic, useful in treating epilepsy when taken internally in small doses (HOOPER, 383). It was not employed as an anesthetic until the next century.
4. Mr. Rutherford Went away After breakfast. I rid to my Mill &ca. Docter Rumney came to Dinner & Doctr. Craik in the Afternoon. Both stayd all Night.
5. The Gentlemen all went away. I rid to my Mill in the forenoon & Afternoon.
6. Rid to my Mill by the Ferry in the forenoon, & afternoon. Price Posey came here this Evening.
THE FERRY: Capt. John Posey's ferry which GW had begun to rent 23 April 1770.
7. Price Posey went away. I rid to the Mill, & Dam at the head of the Race in the forenoon & Afternoon.
8. Rid to my Mill & Tumbling Dam in the Forenoon & Afternoon. Doctr. Rumney dind here & went away afterwds.
GW today paid the millwright John Ball the balance of his account, £66 4s. 3d., plus a bonus of 5 guineas. Ball's total bill, the other part of which had been advanced in installments during August and December, amounted to £101 2s. 6d., including £31 2s. 6d. for the wages of Ball and his five workmen. The remaining £70 covered the cost of several items of mill equipment that Ball sold GW: two pairs of millstones, hoisting gear for lifting barrels of grain and flour to upper floors of the mill, and two bolting chests, devices in which flour was sifted through fine-mesh cloth to separate it from bran and other impurities (LEDGER A, 324, 333).
9. Attempted to go a hunting, but prevented by Rain. Rid to the Mill in the fore and Afternoon.
10. At home all day. Mr. Val. Crawford came to Dinner.
11. Rid by my Mill and Dam at the head of the Race on my way
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to an Arbitration between John Graham and the Estate of Allan Macrae deed.
For the Graham-Macrae arbitration, see the main entry for 19 Dec. 1770.
12. At Colchester on the said Arbitration.
13. Ditto--at Ditto--on Ditto.
14. Ditto--at Ditto--on Ditto.
15. Ditto--at Ditto--on Ditto--in Company with Colo. Mason & Colo. T. Lee the other Arbitrators--Mr. T. Mason & Mr. Mercer the Attorneys.
Thomas Ludwell Lee (1730--1778), of Stafford County, one of the sons of Thomas and Hannah Ludwell Lee of Stratford Hall, lived at Belleview plantation on the south side of Potomac Creek, near the Stafford County court house (FITHIAN, 23). Educated in London at the Inns of Court, he was a burgess 1758--65 and was said to be "the most popular man in Virginia, and the delight of the eyes of every Virginian" (John Adams to Richard Bland Lee, 11 Aug. 1819, ADAMS [2], 10:382). But he had no desire to play a prominent role in public life, being by nature a man of "extreme indolence, especially in affairs th[a]t require some little trouble" (William Lee to Anthony Stewart, 1769, LEE [1], 219--20).
16. Still at Colchester upon the same business and in the same Company till 8 Oclock at Night.
17. Returnd home to Breakfast by my Mill Damn. Found my Brother Charles & one Mr. Thompson here who came on Friday last.
Mr. Thompson is probably William Thompson (d. 1793), of Stafford County, son of Rev. John Thompson (d. 1772) of St. Mark's Parish, Culpeper County. He was a student at the College of William and Mary 1762--63 and married Sarah Carter, daughter of Col. Charles Carter of Cleve, King George County (SLAUGHTER [2], 174--77; ST. PAUL'S, 141).
18. Those two Gentlemen went a Gunning & I rid to my Mill in the forenoon.
19. They went a Ducking and I again Rid to my Mill in the forenoon.
20. Rid to my Mill. Colo. Thos. Lee came here to Dinner. My Bro. & Mr. Thompson a Ducking.
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21. At home all day. Colo. Lee still here. The other Gentn. went a Ducking.
22. Rid to my Mill in the forenoon. All the Gentlemen went away after Breakfast. Doctr. Rumney came in the Afternoon and stayed all Night.
23. I rid to the Mill before breakfast and returnd to Dinner. Doctor Rumney went away after breakfast.
On the following day Rumney charged a package of valerian and "a vial of drops" to Patsy Custis's account (receipt from William Rumney, 24 June 1772, ViHi: Custis Papers).
24. At Home all day--alone
25. Rid to the Mill in the forenoon and Afternoon. Colo. Robt. Fairfax made a Morning Visit here.
26. Detaind at home all day by bad Weather.
27. Rid to my Mill in the Forenoon and Afternoon. Colo. Robt. Fairfax dined here.
28. Rid to the Mill in the Forenoon. Mr. Ross and Mr. Peter Waggener came here in the Evening and stayed all Night.
Acct. of the Weather in Feby.
Feby. 1st. Ground hard froze & day Cool, Wind being fresh from the No. West.
2. Ground froze but not so cool, nor the Wind so fresh as yesterday. The Morng. Cloudy after a white frost but the Eveng. Clear & Wind South.
3. Ground a little froze--day clear & pleasant with but little Wind.
4. Wind pretty fresh & somewhat Raw from the Southward.
5. Ground but little froze this Morng. but the Wind getting to No. West & blowing fresh it turnd very Cold.
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6. Very hard frost & keen Wind from the No[rth]ward, in the Morning. Midday tolerably pleasant Wind being Southwardly. Afternoon rather cool again the Wind getting to the East. The whole day tolerably clear.
7. Ground hard froze. Morning very Cloudy with a fine mixture of Snow & Rain. Eveng. Clear calm & pleast.
8. Frozen Morning & Cold. Midday Clear & Pleasant. Afternoon very Cloudy & Raining from the Eastward.
9. Much Rain fell last Night, & some this Morning. About 9 Oclock the Wind Shifting to No. West blew violently all day & grew very Cold being sometime Cloudy.
10. Wind still fresh and Cold from the No. West. Ground very hard froze.
11. Ground very hard froze. The Weather Cool and Clear but not so Cold as yesterday.
12. Rain in the Night. Wind exceeding high from the No. West towards Evening very Cold.
13. Last Night Colder than any Night we have had this year. Ground exceeding hard froze. Day clear & Wind still at No. West but not so Cold.
14. Weather clear and frosty but more moderate Wind getting Southwardly.
15. Tolerably calm and Still--what little wind blew was from the Southward. Weather clear, yet frosty.
16. Snow about 3 Inches deep in the Morning & snowing all day from the Northward.
17. Light Snow all the Morning with but little Wind. About 10 Oclock it came out of Northwest blew violent hard & dispersd the Clouds.
18. Exceeding Cold and frosty with the Wind still at No. West but not so hard. Evening more moderate.
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19. Morning not very Cold. Midday pleasant but Evening Cold, Wind getting to No. West again.
20. Exceeding Cold, & freezing Wind being high and piercing from the No. West.
GW on this date wrote Jonathan Boucher that it was "quite impossible . . . to cross the River in these Storms of wind." Ice was also hindering travelers (20--25 Feb. 1771, DLC:GW).
21. Colder than yesterday--Wind being still in the same place & higher. River & every place closd blockd up.
22. Wind still in the same place but not so fresh nor so cold.
23. Day moderate with but little Wind but that Northwardly in the Morning--Southwardly afterwds.
24. Morning Mild & lowering. Wind (what little stirg.) Southwardly. River opening fast. Afternoon Cloudy & sometimes dropping with Rain.
25. No frost--forenoon clear, Warm & very pleasant. Afternoon very Cloudy but still warm. Wind Southwardly. Snow almost gone.
GW informed Jonathan Boucher in a postscript of this date that "now the River is so much choked with Ice as to render . . . passage precarious" (20--25 Feb. 1771, DLC:GW).
26. Began Raining in the Night & kept constantly at it all day with the Wind fresh from No. East. Snow quite gone, and Ice also.
27. Pleasant Morning but cloudy afterwards and sometimes Raining slowly. In the Evening clear, Wind blowing fresh from the Westward. No frost.
28. Wind hard from the No. West, & growing very cold. Weather clear, & in the Evening Freezing, but no frost in the Morning.
Where & how my time is disposd of
Mar. 1. Messrs. Ross and Wagener went away after breakfast. I rid to my Mill and Ditchers in the forenoon. In the Afternoon Doctr. Craik came.
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Hector Ross today settled his current account with GW, paying him £89 9s. 5d. cash, much of which was owed as a result of an arrangement made at John Posey's sale in Oct. 1769 (LEDGER A, 276, 327, 333).
2. The Doctr. & I set of for Winchester. Dined at Triplets and lodgd at Wests.
GW had called a meeting of the officers of the Virginia Regiment at Winchester on 4 Mar. to report on the trip down the Ohio River that he had made the previous fall ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 31 Jan., 7 Feb., and 14 Feb. 1771, and R, 31 Jan. 1771).
TRIPLETS: the ordinary of James and William Carr Lane at Newgate (now Centreville). Since GW had last stopped there on 12 Sept. 1769, William Carr Lane had died, leaving the tavern and the other family enterprises to the care of James Lane and James's son-in-law Simon Triplett. A second cousin of Thomas and William Triplett of Fairfax County, Simon Triplett had married James Lane's daughter Martha in 1765 (MCDONALD, 474--76, 487--88).
3. Dined at Barry's (on Shanondoah) and reached Greenway Court in the Afternoon where we stayd all Night.
Berry's ferry was on the Shenandoah River about eight miles east of Greenway Court. Joseph Berry had moved into this area about 1759, and by April 1767 he had taken over the ferry and a nearby ordinary from Joseph Combs. He continued to operate both until at least 1795. The Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson map of 1755 and the Thomas Jefferson map of 1786 refer to the ferry as Ashby's ferry, but the Ashby family apparently was never connected with it (BERRY'S FERRY, 11--12).
4. Reachd Winchester to Dinner according to Appointment with the Officers &ca. claimg. part of the 200,000 Acs. of L[an]d.
Before GW left Greenway Court, he obtained a grant from Lord Fairfax for the unclaimed land on Dogue Run he had surveyed on 24 Mar. 1770, a total of 20½ acres (Lord Fairfax's grant to GW, 4 Mar. 1771, Northern Neck Deeds and Grants, Book I, 187, Vi Microfilm). This land gave him control of most of the area around his new dams and upper millrace, but a portion of the race still infringed upon William Harrison's patent, a problem that was not resolved until he exchanged some small strips of land there with William Triplett 18 May 1785.
5. At Winchester all day. Dined with Lord Fairfax.
Although scheduled for 4 Mar., the officers' meeting was actually held today. Besides GW and Dr. James Craik, only four officers or their representatives were present. After hearing GW's report and learning that William Crawford had begun to survey along the Great Kanawha River, they unanimously agreed that he should be instructed to finish his work there and then proceed as soon as possible to survey lands on the Tygart Valley River, a branch of the Monongahela. To cover Crawford's expenses, GW was authorized to advance
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him £80, collecting money for that purpose not only from officers but now for the first time from former rank-and-file members of the regiment also. Each field officer was assessed £11 5s., each captain £6 15s., each subaltern £4 10s., and each common soldier a fourth of a subaltern's share (minutes of the officers of the Virginia Regiment, 5 Mar. 1771, DLC:GW).
6. Dined at my Lodging which was at Mr. Philp. Bushes and went home with my Br. Mr. Saml. Washington in the Eveng.
Philip Bush (1732--1812) reputedly offered the best accommodations in Winchester at his Golden Buck Inn, a handsome two-story stone building on Cameron Street. He was born in Mannheim, Germany, and settled in Winchester about 1762 (NORRIS [1], 178; GREENE [3], 127).
7. At my Brothers all day writing Instructions & dispatches for Captn. Crawford the Surveyor of our 200,000 Acs. of Land.
8. Ditto--About Ditto.
9. Finished Ditto for Mr. Marcus Stephenson--who was to be the bearer of them. Mr. Dick & the two Mr. Nurses dined at my Brothers today.
Marcus Stephenson of Frederick County was a half brother of William Crawford. Mr. Dick is probably Charles Dick of Fredericksburg, who owned land on Patterson's Creek in Hampshire County ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 17 Oct. 1771). THE TWO MR. NURSES: James Nourse (1731--1784) and his son Joseph Nourse (1754--1841), who lived at Piedmont, about two miles east of Harewood. James Nourse was born in Herefordshire, Eng., and in 1753 married Sarah Fouace in London. They left London with their nine children in 1769 and settled at Piedmont a year later (LYLE, 8--10, 24).
10. Dined at Mr. Nurses, & returnd to my Brother's in the Evening.
11. Set of from my Brother's for Mr. Warnr. Washington's on my return Home.
12. Left Mr. Washingtons, & crossing at Snickers's (where I eat an early Dinner) reach'd Leesburg betwn. 4 & 5 Oclock in the Afternoon.
Leesburg, founded in 1758, was the county seat of Loudoun County. The English traveler Nicholas Cresswell described the town in 2774 as "regularly laid off in squares, but very indifferently built and few inhabitants and little trade, tho' very advantageously situated, for it is at the conjunction of the great Roads from the North part of the Continent to the South and the East and the West" (CRESSWELL, 48).
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13. Reachd home, after being obliged to Ferry over goose Creek at Houghs Mill & coming Round by Ellzeys. Found Doctr. Craik here.
Hough's mill was owned by John Hough (d. 1797), of Loudoun County, a well-known surveyor who had settled in the area about 1744 (DLC:Toner Collection; WILLIAMS [1], 82). He was one of the original trustees of Leesburg, an agent for Robert Carter of Nomini Hall 1767--77 and collector of quitrents for Lord Fairfax from 1764 until at least 1773 (HENING, 7:236; MORTON [1], 279; LEDGER A, 199, 257; LEDGER B, 53).
ELLZEYS: probably the home of Lewis Ellzey, father of William and Thomasin Ellzey. Lewis, who was the first sheriff of Fairfax County, served as a Truro Parish vestryman 1744--48.
14. Rid to my Mill & came home by Posey's. Captn. Adam dined here.
Although Robert Adam of Alexandria had been appointed a captain in the Fairfax County militia during 1768, GW usually refers to him in the diaries as Mr. Adam (Fairfax County Order Book for 1768--70, 36, Vi Microfilm). The Captain Adam who came today was probably Thomas Adam, who commanded the brig Adventure on several trading voyages out of the South Potomac Naval District 1766--68. The Adventure had apparently been owned jointly by Thomas and Robert Adam until this year, but now the two men were having a new vessel built to replace the Adventure: the ship Martha, which on 23 Dec. 1771 would make her maiden voyage from the South Potomac under the command of John Thomas Boucher (P.R.O., C.O.5/1350, f. 51; P.R.O., G.O.5/1449, f. 83; P.R.O., C.O.5/1450, ff. 10--12, 40; see main entry for 14 April 1771).
15. Surveyed the Plantation at Posey's & came home to Dinner Plotting the Courses afterwards.
16. Rid by Posey's to the Mill in the forenoon--at home afterwards.
17. At home all day alone till the Evening when Doctr. Rumney came here.
18. Rid to Posey's to lay of a fence before Breakfast & went to Court afterwards & stayd all Night.
The court met 18--22 Mar., but GW attended only the first two days. On this date Harrison Manley appeared before the justices as a third witness to GW's deeds from Valinda Wade, and the documents were ordered to be officially recorded in the county deed books (Fairfax County Order Book for 1770--72, 172--75, Vi Microfilm). However, GW was unable to take immediate possession of the land he had bought because John Barry refused to let the 193-acre tract be divided and soon planted his own crops on most of it. GW
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hired two lawyers to represent him against Barry and his son, but the case did not come before the court until 20 Aug. 1772 (Robert H. Harrison to GW, 10 Jan. 1772, DLC:GW).
19. At Court all day. In the Afternoon came home, and found Majr. Jenefir, Mr. Boucher, & Jacky Custis here.
Jacky and his tutor had come at Robert Fairfax's request to see him before he returned to England. Fairfax shared Boucher's opinion that Jacky should tour Europe, and he had invited him to vacation at Leeds Castle during his stay abroad. The matter was probably discussed over dinner at Belvoir two days later, but still no definite decision was made about it (GW to Jonathan Boucher, 3 Feb. 1771, CSmH).
20. At home all day (except before Breakfast when I rid to the Mill) with the above Company.
21. Went with the above to Belvoir to Dinner & returnd in the Evening with Mr. Boucher and Jacky Custis.
22. At home all day.
23. Mr. Boucher went away after Breakfast. I rid to the Mill by Muddy hole & Doeg Run. Majr. Jenefir Mr. Saml. Gallaway & Mr. Thos. Ringold dined & lodgd here, as did Mr. B. Fairfax.
Samuel Galloway (d. 1785) was a prominent merchant from Anne Arundel County, Md. He lived with his invalid wife, Anne Chew Galloway, at Tulip Hill, an elegant house on the West River about ten miles south of Annapolis. A Quaker, he was, nevertheless, reputed to be "a man of opulence" and a great lover of horseflesh (TAYLOE, 90). Galloway's companion on this visit was either Thomas Ringgold (c. 1715--1772), of Chestertown, Md., or his son Thomas Ringgold (c. 1744--1776), also of Chestertown. The elder Ringgold had married Anna Maria Earle and was an active merchant who sometimes joined Galloway as a partner in the West Indian or Portuguese trades. Both he and Galloway dealt in a wide variety of commodities including tobacco, grain, lumber, wine, and slaves (BARKER [1], 98--100, 114, n.118). The younger Ringgold was married to Galloway's daughter Mary and was a merchant like his father.
24. At home all day. Majr. Jenefir & Mr. Ringold went away after Breakfast & Mr. Fairfax after Dinner. Mr. Robt. Adam & Mr. M. Campbell dined here.
25. Mr. Gallaway went away after Breakfast. I rid to my Mill and Dam both in the fore and afternoon.
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26. Rid to My Mill and Mill dam at the head of the Race in the forenoon (after going a hunting in the Morning). In the Afternoon Rid to Posey's.
GW today provided Jacky Custis with £5 10s. for traveling expenses to Annapolis and Baltimore. A decision had been reached to allow Jacky to go to the latter place to be inoculated, but upon his departure sometime within the next few days, he had "so many doubts and difficulties" about the matter, that GW and Mrs. Washington "concluded nothing was more foreign from his Intention" (LEDGER A, 335; CUSTIS ACCOUNT BOOK; GW to Jonathan Boucher, 20 April 1771, CSmH).
27. Dined at Colchester in my way to Dumfries on the Arbitration between Doctr. Ross & Compa. & Mr. Semple. Supped at Grahams & lodgd at Mr. Montgomeres.
Graham's is probably the home of Dumfries merchant Richard Graham, but may be John Graham's home about 1½ miles southeast of town (MASON [2], 1:iv; VERME, 49, 126; W.P.A. [1], 94). GW recorded no tavern expenses for this stay in Dumfries.
28. Upon the Arbitration all day with Colo. Mason--Mr. Mundell & Mr. Ross.
29. Upon the Arbitration with the above Gentlemen as above.
30. Ditto--Ditto--Ditto.
31. Ditto--Ditto--Ditto.
Acct. of the Weather in March
Mar. 1st. Ground hard froze. Wind fresh & Cold in the forenoon--clear, calm, & warmer in the Afternoon.
2d. Lowering & Cloudy Morning (with the Ground frozen & Wind at No. East)--all the Afternoon Snowing.
3. Clear & Cool Wind being at No. West. Ground a little frozen.
4. Still, Cool, & frosty. Weather clear & Wind at No. West.
5. But little frost--day calm & the fore part of it clear, & very pleasant.
CALM: In the manuscript this word reads "claim."
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6. Scarce any Frost. Morning clear, calm, & pleasant but the afternn, very lowering & like for Rain.
7. Snowing all this day, and Night also, Wind appearing to be abt. No. Et.
8. Still Snowing more or less all day. In the Night it began to Hail & sometimes Rain.
9. Fine Snow with a mixture of Rain & then Snow. In the Night it Haild & Raind.
10. Fine Misting Rain all the day with the Wind pretty fresh at No. Et. but thawing (it never having yet froze).
11. Misting till abt. 12 Oclock then clearg. with the wind westwardly.
12. Wind at No. West & pretty fresh, tho neither Cold & freezing.
13. No Frost. Wind still continuing at North West pretty fresh with some Clouds. Snow all gone.
14. Still Cloudy and the Wind fresh from No. West but no Frost.
15. Pleasant Morning, but Cloudy afterwards With the Wind at No. West & cool but no frost in the Morning.
16. Ground very hard froze. Morng. clear, and Wind cold from the No. West which blew hard all day & very piercing.
17. Still at No. West & cold but neither so high or piercing as yesterday. Ground however froze hard.
18. Ground but little froze, Wind still in the same Quarter but moderate, and tolerably pleasant.
19. White frost but the Ground not froze. Morning clear, calm pleasant, but Evening very lowering with the [wind] at South.
20. Smoky, and more or less Cloudy with but little Wind and pleast.
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21. Clear and pleasant forenoon, with but little wind. Afternoon very cloudy & like for Rain.
22. Raining more or less till the Afternoon, then tolerably clear but in the Night heavy Rain with thunder.
23. Clear and pleasant with the Wind pretty fresh from the Northwest but not cold.
24. Clear & very pleasant with but little Wind and that from the Southward.
25. Clear, Warm, and pleasant with but little Wind and that Southwardly.
26. Very Pleasant, clear, and Calm forenoon. Lowering Afternoon with great appearance of Rain but none of consequence fell.
27. A little Cooler than yesterday but tolerably pleasant.
28. Warm forenoon, and Afternoon With Rain, thunder, Lightning, & Wind.
29. Flying Clouds with the Wind pretty fresh from the No. West & Cool.
30. Wind Eastwardly & Cool with Rain more or less all day.
31. But little wind. Misting & sometimes Raining all day.
Remarks & Occurs. in March
20th. Began to Manufacture my Wheat with the Water of Piney Branch, which being insufficient to keep the Mill constantly at Work, & Country Custom coming in no great progress coud be made.
COUNTRY CUSTOM: Farmers from the local countryside were bringing their grain to GW's mill to be ground in exchange for a one-eighth toll (HENING, 6:58).
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Where & how my time is Spent
April 1st. Still at Dumfries upon the Arbitration between Doctr. Ross and Compa. & Mr. Semple, which was finished about 9 Oclock this Night.
2. Got home to breakfast about 9 Oclock. Mr. Robt. Adam dined & lodgd Here. In the Afternoon, I rid to the Mill Race, Mill, & Posey's.
3. At home all day. Lord Fairfax, the two Colo. Fairfax's, and Mr. Chas. Alexander dind here & went away afterwards.
4. Lowering with the Wind very high from the Eastward wch. contd. all Night. Rid to my Mill--the Mill dam & fishing Landing in the forenoon & the two first again in the Afternoon. Mr. Hadan lodgd here.
5. Rid to the Mill Dam and contd. there all day. Returnd home by the Mill.
6. Rid to the Mill, the Mill Dam, & Fishing Landing before Dinner. Doctr. Rumney dind here.
7. At home all day. Doctr. Rumney dined here and went away afterwards.
8. Rid to my Mill Race & Mill before Dinner. Mr. Carson dined here.
Mr. Carson is probably Thomas Carson (died c.1772), merchant of Alexandria.
9. Rid to the fishing Landing before Dinner, in the afternoon Doctr. Craik came here, and stayd all Night.
10. Doctr. Craik went away in the Morning. I rid to the fishing Landing at Poseys. Mr. Magowan came here to Dinner and stayed all Night.
11. Rid by Muddy hole to Doeg Run & from thence to the Mill. Mr. Magowan went this Afternn. to Colchester.
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12. Rid into the Neck & returned home by Muddy hole & Posey's.
13. Rid to the Mill and to Poseys in the forenoon at home Afterwards.
14. Went to Pohick Church & came home to Dinner Mr. Magowan with us. Found Mr. Adam, Mr. Campbell & Captns. Conway & Adam who Dined and went away afterwds.
Richard Conway (died c.1808), of Alexandria, had commanded merchant vessels sailing out of the Potomac River since 1765 and at this time was captain of the Friendship, a schooner owned by John Williams & Co. of Alexandria. The Friendship had returned from the West Indies on 3 April with a cargo of rum, molasses, and sugar (P.R.O., C.O.5/1449, f. 82; P.R.O., C.O.5/1450, f. 11; P.R.O., C.O.5/1349, f. 207).
15. Went to Alexandria to Court. Stayd all Night. Mr. Magowan w[en]t.
The court met only on this day in April (Fairfax County Order Book for 1770--72, 205--8, Vi Microfilm).
16. Came home to Dinner. Mr. Magowan & Mr. Pierce Baily came with me the latter went away afterwds.
Before returning to Mount Vernon, GW attended a meeting of the Fairfax nonimportation committee. At the request of two merchants, Alexander Henderson of Colchester and William Balmain of Alexandria, the committee examined the invoices for cargoes that had recently arrived from Glasgow and ruled that the merchants could properly accept them ( Va. Gaz., R, 18 July 1771).
17. Rid to the Mill and fishing Landg. at Posey's in the forenoon. Majr. Wagener dined here & went away aftds.
GW today gave Hanson Posey 16s. drawn on the account of his father, John Posey, who was now living in Maryland (LEDGER A, 256, 335).
18. At home all day.
19. Rid to Muddy hole--Doeg Run, the Mill, & Posey's in the forenoon. Mr. Campbell dined here with Mr. Magowan.
20. Rid to Muddy hole, Doeg Run & the Mill & came home by Posey's to Dinner. Mr. Magowan went away after Breakfast & Mr. Campbell dind here.
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21. At home all day. Mrs. Fairfax din'd here and went away in the Afternoon.
22d. Rid by Muddy hole & Doeg Run to the Mill--from thence to the Fishing Landing at Posey & home to Dinner.
23. Rid to the Fishing Landing at Poseys & home to Dinner.
24. Rid with Mrs. Washington & Patcy Custis to the Fishg. Landing at Poseys & from thence I rid to the Mill & home to Dinner. Mr. Campbell dined here. Mr. Robt. Alexander came in the Evening.
25. Mr. Alexander & I rid to my Mill & then to the Fishg. Landing at Posey and came home to dinner after wch. he went away.
26. At home in the forenoon. In the Afternoon Rid by Muddy hole to Doeg Run from thence to the Mill & so home by the fishing Landing at Poseys.
27. Set out with Mrs. Washington & Patcy Custis on my journey to Williamsburg. Dined at Colchester & Suppd & lodgd in Dumfries.
Setting out only one day later than planned, the family traveled south in GW's chariot. The burgesses were not meeting this spring because they had no pressing business to consider. But GW had to go to Williamsburg to give the General Court his annual report on the administration of Jacky and Patsy Custis's affairs and to collect interest on various Custis bonds (CUSTIS ACCOUNT BOOK).
28. Dined at my Mother's and lodgd at Colo. Lewis's. Supped at my Brother Charles's.
29. Dined at Caroline Court House and lodgd at Hubbards Ordinary.
GW today recorded paying 2s. 6d. for repair of his chariot (LEDGER A, 335).
30. Breakfasted at Todds Ordinary and after making some considerable stop at Ruffins Ferry, occasioned by a Sick Horse--reachd Colo. Bassetts a little in the Night.
Acct. of the Weather in April
April 1st. Morning Calm, & Warm. Afternoon a little Windy from the No. West & cooler--day clear.
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2d. Morning Cool Wind still Northwardly, the Weather clear, & tolerably pleasant.
3. Clear and the Wind variable, being Northwardly in the forenoon & Easterly afterwards.
4. Wind high and boisterous from the Eastward with great appearances of Rain (except being cold).
5. Wind in the same place all last Night & till 10 Oclock to day & as high. In the forenoon 2 or 3 hours close constt. Rain--then clear & pleast. Wind getting Westwardly.
6. Clear & tolerably pleasant Wind being Westwardly in the forenoon but Southwardly afterwards.
7. Clear in the forepart of the day but lowering afterwards. Wind very fresh from the So. West.
8. Rain in the Night and the Wind exceeding fresh from the No. West all day & Night & very Cold.
9. Ice this Morning & very cold. The Wind continuing all day in the same place but lying at Night.
10. Wind Southwardly and not fresh. Day Cloudy, & every now & then Raining tho' but little fell. In the Evening the Wind got to Northwest and blew fresh all Night.
11. Wind hard at No. West all day and Cold.
12. Wind still fresh and Cold from the West & No. West With a Muddy Sky.
13. Very Raw and Cold with but little Wind. Cloudy all day & sometimes Snowing, sometimes hailing & at other times Raining but little of any fell--most however of Rain.
14. Lowering in the Morning and calm. Clear afterwards with the Wind at No. West and tolerable fresh.
15. Clear and very Cold. Wind very high from the same point as yesterday.
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16. Wind still in the same quarter & high--also very Cold.
17. Wind till about an hour or two by Son in the Morning was Southerly--then hard at No. West but not very cold--clear also.
18. Calm and Cloudy in the Morng. then high Wind from the So. West after that at So. Et. with Rain.
19. Calm & lowering Morning--every now and then dropping Rain, and Warm. Afternoon high Wind from the No. West Cold.
20. Cold, & boisterous Wind from the North West.
21. Clear with the Wind at No. Wt. till the Afternoon then Calm & more moderate.
22d. A Pleasant day & Warm--the Morning Calm. In the Evening Wind at So. East & somewhat threatning.
23. Warm and very pleasant with the Wind Southerly & clear.
24. Warm and very pleasant with but little Wind and that Southerly.
25. Clear & very warm in the forenoon with but little Wind. The Afternoon Cloudy with the Wind fresh & Cold from the No. West.
26. Cool all day Wind hanging to the Northward till the Afternoon when it shifted to the Eastward.
27. Still Cool tho the Wind was Southerly & weather clear.
28. Cool in the Morning, & Cloudy all day, with Appearances of Rain but none fell. Afternoon warmer.
29. Cloudy Morning, but clear and Warm afterwards, with the Wind Southwardly.
30. Lowering & like to rain all day but none fell. Wind Southwardly & Warm.
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Remarks & Occs. in April.
5th. Turn'd the Water of Doeg Run into my Mill Race, which seemd to afford Water enough for both Mills. One of which constantly employd in Grinding up my own Wheat.
With the new millrace and dams finished GW now had a gravitational force of water sufficient for his needs, but his water supply remained undependable. The millrace often froze in the winter and dried up in the summer. At other times freshets broke his dams and the sides of the race. The new mill could run only about half of each year. The two mills to which GW here refers are the two sets of millstones, each technically constituting a gristmill by itself, although both are in the same millhouse. When GW says "mill," he usually means the millhouse including both sets of stones or the small plantation surrounding the millhouse.
10. Began to Haul the Sein, tho few fish were Catchd, & those of the Shad kind, owing to the coolness of the Weather. Many Shad had been catchd on the Maryland Shore.
11. Obligd to send a hand to the Mill to Assist in Packing &ca.
GW's flour was being packed into large barrels and small casks for sale to Virginia merchants (LEDGER A, 326, 341; see "Remarks" entry for 6 June 1771).
17. Began to Plant Corn at my Mill Plantation.
20. Began to Plant Ditto at Muddy hole.
25. Began Ditto at Doeg Run.
The Herring began to run in large Shoals--but were checkd again by the Cool Weather.
Fishing on the Potomac must have soon improved, because by the end of May, GW had delivered 679,200 herring and 7,760 shad to Robert Adam's company. Despite the fact that some of the herring spoiled due to improper packing, he was credited with £134 4s. 3d. for the fish and £12 for rent of fish houses (LEDGER A, 326). This year Adam shipped GW's herring to Jamaica on board the brig Adventure now owned by Judson Coolidge of Maryland (P.R.O., C.O.5/1349, f. 208; Adam to GW, 24 June 1771, DLC:GW).
Where & how my time is spent
May 1st. At Colo. Bassetts all day.
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2. Set out with Colo. Bassett for Williamsburg and reachd Town about 12 Oclock. Dined at Mrs. Dawson's & went to the Play.
At the theater, GW saw a performance by the American Company of Comedians, which had been in Williamsburg for more than a month (LEDGER A, 335; RANKIN, 159). Mrs. Campbell, with whom he lodged as usual, had by this date moved down Duke of Gloucester Street to "the COFFEE-HOUSE . . . next the Capitol." Owned by the heirs of Nathaniel Walthoe, late clerk of the General Assembly, it was soon to be offered for sale at public auction by the executor of the estate ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 16 May 1771). Mrs. Campbell's old place in the second block from the Capitol had been bought during the previous year by James Anderson, a blacksmith and gunsmith (GIBBS, 152--54; WILLIAMSBURG, 24--25).
3. Dined at the Speaker's and went to the Play--after wch. Drank a Bowl or two of Punch at Mrs. Campbells.
4. Dined at Mrs. Campbells (& paid for Dinner & Club) and went up to Eltham with Colos. Bassett & Lewis.
5. At Eltham all day.
6. Returnd to Williamsburg by 11 Oclock with Colo. Bassett & Colo. Lewis. Dined at Mrs. Vobes and Suppd at Anderson.
Robert Anderson (b. 1743) had opened a public house near the College of William and Mary in the fall of 1769 but in March of this year had moved to the Wetherburn Tavern, succeeding James Barrett Southall as its innkeeper. Anderson leased the tavern from Wetherburn's heirs and operated it until 1779 (GIBBS, 145--47).
7. Dined at Mrs. Dawson's and Spent the Evening at Anderson's.
8. Dined at Southalls with Colo. Robt. Fairfax & some other Gentlemn. & went to the Play &
In March, James Barrett Southall had moved his place of business from the Wetherburn Tavern across Duke of Gloucester Street to the Raleigh Tavern, which he bought from the executors of Anthony Hay's estate. Southall operated the Raleigh for at least the next ten years, and under his management it continued to be a popular place for social events, meetings, and auctions (GIBBS, 196--97).
The "&" at the end of this entry seems to connect it to the entry for the following day and may indicate that both entries, and possibly others for this trip, were written at a later date from memory or notes (DIARIES, 2:17).
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9. Dined at Mrs. Campbell's and Spent the Evening at Southalls with the Treasurer &ca.
10. Dined at Mrs. Campbells & went to Bed early.
11. Returnd to Eltham with Colo. Bassett, after dining at Mrs. Campbells.
12. At Eltham all day except Ridg. to Colo. Bassetts Meadow at Roots's with him.
On this day Lund Washington sent GW the unhappy news that the mill was "once more in a bad way." The wall between the water and cog pits was falling down, allowing the floor of the mill, the forebay, and one of the waterwheel's supports to settle several inches. Grinding had to be stopped while the wall and forebay were temporarily braced with timbers. But, Lund reported, the wheat fields looked more promising than usual (ViMtV).
13. Rid to the Brick House with Colo. Bassett and returnd to Dinner.
14. Went into the Fields with Colo. Bassett a shooting--killd sevl. Hares &ca.
15. Went up to the Plantations about Rockahock. Dined at Mrs. Chamberlaynes with Mrs. Washington & returnd to Colo. Bassetts in the Eveng.
Rockahock was the New Kent County neighborhood in which the Custis White House was located (John Parke Custis to GW, 11 Sept. 1777, ViHi). The Custis plantations in New Kent were Rockahock, Brick House, Old Quarter, and Harlow's, all belonging to Jacky Custis ("An Inventory of the Stocks As given in by the respective Overseers in the Month of December 1771, after the decease of Mr. Valentine," ViHi: Custis Papers). Rebecca Chamberlayne, widow of Edward Pye Chamberlayne (1725--c. 1769), lived on the Pamunkey River about a mile from the White House.
16. Dined at Mrs. Dangerfields with Colo. Bassetts Family & returnd in the Afternoon to Eltham.
Mrs. Hannah Daingerfield of New Kent County appears on Burwell Bassett's census list of 1782 as head of a household consisting of 2 whites and 33 blacks (HEADS OF FAMILIES, VA., 36). She was conducting her own financial affairs before 1776 ( Va. Gaz., D&H, 3 Aug. 1776).
17. Visited my Plantation in King William. Dined at Colo. Bd. Moores & returnd to Colo. Bassetts in the Afternoon.
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MY PLANTATION: Claiborne's plantation (see entry for 24 April 1760). Bernard Moore was now able to support his family only through the charity of friends. Having finally disposed of all his property to pay his debts, he had obtained use of some land at no cost and was working it with slaves who had been bought with money lent by several acquaintances, including GW who had provided £100 (Moore to GW, 12 Jan. 1771, and GW to Moore, 23 Jan. 1771, DLC:GW).
18. Rid to the Brick House with the Family. Hauld the Sein & returnd to Dinner after which went to Mr. Davis's & Drank Tea.
19. Went to Church & returnd to Colo. Bassetts to Dinner with other Compy. among whom were the two Mr. Dandridges.
The two Mr. Dandridges are probably William and Bartholomew Dandridge, Mrs. Washington's brothers.
20. Rid to the Brick House to see my Chariot & Horses (which were sent round to my Quarter) cross.
The Brick House ferry crossed the Pamunkey River to West Point in King William County (RICE, 2: pl. 104). MY QUARTER: Claiborne's plantation.
21. Set out for my Brothers at Nomony--crossing over to my Quarter, & so by Frazer's to Hobs Hole where we dined, & then crossing the [Rappahannock] River lodged at Mr. Josh. Lanes.
MY BROTHERS: John Augustine Washington's home, Bushfield. Joseph Lane (d. 1796), a younger brother of James and William Carr Lane of Newgate, lived at Nomini Forest in Westmoreland County and was the deputy collector of customs for the South Potomac Naval District (MCDONALD, 468--77; Va. Gaz., P&D, 25 Feb. 1773).
22. Reached my Brothers pretty early in the day.
23. Rid with him to his Mill, and to Mr. Carters New Mills at the head of Nomony. Returnd to Dinr.
John Augustine Washington's mill stood on a branch of the Nomini River, about six miles upstream from Bushfield and about half a mile east of Robert Carter's house, Nomini Hall (FITHIAN, 109). It was during this month that Carter returned from Williamsburg with his family to resume living at Nomini Hall. He had decided recently to expand his flour-manufacturing facilities, and a short distance west of his house, where another branch of the Nomini flowed, he was apparently having a "Double Mill"--that is, a mill with two waterwheels--built or rebuilt along with a two-oven bakery ( Va. Gaz., R, 19 Nov. 1772; EATON, 55; MORTON [1], 178--80).
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Nomini Hall, home of Robert Carter. (Colonial Williamsburg Photograph)
24. Dined at Mr. John Smiths at Cabbin Point. Returnd to my Brothrs. in the Afternoon.
25. Dined at the Revd. Mr. Smiths and returned to my Brother's again in the Evening.
26. Dined at Mr. Booths and proceeded to Mrs. Washington's of Popes Creek in the Afternoon.
27. Stayed there all day.
28. Set out after Breakfast. Dined at Mr. Burdett Ashtons and continued on Afterwards to Mr. Lawrence Washington's.
Burdett Ashton (1747--1814) was a son-in-law of Anne Aylett Washington, having married her daughter Ann Washington (1752--1777) in 1768.
29. Stayed at Mr. Washington's all day. Good deal of Company dining there.
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30. Reachd home--crossing at Boyd's hole to the Widow Martin's Landing & pass by Nangemoy Church & the Widow Elbecks to my own Ferry. Found Jacky Custis there.
WIDOW MARTIN'S LANDING: In 1774 Nicholas Cresswell visited "Mrs. Marsden, a widow lady in the neighbourhood" of Nanjemoy, Md. (CRESSWELL, 17). The Nanjemoy (Durham) Parish Church, built 1732--36, stood a few miles northwest of Nanjemoy, near present-day Ironsides, Md. (RIGHTMYER, 142--43). Sarah Edgar Eilbeck (d. 1780), widow of the merchant and planter William Eilbeck (d. 1765) and mother-in-law of George Mason, lived at the head of Mattawoman Creek about three miles southeast of present-day Mason Springs, Md. (W.P.A. [2], 489).
Jacky's presence at Mount Vernon was an occasion for some rejoicing. Without informing his mother or GW he had changed his mind about smallpox inoculation, had been inoculated in Baltimore 8 April, and was now fully recovered "without hardly one Mark to tell that He ever had it" (Jonathan Boucher to GW, 9 May 1771, DLC:GW).
31. Rid to Muddy hole--Doeg Run & the Mill before Dinner. In the Afternoon Vale. Crawford came here & went away again in the Morning.
Acct. of the Weather in May
May 1st. Wind tolerably fresh from the South East, with appearances of Rain but none fell.
2. Cloudy Morning and Warm with the Wind fresh from the Southward.
3. Warm, with appearances of Rain but none fell. Wind Southerly.
4. A little Cool. Wind Northwardly.
5. Clear & Cool. Wind in the same place.
6. Clear--the Wind getting Southerly again the Air grew warmer.
7. Warm (but not Hot)--the Sky Muddy & thick.
8. Raining in the Morning, & more or less all day. With but very little Wind.
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9. Clear and pleasant Morning with the Wind Westwardly. In the Evening thunder Lightning & Rain.
10. Clear and pleasant with the Wind Westwardly.
11. Clear forenoon--little like Rain afterwards with the Wind Eastwardly & cold.
12. Cold all day, and Cloudy.
13. Still Cold with the Wind fresh from the Northward.
14. Much such a day as yesterday Wind being in the same place.
15. Morning clear, but Afternoon like for Rain; Wind fresh from the Westward.
16. Clear, Calm, and Warm. What little wind stirrd was from the Eastward.
17. Wind still Eastwardly & pretty fresh.
18. Wind in the same place and somewhat cooler. In the Eveng. a great appearance of Rain but none fell at this place.
19. Warm with but little Wind. In the Afternoon great appearances of Rain, but none fell here. Thunder & lightning in the Night.
20. Wind still Southerly and Warm with great appearances of Rain but none fell here. In the afternoon the Wind blew very fresh from the Southwest.
21. Still warm, with the Wind Southerly and showery in places.
22. Morning lowering but clear afterwards, and warm. In the Afternoon showers.
23. Cloudy, & like to Rain--also warm wind being still Southerly.
24. Wind in the same place. The Weather clear and pleasant, but a little Warm, especially in the Afternoon.
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25. Wind very fresh from the So. West all the forenoon. In the afternoon it was Easterly and Raining.
26. Cloudy all the Morning with the Wind Eastwardly & cool. Afternoon something clearer & warmer.
27. Wind Southerly & Morning Raining. Afternoon clear & warm.
28. In the Morning early, Rain--then clear & warm. After that Rain with the Wind at No. & Cold.
29. Wind Northwardly & very Cold notwithstanding the weather was clear.
30. Clear, & not so cool as yesterday, being calm & still after the Morning.
31. Clear and Warm--Wind being Southwardly.
Where & how my time is Spent
June 1st. Rid into the Neck and to the Mill before Dinner. In the Afternoon a Mr. Debutts of Maryland came & stayd all Night.
John De Butts was a wealthy planter from St. Mary's County, Md.
2. After Breakfast Mr. Debutts went away, and in the afternoon Mr. Wagener the younger came here & stayed all Night.
3. Mr. Wagener went away after Breakfast. I rid to the Mill Plantation at Posey's before Dinner.
4. At home all day without Compa.
5. Ditto. Mr. Matthw. Campbell came in the Afternoon & stayed all Night.
6. Mr. Campbell went away after Breakfast, & Jacky Custis returnd to Annapolis. Mrs. Washington Patcy Custis & myself Dined at Belvoir.
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Jacky's departure from home had been briefly delayed so that his laundry could be done. He returned to school with £2 8s. Virginia currency to use as personal pocket money and £50 Maryland currency from which the bills for his inoculation and living expenses at Baltimore were to be paid (GW to Jonathan Boucher, 5 June 1771, WRITINGS, 3:42--46; LEDGER A, 337).
7. Rid to Muddy hole, Doeg Run and the Mill before Dinner.
8. Rid to the Plantn. at the Ferry--then into the Neck, & so home to Dinner, by Muddy hole.
Henceforth, GW usually refers to Capt. John Posey's former plantation, all of which he now controlled either by purchase or rental, as Ferry plantation, the ferry there being its most distinctive feature.
9. At home all day.
10. Rid to Ferry Plantation--Mill--Doeg Run & home by Muddy hole to Dinner.
11. At home in the forenoon. In the afternoon Rid by the Ferry Plantation to the Mill and back.
A nineteenth-century drawing of the new mill, probably completed in late 1770, and the miller's house built in 1771. (National Archives)
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12. At the Mill in the forenoon & Afternoon Inspecting and delivering Flour to Messrs. Robt. Adam & Co.
See agreement with Adam & Co. under "Remarks" entry for 6 June 1771.
13. At the same place as yesterday & on the same business till Dinner. Colo. Fairfax & Lady dined here.
14. Clear & Cool. Rid to the Mill and the Plantation at the Ferry. In the afternoon Doctr. Craik came here.
15. Doctr. Craik went away after Breakfast. I rid as far as the Ferry with him afterwards was at the delivery of Flour at my Fish Ho[use] Landing.
16. At home all day. My Brother Jno. Came here to Dinner & Majr. Waggener in the Afternoon.
17. At home all day both the above Gentlemen here--the last of whom Sick.
18. Went up to Alexandria & returnd in the Afternoon Mr. Magowan with me. My Brothr. went in the Morning.
GW went to Alexandria for a meeting of the Fairfax nonimportation committee, which had been asked by Alexander Henderson and William Balmain to judge two new shipments of goods. Only 12 hats sent by mistake of the manufacturer were found to be unacceptable, and the committee was convinced that Henderson and Balmain had "strictly adhered to the spirit and intention of the association" for their part. But the two merchants complained "that they found so little regard paid to the association by others . . . that they should think themselves obliged for the future" to protect their businesses by sending "their orders in the same manner with other importers; restraining themselves only from importing tea, and other taxed articles" ( Va. Gaz., R, 18 July 1771).
19. Major Wagener went away this Morning. I rid to Muddy hole & Doeg Run Plantation's.
20. Rid to the Mill and Ferry Plantations. Mr. Magowan went to Colchr.
21. Mr. Robt. Adam came here in the Morning to Breakfast & went with me to Mr. French's Funeral. Mr. Magowan came here with me to Dinner where we found Mr. Stedlar.
Robert Adam today brought GW an initial payment of £300 for the flour he had agreed to buy on 6 June. Further cash payments totaling £201 6d. were
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made in October and November, and the balance was credited to GW's general account with Adam's company (LEDGER A, 340, 345, 347).
Although Daniel French had died 25 May, the public funeral sermon was apparently not preached until this day. The services may have been held at the still-unfinished new Pohick Church, the construction of which French had been directing before he died. French's grave is in the churchyard there.
22. Mr. Magowan returnd to Maryland. I rid to Muddy hole and into the Neck.
23. Went to Pohick Church and returnd home to Dinner.
24. At Home all day--writing.
25. Rid by the Ferry Plantation to the Mill from thence to Doeg Run Quartr. & home by Muddy hole.
26. At home all day Writing.
27. At home all day Writing. Miss Nancy McCarty came in the Afternoon.
28. Rid by the Ferry Plantation & Mill to Doeg Run Quarter & Meadow. Returnd home by Muddy hole Plantn.
29. Rid to Ferry Quarter Mill and Muddy hole.
30. At Home all day. Miss Nancy Peake &ca. dined here as did Price Posey & went away in the Afternoon as Miss Nancy McCarty also did.
Acct. of the Weather in June
June 1st. Clear and Warm--Wind being Southerly.
2. Also clear and pleasant--with but little Wind and that Southerly.
3. Warm, but clear, with little Wind & that Southerly.
4. Wind Easterly & pretty fresh. Evening Cool.
5. Very foggy Morning, then Rain with thunder and Lightning. Afternoon very Cloudy.
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6. Clear but very Warm with the Wind Southerly. Foggy Morning.
7. Very warm in the forenoon with Thunder & lightning & great appearances of Rain every[where] but none fell here. This Morning also.
The manuscript reads "great appearances of Rain every Rain every but none fell here."
8. Lowering Morning, and very warm day with Clouds & appearances of Rain in the Evening.
9. Dull foggy Morning & Afterwards warm--with black clouds & a little Rain in the Afternoon.
10. Clear & Warm--with very little [wind] & that Southerly. Appearances of Rain but none fell here.
11. Clear and tolerably pleasant with but little Wind.
12. Pretty smart & constant Rain in the forenoon. Afternoon clear with the wind Northwardly.
13. Clear and Cool--Wind Northwardly.
14. Clear and Cool--wind being still Northwardly but pleasant Notwithstanding.
15. Clear in the Morning, but Cloudy afterwards and Warm, with appearances of Rain. Wind Eastwardly.
16. Rain in the Night, & till 8 or Nine Oclock this Morning; then clear, and Warm. Wind Eastwardly.
17. Misting, of and on all day with the Wind still to the Eastward.
18. Much such a day as yesterday, till the Evening then the Wind Shifting to the Northward it grew cool.
19. The Morning Cool--the Afternoon warm, there being little or no Wind; day rather Cloudy & Lowering.
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20. A good deal of Rain fell last Night and this Morning. Wind Easterly.
21. Clear & Warm. Wind Southerly. In the Night Rain again.
22. Clear and something Cooler--Wind getting Westwardly.
23. Clear and Warm wind Southerly in the Night Rain.
24. Cloudy & Lowering. In the Evening Raining moderately.
25. Cloudy and like for Rain all day, but none fell. Still and very Warm.
26. Calm & very warm the first part of the day. The Latter part Raining with variable Wind.
27. Foggy Morning--close & still day, & very warm.
28. Dewey Morning, close still and Smoky--also very warm.
29. Dewey Morning and very Warm in the Afternoon two or three Showers of Rain.
30. Cool Morning with the Wind at North West. All the Afternoon showery.
Remarks & Occurs. in June
June 1st. Morris at Doeg Run Quarter Planted his Swamps with Corn.
Finished breaking up Corn Ground at Muddy hole.
Only half done in the Neck but quite finishd at Doeg Run.
6. Sold all the Flour I have left to Robt. Adam & Co. at the following Rates--fine flour at 12/6 Midlings at 10/. & Shipstuff at 8/4 pr. Ct. £300 of the Money, to be paid in Octr.--the residue in April with Int[eres]t from Octr.
In May the company had bought about 13,500 pounds of GW's flour for £60 7s. 10d., and during June it bought about 128,000 pounds more for £765 3s. 7d. (LEDGER A, 326, 341). Over three-fourths of this flour was of fine quality, that is, finely ground and relatively free of bran and impurities. The rest
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consisted of middlings, a coarse medium-grade flour containing some bran, and ship stuff, the lowest quality of flour, containing much bran. Adam & Co. may have used some of GW's flour for local sale or for making bread at the company's bakery, but much of it, especially the fine flour, must have been exported as it was. The brig Adventure sailed from the Potomac for Jamaica with 200 barrels of flour on 8 July, and the ship Nancy of Philadelphia, which left for Lisbon on the same day, carried 2,269 barrels of flour (P.R.O., C.O.5/1349, f. 208).
During the spring GW also sold flour to two Norfolk merchants. Philip Carberry, a baker, bought 1,432 pounds of ship stuff for £5 19s. 4d., and William Chisholm, who traded with the West Indies, purchased 36,997 pounds of fine flour for £236 19s. 8d. (LEDGER A, 336, 338; Lund Washington to GW, 12 May 1771, ViMtV).
7. Agreed with Mr. Pendleton of Frederick for all the Land to be Included by a Line to be run from the No. West C[orne]r of Owen Thomas's Patent to a Corner of the Land on which James McGarmick lives in my Line supposd to contain abt. 180 Acres for £400 the Money to be paid in two years with Int[eres]t from the 25th. of next Decr. This years Rent to be paid to me & only a special Warrantee to be given with the Land.
Got done breaking up my Corn Ground at the Mill.
GW is agreeing to sell Philip Pendleton (1752--1802) a small part of his Bullskin plantation. A contract was not signed until 7 Dec. 1771, but the terms remained unchanged. Owen thomas's patent for 400 acres, which GW had surveyed 3 April 1750, adjoined GW's land on the south and east. Pendleton had previously bought all or part of this patent from Thomas (Northern Neck Grants and Deeds, Book-H, 88, Vi Microfilm; CHAPPELEAR [2], map facing p. 56).
9. The Appearances of the Weather, for sevl. days past, has given the greatest room to apprehend the Rust--the Mornings close, foggy, and Calm; the Evenings Cloudy & sometimes Raining--Heavy Dews at Nights & Warm Sultry days.
11. Finished Breaking up Corn Ground at the Ferry Plantation.
15. Finished Ditto in the Neck.
24. Began to cut grass at Doeg Run Quarter.
25. Discoverd the Rust bad in the Wheat at the Mill. My Wheat every where being much Injurd by the Speck or Spot.
Finished Cutting the Meadow at Doeg Run--6 Scythe men being employd each day.
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27. Finishd Plowing over my Corn at Muddy hole a 2d. time and got all over it with the Hoes at the same time.
28. Finishd Securing my Hay at Doeg Run.
Also got over all but the last Cut of Corn in the Neck with the Plows and Hoes.
29. Got over all my Corn at Doeg Run twice with the Hoes and Plows.
Where & how my time is Spent
July 1. Rid into the Neck to my Harvest People, & back to Dinner. Mr. Robt. Rutherford came in the Afternoon & went away again.
2. Rid to the Harvest Field in the Neck & back to Dinner.
3. Rid to the Harvest Field in the Neck by the Ferry & Muddy hole Plantations. In the Afternoon Mr. Jno. Smith of Westmoreland came here.
John Smith of Cabin Point, the smallpox inoculator, was going to Warm Springs in Frederick County, apparently for his health, which by fall was so bad that "everyone expected to have the burying of him into whose house he came" (GW to Samuel Washington, 6 Dec. 1771, excerpt, Parke-Bernet Galleries Catalogue, 11 June 1941, Item 578).
4. At home all day with Mr. Smith. In the Afternoon Jno. Custis came.
Jacky probably brought GW the letter that Jonathan Boucher wrote to him on this date, asking for a final decision about the proposed European tour (DLC:GW). GW replied five days later that he thought that Mrs. Washington was so reluctant to part with her son for a long period, and Jacky was so indifferent about the trip, that "it will soon be declared he has no inclination to go" (9 July 1771, DLC:GW). Boucher did not again raise the subject.
5. Mr. Smith set out after breakfast on his journey to the Frederick Sprgs. In the Afternoon I rid to the Harvest Field in the Neck.
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6. Writing the forepart of the day. In the afternoon Rid to the Harvest Field at Muddy hole.
7. At Home all day. Mr. Alexr. Ross of Pittsburg and Mr. George Digges dined here & went away in the Afternoon.
Alexander Ross, a Scottish merchant who settled in Pittsburgh in 1763, served as the supplier to the Fort Pitt garrison. When the fort was abandoned by the British army in 1772 Ross bought the buildings. Like GW, he was heavily involved in western lands.
8. Went to a Vestry held at the New Church at Pohick. Doctr. Rumney & Mr. Robt. Harrison came home with me.
After Daniel French's death, responsibility for completing the new church devolved on his executor, George Mason. The work was apparently going well, for the vestrymen today had only a few small changes to request of Mason. Finding that the stone used at the corners of the building's brick walls was "coarse grain'd and rather too soft," they ordered it to "be painted with white Lead and Oyle." They also stipulated "that the rub'd Bricks at the returns of all the Windows ought to be painted as near as possible the same colour with the Arches" and that the dimensions of the altarpiece, which had been incorrectly given in the contract with French, should be "according to the true proportions of the Ionic order" of architecture (Truro Vestry Book, 148--49, DLC).
9. Doctr. Rumney & Mr. Harrison went away after Breakfast. In the Afternoon I rid to my Harvest People.
10. Mr. Jno. Custis returnd to Annapolis. I remaind at home all day writing my Invoices.
These invoices were apparently for goods that GW wished to order from Robert Cary & Co. and other English merchants (see main entry for 20 July 1771).
11. Rid by the Plantation at the Ferry & Mill to my Harvest Field at D. Run. In the Afternn. Messrs. Watson & West came.
12. I set of for Williamsburg & crossing at Laidlers lodgd at Mr. Lawe. Washingtons.
GW was going to attend the House of Burgesses, which had convened 11 July to deal with problems resulting from a great flood that had come down the James, Rappahannock, and Roanoke rivers in late May, causing about 150 deaths and much property damage. The calamity had not affected Mount Vernon or the Custis lands, but many Virginia planters had lost both their recently planted tobacco crop and the harvested tobacco they had stored in public warehouses for shipment to England. Prompt financial relief
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was needed to save those men from bankruptcy. GW delayed his departure from home, because he apparently knew that the first few days of the session would be devoted to ceremonial and organizational matters and he preferred to use that time to continue supervising his wheat harvest (FREEMAN, 3:273--74). Only 55 of the 118 burgesses were recorded as present at this session (H.B.J., 1770--72, 113--14).
Laidler's ferry landing on the Potomac River was about 14 miles below Port Tobacco, Md. In 1755 a ferry was authorized to cross the Potomac between Lawrence Washington's land in the Chotank neighborhood of Stafford (now King George) County and "the land opposite thereto," in Maryland (HENING, 6:494).
13. Dined at Leeds Town & reachd Todds Bridge.
Leedstown, founded 1742, was a tobacco port on the Rappahannock River in King George (now Westmoreland) County.
14. Breakfasted at King Wm. C[our]t Ho[use] Dined at Ruffins and reachd Colo. Bassetts.
15. Came to Williamsburg abt. 10 Oclock. Dined at Mrs. Campbells--spent the Evening in my own Room.
GW may have arrived too late to attend the House of Burgesses today; during this session the burgesses were sitting at 9:00 A. M. to avoid the midday heat, and this day's meeting was apparently a brief one. The matter of flood relief had been referred 12 July to a committee that was to determine as nearly as possible how much tobacco had been lost in the public warehouses, but it was not yet ready to report (H.B.J., 1770--72, 123--27).
Later this day at the Capitol there was a general meeting of the Virginia association, at which GW was probably present. Responding to complaints from Fairfax and Fauquier counties about unequal enforcement of the current agreements, the associators decided in the future to prohibit the importation of only "Tea, Paper, Glass, and Painters Colours of foreign Manufacture, upon which a Duty is laid for the Purpose of raising a Revenue in America" ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 18 July 1771).
GW lodged with Mrs. Campbell.
16. Dined at the Speakers spent the Evening in my own Room.
17. Dined at the Treasurers. Supd at Mrs. Campbell's.
18. Dined and Supped at Mrs. Campbell's.
19. Dined at Mrs. Campbells & Spent the Evening at Southalls.
The flood relief bill was presented to the burgesses today, and after several amendments were made, it was ordered to be engrossed for a final reading. The bill as amended authorized the issuance of up to £30,000 in treasury
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notes for payment of planters' claims, which were to be examined and approved by a commission appointed for that purpose. Taxes for redeeming the notes were to be in effect 25 Oct. 1771 to 25 Oct. 1775 (H.B.J., 1770--72, 136--38; HENING, 8:493--503).
20. Dined at Mrs. Dawsons & spent the Evening in my own Room.
The House of Burgesses passed the flood relief bill on its final reading this morning, and having accomplished the main purpose of this session, it was prorogued (H.B.J., 1770--72, 138--40).
GW today dispatched his orders for goods to Robert Cary & Co. and other English merchants. Included in them were many luxuries that he had apparently postponed buying while the nonimportation agreements were in full effect: expensive shoes and boots, fine silk and broadcloth clothing, "a man's very best Bear. Hat," a leather portmanteau and saddle of the very best quality, and two seals made of "Topaz or some other handsome stone . . . w[it]h the Washington Arms neatly engraved thereon" (GW to John Didsbury, 18 July 1771, GW to Thomas Gibson, 18 July 1771, and GW to Cary & Co., 20 July 1771, DLC:GW).
21. Set out early in the Morning for Colo. Bassetts & arrivd there abt. 10 Oclock.
22. Left Colo. Bassetts before Sunrise. Breakfasted at King Wm. Ct. House--dined at Todds bridge & lodgd at Hubbards.
23. Breakfasted at the Caroline Court House & Reachd Fredericksburg before two Oclock & dined and lodgd at Colo. Lewis's.
24. At Fredericksburg all day. Dined & Supped at Mr. Dicks.
25. Dined at Colo. Lewis's & went to the Play.
The American Company of Comedians had been performing in Fredericksburg every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday since late May, when it had come to take advantage of the crowds at the town's annual June fair ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 16 May 1771). The plays may have been staged in the county courtroom, a warehouse, or the 44-by-25-foot billiard room of George Weedon's tavern (RANKIN, 160; KING [2], 246--47).
26. Breakfasted at my Mother's. Dined at Dumfries & lodgd at Home.
27. At Home all day.
28. Ditto. Ditto.
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29. Rid to the Ferry Plantation the Mill--Doeg Run & Muddy hole & returnd to Dinner.
30. Rid into the Neck and to the Carpenters--also to the Mill Plantation.
CARPENTERS: See "Remarks" entry for 29 July 1771.
31. Rid to the Ferry Plantation to the Mill--Doeg Run and Muddy hole.
Acct. of the Weather in July
July 1st. Tolerable cool all day with Clouds. Wind Northwardly in the Morning, & Eastwardly in the Afternoon.
2. Cloudy all day with the Wind at East, and light Showers in the Afternoon. Cool & pleasant--in the Night a good deal of Rain.
3. For the most part clear and warm with but little wind and that in the Morning Northerly in the Afternn. Southerly.
4. Clear, calm, and rather warm in the Afternoon Cloudy but no Rain.
5. Warm Morning but cooler Afterwards. Wind fresh from the Southwest.
6. Cool & Cloudy all day with light showers now & then & Wind Southerly.
7. Clear and tolerably pleasant with but little wind and that Southerly.
8. Very Warm but clear with the Wind Southerly.
9. Very Warm with Clouds & a light Shower of Rain.
10. Cloudy for the most part of the day with a pretty smart Shower & Wind from the Westward.
11. Very Warm in the forenoon with a good deal of Rain in the Afternoon and Night.
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12. Cloudy, & Misting forenoon. Hot Noon, & Rainy afternoon where I was at Hoes.
13. Cloudy forenoon & midling pleasant but very Hot afternn.
14. Still, & very warm in the Forenoon. In the Afternoon much Rain & Wind from the So. West. At Colo. Bassetts.
15. Something Cooler in the forenoon with Rain. Afternoon Warm.
16. Clear and Warm. Wind, what little there was, Southerly.
17. Clear and something Cooler. Wind in the Evening Easterly.
18. Cooler than Yesterday Wind from the Eastward & fresh.
19. Warm with appearances of Rain but none fell.
20. Still Warmer with but little Wind & that at South.
21. Very Warm the Wind in the same Quarter.
22. Clear & the Sun very hot but a pleasant breeze from the Westwd.
23. Clear forenoon with a fresh breeze from the So. West. Afternoon and Night very rainy.
24. Raining more or less all day sometimes very hard but little wind.
25. Much such a day as yesterday but not quite so much rain.
26. Misty Morning. Rainy Evening & cloudy all day.
27. Clear and warm. Wind Southerly.
28. Clear and warm forenoon Rainy Afternoon. Wind Southerly.
29. Clear forenoon & very warm but Cloudy afternoon no Rain however fell here.
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30. Clear and Warm Wind being Southerly.
31. Just such a day as yesterday.
Remarks & Occurs. in July
July 1. Began my Wheat Harvest in the Neck. Work'd Ten Cradles 8 of which were my own Negroes. Cut down the 50 Acre Cut upon Carneys Gut next the House.
5. Finishd the Wheat in the Neck abt. two Hours by Sun in the Afternoon.
6. Finishd going over my Corn in the Neck the 2d. Time.
Also Began my Harvest at Muddy Hole this day.
9. Finish'd Cutting & Securing my Wheat at Muddy hole abt. 4 Oclock in the Afternoon and removd my People to Doeg Run.
12. Left home for Williamsburg to the Assembly.
18. Finish'd Cutting and Securg. all my Wheat.
19. Began to Cut the Meadow at the Mill.
27. Finishd Curing Do. Weather being very unfavourable.
29. Three Carpenters belonging to the Estate of Colo. Steptoe (hired of Jas. Hardige Lane at £7 pr. Month) came to work here.
These carpenters were apparently engaged to build a house for GW's miller, but they may have done other construction or repair work. Col. James Steptoe (died c.1757), of Hominy Hall, Westmoreland County, was father of Anne Steptoe Washington, fourth wife of GW's brother Samuel. Steptoe's estate included, besides his Hominy Hall plantation, several hundred acres of land near Mount Vernon. James Hardage Lane (d. 1787), a prominent Loudoun County planter, may have been leasing that Fairfax County land and the laborers on it from Steptoe's executors or their agents (will of James Steptoe, 10 May 1755, Westmoreland County Deeds and Wills, Book 13, 95--98, Vi Microfilm; General Index to Fairfax County Deeds, 1742--97, 119, Vi Microfilm). GW paid Lane £17 6s. 6d. for hire of the carpenters on 24 Dec. 1771 (LEDGER A, 350).
30. Sowed Turneps at Home House.
31. Began to Sow Wheat at Muddy hole Plantation.
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Where & how my time is Spent
August 1st. Rid to Muddy hole the Mill and where the Carpenter's were at Work.
2. At home all day a writing Letters & Advertisements of Harry who run away the 29th. Ulto.
GW spent £1 16s. to recover this slave, who apparently was soon returned to Mount Vernon (LEDGER A, 340; list of GW's tithables, 10 June 1772, DLC: Toner Collection).
3. Rid to the Mill--Muddy hole & Neck.
4. Went to Pohick Church, and came home to Dinner.
Old Pohick Church continued to be used for regular worship services until 15 Feb. 1774, when the vestry officially accepted the new church for use of the parish (Truro Vestry Book, 160, DLC).
5. At home all day. Colo. Fairfax came here to breakfast & returnd afterwards. Doctr. Craik came to Dinner & went away after it.
6. Dined at Belvoir and returnd in the Evening. Mrs. Washington & Patcy Custis went with me.
7. Rid by the Ferry Plantation to the Mill--from thence to Doeg Run & so home by Muddy hole.
8. Rid into the Neck and from thence to the Mill.
9. Went to the Mill & returnd from thence to Dinner.
10. Rid to the Mill Doeg run and Muddy hole.
11. At home all day. Miss Polly Brazier dined here.
Polly Brazier may be a relation of Capt. Zacharias Brazier, who in 1759 married Elizabeth Fowke Buckner (1727--1797), a widow of Stafford County (agreement between Zacharias Brazier and Elizabeth Buckner, 5 Nov. 1759, Stafford County Deed Book, 1755--64, 241--43, and will of Elizabeth Brazier, 29 June 1795, Prince William County Will Book, 1792--1803, 194--95, Vi Microfilm).
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12. Rid to the Mill by the Plantation at the Ferry.
GW today wrote Robert Cary & Co., requesting that a few goods be added to his last order. The most important article, "and the principal end of my writing," he told the company, was "a pair of French Burr Millstones" for merchant milling. The stones that he was presently using were giving him flour of fine quality, but he wanted to produce superfine flour, which could best be done with buhrstone, noted for its hardness and the many minute cutting edges on its surfaces. In choosing the new millstones, GW instructed, care was to be taken to see that they were "of a good and even quality. I should not Incline to give any extravagent Sum for them on the one hand nor miss of getting a pair of good ones by limiting the price on the other" (DLC:GW; CRAIK [1], 293--94).
13. Rid to the Mill and returnd home by the Ferry Plantation.
14. Rid to the Ferry Plantation, Mill, Doeg Run, & Muddy hole.
15. Rid by the Ferry Plantation to the Mill--from thence into the Neck.
16. Rid by the Plantation at the Ferry to the Mill, & from thence home.
17. Rid by Muddy hole to Doeg Run--from thence to the Mill & so home by the Ferry Plantn.
18. At home all day alone.
19. Went up to Alexandria to Court, & returnd in the Evening, home.
The court met 19--23 Aug. GW was not recorded as being officially present today, but his name is among the justices who attended on 20, 21, and 23 Aug. (Fairfax County Order Book for 1770--72, 231--74, Vi Microfilm).
20. Went up to Court again and lodgd in my own House.
GW was to spend little time at his recently completed town house at the corner of Pitt and Cameron streets. After the War of Independence he usually lent it to relatives or rented it.
21. At Court all day. In the Evening returnd home.
22. Rid by the Ferry Plantation & Mill to Colo. Fairfax's to see Mrs. Fairfax who was said to be Ill.
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Washington's house in Alexandria in an undated sketch by Miss M. I. Stewart. (Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22, A.F. & A.M., Alexandria, Va.)
23. Went up to Court again and returnd home in the Afternoon.
24. Rid to the Ferry Plantation & Mill before Dinner.
25. At home all day. Mr. Jno. Smith came here to Dinner on his return from the Springs.
26th. Mr. Smith went away. After Breakfast I rid to the Ferry Plantn. Mill, Doeg Run and Muddy hole.
27. Rid to the Mill only before Dinner.
28. Rid by the Ferry Plantation to the Mill. Miss Manley here.
29. Went to the Mill, & returnd from thence. Miss Manley went home after Breakfast and Mr. Jno. Johnson who has a nostrum for Fits came here in the Afternoon.
Dr. John Johnson (b. 1745), of Frederick, Md., had for the past few months been sending the Washingtons a special herbal medicine to relieve the
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seizures that had been plaguing Patsy Custis (Thomas Johnson to GW, 18 June 1770, MnHi). His remedy had proved to be totally ineffective, but Johnson had come to Mount Vernon to prescribe further treatments (GW to Jonathan Boucher, 5 July 1771, WRITINGS, 3:42--48). A nephew many years later characterized Johnson as a person who was "extremely indolent, self-opinionated, and had as little of manhood as he had of his profession" (DELAPLAINE, 351).
30. Rid to the Mill in the forenoon. Mr. Johnson here all day. In the afternoon Doctr. Rumney came, & stayd all Night.
31. After Breakfast both Mr. Johnson & Doctr. Rumney went away. I rid to the Mill, and in the afternoon Mr. Lewis Burwell the younger came here.
Lewis Burwell the younger was either Lewis Burwell, Jr., son of Col. Lewis Burwell of Kingsmill, James City County, or Lewis Burwell (1737--1779), lawyer and burgess of Fairfield plantation, Gloucester County, who was also known as Lewis Burwell, Jr. at this time. Lewis Burwell of Fairfield studied law at the Inns of Court in London and represented Gloucester County in the House of Burgesses 1769--74. An avid horseman, he owned the stallion Eclipse, a "Noted High Bred Swift Running Horse" ( Va. Gaz., D&N, 8 May 1779).
Acct. of the Weather in August
August 1st. Clear and very warm with the Wind pretty fresh from the Southwestward.
2. Clear and warm again with the Wind in the same place. The Afternoon Cloudy with a little thunder & appearances of Rain but none fell here.
3. Very warm, Wind Southerly & Weather clear.
4. Still very warm & clear with the Wind Southerly.
5. Exceeding warm with the Wind still in the same place. Forenoon clear--afternoon Gusty but no Rain fell here tho it thunderd & lightnend.
6. Very warm with but little Wind. In the Evening a little Rain but not much.
7. Clear and very warm. Wind Westerly.
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8. Cloudy forenoon with appearances of Rain but none fell. Afternoon clear.
9. Afternoon Cloudy again with a fine mist for a few Minutes. Very little Wind.
10. Clear and Cool Wind being Northwesterly.
11th. Clear and quite Calm. Morning little Cool; Evening Warm.
12. Some appearance of Rain but none fell. Very warm.
13. Wind very fresh from abt. SSW with now and then great shews of Rain but very little fell.
14. Calm, and great appearances of Rain again, but scarce any fell in this Neighbourhood.
15. Clear in the forenoon and exceeding Hot with Clouds in the Afternoon but no Rain here.
16. Wind fresh from the Northwest & Cool, tho the Sun was very hot.
17. Very cool in the Morning & clear all day with the Wind Northerly.
18. Cool & clear all day. Wind in the same place.
19. Cool & Clear all day. Wind Northerly.
20. Evening & Morning very Cool Midday warmer--quite clear.
21. Quite clear with but little Wind & that at No. or No. East. Morning & Evening Cool--warm midday.
22. Much warmer than the preceeding days but little Wind & clear.
23d. Perfectly clear, with very little Wind & warm.
24. No Wind in the forenoon, or but little, & that Southerly. Afternn. Cloudy with a little Rain & pretty high Wind from the No. West.
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25. Clear and tolerably pleast. with but little Wind and that Westerly.
26. Clear and calm Morning. Warm Midday. Wind fresh in the Evening from the Southard with some Rain in the Night--but not much.
27. Morning Cloudy. Afternoon clear with but little Wind.
28. Clear and Cool in the Morning & Evening but warm in the midday with but little Wind.
29. Much such a day as yesterday.
30. Quite clear & pleasant without any Wind. Morning & Evening also Warm.
31. Wind at Southwest, with Clouds and appearance of Rain but none fell.
Remarks & Occurs. in August
August 1st. Began to Sow Wheat in the Neck with Wheat steep'd in Brine & allum.
3. Began to Sow Wheat at the Mill also steepd in Brine with Allum put thereto.
This day began to sow the Brined Wheat at Muddy hole. Before this the Wheat was not steepd in Brine at this place.
Note--The Brine was made by the direction's in the Farmers guide, as the common method practiced by Farmers but our Wheat was steepd only 24 hours instead of 35 which he recommends.
GW is steeping wheat in brine and alum in an attempt to prevent the fungus disease called rust. His "Farmers Guide" is The Farmer's Compleat Guide, through All Articles of His Profession (London, 1760).
5th. Began to Sow Wheat at Doeg Run, Steepd in Brine.
8. Finished Sowing the River Side Cut in the Neck--also the Corn ground at the Mill opposite Mr. Manley's.
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10. Finish'd Sowing all the Corn Ground at the Mill & began to prepare the Fallowd Land there for Sowing.
Also Raised a House at the Mill for the Miller to live In.
The miller's house, a one-story wooden structure about 24 by 16 feet with a small separate kitchen, was conveniently located within 30 yards of the new mill (GW to Robert Lewis & Sons, 1 Feb. 1785, DLC:GW; Lawrence Lewis's insurance policy, 7 April 1803, Vi).
13. Began to Sow Wheat at the Ferry Plantation in the Corner next the Ferry Road by the Pine Tree.
17. Finish'd Sowing Wheat in that Cut next the Gum spring at Muddy hole. [ ] Bushls.
Also the Second Cut in the Neck that next the Crab tree Branch.
20. Con McCarty began to Work on the Chimney of the Millers Ho[use] in the Morning, and [ ] Bond abt. 12 Oclock.
McCarty was employed at GW's mill until sometime in October, receiving £9 2s. 6d. for 36½ days of work (LEDGER A, 343). BOND: probably the last name of a helper, but may be a reference to the practice of bonding brick or stone.
22. Finishd Sowing the Cut of Wheat at the Ferry in which they began.
The Ground now exceeding dry Corn firing very badly & every discouraging appearance of a scarcity of this Article that can be.
31. Finish'd Sowing the third Cut of Wheat in the Neck.
Where & how my time is Spent
Sept. 1st. At home all day. Mr. Burwell here.
2. Went up to Alexandria with Mr. Burwell after an early Dinner. Returnd in the Evening with Mr. Piper.
3. Rid in the Forenoon to the Mill. Mr. Burwell, & Mr. Piper both here.
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4. Mr. Burwell and Mr. Piper both went away after Breakfast. I rid to the Mill.
5. Rid by the Ferry Plantation to the Mill--from thence to Muddy hole & so home to Dinner. In the Afternoon rid to the Mill again.
6. At home all the forenoon. In the Afternoon went to Belvoir with Mrs. Washington & P. Custis, & returnd in the Evening.
7. Rid into the Neck in the Morning early & from thence to the Mill. Mr. Crawford came here in the Aftern.
8. At home all day. Mr. Crawford went away after breakfast.
9. Rid to the Mill--from thence to Doeg Run Qr. & by the River Plantation home.
10. Rid to the Mill in the Forenoon. Mr. Thoms. Triplet dind with me. In the Afternoon set of for Fredericksburg and lodgd at Colo. Harry Lees.
The purpose of this trip was to make final arrangements for Mary Washington, now about 63 years old, to move from the Ferry Farm plantation to a house in Fredericksburg, where she could spend her latter years in comfort, free from the cares of the plantation. GW had previously discussed the matter with her, and in May, at her request and his expense, he had made a down payment of £75 on a house of her choice: a commodious white frame residence on Charles Street near the home of her daughter Betty Lewis (GW to Benjamin Harrison, 21 Mar. 1781, DLC:GW; LEDGER A, 336). Now, in further preparation for his mother's move to town, GW was ready to begin settling her affairs at Ferry Farm and at Little Falls Quarter, a tract of land about two miles farther down the Rappahannock which she had inherited from her father in 1711 (will of Joseph Ball, 25 June 1711, Lancaster County Wills, Book-10, 88, Vi Microfilm).
11th. Reach'd my Mother's to Dinner after Bating at Peyton's.
12. Rid all over the Plantn. at the Ho[me] House, & then went to the Quarter and rid all over that & returnd to Dinner Colo. Lewis & my Brothr. Charles being there. In the Afternoon went over to Fredg.
THE PLANTN. AT THE HO[ME] HOUSE: Ferry Farm. At this time it consisted of about 600 acres of land, and by the terms of Augustine Washington's will, it was legally GW's to do with what he wished ( Va. Gaz., R, 5 Nov. 1772).
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THE QUARTER: the plantation at Little Falls, which apparently contained about 400 acres. During this visit GW agreed to take over the quarter at the beginning of 1772, paying his mother an annual rent for it thereafter. Because the livestock and slaves at both Ferry Farm and the quarter were hers, he further agreed to buy her livestock and to rent her slaves. The price of the livestock and the rents for the land and slaves were to be determined within the next few weeks by Fielding Lewis and Charles Washington (GW to Benjamin Harrison, 21 Mar. 1781, DLC:GW; Mary Washington's account with GW, 14 Sept. 1771--30 Mar. 1775, PHi; Gratz Collection).
13. Returnd to my Mothers to Breakfast and Surveyd the Fields before Dinner, returnd to Town afterwards.
The survey covered about half of Ferry Farm, extending from the top of the Rappahannock riverbank, where the main house stood, several hundred yards northeast to a fence along a cornfield. GW apparently never platted this survey, but a plat based on his survey notes was drawn in 1932 for GW ATLAS (pl. 9).
14. Rid with Colo. Lewis to his Mill before Dinner. After it went over to my Mother's & stayd all Night.
GW today advanced his mother £4 12s. 6d. on the money that he was to pay her under their agreement (Mary Washington's account with GW, 14 Sept. 1771--30 Mar. 1775, PHi: Gratz Collection). The exact amount he owed her was not set until 15 Oct., when Fielding Lewis and Charles Washington finished evaluating her property. GW, they determined, was to pay £93 11s. 8d. for her livestock, £30 a year rent for the Little Falls Quarter, and £92 for a year's hire of her slaves: six men and four women, half of whom were at Ferry Farm and half at Little Falls ("Sundrys belonging to Mrs. Mary Washington valued by Chas. Washington & Fielding Lewis," 15 Oct. 1771, ViMtV).
15. Set of home. Din'd in Dumfries and got up by Sun set.
16. Rid by the Ferry Plantation to the Mill. Lund Washington returnd from Dr. Craiks this Eveng.
17. Rid to the Mill--from thence to Doeg Run, and Muddy hole before Dinner. After Dinner Rid into the Neck.
18. Went up to Court. Dind at Arrells and Lodgd at Mr. Jno. Wests.
The court met 16--19 Sept.; GW attended only the last two days (Fairfax County Order Book for 1770--72, 274--93, Vi Microfilm).
Richard Arell's tavern in Alexandria was frequently patronized by GW on his visits to the town between 1764 and 1774 and had apparently been the scene of his election ball on 1 Dec. 1768 (LEDGER A, 178, 281; LEDGER B, 80;
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Mr. and Mrs. Richard Arell, in a portrait by John Hesselius before 1775. (Mr. and Mrs. Elias Edmonds Gray IV)
Va. Gaz., P, 27 June 1777). Arell (variously spelled) had come to Alexandria from Pennsylvania with his wife, Eleanor, sometime before July 1762 and had been a merchant prior to becoming an innkeeper (BROCKETT, 96; deed of George Mason to Arell, 20--21 July 1762, Fairfax County Deeds, Book E-1, 102--4, Vi Microfilm).
19. Went to Court again. Dind at Arrells & come home in the Afternoon. Found young Mr. Wormely here.
Ralph Wormeley (1744--1806) of Rosegill, Middlesex County, was the eldest son of Ralph Wormeley (1715--1790) of Rosegill. Young Wormeley had been educated in England at Eton and Cambridge University and earlier this year had been appointed to the governor's council in Williamsburg (VA. EXEC. JLS., 6:412).
20. Went with Mr. Wormeley to Belvoir on a Morngs. Visit, & returnd to Dinr.
21. Set out with Mr. Wormeley for the Annapolis Races. Dind at Mr. Willm. Digges's & lodgd at Mr. Ignatis Digges's.
The fall racing at Annapolis was an annual highlight of both the sporting and social seasons for the Chesapeake gentry, being an occasion not only for
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indulging in "the pleasures of the turf" but for going to dinners, balls, and plays in the city (EDDIS, XXV--XXVi, 54--55). Sponsored by the prestigious Annapolis Jockey Club, the races attracted the finest thoroughbreds in the region to run for purses of up to 100 guineas. This year the jockey club had announced four days of racing to begin at 11:00 A. M. each day from 24 to 27 Sept. and three balls to be held on the nights of 24, 25, and 27 Sept. ( Md. Gaz., 12 Sept. 1771).
22. Dind at Mr. Sam Gallaway's & lodged with Mr. Boucher in Annapolis.
Galloway belonged to the Annapolis Jockey Club, and on 24 Sept. he would race his horse Selim, for which he had paid £1,000 as a yearling in 1760 ( Md. Gaz., 26 Sept. 1771).
Jonathan Boucher and Jacky Custis were living in the St. Anne's Parish parsonage on Hanover Street. Jacky had written to GW on 18 Aug., extending an invitation on behalf of Boucher to stay at his house, as it would be "almost impossible to get a Room at any of the ordinaries, the Rooms being preengaged to their [regular] customers" (DLC:GW).
23. Dined with Mr. Loyd Dulany & Spent the Evening at the Coffee Ho[use].
Lloyd Dulany (1742--1782), son of Daniel Dulany the elder and his third wife, Henrietta Maria Dulany, had recently returned to Annapolis after studying law at the Inns of Court in London. About this time he built a handsome brick house on Conduit Street that reportedly cost him £10,000 (LAND, 294, 296--97).
The Coffeehouse, a popular tavern run by a Mrs. Howard, was on Main (now Church) Street near the State House ( Md. Gaz., 12 Sept. 177; RILEY [2]).
Sir Robert Eden, governor of Maryland. From a photograph of a painting, artist unknown. (Maryland Historical Society)
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24. Dined with the Govr. and went to the Play & Ball afterwards.
GW probably attended the races before dinner on this and the following three days. The track adjoined the town on the west, and because of the beautiful autumn weather "there was a prodigious concourse of spectators and considerable sums were depending on the contest of each day" (EDDIS, 54). Gov. Robert Eden's home stood on a small peninsula extending into the Severn River.
The play was performed by the American Company of Comedians, which had begun a run in town on 9 Sept., when a new theater was opened on West Street near St. Anne's Church (EDDIS, 55). The balls were held at the Assembly House on Duke of Gloucester Street. There was a room for dancing in the front of the building, and in a chamber at the back gentlemen gathered to play cards and to drink wine (STEVENS [1], 111). GW recorded losing £13 4s. 3d. "By cards--[at] different times" (LEDGER A, 344).
25. Dined at Doctr. Stewards and went to the Play and Ball afterwards.
Dr. George Steuart (d. 1784) was a member of the Maryland council and one of the two judges of the proprietary land office who issued land warrants and decided land disputes. A Scotsman, he had been educated at the University of Edinburgh and had immigrated to America in 1721. His wife was Ann Digges Steuart, sister of William Digges of Warburton (COKE, 358--59; RICHARDSON [2], 2;225--26).
26. Dined at Mr. Ridouts and went to the Play after it.
John Ridout (1732--1797), another member of the council, lived on Duke of Gloucester Street. He was born in England and after studying for six years at Oxford came to Maryland in 1753 as a secretary to Gov. Horatio Sharpe (NORRIS [2], 106--7).
27. Dined at Mr. Carrolls and went to the Ball.
Charles Carroll of Annapolis lived in a comfortable brick mansion on Spa Creek. His son Charles Carroll of Carrollton also resided there, and GW probably saw both of them on this occasion (ROWLAND [1], 1:93--94).
28. Dined at Mr. Bouchers and went from thence to the Play and afterwards to the Coffee Ho[use].
29. Dined with Majr. Jenifer and Suppd at Danl. Dulany Esqrs.
Daniel Dulany the younger (1722--1797), son of Daniel Dulany the elder and his second wife, Rebecca Smith Dulany (c.1696--1737), was one of the most important men in Maryland at this time, being both a councillor and secretary of the colony. Even his antagonist Charles Carroll of Annapolis admitted in 1765 that "He is a man of Great Parts, of Generall Knowledge
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Daniel Dulany the younger, an Annapolis attorney and secretary of Maryland. (Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Dulany Randolph)
Rebecca Tasker Dulany, wife of Daniel Dulany the younger. (Mrs. N. Holmes Morison)
indisputably the best Lawer on this Continent, a very entertaining Companion when he pleases" (Charles Carroll of Annapolis to Charles Carroll of Carrollton, 17 April 1761, CARROLL, 10:342--43).
30. Left Annapolis, & Dind and suppd with Mr. Saml. Gallaway.
Acct. of the Weather in Septr.
Septr. 1. Wind fresh from the Eastward. Afternoon Cloudy & Night Raining.
2. Ground now for the first time since the Rains abt. the 25th. July Wet. Very warm and but little Wind.
3. A Breeze from the Northwest but very sultry notwithstanding--quite clear.
4. Still warm & clear--Wind Southerly.
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5. Warm and clear with but little Wind & that Southerly. The Afternoon Showery with some thunder.
6. Misting more or less all day & somewhat Cool, what Wind there was being westerly.
7. Very Cloudy in the Morning and raining more or less all day--fine Rain--Wind being about No. East.
8. Cloudy all day but clear in the Evening with but little Wind but Cool notwithstanding.
9. Clear and pleasand, rather warm with little Wind.
10. Warm, with appearances of Rain but none fell here.
11. Cool Wind fresh from No. West. Afternoon Warmer--Weathr. Clear.
12. Clear and Warmer. Wind Southerly.
13. Very warm with but little Wind and that Southerly. Clear.
14. Very Cloudy & cool. Wind Northerly but not much of it.
15. Cloudy all day, & cool with the Wind Easterly. In the Afternoon and Night Rain.
16. Raining very close & constant till about 10 Oclock--then clear & calm.
17. Clear & pleasant all day, Wind Westerly, but neither fresh nor cool.
18. Clear but cool, very cold wind fresh from the No. West.
19. A small frost, but to do no Injury Weather still cool and clear, but not so cold.
20. Clear and pleasant, weather much warmer.
21. Clear and warm with very little Wind.
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22. Much such a day as yesterday.
23. Very pleasant with but little Wind & that Southerly.
24. Warm, clear, and pleasant with but little alteration in the Weather.
25th. The Weather the same as has been for 3 or 4 days last past.
26. Very Warm but clear with very little Wind.
27. Clear and pleasant with the Wind Southerly and warm.
28. Very warm with but little Wind & that Southerly wt. Clouds.
29. Wind fresh from the Northwest and very cool.
30. Still cool & clear--Wind Shifting South Westerly.
Remarks & Occs. in Septr.
Septr. 4. The Mason's began to work on the Mill Walls.
Finish'd Sowing the Cut of Corn round the Creek at the Ferry Plantn.
Permanent repairs apparently were being made because of damages that had occurred earlier in the year. The workmen were Michael Clark, Benjamin Mason, Thomas Tayler, William Bacon, and possibly Con McCarty. Clark, Mason, and Tayler were paid 16 Nov., receiving a total of £19 12s. 6d., while Bacon received £15 15s. nine days later (LEDGER A, 343, 345, 347).
10. Began to Plaister the Millers House.
12. Agreed with one William Powell to look after my Mothers Quarter on Rappahannock, on the following Terms; to wit--to continue the five hands now on the Plantation, & either to add one more horse to those which are there (amounting to four) or put two good ones there, and take away two of the most indifferent. To allow him 365 lbs. of Porke, the Milk of a Cow, and the Seventh part of all the Corn, Tobo., and Wheat he can make--In consideration of which he is to stay constantly on the Plantn. with
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his People furnish himself with bed and other necessaries & to keep no Horse or other Creature [of his own] on the Plantation.
The William Powell whom GW is engaging here as overseer of the Little Falls Quarter may be William Powell (d. 1796), son of the Dumfries merchant William Powell (C.1700--1787). Young Powell later became a lieutenant in the Continental Army and settled in Amherst County (LUCAS, 319--20; BURGESS, 3:1438--39).
GW must have chosen the option of putting two good horses at the quarter, because on 8 Nov. 1771, while at Eltham, he bought four horses costing a total of £30 "for Rappahannock," two of them evidently to go to Little Falls and two to Ferry Farm (LEDGER A. 345).
13. Agreed with Edwd. Jones to continue overseer at the place my Mother lives at [Ferry Farm] who is also to be constant in his attendance on the People he looks after (five in number) for which he is to be allowd the Seventh of Corn Wheat & Tobo. He also is to have two Horses added to those two he already has.
Where & how my time is Spent
Octr. [1]. Dined at Upper Marlborough & reachd home in the Afternoon. Mr. Wormley--Mr. Fitzhugh, Mr. Randolph, Mr. Burwell, & Jack Custis came with me. Found Mr. Pendleton here.
Upper Marlboro was a small tobacco town on the western branch of the Patuxent River in Prince George's County, Md., about halfway between Annapolis and Mount Vernon. In 1775 it was described by a visitor as "a very pleasant" place, "containing about a Dozen very neat houses & 3 or 4 stores" (HONYMAN, 4).
Atty. Gen. John Randolph of Williamsburg and Edmund Pendleton (1721--1803) of Caroline County were retained by GW about this time to act with James Mercer of Fredericksburg as attorneys for the Custis estate in a suit that was apparently to be heard in the General Court at Williamsburg between 10 and 15 Oct. The case involved an old claim against the family for payment of a substantial sum of money allegedly owed to descendants of an illegitimate daughter of Daniel Parke (1669--1710), Jacky and Patsy Custis's great-grandfather. That dispute, which had been going on for more than 50 years, would continue for at least a few more years, but the plaintiffs would never obtain a final judgment in their favor (LEDGER A, 345; FREEMAN, 2:281--91, 298--301, 3:225--27, 282, 335).
John Randolph had attended the races in Annapolis with his daughters, traveling there on board the armed schooner Magdalen ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 17 Sept. 1771).
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2. Mr. Pendleton went away after Breakfast. The other Gentlemen Stayd all day.
3. The Gentlemen went away after Breakfast & I rid by the Ferry Plantation to the Mill. Doctr. Rumney dind & lodgd here.
4. Rid to the Mill--Doeg Run, & Muddy hole. Captn. Oliffe dind here, and Mr. Robt. Rutherford Sup'd.
John Oliffe of Norfolk was a sea captain who sailed frequently from Virginia to the West Indies and the British Isles. He married Mrs. Anne Knight at Norfolk in 1769 (LOWER NORFOLK, 4:61).
5. Went a hunting with Jacky Custis but found nothing. Came home by the Mill. Mr. Rutherford went away after breakfast & Captn. Oliffe dind here.
6. At home all day. Captn. McCarty & wife Mr. Piper Captn. Oliffe & Polly Brazier dind here. The 3 first Went away after Dinner.
7. Rid by the Ferry Plantation to the Mill Captn. Oliffe & Polly Brazier here.
8. Went a hunting in the Neck and Catchd a Dog fox. Then went to the Plantn. there & came home to Dinr.
9. At home in the Afternoon. Rid to the Mill in the forenoon.
10. At home all day. Captn. Crawford came here in the Afternoon.
William Crawford had surveyed the lands between the Great and Little Kanawha rivers for the Virginia Regiment, and he was now bringing in his rough field notes from which finished drafts were to be made with GW's help (Crawford to GW, 2 Aug. 1771, DLC:GW). When the two men completed that task several days later, there were 10 surveys covering 61,796 acres, less than a third of the 200,000 acres that, according to the order of the council, had to be included in 20 surveys (VA. EXEC. JLS., 6:438--39). But Crawford reported that few of the tracts could be much "enlarged with rich Land" because the countryside was "generally so Craggy, Steep, and Rocky" that fertile farming areas could be found only in isolated narrow strips along the rivers and creeks (Crawford's surveys, nos. 2--10, dated June 1771, are in DLC:GW; a copy of his first survey, dated June 1771, is at the University of Pittsburgh). Besides the surveys for the Virginia Regiment, Crawford apparently brought GW a personal survey for a 515-acre tract on the Ohio near
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Captina Creek (survey, 20 June 1771, DLC:GW) and one for some land about 16 miles from Fort Pitt (Crawford to GW, 2 Aug. 1771, DLC:GW).
11. Still at home all day Plotting & Measuring the Surveys which Captn. Crawford made for the Officers & Soldiers.
12. At home on the same business. Doctr. Craik came in the Afternoon.
13. About the same business. Mr. John West came to Dinner.
14. Ditto--Ditto. Doctr. Craik went away after Breakfast & Mrs. Barnes came. Mr. Manley dind here & Val. Crawford came sick at Night.
Harrison Manley apparently came to Mount Vernon today to ask GW to handle some personal business for him in Williamsburg, where GW was soon to go. GW agreed, undertaking to obtain copies of some legal documents that Manley wanted and to take a sum of money for him to the treasurer of the colony (GW to Manley, 13 Nov. 1771, DLC:GW).
15. At home about this Work. Doctr. Rumney came in the Afternoon.
16. Ditto--Ditto. Mr. West & Doctr. Rumney went away after Dinner.
17. Rid to the Ferry Plantn. & Mill after Breakfast. Captn. Crawford went to Doctr. Craiks after Dinner.
18. Went into the Neck & run some Lines there. Captn. Crawford came in the Afternoon.
19. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run & Mill.
20. At home all day. Mr. James Adam dined here.
James Adam brought GW £41 6d. cash, part payment from Robert Adam & Co. for the flour that GW had sold the firm earlier in the year (LEDGER A, 345).
21. Rid to the Mill. Mr. Ross dind here.
Hector Ross brought another £100 from Robert Adam & Co. in payment for flour (LEDGER A, 345).
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22. Rid to the Mill again. Captn. Crawford & his Brothr. returnd home. Mr. Jno. Smith of westmoreld. came in the Aftern.
Before William Crawford left Mount Vernon, GW paid him £41 14s. 4d. on account of the officers and soldiers of the Virginia Regiment and, on his own account, "5 half Joes," gold Portuguese coins worth a total of £11 10s. Virginia currency (LEDGER A, 345).
John Smith of Cabin Point was returning to Frederick County to obtain permission from the magistrates there to inoculate Samuel Washington and his family, but he died before he could do so. GW later wrote Samuel it was fortunate that Smith had not begun inoculating, "for I was morally sure he could not live to carry you through it. . . . What a madman must he have been to quit his house and friends in pursuit of so vain a shadow? To persist in it to the last argues something of insanity" (6 Dec. 1771, excerpt, Parke-Bernet Galleries Catalogue, 11 June 1941, Item 578).
23. After dinner set of for Williamsburg and lodgd at Mr. Lawson's. Left Mr. Smith & Mrs. Barnes at Mt. Vn.
GW was going to Williamsburg to give the council a list of 81 members of the Virginia Regiment who had presented him with claims under the Proclamation of 2754 and to petition the councillors to devise a system for distributing the 200,000 acres among the claimants (VA. EXEC. JLS., 6:438--39).
24. Reachd my Mothers to dinner, & lodgd afterwards at Colo. Lewis's.
25. At my Mothers all day having lost my Horses. Spent the Eveng. at Weedons.
26. At Colo. Lewis's all day--Mr. Wormely & others dining there.
27. Continued on to Williamsburg having found my Horses. Dined at Caroline Ct. House & lodgd at Hubbards.
28. Breakfasted at Todds bridge, dind at Ruffins, and lodgd at Colo. Bassetts.
29. Reach'd Williamsburg before Dinner. And went to the Play in the Afternoon.
About four weeks before GW arrived in town, Christiana Campbell had moved again, this time to Waller Street behind the Capitol, and in a newspaper advertisement she had announced that "I shall reserve Rooms for the Gentlemen who formerly lodged with me" ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 3 Oct. 1771). But for the first time in ten years, GW did not stay with her. He chose, instead, to lodge with John Carter, a well-established merchant who ran a general
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This sketch of George Weedon was made in 1791 by John Trumbull. (Yale University Art Gallery, gift of Mrs. Winchester Bennett)
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John Murray, fourth earl of Dunmore and the last colonial governor of Virginia. (Mrs. Charles Murray)
store next door to the Raleigh Tavern and who at this time lived in a house directly across the street from the Raleigh ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 6 Feb. 1772). Carter had not advertised rooms for rent, but he, like several merchants and craftsmen in town, was apparently supplementing his income by lodging visitors in his house during public times (GIBBS, 133).
The play was performed by the American Company of Comedians, which had again returned to Williamsburg from Annapolis (RANKIN, 164).
30. Dined at the Speakers and went to the Play in the Afternoon.
31. Dined at the Governors & went to the Play.
John Murray, earl of Dunmore (1732--1809), successor to Lord Botetourt as governor of Virginia, had taken his oath of office before the council 25 Sept. 1771 (VA. EXEC. JLS., 6:430--31). A Scottish peer, he had sat in Parliament for several years and for 11 months before coming to Virginia had been governor of New York.
Acct. of the Weather in October.
Octr. 1st. The Weather clear & pleasant with very little Wind.
2. Clear and pleasant, with but little Wind.
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3. Very pleasant forenoon with some Appearances of Rain in the Afternoon.
4. Cloudy forenoon, & now and then Misting--turning Cool.
5. Great Fog & Dew with but little [wind] & that Northerly & Cold.
6. Clear and pleasant not being so cool as yesterday. Wind what little there was of it abt. East.
7. Clear in the forenoon and Warm but cloudy afternoon & very like for Rain with the Wind at So. Wt.
8. Cloudy forenoon and rainy Afternoon with the Wind Southerly.
9. Clear and pleasant till Night then Rain.
10. Raining more or less all day & part of the Night.
11. Clear and Cool.
12. Much such weather as yesterday.
13. Clear and pleasant with but little Wind.
14th. Clear in the forenoon with the Wind Southerly but Cloudy afterwards & Rain.
15. Raining almost all Night & till the Afternoon of this day.
16. Clear with the Wind fresh from the Westward.
17. Clear and Calm in the forenoon a little Windy afterwards but very pleasant notwithstandg.
18. Warm and pleasant with but little Wind.
19. Clear in the forenoon, but lowering afterwards with Rain in the Evening and all Night.
20. Cloudy all day and sometimes Misting with the Wind what little there was at No. East.
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21. Clear, warm, and pleasant with very little Wind.
22. Clear & very Warm with but little Wind and that Southerly.
23. Lowering Morning with Rain then clear & Cool Wind fresh from the North West.
24. Clear and Cool in the forenoon but Warm afterwards.
25. Clear and pleasant forenoon but lowering afterwards.
26. Clear and Warm with but little Wind and that Southerly.
27. Clear and very warm. Wind Southerly.
28. Clear in the forenoon with slight Rains afterwards & a change of Wind which turnd the Air Cool.
29. Clear and Cool Wind being at Northwest, and fresh.
30. Warmer--Wind getting Southerly again. Clear in the forenoon.
31. Very warm, but clear and pleasant notwithstanding.
Where & how my time is Spent
Novr. 1st. Dined at Mrs. Dawson's. Went to the Fireworks in the Afternoon and to the Play at Night.
2. Dined with the Council and Spent the Evening in my own Room a writing.
GW is probably preparing his petition to the council on behalf of the Virginia Regiment. In it he asked not only that individual allotments be made but that the limit of 20 surveys be removed, each claimant being permitted to survey his own portion of land and the 61,796 acres already surveyed by Crawford being divided only among the claimants who had shared the expense. Such an arrangement, he thought, would have several benefits. By being surveyed in many small plats, the full 200,000 acres could be covered "without taking in so many Mountains and barren Hills as would render the intended Bounty, rather a Charge" (VA. EXEC. JLS., 6:438--39).
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"Every man would stand on his own bottom," and a few would not be obliged to bear the whole cost of the initial surveying, "whilst the Major part are standing aloof waiting the Event; if favorable to come in for part of the Prize but to pay nothing for the Ticket in case of a Blank." Claimants would also be spared being "doubly Taxed," not having to pay for both a share of the 20 surveys and an individual survey within one of the 20. In short, GW believed his petition to be "so reasonable, & so consistent with every principle of common justice . . . that . . . it could not possibly be rejected" (GW to George Mercer, 7 Nov. 1771, DLC:GW).
3. Dined at Anderson's and Supped at Mrs. Dawson's.
4. Dined with the Council and went to the play afterwards.
Governor Dunmore today presented GW's petition to the council. The councillors promptly decided to continue the limit of 20 surveys but postponed further action on the petition until 6 Nov. (VA. EXEC. JLS., 6:438--39).
5. Dined at the Treasurers, and Spent the Evening in my own Room.
6. Dined at Mrs. Dawsons and Spent the Evening at Mrs. Campbells.
On this date GW and James Mercer appeared before the council to argue in favor of the petition presented two days earlier. After hearing them, the councillors met privately to deliberate matters. They reaffirmed the limit of 20 surveys and then proceeded to allot the 200,000 acres: 400 acres to each of 52 private soldiers who had made claims, 500 acres to each of 4 corporals, 600 acres to each of 7 sergeants, 2,500 acres to each of 2 cadets, 6,000 acres to each of 8 subalterns, 9,000 acres to each of 5 captains, and 15,000 acres to each of 3 field officers, including GW. The remaining 30,000 acres, after being used to satisfy the claims of any more private soldiers who might apply, were to "be divided among those who have hitherto born the whole Expense, & who in all Probability must continue to do so till the full Quantity is surveyed" (VA. EXEC. JLS., 6:438--41). The council's answer to the petition did not please GW. In a letter of 7 Nov. to George Mercer, he accused the councillors of "putting the Soldiery upon a worse footing than the meanest Individual in the Community, rather than be thought to give a License to the pillaging of his Majestys, or the Proprietary Lands" (DLC: GW). Nevertheless, he remained determined to pursue the business regardless of the difficulties and expense involved.
Mrs. Campbell's new tavern on Waller Street was the one that Jane Vobe had kept there until recent months. In August, Mrs. Vobe had sold her furniture, and in September she had announced her intention to leave the colony ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 25 July and 17 Sept. 1771).
7. Left Williamsburg on my return home, dined & lodged at Colo. Bassetts.
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One of Washington's favorite innkeepers, Mrs. Campbell, announces the opening of her new tavern in Purdie and Dixon's Virginia Gazette. (Colonial Williamsburg Photograph)
8. At Colo. Bassetts all day. Colo. Lewis & Mr. Mercer came here.
On the previous day GW had given Fielding Lewis £200 cash with which to pay the balance due for the house and two lots in Fredericksburg where Mary Ball Washington was to live (LEDGER A, 336, 345). The owner of the property, Michael Robinson, of Spotsylvania County, deeded it to GW on 18 Sept. 1772, but Mrs. Washington apparently moved into the house before spring (CROZIER [2], 294; see main entry for 11 April 1772). Although GW paid the full purchase price of £275 and retained the title to the property, he charged his mother nothing to live there for the nearly 18 years remaining of her life.
9. Set out in Company with those Gentlemen. Dined at Todds bridge and lodgd at Hubbards.
10. Dined at Doctr. Todds and reachd Fredericksburg at Night.
George Todd (1711--1790), a physician, operated a tavern from 1750 to 1781 on the stage road in Caroline County at the site of present-day Villboro, Va. (CAMPBELL [1], 411--12, 450). William Todd's ordinary at Todd's Bridge, where GW stopped much more frequently, was about 38 miles south of Dr. Todd's place (see entry for 21 April 1760).
11. Got home about Dark. And found Mr. Warner Washington his Wife and Child--Mrs. Bushrod & Katy & Nancy Washington--Sally & Nancy Carlyle & Sally Fairfax & Polly Brazier here.
Anne Washington (d. 1777), known as Nancy, was Katy (Catherine) Washington's sister and a niece of Mrs. Bushrod. Reputedly an amiable and attractive young lady, Nancy married Thomas Peyton of Gloucester County in May 1776 and died eight months later ( Va. Gaz., D&H, 25 May 1776 and 17 Jan. 1777). Sally Cary Fairfax (b. 1760), eldest child of Bryan Fairfax,
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visited her aunt and uncle at Belvoir about this time. She died unmarried between 1777 and 1779 (FAIRFAX, 213).
12. At home all day with the above.
13. Rid to the Ferry Plantation Mill, Doeg Run and Muddy hole.
14. Rid to the Mill with the Ladies & back again. Mr. Lawson came in the Afternoon.
15. Rid to the Ferry Plantation after breakfast Mr. Warnr. Washington his wife & Child, Re the two Miss Carlyles--Polly Brazier & Mr. Lawson went away.
16. Went a hunting but found nothing.
17. Went to Dinner at Belvoir with Mrs. Bushrod, Mrs. Washington, the two Miss Washington's, & Patcy Custis. Returnd in the Afternn.
18. Went up to Court. Dined at Arrells & lodged at Mr. John Wests. Sent my Horses home.
The court met 18--21 Nov. GW's name does not appear in the court records for this day, but he was officially present on 19 and 20 Nov. (Fairfax County Order Book for 1770--72, 303--23, Vi Microfilm).
19. Dined at Arrells and lodgd at my own House. Supped at Arrells also.
20. Dined at Arrells. Came home in the Afternoon Mr. Magowan with me. Found Mr. Washington his Wife &ca. here as also John Custis.
21. At home all day. Mr. Danl. Jenifer dined & lodgd here.
Daniel Jenifer (1727--1795) was the son of Dr. Daniel Jenifer of Port Tobacco, Md., and brother of Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer.
22. At home again. Mr. Jenefir went away after breakfast as Mr. Washington &ca. did yesterday.
23. At home all day. Mr. Magowan went away before Dinner. Mr. Campbell came to Dinnr. & Doctr. Craik in the afternoon.
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Matthew Campbell probably brought the £60 cash that GW recorded receiving from Robert Adam & Co. on this date (LEDGER A, 341, 347).
24. Doctr. Craik & Mr. Campbell both went away after breakfast.
25. Went a hunting in the Morning with Jacky Custis. Returnd about 12 Oclock & found Colo. Fairfax & Lady here--Mrs. Fanny Ballendine & her Nieces--Miss Sally Fairfax & Mr. R. Adam Mr. Jas. Adam & Mr. Anthy. Ramsay all of whom went away in the Afternoon when Miss Scott came.
Frances Ewell Ballendine was John Ballendine's wife, and the nieces accompanying her are probably daughters of one or more of her brothers: Charles and Bertrand Ewell of Prince William County and Solomon Ewell of Lancaster County (HAYDEN, 334--38). Catherine Scott (b. 1741) was a daughter of Rev. James Scott (d. 1782), rector of Dettingen Parish, Prince William County, and Sarah Brown Scott, a cousin of George Mason of Gunston Hall.
26. Rid to Muddy hole, Doeg Run, Mill and Ferry before dinner.
27. Set off before Sunrise with John Custis for Colo. Masons and went a driving [deer] in his Neck after breakfast--2 deer killed.
28. Went a driving again with Colo. Mason--killed nothing.
29. Went to the Vestry at Pohick Church & reachd home in the Evening. Found Mr. Johnson here.
The Truro Parish vestry today set the parish levy for the year--70 pounds of tobacco per tithable--and appointed various parish officials (Truro Vestry Book, 150--52, DLC).
Dr. John Johnson was continuing to treat Patsy Custis for her epilepsy. He may have been at Mount Vernon earlier in the month also, because on 12 Nov., GW recorded paying him £14 in Maryland currency for his services (LEDGER A, 345). Although Patsy still had not improved in any way under the care of Dr. Johnson, the Washingtons continued to consult him about her health for several more months (Johnson to Martha Washington, 21 Mar. 1772; HAMILTON [1], 4:119, n.2).
30. Went a hunting in the Neck with Mr. Peake--found & killed a Fox. Mr. Johnson still here.
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Acct. of the Weather in Novr.
Novr. 1st. Warm and pleasant--Wind being Southerly.
2. Very warm in the forenoon & clear, Cloudy afterwards & a good deal of Rain in the Night.
3. Clear and Cool, wind being fresh from the Northwest.
4. Clear & pleasant not being so cool as yesterday. Wind however in the same place.
5. Wind pretty fresh from the Northwest and Cold again.
6. Less Cool than the day before but the Wind in the same place.
7. Cloudy & very threatning Wind at No. East in the Afternoon with Rain most part of the Night.
8. Wind Still Eastwardly with Rain more or less all day. In the Afternoon close hard rain & brisk Wind.
9. Clear and Cold. Wind fresh from the Northwest.
10. Clear and pleasant with but little Wind.
11. Very pleasant and clear with the Wind what little there was of it Southerly.
12. Very warm, clear and pleasant. Towards Night a little lowering.
13. Very warm & pleasant with but little Wind.
14. Clear, warm, and calm in the forenoon. The Afternoon lowering with a very brisk Wind from the Southward.
15. A good deal of Rain fell last Night. The Wind being very high from the Southward. The day cool with the Wind fresh from the Westward.
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16. Clear Morning and Evening, but Cloudy Midday. Wind pretty fresh from the Southwest and at Night from the Northwest.
17. Clear, Calm, and pleasant being tolerably warm.
18. Clear and pleasant but a little Cooler.
19. Cloudy with the Wind very fresh from the South West. About One Oclock a violent squal of Wind & Rain--clear afterwards.
20. Clear and Cool Wind Northerly and pretty fresh.
21. Clear and Cool Wind being again fresh from the Northwest.
22. Cool and Cloudy, with appearances of Snow but none fell.
23. Lowering Morning, but clear and pleasant afterwards with the wind Southerly.
24. Clear & remarkably pleasant with but little Wind and that Southerly.
25. Exceeding pleasant, being quite clear and Calm.
26. Pleasant forenoon, but cloudy afternoon with high Wind & Rain from the Southwest in the Night.
27. Clear, with the Wind fresh from the Northwest.
28. Wind very fresh from the same point with squally Clouds.
29. Cloudy & very like for Snow but none fell.
30. Very Cloudy with some rain but tolerably pleasant afterwards.
Remarks & Occs. in Novr.
Novr. 11th. Returnd home from Williamsburg.
20. Began to Plant Cuttings of the Winter Grape in the Inclosure below the Garden.
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30. Left of Planting the ground being two hard froze having planted [ ] Rows beginning to reckon from the side next the Spring.
Where & how my time is Spent
Decr. 1st. At home all day. Mr. Johnson still here. Doctr. Rumney came to Dinner & stayd all Night.
2. Rid to the River Plantation and the Mill. Mr. Johnson went away after breakfast as Did Mr. Rumney.
3. Rid to Muddy hole, and into the Neck. Mr. Val. Crawford came this aftern.
4. Went up to the Election & the Ball I had given at Alexa. Mr. Crawford & Jno. P. Custis with me. Stayd all Night.
On 12 Oct. 1771 Governor Dunmore had dissolved the General Assembly, which necessitated new elections to the House of Burgesses (H.B.J., 1770--72, 145). GW and Col. John West were again chosen to represent Fairfax County. GW's election expenses included £4 7s. &d. to tavern keeper John Lomax (d. 1787) of Alexandria for "getting a Supper" at the ball, £4 1s. 9d. to William Shaw, also of Alexandria, for "Sundries &ca. for the Election Ball & his own Trouble," 12s. to Harry Piper for his slave Charles playing the fiddle, and £1 9s. 8d. to a Mr. Young for cakes (LEDGER A, 347; LEDGER B, 50).
5. Came home in the Afternoon and found Miss Mason & Miss Scott who came the day before here.
Miss Mason is probably Ann Eilbeck Mason (1755--1814), eldest daughter of George Mason of Gunston Hall.
6. At home alone all day. In the afternoon Mr. Phil. Pendleton came.
The purpose of Pendleton's visit was to get the contract for the land that GW had agreed to sell him on 6 June. GW signed it on the following day, witnessed by Lund Washington, Valentine Crawford, and Jacky Custis (CctMMCH).
7. Went a fox hunting with the above two &ca. Killed a Fox and dined with Doctr. Alexander.
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George Dent Alexander had recently attended the College of Philadelphia where he had apparently studied in the college's new medical school but had not qualified for a bachelor or doctor of medicine degree. Despite young Alexander's local family connections, GW did not employ him as a physician, preferring Dr. Rumney's services (GW to John Armstrong, 20 Mar. 1770, from Rokeby Collections, Barrytown, Dutchess County, N.Y., courtesy of Richard Aldrich and others; CARSON [3], 67--75). During the Revolution, Alexander was a surgeon in Col. William Grayson's Additional Continental Regiment, serving from Feb. 1777 until his death in Philadelphia in Jan. 1780 (BURGESS, 1:133--36).
8. After breakfast Mr. Pendleton & Mr. Crawford went away as Miss Mason & Miss Scott did yesterday.
9. Went to meet Govr. Eden at Mr. Willm. Digges's where we dined. In the Afternoon the Govr. Mr. Calvert, Majr. Fleming Mr. Boucher, Mr. Geo. Digges and Doctr. Digges came over with me.
Benedict Calvert (C.1724--1788), an illegitimate son of Charles Calvert, fifth Baron Baltimore (1699--1751), lived at Mount Airy (later called Dower House) in Prince George's County, Md., near present-day Rosaryville. Born in England, he was known in his early years as Benedict Swingate, but Lord Baltimore, while refusing to identify Benedict's mother, acknowledged him as his son and provided well for him. Benedict took the Calvert name and at the age of 18 went to Maryland, where in 1745 he was appointed collector of customs at Patuxent and in the following year became a member of the provincial council. In 1748 he married a distant relation, Elizabeth Calvert (1730--1798), daughter of the Charles Calvert who was governor of Maryland 1720--27 (NICKLIN [2], 58, 313--14; W.P.A. [2], 464--65).
Maj. William Fleming of the British army, currently acting commander of the 64th Regiment of Foot stationed at Halifax, Nova Scotia, was visiting the southern provinces for his health. He apparently returned north early the next summer when his regiment was moved to a post near Boston (Thomas Gage to William W. Barrington, 6 Jan. 1769, GAGE PAPERS, 2:493--94; DAVIES, 1:304).
Dr. Joseph Digges, son of William Digges and younger brother of George Digges, had studied at the University of Edinburgh but had not received a degree. During the Revolution he was surgeon to the Charles County, Md., militia 1777--78. In Oct. 1778 the Maryland state council gave him permission to go to Bermuda to recover his health, which had been bad "for some time past" (MD. ARCHIVES, 21:222). He was apparently taken prisoner by the British during the trip; on 1 Nov. 1779, he wrote GW from Teneriffe in the Canary Islands that he had been paroled but had not heard of his being exchanged, "from whence I conclude, that the Family at Warburton either believe me Dead, or have neglected writing me" (DLC:GW). Digges died at Teneriffe a short time later (RAMSBURGH, 131).
10. The above Gentlemen dined here as did Colo. Fairfax who went away in the Afternoon.
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11. The Govr. and all the Compy. dined at Colo. Fairfaxs & returnd in the Afternoon.
12. The foregoing Gentlemen still here.
13. The Governor, and other Gentlemen cross'd over to Mr. Digges on their return home. I dined with them there & came back in the Aftern.
14. Went a fox hunting with John Parke Custis Lund Washington & Mr. Manley--killed a Fox.
15. At home all day alone, in the Evening the same.
16. At home all day. In the Evening Mr. Adam Mr. Belmain, Mr. Campbell & Price Posey came here.
Robert Adam was about to make a voyage to Great Britain, and GW recently had given him several "little Commission's to execute" there (GW to Robert Cary & Co., 22 Nov. 1771, DLC:GW). Adam was to have a gun repaired for GW and was to buy a gold-headed cane with the Washington arms engraved on it, 400 or 500 bookplates also engraved with the Washington arms, and for Jacky, a white agate stone set in a gold socket and engraved with the Custis arms. Also, GW had instructed Adam to try to buy the bounty land rights of two former Virginia Regiment officers who had gone to Britain after the war and, if the opportunity occurred, to engage "a good Kitchen
Washington's familiar bookplate. (Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union)
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Gardner" for Mount Vernon. Adam apparently sailed for London a week later aboard his and Thomas Adam's new ship Martha (see main entry for 14 Mar. 1771; GW to Robert Gary & Co., 8 Jan. 1772, DLC:GW).
MR. BELMAIN: probably William Balmain (d. 1784), the Alexandria merchant.
17. Mr. Belmain went away after Breakfast--the others after Dinner.
18. Went to Doeg Run & carried the Dogs with me who found & run a Deer to the Water.
19. Rid to the Ferry Plantation, Mill, & Muddy hole.
20. Rid into the Neck.
21. Went a hunting in the Neck with Mr. Peake & Mr. Wm. & Thos. Triplet the first two of whom dind with me. Found nothing.
22. Raining in the Night and most part of this day being tolerably warm. With but little Wind and that Southerly. At home all day alone.
23. At home all day writing and alone.
24. At home all day and writing as yesterday. Alone.
25. Went to Pohick Church with Mrs. Washington and returnd to Dinner.
26. Went a hunting in the Neck early. Killd a Fox and dined with several others at Mr. Peake's.
27. Went a hunting again in the Neck found a Fox and lost it. Dined with others at Mr. Thos. Triplets.
28. Hunted again in the Neck and killed a Fox. Dined at home with the following Person's--the two Mr. Triplets--Mr. Manley, Mr. Peake, young Frans. Adam's and one Stone Street--also Peakes Daughter & Miss Fanny Eldridge.
Francis Adams (1749--1811), only child of Abednego and Mary Peake Adams, inherited Mount Gilead from his father. Humphrey Peake's daughter is probably Ann (Nancy), who later married Francis Adams.
ONE STONE STREET: Humphrey Peake's wife, Mary Stonestreet Peake, had
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three half brothers living in Maryland: Henry, Richard, and Butler Edelen Stonestreet.
FANNY ELDRIDGE: possibly Mary Peake's niece, Frances Edelen, daughter of Richard and Sarah Stonestreet Edelen of Prince George's County, Md. She was now about 16 years old and apparently a favorite of Humphrey Peake; in his will he bequeathed her a good horse with a saddle and bridle (codicil to will of Humphrey Peake, 10 Sept. 1783 and 11 Nov. 1784, Fairfax County Wills, Book E-1, 91--98, Vi Microfilm; will of Richard Edelen, 17 Jan. 1791, Prince George's County, Md., Wills, No. 1, T, 300, MdAA Microfilm; BRUMBAUGH, 1:59).
29. At home all day. The two girls above mentioned here.
30. Went a hunting again with the former Compa. but found nothing. Dined at Mr. Wm. Triplets. Miss Peake &ca. went home.
31. Went up to Alexandria at the request of Messrs. Montgomerie Wilson and Steward, to settle with them along with Mr. John (as Exr. of Colo. Thoms. Colvil) for the Maryland Tract of Land which they had Purchasd of Mr. Semple. Staid all Night.
John Semple, plagued by many debts and unable to pay off the purchase bond for the Merryland tract that he had bought from Thomas Colvill, had assigned his rights to the land to three merchants: Thomas Montgomerie and Cumberland Wilson of Dumfries and Adam Stewart of Georgetown, Md. The Colvill executors--Frances Colvill, John West, Jr., and GW--had been empowered by the Maryland General Assembly on 23 Nov. 1771 to deed the Merryland tract to Semple, his heirs, or his assignees, provided that the balance due on the original contract was paid by 20 April 1773. If it were not paid, the executors could sell the land at public auction to the highest bidder (MD ARCHIVES, 63:293--95). The purpose of the meetings on this and subsequent days was to determine exactly what balance was owed for Merryland and to arrange for payment of it by the merchants (see "Remarks" entry for 1 and 4 Jan. 1772).
MR. JOHN: either John West, Jr., or John Semple.
Acct. of the Weather in Decr.
Decr. 1st. The Wind exceeding hard from the Northwest, very cold.
2. Wind variable with Clouds, and at the sametime cold.
3. The most variable Weather imaginable--sometimes sunshine sometimes snowing--sometimes calm & sometimes the wind very high from the South--the North & Northwest where it contd. all Night.
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4. Wind at Northwest and very cold, with great appearances of Snow, a little of which fell in the Night.
5. Morning Snowy with the Wind hard from the No. West & cold. Afternoon clear & not so Cold.
6. Cold & Cloudy with appearances of Snow. Wind variable & in the Afternoon Calm.
7. Morning Calm, and tolerably pleasant, with great appearances of Snow abt. Noon. Afternoon clear, Calm, & pleast, agn.
8. Clear and cool threatning bad weather but none fell. Wind North.
9. Clear and tolerably pleasant being Calm.
10. Mild, soft and giving with very little or no Wind.
11. Soft Morning but cloudy & lowering afterwards with the [wind] Westerly & something cooler.
12. Rain in the Night, and this Morning, but clear warm and pleasant afterwards with but little Wind.
13. Clear, calm, & pleasant Morning, Wind Southwest & West afterwards and something cooler.
14. Cool, and more or less Cloudy all day. About Noon it snowd fast--then cleard away and was a tolerable Evening.
15. Clear, calm, and pleasant till the Evening then lowering.
16. Clear Calm and pleasant with but little Wind.
17. Very Calm, & tolerable pleast.
18. Very white frost. Calm & lowering.
19. Wind Northerly & cold with Hail & Rain the first part of the day & constant Rain Afterwds.
20. Clear and very pleasant all day with little or no Wind.
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21. Very white frost. Calm and quite pleasant in the forenoon but lowering afterwards with Rain in the Night.
22d. Raining in the Night, and most part of this day. At the sametime warm with but little Wind and that at So. West.
23. The Wind Shifting to Northwest in the Night, blew very hard & cold as it was all this day the ground being very hard froze.
24. Exceeding hard & frozen with the Wind still high and Cold from the Northwest.
25. Very raw and Cold with the Wind Northerly.
26. Clear and Calm morning and tolerable pleasant day.
27. Clear and calm in the Morning and a remarkable white frost. Evening very lowering.
28. Raining all the latter part of the Night. The first of the day Cloudy & threatning but the Evening clear and pleasant.
29. Remarkable clear, calm, & pleasant.
30. Calm, and tolerably pleasant but lowering especially in the Morning.
31. Not as pleasant though Cooler Wind getting Northerly.
Remarks & Occurances
Decr. 16. Finished planting the Grape Cuttings in the Inclosure below the Garden. The first 29 Rows of which Reckoning from the side next the Spring are the winter Grape the other five are the Summer grape of tolerable good taste and ripening in October.
17. Killed my Porke and distributed the Overseers their Shares.
18. Agreed to raise Christophr. Shades Wages to £20 pr. Ann.
Shade worked at this rate until 25 Dec. 1773, when his salary was reduced to £18 a year. GW today advanced Shade £4 cash on his wages (LEDGER A, 331; LEDGER B, 39).
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Where & how my time is Spent
Jany. 1st. Upon the same business this day as brought me to Alexandria yesterday. Came home in the Afternoon and found Mr. Ramsay and his daughter here.
2. At home all day. Mr. Montgomerie Mr. Piper and Mr. Harrison came to dinner & staid all Night.
These gentlemen came to try to resolve the continuing problem of the annuities that Margaret Savage was supposed to receive from her husband, Dr. William Savage (see main entries for 22 Sept. 1769 and 17 April 1770). Harry Piper had replaced Thomas Montgomerie as Mrs. Savage's legal representative in June 1771, but during the previous April her trustees, GW and Bryan Fairfax, had been obliged to settle with Montgomerie for her annuities through 1771, allowing him to receive the money on her behalf. Mr. Piper and the others were now faced with the task of forcing Montgomerie to relinquish those annuities, which he, who was also agent for Dr. Savage, had not sent her. At the same time they had to demand payment of this year's annuity from him (GW to Margaret Savage, 5 Sept. 1771 and 20 Sept. 1772, DLC:GW). When no satisfactory settlement was reached during the next Jew days, GW and Fairfax directed Robert Hanson Harrison to bring suit against Dr. Savage. Before the end of the month, GW advanced £53 sterling to Mrs. Savage, who was now living apart from her husband in Dublin and was much in want of funds (GW to Margaret Savage, 27 Jan. 1772, DLC:GW).
3. Still at home with the above Gentlemen. In the afternoon Mr. & Miss Ramsay returnd to Alexandria and Mr. B. Fairfax came.
4. Went a Hunting with the above Gentlemen. Found both a Bear & Fox but got neither. Went up to Alexandria with these Gentlemen to finish the business with Montgomerie &ca. which was accordg. done.
5. Returnd home. Mr. Fairfax came with me. A Mr. Willis, & a Rhode Island Captn. dind here. The two latter went away afterwards.
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Francis Willis, jr. (1745--1828), son of John Willis (1719--1769) of Brunswick County, apparently lived in Leesburg at this time (Willis to GW, 16 Aug. 1773 and 17 Oct. 1773, ViMtV). He later moved to Berkeley County and eventually settled in Georgia (see "Remarks" entry for 5 Jan. 1772).
The Rhode Island captain was probably John Howland, master of the sloop Nelly of Nantucket, which entered the Potomac River in late Dec. 1771 from Rhode Island with a cargo of British goods, loaf sugar, chocolate, iron and wood ware, and 2,500 pounds of cheese (P.R.O., C.O.5/1350, f. 107).
6. Went a Hunting in the Neck with Mr. Fairfax. Found a fox & run him into a hole near Night, without Killing him. Found Doctr. Rumney & Mr. Magowan here when we returnd.
7. The above Gentlemen continued here all day and Night. Mr. Fairfax & myself rid to my Mill before Dinner.
8th. At home all day. Mr. Fairfax and Doctr. Rumney went away after Breakfast.
9. Mr. Magowan left this after breakfast for Colchester. I rid to the Ferry Doeg Run & Muddy hole & found Mrs. French & Daughter here when I returnd.
Penelope Manley French, sister of Harrison Manley and widow of Daniel French, was still residing with her only child, Elizabeth, at her late husband's home, Rose Hill. Although Mrs. French lived at least until 1799, she never remarried and apparently remained at Rose Hill until her death (will of Daniel French, 20 May 1771, Fairfax County Wills, Book C-1, 134--36, Vi Microfilm; GW to Benjamin T. Dulany, 12 Sept. 1799, NN).
Bryan Fairfax, after a miniature by an unknown artist. (Mrs. Charles Baird, Jr.)
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10. Mrs. French & Daughter went away before Dinner. I went to the Ferry Plantn. to run some lines for my fencing &ca.
11. Went a Hunting in the Neck. Found a fox about One Clock and killed it about 3 Oclock. Mr. Magowan returnd from Colchester to Dinner.
12. At home all day. Mr. Magowan went to Mr. Peakes to Dinner & returnd again at Night.
13. Went again to the Ferry Plantation to run some lines for my Fencing. Mr. Magowan went to Mr. T. Triplets to Dinner and returnd.
14. Went to Belvoir with Mrs. Washington, Miss Custis & Mr. Gowan [Magowan] dind and stayed all Night.
15. Dined at Belvoir this day also, and returnd with Mr. Magowan In the Evening.
16. Went to Run some Lines between Mr. Barry & me at the Mill--also to try some of the Lines of Mr. Jno. Wests Land.
17. Went into the Neck to remeasure the Creek field and lay of some Fences. Upon my return to Dinner found one Mr. Hanna here who stayd all Night.
Mr. Hanna is Francis Hanna of Prince William County (DLC: Toner Collection).
18. Mr. Hanna went away after Breakfast as Mr. Magowan also did. I went a Hunting & killd a Fox--was joind by Mr. M. Campbell--Mr. Manley & Mr. Peake who dined here & went away afterwds.
19. At home all day. In the Afternoon Majr. Wagener and Mr. John Barnes with Doctr. Craik came here.
John Barnes, eldest son of Abraham Barnes (d. 1777) of St: Mary's County, Md., had recently gone bankrupt as a tobacco merchant in Port Tobacco, Md. After settling his firm's affairs, he moved to western Maryland, where he eventually developed a prosperous plantation called Montpelier (COPELAND, 110, 160--61).
20. After Breakfast the Majr. went away for Court and Messrs. Lawe. & Jno. Washington with Mrs. Polly Washington came here.
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Polly Washington is probably Miss Mary Townshend Washington (see main entry for 10 April 1770).
21. Mr. Barnes and Doctr. Craik went away after Breakfast. The other two Gentlemen & myself rid to my Mill and back before Dinr.
22. At home all day with the two Mr. Washington's.
23. Went up to George Town to convey Deeds to Messrs. Montgomerie Stewart & Wilson for the Marryland Tract of Land wch. was accordingly done Mrs. Colvil being carried up in my Chariot returnd to Mr. Jno. Wests at Night.
As arranged at previous meetings, the three merchants today gave the Colvill executors £816 13s. 7d. in bills of exchange drawn on Glasgow firms (see "Remarks" entry for 1 and 4 Jan. 1772). GW received the bills on behalf of the executors and later this year converted them to Virginia currency (LEDGER B, 21). Although the Merryland tract was not formally deeded to the merchants until this date, they had begun to advertise in the Maryland Gazette on 16 Jan. that they would offer it for sale to the public on 28 May "in separate Lots or all together, for Sterling or Current Money." Merryland was eventually sold to several purchasers. However, money was still being collected from the merchants in Nov. 1790, and their obligations to the Colvill estate were not fully discharged until May 1795 (Thomas Montgomerie to GW, 17 Nov. 1790, DLC:GW; LEDGER C, 16).
24. Went from Mr. Wests to Alexanda. and returnd home to Dinner. In the Afternoon Mr. John Byrd and a Mr. Drew came here.
Mr. John Byrd is probably John Carter Byrd (b. 1751), second son of Col. William Byrd III and his first wife, Elizabeth Hill Carter Byrd. Mr. Drew is William or Dolphin Drew, both of whom settled in the Shenandoah Valley. William was appointed clerk of the county court when Berkeley County was organized in 1772 and served in that post until 1785. Dolphin, possibly a brother, practiced as an attorney in Berkeley County from 1772 (NORRIS [1], 224, 235, 295).
25. These Gentlemen went away after breakfast. I contd. at home all day.
26. At home all day alone that is with the Family.
27. At home by ourselves the day being dreadfully bad.
28. Just such a day as the former & at home alone.
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29. With much difficulty rid as far as the Mill the Snow being up to the breast of a Tall Horse everywhere.
30. At home all day it being almost impracticable to get out.
31. Still at home for the Causes above.
Acct. of the Weather in Jany.
Jan. 1st. Lowering with the Wind Westwardly. In the Afternoon it threatned Snow much and at Night began to Rain which contd. till near day.
2. Clear and pleasant with but little Wind and that Southerly.
3. Very pleasant forenoon but lowering afterwards with the Wind fresh from the Southward.
4. A little Rain fell last Night. The Morning calm, and Mild with Clouds; but the Afternoon cold with the Wind hard at No. West.
5. Clear and cool, with the Wind still at No. West; but neither hard nor cold--tho' the Ground was very close blockd up with frost.
6. Ground hard froze and Morning lowering without Wind. About 12 Oclock it began to Snow & continued to do so the remainder of the day very fast.
7. Soft and giving with very little Wind & no Sun. Snow about 3 Inches deep.
8. Clear, tolerably pleasant & thawing with but little Wind & that Northerly.
9. Very pleasant Mild Morning, & Clear day. Abt. Noon the Wind blew pretty fresh from the Westward but not Cold--Snow melting.
10th. Ground froze in the Morning. Till 8 or 9 Oclock it was clear & very pleasant--then cloudy & lowering till abt. two after
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which it grew clear & very pleast. No wind all day. Snow melted in the Fields.
11. Lowering Morning, and very Cloudy Afternoon, with but little Wind and that from the Northward. Ground froze in the Morning but thawd afterwards.
12. Snow fell in the Night and was about an Inch deep this Morning. Misty all day and thawing there being no frost, nor no Wind.
13. Cloudy forenoon but, tolerably Clear afterwards without any frost. Wind Westwardly but neither Cold nor hard.
14. Ground froze in the Morning, and thawd in the Afternoon. Wind fresh in the forenoon from the So. West but still afterwds. Clear.
15. Clear and very pleasant, with but little Wind, and that Easterly. Ground froze in the Morning & thawd afterwards.
16. Cloudy Morning with the wind pretty fresh from the Westward--clear afternoon. The Ground froze but not hard in the Morning. Thawd Afterwards.
17. Very hard frost in the Morng. Ground pretty well thawd in the Evening; which was pleasant--the Morning being cool, the Wind Southerly.
18. Cloudy in the forenoon, with a little Wind from the Southward; clear, Calm & pleasant afterwards. The Ground froze in the Morng. but thawd afterwards.
19. Soft and giving Morning without any Wind. The Afternoon Raining with but little wind which contd. through the Night.
20. No frost, but Cloudy all the forenoon with the wind fresh & Cold from the No. West.
21. Ground hard froze. Weather clear and very pleasant without any Wind.
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22. A White Frost and ground froze a little. Day a little lowering but very pleasant notwithstanding with the Wind Southerly.
23. Soft Morning and a White frost. Weather exceeding pleasant as it continued to be through the day without Wind & clear Sky.
24. Ground Open and Morning Foggy and Warm, with a few drops of rain. Afternoon clear and remarkably pleasant and Calm.
25. Ground frozen but afterwards thawd. Day clear & a little cool wind being at Northwest Eveng. Calm.
26. Raw, Cold, and Cloudy all day with the Wind tho not much of it Northerly.
27. A Snow which began in the Night and was about 5 or 6 Inches deep this Morning kept constantly at it the whole day with the Wind hard & Cold from the Northward.
28. The Same Snow continued all last Night and all this day with equal violence the Wind being very cold and hard from the Northward--drifting the Snow into high banks.
29. Fine pleasant Morning without any Wind--but before 11 Oclock it clouded up & threatned Snow all the remaining part of the day--being full 3 feet deep every where already.
30. Snowd all Night, with a brisk Wind from the Northward. The day cloudy and Misty--now & then Raining till the Afternoon when it grew clear, wind Westerly.
31. For the most part Cloudy and hazy like with but little Wind & that from the Southward. Warm at least not Cold.
For several days GW had been experiencing what one meteorologist has called "the greatest snowstorm in the history of the middle and lower Potomac Valley" (LUDLUM, 144; BETTS [2], 33; FAIRFAX, 213). Deep snows at Williamsburg delayed the convening of the General Assembly, and the Virginia Gazette carried no news from a northern source until 5 Mar.
Remarks & Occurs. in Jany. 72
Jan. 1 & 4. Settling with the Assignees of Mr. John Semple for the Maryland Tract of Land sold him by Colo. Thorns. Colvil &
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fixed the Balle. still due on that Land to £2576.15.2½ [sterling], £1000 of which to be paid upon acknowledgement of Deeds to them at George Town the 23d. Instt. and the Residue in June 1773. An allowance is to be made for any money which it shall appear Mr. Semple has credited Mr. Hough for on Colo. Colvils Acct.
The initial £1,000 to be paid by the three merchants was to cover several protested bills of exchange that John Semple had given in part payment for the Merryland tract. However, sometime before 23 Jan., Semple was credited with £183 6s. 5d. sterling paid in cash to take up part of those bills, and the merchants' initial payment accordingly was reduced to £816 13s. 7d. (LEDGER c, 16). The merchants gave their own bond for the £1,576 15s. 2½d. that was supposed to be paid in June 1773 (GW to John West, Jr., NNebgGW).
5. Told Mr. Willis of Loudoun that he might have my small Tract of Land adjoining Wormeley, Alexander, and others for £250--provided he took it without measuring; but if I run it out, it should be priced at 25/. pr. Acre let it measure more or less. He also wanted the Plantation Kennedy lives on upon Lease, & would give, if he liked the place upon examining of it, £40 pr. Ann. Rent if he had the liberty of Working 25 hands thereon. To this I told him I would give no definitive answer as I was under promise of giving the preference to another but would write him as soon as I could.
David Kennedy (Kennerly) served as ensign and lieutenant in the French and Indian War and was GW's quartermaster in the Virginia Regiment in 1758. After the war he settled in Frederick County, where he became a militia captain and a justice of the peace (CARTMELL, 89, 135). GW leased a plantation on Bullskin Run to Kennedy 1768--73 for £28 a year (LEDGER A, 248; LEDGER B, 22).
8th. Engaged to advance by, or at the April General Court for the use of Mr. Bryan Fairfax £150, or thereabouts, to discharge the Balle. of his Bond to Doctr. Savage. Also promised, if I could, to take up a Bill of Excha. of about £160 Sterg. with Int[eres]t thereon at the same time; In consideration of which I am to have the liberty of taking any of the Tracts of which he has given me a Mem[orandu]m at the prices there Stipulated in case I like them, or either of them upon examination thereof within [ ] Months from this date. If not he is then to become my Debtor for the money I shall advance on these two Accts.
Receivd 563½ Bushels of Oats from Arlington.
GW paid £150 on Bryan Fairfax's account to Dr. William Savage or his agent Thomas Montgomerie at the Fairfax County court, 20 April 1772, but
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did not make good Fairfax's bill of exchange, which had been drawn on the merchant John Muir of Alexandria and was held by John Baynes of Maryland (LEDGER B, 5; Fairfax to GW, 15 July 1772, DLC:GW). Nevertheless, Fairfax was grateful for GW's help in discharging his debt to Savage. "I could not have raised the money without your Assistance," he told GW in a letter dated 3 Aug. 1772 (DLC:GW). GW was compensated for the £150 with a tract of land in Fauquier County, which he chose from Fairfax's holdings there during May of this year (see main entries for 27, 29 May and 25 Sept. 1772).
Arlington plantation in Northampton County on the Eastern Shore of Virginia was part of the Custis lands owned by Jacky Custis (MEADE [1], 1:262--63). GW paid £10 13s. 4d. for freight of these oats (LEDGER B, 3).
Where & how my time is Spent
Feb. 1st. Attempted to ride as far as the Ferry Plantation to wch. there was a Tract broke but found it so tiresome & disagreeable that I turnd back before I got half way.
2. At home all day.
3. At home all day alone.
4. At home all day alone.
5. Went to run a line across from the Ferry Plantation to where My Pasture fence strikes the Creek--also to run and measure the Field I am going to Inclose.
6. Went across the Creek upon the Ice and staked off a fence for the Field on the Creek.
7. Attempted to ride to the Mill, but the Snow was so deep & crusty, even in the Tract that had been made that I chose to Tye my Horse half way & walk there.
8. At Home all day.
9. Ditto--Ditto.
10. Ditto--Ditto.
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11. Went out to make some further discovery of the Lines of West French & Manley & was much fatiegued by the deepness and toughness of the Snow.
John West, Jr., Penelope French, and Harrison Manley owned land between the Mill and Ferry plantations (see map, 1:240).
12. Attempted to ride out again but found the Roads so disagreeable and unpleasant that I turnd back before I got to the Ferry Quarter.
13. Went to the Ferry Plantation to run some Lines there. Returnd before 12 Oclock.
14. Went out with my Compass agn. & run the Courses of Doegs Creek up to my Mill. Also a line or two of the Wades Land.
15. At home all day.
16. Ditto--Ditto.
17. Rid to the Mill Plantation to See a Negro Man Sick of a Pleurisy.
18. Rid to the Mill again on the same business as yesterday.
19. Rid to Muddy hole, Doeg Run & Mill before Dinner.
20. At home all day.
GW today wrote Robert Cary & Co., that he was "impatiently waiting for" the goods that he had ordered during the summer, especially the millstones of which he was much in need (DLC:GW). Unknown to GW, the ship Trimley of London had entered the South Potomac Naval District on the previous day, bringing him and his two stepchildren goods worth £722 17s. 2d. sterling from Cary & Co. On board was a pair of French buhrstones, 4 feet 4 inches in diameter, for which the company had charged him £40 16s. 10d. sterling, including packing and shipping (P.R.O., C.O.5/1350, f.52). All of the goods must have soon arrived at Mount Vernon, and the buhrstones apparently were installed in the mill in time for spring grinding.
21. Rid to the Ferry Plantation and to the Fishing Landing where a few Fish were catchd in the Sein.
22. Rid to the Ferry Plantation & Muddy hole, & returnd to Dinner. Mr. Ramsay & Captn. Conway Dind & lodgd here.
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During this visit GW gave William Ramsay £25, "advanced on acct of your Son William at the Jersey College" (LEDGER B, 47).
23. At home. Mr. Ramsay & Captn. Conway stayd all day.
24. These Gentlemen went away. I rid to the Ferry Plantation and returnd to Dinnr.
25. Set of for Williamsburg but not being able to cross Accatinck (which was much Swelled by the late Rains) I was obliged to return home again.
The first session of the new Virginia General Assembly, after several prorogations, was scheduled to begin on 6 Feb., but did not obtain a quorum until four days later due to the bad weather and poor roads (H.B.J., 1770--72, 145--53).
26. Sett off again and reachd Colchester by nine Oclock where I was detaind all day by high Winds & low tide.
27. Crossd early & breakfasted at Dumfries. Got to Fredericksburg in the Afternoon & lodgd at Colo. Lewis's.
28. Stayd all day in Town with my Brother John &ca. Dined at Colo. Lewis's & Spent the Evening at Captn. Weedon's.
29. Prosecuted my Journey. Dined at Caroline Ct. House & lodged at Todds Bridge.
The Coleman family tavern at Caroline Court House was now operated by Francis Coleman's widow, Hannah Johnston Coleman (CAMPBELL. [1], 413; KING [3], 259).
Acct. of the Weather in Feby.
Feb. 1st. Snow still so deep that there was no passing from one place to another where there was no tract made. Day for the most part clear, tho' the Sky lookd muddy. Weather Mild & wind what little there was Southerly.
2. Perfectly Calm and Mild till the Evening, when their Sprung up a little Wind from the Eastward. A little Snow fell in the Morning, the day cloudy and lowering quite thro'.
3. The Wind which began to rise from the Eastward Yesterday Evening blew very fresh all Night attended with a mixture of
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Hail Rain & Snow which made a Sleet. The same Weather contd. through the day the Wind however Shifting Southerly.
4. The Wind coming on from the No. West & Shifting more Westerly it grew clear and very cold--blowing hard and freezing hard--Rivr, being almost Froze across and the Snow hard enough to bare.
5. Very severe Frost. River quite froze. Morng. clear & not very cold but the Wind coming out at No. West it became very much so. Clear all day.
6. Day clear, and morning very hard frozen--first part warm & pleast. latter cool, wind blowg. fresh from the Southward.
7. Morng. clear, Midday Cloudy & like for Snow but clear afterwards with but little Wind & that Southerly.
8. Cloudy, Soft and thawing with but very little Wind--that Southerly.
9th. Raing. and thawing all Night and till 11 or 12 Oclock this day being foggy & Calm. About 12 the Wind came out hard & cold from the No. Wt. & froze.
10. Clear and Cold--Morning being hard froze with the Wind at No. West. In the Afternoon it got Southerly but still kept cool.
11. A Cold & fresh Southerly Wind blew all day. Clouds for the most part with appearances of falling Weather.
12. Wind & Weather both variable. In the Morning the Wind was Northerly Raw & Cloudy--in the Afternoon Southerly & clear--at least not very Cloudy.
13. Calm and pleasant in the Morning and till the Afternoon when the Weather Clouded and the Wind blowing pretty fresh from the So. and So. Et. grew raw & Cold.
14. Calm Warm and pleasant. Snow Dissolving a good deal.
15. Very variable both in Wind & Weather. In the Morning early it haild fast--then hail & Rain Mixd after that constant Rain
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till abt. Noon then clear Warm & pleasant. Wind in the Morning at No. East--then fresh from the So. Et. & south from thence to South West & died away becomg. quite Calm.
16. The Wind shifting to Northwest abt. 9 Oclock last Night blew hard & grew exceeding Cold as it contd. to be all this day. Wind fresh from the same Quarter.
17. A Cold and Sharp Southerly Wind blowing all day the Snow and Earth thawd but little.
18. Thawing pretty considerably to day Wind continuing at So. and Warm being also clear.
19. Warm and Hazy, with now and then a little Rain. Wind Southerly and thawing fast.
20. Fresh Southerly Wind with some heavy Showers in the forenoon--Snow melting exceedg. fast Ground in the old fields being almost bear.
21. Calm, clear, and very warm in the forenoon. But Cloudy a little in the Afternoon & Wind Easterly.
Jonathan Boucher today wrote GW from Maryland and began with an observation about the weather: "I congratulate You, & the World with Us, on our Restoration to a temperate Zone; for, in Truth, We have had a kind of a Greenland Winter" (DLC:GW).
22. Wind very fresh all the forepart of the day from the Southward Melting all the Snow in the Fields & drying the Ground fast.
23. The latter part of the Night and this Morning raining with Lightning and Thunder. Raing. more or less all day.
24. Raining in the Morning & Cloudy and lowering all day. In the Evening misting which afterwards turnd to Rain a good deal of which fell in the Night.
25. Raining fast the first part of the Morning--afterwds. clear, when the Wind blew violently hard at No. West.
26. Continued blowing violently hard all Night and the whole day through at least till the Evening but not remarkably Cold tho the Wind was at No. Wt.
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27. Calm and exceeding pleast. Ground this Morning and yesterday's pretty hard froze.
28. Very white frost & fresh Southerly Wind with Clouds & now & then a slight sprinkle of Rain. Ground not froze.
29. Wind at No. West and pretty Cool but no frost--also Cloudy till the Evening.
Where & how my time is Spent
Mar. 1st. Reachd Colo. Bassetts from Todds Bridge by 12 Oclock. Stayd there the remainder of the day.
GW crossed the Pamunkey River at Ruffin's ferry (LEDGER B, 3).
2. Set out for Williamsburg and got in about 12 Oclock. Dined at the Speakers and supd at the Treasurers.
Because the House of Burgesses met only briefly this morning, GW probably did not renew his burgess oaths until the next day (H.B.J., 1770--72, 204). This session of the assembly had already met for three weeks and was to continue for another six.
GW lodged with Edward Charlton, whose two-story frame house stood almost directly across Duke of Gloucester Street from the Raleigh Tavern (WILLIAMSBURG, 17). A wigmaker in Williamsburg for many years, Charlton had not advertised himself as a tavern keeper and was apparently renting private rooms in his house only during public times. His brother, Richard Charlton, had operated a regular Williamsburg tavern during the late 1760s, but there is no indication that his tavern was in business at this time (see main entry for 4 May 1768). Edward Charlton's wife, Jane Hunter Charlton, was a milliner who often furnished Mrs. Washington and Patsy Custis with various goods.
3. Dined and Supd at the Governors.
GW today was reappointed to the standing committees of privileges and elections, propositions and grievances, and religion, and was one of a committee of three appointed to review a petition for financial relief from John Robinson, a disabled veteran of the Virginia Regiment (H.B.J., 1770--72, 204).
4. Dined at the Attorneys and Spent the Evening at the Governors.
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In the House of Burgesses today GW reported committee approval of John Robinson's claim; he should be allowed £5 "for his present Relief" plus an annuity of £6 for life. The house promptly agreed to this proposal, and GW was ordered to take the resolution to the council for its concurrence, which it gave on 11 Mar. Later in today's proceedings a petition for relief was received from a second disabled veteran, Philip Hand. A new committee, again including GW, was appointed to consider his claim (H.B.J., 1770--72, 209--10, 234).
5. Dined at Mrs. Dawson's and Spent the Evening in my own Room.
6. Dined and Spent the Evening at the Treasurer's.
7. Took an early Dinner at Mrs. Dawson's and went up to Colo. Bassetts with him in the Afternoon.
8. At Colo. Bassetts all day.
9. Returnd to Williamsburg by 12 Oclock and Dined at the Club at Mrs. Campbells.
10. Dined and Spent the Evening at the Palace.
11. Dined and Spent the Evening at the Club at Mrs. Campbells.
Earlier in this session of the burgesses, the house had ordered its committee on propositions and grievances to prepare a bill empowering two planters to erect gates on public roads that crossed their property to public ferries. Today the committee was further instructed to include GW, Burwell Bassett, and Joseph Cabell in the bill. GW was to be permitted to "Keep a Gate or Gates, on his Land, across the Road leading to Posey's Ferry, on Potowmack River," while Bassett was to be allowed the same privilege on the road to the Brick House ferry on York River and Cabell on the road to his ferry on the James (H.B.J., 1770--72, 198, 235).
12. Dined at the Club and went to the Play.
The play was presented by David Douglass's American Company, which came to Williamsburg for the spring season, from the convening of the General Assembly in early February through the April session of the General Court (RANKIN, 165).
13. Dined at the Club and Spent the Evening at Southalls.
The House of Burgesses today referred a bill for docking the entail on some land owned by John Hancock of Princess Anne County to a special committee of five members, of which GW was one (H.B.J., 1770--72, 241--42).
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14. Dined at the Club & Spent the Evening there also.
15. Dined at the Speakers & Spent the Evening at my own lodgings.
16. Dined at the Club, & spent the Evening there also.
17. Dined at the Club and went to the Play in the Afternoon.
18. Dined at the Club and Spent the Evening at the Burgesses Ball in the Capitol.
On this day the burgesses received a petition from several "Inhabitants and Freeholders of the County of Frederick," requesting passage of an act for improving "the Navigation of the River Potowmack from Tide-Water to Fort Cumberland." Such improvement, the petitioners argued, "would be productive of great Advantage, not only to those who are settled upon the adjacent Lands, but to the whole Colony, by introducing a most extensive Trade." Financing could be obtained from any of three sources: public tax money, private venture capital, or public subscription of private capital. According to usual procedure, the petition was referred for study to the committee on propositions and grievances. Other business before the house today included a report from the committee on John Hancock's bill that the bill's allegations were true (H.B.J., 1770--72, 252--53).
The burgesses' ball was briefly noted the following day in Purdie and Dixon's Virginia Gazette: "Last Night there was a Ball and elegant Entertainment at the Capitol, given by the gentlemen of the Honourable the House of Burgesses to his Excellency the Governour and the People of Rank in this City."
19. Dined at Mrs. Dawsons & went to the Play in the Evening.
20. Dined at Mrs. Amblers and Spent the Evening at Southalls.
Mary Cary Ambler had a town house in Williamsburg, where GW apparently dined with her on this day, but her principal residence was at her plantation about seven miles away on Jamestown Island.
21. Dined at the Club & Spent the Evening there also.
The burgesses today passed an act to divide Frederick County into three counties: the northernmost portion to be called Berkeley County, the central portion Frederick County, and the southernmost portion Dunmore County. By this act, which the council approved two days later, GW's Bullskin Run lands became part of Berkeley County (H.B.J., 1770--72, 262, 268; HENING, 8:597--99).
22. Went over to Colo. Warner Lewis's in Gloucester. Dined & Lodged there.
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GW crossed the York River on the ferry running between Yorktown and Gloucester (Tindall's) Point (LEDGER B, 4).
23. Returnd to Williamsburg before 10 Oclock and dined at the Club & Spent the Evening at the same.
24. Dined at the Club & Spent the Evening at Mr. Andersons.
25. Dined at Mr. Lewis Burwells and went to the Play.
26. Dined at the Club and went to the Play.
GW is here attending the local premiere of the "new Comedy . . . A Word to the Wise," by Hugh Kelly 0739--1777). It was received, reported Purdie and Dixon's Virginia Gazette a week later, "with the warmest Marks of Approbation." The newspaper went on to comment: "If the comick Writers would pursue Mr. Kelly's Plan, and present us only with moral Plays, the Stage would become (what it ought to be) a School of Politeness and Virtue."
27. Dined at the Club and Spent the Evening in my own Room.
28. Dined at the Club and Spent the Evening at Mrs. Campbells.
29. Dined at Mrs. Dawsons and Spent the Evening at My Own Lodgings.
30. Dined and Spent the Eveng. at Mrs. Campbells.
In the House of Burgesses today John Hancock's bill was passed (H. R.J., 1770--72, 280, 289).
31. Dined at Mrs. Campbells & spent the Evening there also.
Acct. of the Weather in March
Mar. 1st. Ground pretty hard froze. Morning Calm & pleasant. Cool & Windy afterwards Wind fresh from the Northward.
2. Pretty Cool all day--Wind being abt. No. Et. & Cloudy in the Afternoon.
3. Cloudy & Snowing in the forenoon & raw & cold all day.
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4. Morning clear and tolerably pleasant but raw and Cold in the Afternoon & raining in the Night.
5. Wind blew very fresh and cold from the Northwest.
6. Hard frost and unpleasant with Clouds.
7. Tolerably pleasant--Wind getting Southerly.
8. Clear, Warm, and very pleasant with but little Wind.
9. The Rain which began to fall in the Night continued till abt. 9 Oclock when it ceased & clear away warm.
10. Tolerably pleasant in the Forenoon but lowering & like for Snow in the Afternoon.
11. Cold & raw in the forenoon Snowing in the afternoon.
12. Clear Morning but very hard frost ground being blocked up close. In the Night Snow again.
13. Snow about an Inch deep but soon Melted. The day Clear & cool especially in the Evening.
14. Hard frozen Morning & Cold all day but clear.
15. Very raw and Cold with the Wind Northerly and clear.
16. Wind fresh & raw in the forepart of the day from the So. West--afterwards still & pleasant.
17. Hard frost and very Cold, Wind at No. West again.
18. Lowering Morning, and Snowy day.
19. Cloudy & disagreeable in the Morning. Raining in the Afternoon & Misty Evening.
20. Snow several Inches deep this morning & continued Snowing, & Melting as it fell till 2 or 3 Oclock in the afternoon.
21. Clear & Windy from the No. West & cool for the Season.
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22. Wind very fresh from the same & clear but cold.
23. White Frost but clear till the Afternoon--then lowering a little.
24. Tolerably pleasant & at the same time clear & mild.
25. Raining more or less all the Afternoon. Clear and Cool Wind Northerly.
27. Tolerably pleasant in the Forenoon but raw & cold afterwards.
28. Pleasant forenoon but very Wet & Rainy afterwds.
29. Wind very fresh from the westward with Cool Clouds.
30. Wind from the same Quarter and Cool but clear.
31. Forepart clear but a little Cool--latter part Cloudy & like for Rain.
Where & how my time is Spent
Apl. 1. Dined and Spent the Evening at Mrs. Campbells.
2. Dined and Spent the Evening at Mrs. Campbells.
On this day GW was appointed to a committee of three to consider a proposed amendment to the act regarding deer hunting and the control of hounds. Today also a report was submitted from the committee on Philip Hand's claim to which GW had been appointed on 4 Mar. Hand's petition, the committee found, was reasonable, and the house promptly approved giving him £6 for "his present Relief" and an annuity of £5 for life (H.B.J., 1770--72, 290--91).
3. Dined at Mrs. Campbells and went to the Play--then to Mrs. Campbells again.
On this day GW was appointed to two committees, one to write a Potomac navigation bill and one to amend the colony's flour inspection regulations.
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Some previous thought must have been given to the second matter; a short time later today the flour inspection committee presented a bill to amend the current inspection act (H.B.J., 1770--72, 292--93). Designed "to prevent frauds, which may be committed by millers, bakers, and others, employed" in Virginia's growing flour export trade, this bill, as passed a week later, placed several new restrictions on mill owners. All flour for export must be "genuine and unmixed with any other grain, and . . . all of the same fineness, and faithfully packed in good casks, made of seasoned timber, and, when delivered, well and securely nailed." The casks were to be branded with the first letter of the mill owner's Christian name and his full surname or with the name of his mill and conveyed with an invoice "to the place of exportation" in a vehicle or vessel "sufficiently covered and secured from the weather." There the contents of each cask were to be examined by an official inspector, and if they were "found to be good and merchantable," he was to "stamp or brand" the cask's head with a "V" for Virginia, the first letter of county's name, his own name, and the quantity and grade of the flour (HENING, 8:143--44, 511--14).
Other business before the burgesses today included a favorable report on the deer-hunting amendment by the committee to which it had been referred and passage of the bill allowing GW and others to erect gates on public roads leading to ferries. The gate bill, however, was not approved by the council and it did not become law (H.S.J., 1770--72, 293--94, 298).
4. Took a Cold dinner at Mr. Southalls & came up to Eltham in the Afternoon.
5. Went to see Mrs. Dandridge betwn. Breakfast and Dinner.
6. Returnd to Williamsburg. Dined at Mrs. Campbells--went to the Concert & then to Mrs. Campbells again.
Today Thomson Mason, burgess for Stafford County, presented the Potomac navigation bill to the house on behalf of the committee. The bill, which authorized a public subscription to finance the project, was received, read, and ordered to be engrossed for final action (H.B.J., 1770--72, 297; HENING, 8:570--79). Later this day the burgesses passed a public road act which included a provision authorizing the county courts of Fairfax, Loudoun, Berkeley, and Frederick to impose special levies on their inhabitants for the next three years, to finance repair of the public roads leading from Alexandria and Colchester to the Shenandoah Valley. These roads, it was noted in the act, had been "rendered almost impassible" by "the great number of waggons which use the same," and the normal method of maintaining them entirely by local laboring tithables had proved to be "insufficient" (H.B.J., 1770--72, 299; HENING, 8:549--51).
7. Dined at Mrs. Campbells and went to the Play then to Mrs. Campbells again.
On this day the burgesses referred the flour inspection bill for further work to four of the six members on the committee that had prepared it. GW was one of the four (H.B.J., 1770--72, 302).
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Washington pays a bill owed to Mrs. Christiana Campbell for service at her tavern. (Colonial Williamsburg Photograph)
8. Dined at Mrs. Campbells and Spent the Evening at my lodgings.
GW today paid Jane Charlton £1 12s. 3d. for goods supplied Patsy Custis and Mrs. Washington and £11 for his "Board . . . since the 1st. of March" (LEDGER B, 4).
In the House of Burgesses today three bills in which GW had some interest were passed and sent to the council: the deer-hunting bill, the Potomac navigation bill, and a bill to improve Alexandria's wharf and marshy lots. All three were soon approved by the councillors (H.B.J., 1770--72, 304--5, 310--13).
9. Took an early Dinner at Southalls and set of for Eltham on my return home.
Also on this day the flour inspection bill was reported with several amendments from its committee. The amendments were promptly accepted by the house, and on the following day the bill was passed by the burgesses and approved by the council (H.B.J., 1770--72, 311, 313).
GW left Williamsburg two days before Governor Dunmore prorogued the General Assembly (H.B.J., 1770--72, 317). Before GW left, he finished paying his personal accounts in town: £5 12s. 6d. for various play tickets for himself and others during his stay, £2 12s. 6d. for his and his servant's expenses at the Raleigh Tavern, and 5s. to a blacksmith for shoeing his horses. He also received from Jane Charlton, acting on behalf of her husband Edward, £240 Virginia currency for a £200 sterling bill of exchange GW had held as a Colvill executor since 23 Jan. Earlier in his stay he had converted two other bills of exchange for the Colvill estate at the same rate but through another merchant (LEDGER B, 4, 5).
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10. With Colo. Bassett & Lady & there 3 daughters set of for Mount Vernon. Dined at Todds Bridge and lodged at Hubbards.
Two of the Bassett daughters, Elizabeth and Anna Maria, had visited Mount Vernon with their parents three years earlier. The third, and youngest, daughter, Frances Bassett (b. 1767), later married George Augustine Washington, eldest son of GW's brother Charles.
GW again crossed the Pamunkey River at Ruffin's ferry (LEDGER B, 5).
11. Breakfasted at Hubbards and dined at Colo. Lewis's in Fredericksburg where Colo. Bassett &ca. lodged. I lodged at my Mothers.
During this stay in Fredericksburg, GW left £8 cash with his mother for his brother Charles, who was to use the money to buy corn for Ferry Farm. On the following day GW recorded paying is. 6d. for "ferriages at Hunters," indicating that he did not cross the Rappahannock River until then and that his mother was no longer at Ferry Farm but was ensconced in the house on Charles Street (LEDGER B, 5, 48).
12. Dined in Dumfries and reachd home in the Afternoon where I found Mrs. Barnes, Miss Carlyle, Miss Alexander Miss Hunter, Colo. Carlyle & Son & Daughter Nancy.
Miss Alexander is probably Mary Ann Alexander, daughter of Gerard and Mary Dent Alexander. The Alexanders' other daughter, Nancy, was by this time married to Fielding Lewis, Jr. (will of Gerard Alexander, 9 Aug. 1760, Fairfax County Wills, Book B-1, 327--29, Vi Microfilm).
John Carlyle's only son was George William Carlyle (1765--1781). During the Revolution he was a cadet in Lee's Legion and was killed at the Battle of Eutaw Springs in 1781.
13. All the above went away but Mrs. Barnes & Miss Hunter. About 12 Oclock Colo. Bassett & Family arrived.
14. At home all day.
15. Walk'd to the Fishing Landing at Poseys between breakfast & dinner with Colo. Bassett.
16. At home all day.
17. Rid with Colo. Bassett to my Mill from thence to Poseys & home to Dinner.
18. Walkd with Colo. Bassett to the Fishing Landing at the Ferry between Breakfast & Dinner. Captn. Posey dined here. J. P. Custis came here.
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Jacky Custis was returning from Jonathan Boucher's new home, Mount Lubentia, in Prince George's County, Md. Boucher had moved there from Annapolis the previous December to become rector of Queen Anne Parish, taking three of his students with him: Jacky, Overton Carr of Louisa County, Va., and Charles Calvert (1756--1777), son of Benedict Calvert of Mount Airy. Mount Lubentia was rented from the Magruder family of Maryland, a fact that inspired Boucher's students to dub it "Castle Magruder" (BOUCHER [1], 75; W.P.A. [ 2 ], 474--75).
19. At home all day. Mr. Campbell dined here.
20. Went up to Court, Colo. Bassett & Jno. Custis with me. Returnd in the Afternoon--Mr. Tilghman & Mr. Hanson with us.
The April court met only this day (Fairfax County Order Book for 1772--74, 25--26, Vi Microfilm). While GW was in Alexandria, he clubbed at Arell's tavern (LEDGER B, 5).
James Tilghman, Jr. (1748--1796), was the third son of James Tilghman (1716--1793), who moved from Talbot County, Md., in the 1760s to practice law in Philadelphia. James Jr. was living in Alexandria at this time, but later settled in Talbot County, Md., where he practiced law (see JOHNSTON [1], 369, 374; TILGHMAN [2], 1:8).
Mr. Hanson is probably young Samuel Hanson or his brother Thomas Hawkins Hanson, sons of Samuel Hanson of Green Hill, Charles County, Md.
21. Walkd to the Fishery at Poseys between Breakfast & dinnr. Mrs. Fairfax dined here & returnd in the Afternoon.
22. Rid to the Mill and Fishery with the Ladies & Gentlemen. Mr. Tilghman & Mr. Hanson went away.
23. Dined at Belvoir with Colo. Bassett & Lady & Daughter, Mrs. Washington & Patcy. Returnd in the Evening. J. P. Custis dind also.
24. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run and Mill with Colo. Bassett before Dinner. Mr. Mitchell & Mr. Ball who came yesterday went away.
Mr. Ball may be Burgess Ball of Lancaster County, Va., and Mr. Mitchell one of Ball's second cousins: William, Robert, or Richard Mitchell (HAYDEN, 62, 111--12).
25. Went a Hunting with Colo. Bassett. Found nothing.
26. Colo. Bassett & Mrs. Bassett, Mrs. Washington & Self went to Pohick Church & returnd to Dinr.
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27. At home all day writing to send to Williamsburg by Colo. Bassett.
Bassett was to settle several financial matters for GW in the Williamsburg area (GW Memorandum, 27 April 1772, NjMoNP).
28. Colo. Bassett & Family set of home. I rid to the Mill and Fishing Landing at the Ferry.
29. Rid to the Mill and Fishing Landing again. Doctr. Rumney dined here.
30. Went to the Fishing Landing at the Ferry again.
GW today lent £2 10s. to John Posey, who was "going to Maryl[an]d" (LEDGER A, 256).
Acct. of the Weather in April
Apl. 1. Raw, Cold, & Cloudy Morning. Close and constant Rain afterwards.
2. Raining a kind of fine Rain more or less all day with the wind at East--cold & disagreeable.
3. Cloudy, Cold, & unpleasant all day. Wind Northerly.
4. Wind still in the same quarter. Cloudy & equally disagreeable with now and then a Sprinkle of Rain.
5. Clear, Calm, and tolerably pleasant but not very warm.
6. Rain Early this Morning and Cloudy till about 12 Oclock then clear and tolerably pleasant.
7. Clear and tolerably pleast, in the Forenoon. In the afternn. appearances of Rain and Wind Easterly.
8. Tolerably pleasant in the Morning but before 11 Oclock began to Rain and raind more or less all day--with thunder & lightning in the Evening.
9. Very Cold and very Windy from the Northwest with flying Clouds & sometimes a sprinkle of Rain.
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10. A little Cool and Windy from the westward but tolerably pleasant notwithstanding.
11. Warm, Calm, & pleasant in the forenoon, brisk wind from the Southward with Clouds & some Rain in the Afternoon.
12. Clear and Cool wind being Northerly.
13. Clear and Warm in the forenoon--but very windy in the Afternoon.
14. Clear but Cool with the Wind high from the Westward.
15. Clear, Calm, & Warm in the Forenoon, but Cloudy afterwds. with the Wind variable.
16. Lowering and Misting all day with but little Wind & Warm in the forenoon but Cooler afterwds. with the Wind Easterly.
17. Clear, & Cool in the forenoon wind at Northwest--Warmer afterwards.
18. Clear and tolerably pleasant with but little in the forenoon--lowering afterwards.
19. Raining more or less all day with the Wind at East.
20. Clear but the Wind very hard at No. West and Cold.
21. Tolerably pleasant and Moderately warm with but little Wind and that Southerly.
22. Calm and Warm in the Morning. Wind very fresh from the Southwest in the Afternoon.
23. Quite calm and pleast, but a little cool.
24. Very cool with squaly Clouds & Snow with wind from the Northwest.
25. Cool, and Calm in the Morning but windy afterwards from the Northwest.
26. Clear Calm and Warm.
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27. Tolerably warm and pleasant but a little windy from the Southwest.
28. Clear and Calm, and very Warm.
29. Clear, Calm and very warm again.
30. Not quite so warm as yesterday but pleasant, clear & Calm--very smoky.
Where & how my time is Spent
May 1st. Went a Hunting with Mr. Jno. Custis. Found nothing. Returnd to Dinner.
2. At home all day. Mr. Foxcraft Mr. Hoops and Mr. Ramsay came here to Dinner and stayd all Night.
Two of GW's visitors were from the postal service. After 1764 British America was divided between a southern postal district, from the Carolinas to the West Indies, and a northern postal district, from Virginia to Canada. John Foxcroft, who shared direction of the northern postal district with Benjamin Franklin, was in direct charge of that district 1764--74 while Franklin was in England. John's brother Thomas Foxcroft became postmaster of Philadelphia in 1766. This Mr. Foxcroft was probably John, who often traveled to Virginia on postal business. William Ramsay was postmaster at Alexandria at this time (see HARRISON [4]; KONWISER; SMITH [1]; LABAREE [3]).
Mr. Hoops was David Hoops, probably traveling from his home in Philadelphia to Hanover County where a married sister lived (GLAZEBROOK, 2:xiii). He was a son of Adam Hoops (1709--1771), of Philadelphia, with whom GW had dealt when he was a commissary for the British troops during the 1758 campaign against Fort Duquesne (GW to John Forbes, 30 Dec. 1758, DLC:GW).
3. Mr. Foxcraft and Mr. Hoops went away after breakfast and Mr. Ramsay after dinner. I continued at home all day.
4. Rid to the Mill and Ferry Plantations, and to the Fishery at the Ferry. J. P. Custis returnd to Mr. Bouchers, and Mr. Ballendine came in the afternoon.
John Ballendine, now out of Fairfax County's debtor's prison (see main entry for 16 April 1770), had been encouraged by Virginia's recent Potomac
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navigation act and was rounding up support for a trip to England to study canal building there. He came to Mount Vernon today to ask for GW's support and for letters of introduction to leading men in Maryland, including Governor Eden, who might be persuaded to back him. GW obliged, but he warned his Maryland friends that although "Mr. Ballendine has a natural genius to things of this sort . . . I cannot help adding, that his Principles have been loose; whether from a natural depravity, or distress'd circumstances, I shall not undertake to determine" (GW to Jonathan Boucher, 5 May 1772, CSmH).
5. Mr. Ballendine Went away abt. 11 Oclock. At home all day.
6. Rid to the Mill, Doeg Run, and Ferry before Dinner. In the Afternoon Doctr. Rumney and Mr. James Adam came here & lodged.
James Adam's visit today and Matthew Campbell's calls during the next four days must have concerned GW's current business with Robert Adam & Co.: the sale of 929,700 herring and 10,894 shad for a total price of £184 17s. and the purchase of three slaves for £185 (LEDGER B, 42).
7. Mr. Adam went away in the Morning early. Rid with the Doctr. to the Fishery at Poseys who came back to Dinner with Mr. Campbell & went away in the Afternoon.
8. Rid into the Neck, and to Muddy hole.
9. Rid to Doeg Run Mill and Ferry. Mr. Campbell lodged here.
10th. Went to Pohick Church & returnd home to Dinner. Mr. Campbell Dined here.
11. Rid to the Ferry Plantatn. & Mill. Old Mr. Wm. Bayly dined here.
William Bayly (d. 1782), an original settler of Colchester in the late 1750s, had established a tavern there and later became the proprietor of the Colchester tobacco warehouse (SPROUSE [3], 173). Baily came to Mount Vernon today to discuss the rental of GW's bateau (LEDGER B, 28, 64).
12. Went up to Alexandria with Mrs. Washington & Miss Custis to see Captn. Woods Ship Launched. Returnd in the afternoon.
13. Rid to Muddy hole, Doeg Run, Mill and Ferry Plantations before Dinner.
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14. Dined at Belvoir, and returnd in the Afternoon. FoundColo. Mason here.
15. At home all day. Colo. Mason & Captn. McCarty dined here, the former went away after Dinner the latter stayed all Night.
16. Went to Mr. Barnes's on Business of Mrs. Barnes & returnd to Dinner. Captn. McCarty went away after breakfast.
17. At home all day without Company.
18. Went up to Court and stayed all Night. In the Evening Mr. Peale & J. P. Custis came to Mount Vernon.
The court met 18--19 May; GW attended both days (Fairfax County Order Book for 1772--74, 27--34, Vi Microfilm).
Charles Willson Peale (1741--1827), a resident of Annapolis, came to Mount Vernon with a letter of introduction from Jonathan Boucher. Peale had forsaken his saddlery business, to which he had been apprenticed as a youth, to take up painting. He visited John Singleton Copley in Boston in 1765 and studied painting with Benjamin West in London 1767--69. He was now making his living painting miniatures, and on occasion larger portraits, of gentry and merchants in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.
19. Mrs. Barnes came up to Alexandria. I returnd home in the Afternoon, & found Colo. Blackburn & Lady, Miss Scott Miss Brown, & Doctr. Brown here who came before Dinner--also found Mr. Peale & J. P. Custis.
Col. Thomas Blackburn (c. 1740--1807), a Prince William County justice, lived at Rippon Lodge near Dumfries. His wife was Christian Scott Blackburn (b. 1745), younger sister of Miss Catherine Scott. Dr. William Brown (c.1748--1792) had graduated from the University of Edinburgh during the previous year and had begun to practice medicine in Alexandria. He would soon marry Catherine Scott. Miss Brown is probably Dr. Brown's sister Frances Brown (d. 1823), who would later marry Charles Alexander of Fairfax County (HAYDEN, 165, 177--78, 601--3).
20. Colo. Blackburn & the Compa. with him went away after Breakfast. I sat to have my Picture drawn.
On 21 May, GW wrote to Jonathan Boucher: "Inclinations having yielded to Importunity, I am now contrary to all expectations under the hands of Mr. Peale; but in so grave-- so sullen a mood--and now and then under the influence of Morpheus, when some critical strokes are making, that I fancy the skill of this Gentleman's Pencil, will be put to it, in describing to the World what manner of man I am" (WRITINGS, 3:83--84).
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Charles Willson Peale visited Mount Vernon to make portraits of the Washington family, including these miniatures of Jacky and Patsy Custis. (Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union)
21. Captn. Posey who came here the 19th. went up to Alexandria this day. I set again to take the Drapery.
Peale's practice was to sketch the painting out in one neutral color, show the sketch to the subject for his approval, and then paint the portrait, thus demanding a minimum of time and patience, of the subject. On this day Peale had GW wear the "Drapery" (clothing) chosen for the painting, which was GW's colonel's uniform from his service in the Virginia Regiment (SELLERS, 1'106; MORGAN [1]. 24: see frontis., vol. 1).
22. Set for Mr. Peale to finish my Face. In the Afternoon Rid with him to my Mill. I returnd home by the Ferry Plantation.
23. Rid into the Neck, and to Muddy hole before Dinner.
24. Set out after Dinner for Loud[ou]n &ca. Reachd Mr. Fairfax's and lodged there.
Peale remained at Mount Vernon to paint miniatures of Patsy and Jacky Custis. Jacky also paid Peale for a miniature of his mother, Martha Washington, probably for Jacky's own use (LEDGER B, 50; CUSTIS.ACCOUNT BOOK, 30 May 1772).
25. Got to Leesburg to Dinner & Stayed all Night.
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26. At Leesburg all day.
27. Set out with Mr. Bryan Fairfax to view some of his Lands on Goose Creek and Little River. Lodged at Mr. Charles Wests.
GW was inspecting Fairfax's lands in Loudoun and Fauquier counties in order to choose a tract as compensation for the £150 that he had previously paid on Fairfax's account (see "Remarks" entry for 8 Jan. 1772).
28. Surveyed one of Mr. Fairfax's Tracts on Little Rivr. Dined at one Jon. Jacksons a Tenant of his and loged again at Mr. Chs. Wests.
Charles West today signed an agreement to sell GW 484 acres of land on Dogue Creek for 25s. an acre, a total price of £605 (NjMoNP; LEDGER B, 59). GW had tried to purchase the eastern part of the tract in 1769, because its boundary on that side came within a few rods of the place where his merchant mill was soon to be built and because there was good timber on the land suitable for use in construction of the mill, but no deal was made at that time (GW to West, 6 June 1769, DLC:GW).
29. Went up to Mr. Robt. Ashbys dined and lodged there. After dinner went to view some more of Mr. Fairfaxs Land on Goose Ck. & Chattens R.
GW took a 600-acre tract on Chattins Run as his compensation from Bryan Fairfax. Located in Fauquier County near Rectorstown, this land had been inherited by Fairfax from his younger brother William, a lieutenant in the British army who died at Quebec in 1759. The patent for the tract was sent to GW in August (Fairfax to GW, 3 Aug. 1772, DLC:GW).
30. Set out early. Viewd some Land belonging to Jesse Ball & one Kinner. Stopd a little while among my Tenants under the Ridge. Dined at Snickers's and lodged at Mr. Warnr. Washingtons.
31. At Mr. Washingtons all day.
Acct. of the Weather in May
May 1st. Very Smoaky and a little lowering with but little Wind and tolerably Warm.
2. Very smoaky and hazy all day--warm in the Afternoon and perfectly Calm.
3. A little Rain, with the Wind fresh from the No. East in the Morning and very cool--clear afterwards.
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4. Tolerably calm in the Morning but Windy and cool afterwards with Rain in the Afternoon & Night.
5. Tolerably calm and pleast. wind Southerly.
6. Wind very fresh from the Southward with Clouds & a little Rain in the Morning.
7. Clear and tolerable warm with the wind very fresh from the Southward.
8. Wind Easterly with Clouds & much appearance of Rain about Noon but very little fell.
9. Still Cloudy with appearances of Rain but none fell. Wind high from So. West.
10. Cool, Wind being pretty fresh from the Northwest.
11th. Rather Cool & lowering with the Wind varying from South to East.
12. Very warm--there being but little Wind and that Southerly. Day clear.
13. Cooler than yesterday with some appearances of Rain but none fell.
14. Clear, and tolerably pleasant with but little Wind and that Southerly.
15. A little Cool but clear & not unpleasant.
16. Very Warm, and but little Wind, that Southerly.
17. Warm and clear in the forenoon. In the Afternoon & first part of the Night a fine Rain from the So. Wt.
18. Lowering forenoon & Warm. Wind from the Westward afterwards but not Cold.
19. Clear and somewhat cooler than yesterday--but pleasant notwithstanding.
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20. Clear and warm in the forenoon with but little wind. In the Afternoon a heavy Shower of Rain with Wind from the No. West which turnd the Air very Cool.
21. Clear, and Cool all day--with the Wind Westerly.
22. Still cool and clear the Wind in the same place.
23. Lowering Morning. Wind Southerly & day warm. With Rain in the Afternoon.
24. Very warm and Sultry especially in the Afternoon with but little wind.
25. Wind shifting to the No. West this day was a little cool in the forepart but pleast. notwithstanding.
26. Tolerable warm with but little Wind.
27. Pleasant but rather warm.
28. Much such a day as yesterday, with but little Wind.
29. Warm in the forenoon with Clouds and appearances of Rain in the Afternoon but none fell.
30. Very warm with Thunder and Rain. (Fred[eric]k).
31. Very Warm again with Rain abt. 2 Oclock.
Where & how my time is Spent
June 1st. Went with Mr. Wr. Washington & Mr. Willis to my Brother Saml. where we dined and stayed all Night.
2. Went to Run off the Land Captn. Kennedy lives on also my smaller Tract by Mr. Keiths. Accomplished the former but not the latter. Got to Mr. Wr. Washingtons to Dinnr. & met my Br. Jno. & Wife there.
3. Stayed at Mr. Washingtons all day.
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4. Set of on my return home. Dined at the Widow Evans's & lodged at Mr. Edward Paynes.
Two widows named Evans lived in Loudoun County about this time: Mary Evans (died c.1789), widow of John Evans (d. 1770), and Sarah Evans, widow of Price Evans (d. 1770), formerly of Pennsylvania (KING [6], 11--12, 53).
5. Met the Vestry at our New Church & came home in the Afternoon where I found Captn. Posey--who had been since I w[en]t.
The vestrymen today dealt with matters relating to the building of the new church. George Mason, who was overseeing the construction, was directed to have three flights of stone steps put at the front door instead of the one flight previously specified. The churchwardens, George William Fairfax and Edward Payne, were ordered to have the roof painted, to arrange for the building of a brick vestry house nearby, to engage workmen to carve ornaments on the altarpiece, and to have the religious inscriptions on the altarpiece gilded with gold leaf donated by GW and George William Fairfax. The vestrymen also decided that 12 pews in the church should be sold at the laying of the next parish levy on 20 Nov. (Truro Vestry Book, 153, DLC).
6. At home all day. Posey & Mr. Robt. Alexander dined here. The latter went away afterwds.
7. Went to Pohick Church and Return'd to Dinner. J[ohn] P[arke] C[ustis] came.
8. Rid to the Ferry Plantan. and Mill.
GW today gave John Posey £50 in cash and a horse and saddle worth £10 for a deed to the six-acre strip of land where Posey's house and ferry were located (LEDGER B, 50; deed of John Posey to GW, 8 June 1772, PPRF). Although the legal dispute between Posey and John West, Jr., over ownership of this land apparently remained unresolved in the courts, GW's purchase of Posey's rights cleared the way for a settlement of another kind. He now had only to conclude his deal with West on acceptable terms to gain undisputed possession of the strip (see main entry for 22 Sept. 1772).
9. Went into the Neck in the forenoon. Found Mr. Chichester & Wife--Miss Molly McCarty, and Mr. Phil. Pendleton here. The first went away.
Molly McCarty is probably Mary McCarty (d. 1786), a daughter of Capt. Daniel McCarty and a younger sister of Mrs. Sarah McCarty Chichester, who appears here.
10th. Rid to the Ferry Plantation & Mill. Mr. Pendleton went away after Dinner.
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11. Went into the Neck & run Round Johnson's Plantatin. also run some Lines across the Neck.
Susannah (Suckey) and Hannah Johnston were now renting from GW the Clifton's Neck plantation that their parents, Samuel Johnston (d. 1769) and Hannah Johnston (d. 1771), had previously rented (LEDGER A, 200, 308; LEDGER B, 46; will of Hannah Johnston, 8 July 1771, Fairfax County Wills, Book C-1, 123--24, Vi Microfilm).
12. Rid over Muddy hole Wheat Field--also that at Doeg Run. Dr. Rumney came in the Ev[ening].
Rumney brought Patsy Custis eight musk capsules to be used for relief of her epileptic seizures (receipt from William Rumney, 24 June 1772, ViHi: Custis Papers).
13. At home all day. Doctr. Rumney Dined here & returnd in the Afternoon. J. P. Custis returnd to Mr. Bouchers.
14. Made a Visit to Lord Fairfax at Belvoir. Mr. Byrd & Mr. Willis came home with me.
15. Mr. Willis went away early. Mr. Tilghman, & a Mr. Andrews came to Dinner & stayd all Night as did Mr. Magowan at Night.
16. The Gentlemen went away. I went up to Court & returnd at Night. Mr. Magowan came home with me.
The court met 15--18 June. GW was not recorded by the court clerk as one of the justices present today (Fairfax County Order Book for 1772--74, 61--89, Vi Microfilm).
17. Rid to the Ferry Plantation & back again from thence.
18. At home all day.
19. At home all day. Mr. Magowan went away after Breakfast.
20. At home all day. In the Afternoon Mr. Byrd--Mr. Andrews & Mr. Wagener came here.
21. Mr. Andrews & Mr. Wagener went away. Mr. Byrd & I went to Pohick Church & returnd to Dinner.
22. Lord Fairfax, Colo. Fairfax & Mrs. Fairfax dined here & returnd afterwards.
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23. Rid to the Ferry Plantation & into Muddy hole Corn Field.
24. At home all day. In the Afternoon Mr. Tilghman came here & stayed all Night.
25. Rid as far as the Mill and turnd back on Acct. of Rain. In the Afternoon my Brothr. Jno. & Wife & Son Corbin came here on there way from Fred[eric]k.
Corbin Washington (1765--c.1799) was one of the younger sons of John and Hannah Washington (WAYLAND [1], 113, 318, 330).
26. At home all day with my Brother &ca.
27th. Rid with my Brother to Muddy hole, Doeg Run & Mill. Found Mr. Byrd (who went from here on thursday last) & Mr. Tilghman here, who Stayed all Night.
28. With the above went after Dinner in my Whale Boat to the Spring at Johnson's Place.
In a letter dated 5 Mar., Jonathan Boucher told GW that Governor Eden of Maryland "has got You a very handsome . . . Whale Boat, for £20, which, I fancy is by this Time at Mount [Vernon]" (DLC:GW). On 22 May, Boucher invited GW to visit him in Maryland, and added: "Shou'd . . . your Whale Boat be arriv'd, perhaps You may be tempted to try her" (DLC:GW). Since GW paid 18s. for "Freight of my Whale Boat from Patux[ent]" on 17 June, this excursion may have been his first in it (LEDGER B, 50).
29. At home all day.
30. My Brother & Family Set of home--Mr. Tilghman also after Breakfast. I rid with Mr. Byrd in the Forenoon to my Meadow at Doeg Run and to the Mill and in the Afternn. went to Sound the Depth of the sevl. Fishing Shores from Poseys up to Gilbt. Simpson's.
Gilbert Simpson (d. 1773) leased land in Clifton's Neck, first from William Clifton, and then from GW after his purchase of the land in 1760 (LEDGER A, 113, 137, 209).
Acct. of the Weather in June
June 1st. But little Wind. Weather very hot & Sultry, with appearances (only) of Rain.
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2. Very hot and Sultry in the forenoon, with a good deal of Rain & Wind in the afternoon (in Frederick) but not much at Mt. Vernon.
3. Misting & Raining more or less all day (in Frederick) with the Wind fresh & Cool from the Eastward.
4. Flying Clouds, with the Wind very fresh & Cool from the Eastward.
5. Very Cold in the Morning & Cool all day, with the Wind high from the same point.
6. Very Cloudy & Misting, now & then all day, from the Eastward from whence the Wind blew fresh & Cool. No Rain.
7. Clear and grown warmer with the Wind Southerly.
8. Warm in the forepart of the day, but cool afterwds.
9. Cool in the forenoon with the Wind Easterly--warmr. afterwards.
10. Tolerably warm again with but little Wind and that Southerly.
11. Cloudy Morning. Clear Noon & Warm Sun with a small Shower or two of Rain in the Afternoon & good d[ea]l Wind.
12. Clear and Cool Wind Westwardly.
13. Clear and something Warmer Wind southerly.
14. Clear and but little Wind--very warm.
15. Very hot, with but little Wind in the forenoon--pretty fresh afterwards from the South.
16. Very Warm in the Morning but cooler afterwards wind getting to the Westward.
17. Tolerably Cool.
18. Warmer again Wind Southerly tho but little of it.
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19. Clear & not very warm--but little Wind & that Southerly.
20. Warm and lowering--afterwards misting with a good appearance of Rain wch. went off.
21. Wind pretty fresh from the No. West and cool in the forenoon--warmer afterwds.
22. Warm again, & cloudy in the forenoon--with a fine moderate Rain for an hour or more abt. 1 or two Oclock from the Eastward.
23. Wind Southerly and warm with flying Clouds & showers about--but none here.
24. Clear and Cool. Wind fresh from the Westward. Weather Clear.
25. Misting in the forepart of the day. Towards Night a close & constant Rain.
26. Misting more or less all the Forenoon, the Afternoon clear Windy from the Westward.
27. Clear--Wind Westerly, & pretty fresh but warm notwithstanding.
28. Warm and a little lowering with scarce any Wind, & that Southerly.
29. Clear and warm with but little Wind & that from the same Quarter.
30. Lowering all the forepart of the day but clear afterwds. with but little Wind from the So.
Where & how my time is Spent
July 1st. At home all day with Mr. Byrd.
2. Mr. Byrd went over to Belvoir. I continued at home all day.
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3. Rid to the Ferry Plantation Muddy hole & Doeg Run.
4. After Dinner Rid to Muddy hole to my Harvest People.
5. At home all day alone.
6. In the Afternoon Rid to my Mill where Messrs. Wm. Shaw and Adam Lynn had been Inspecting my Flour.
William Shaw (died c.1774), an Alexandria cooper, had been appointed an inspector of flour by the Fairfax County court 18 Dec. 1769, and Adam Lynn (died c.1785) of Alexandria had received his appointment as inspector from the justices 2 Feb. 1770 (Fairfax County Order Book for 1768--72, 278, 287, and Fairfax County Order Book for 1772--74, 312, Vi-Microfilm). By law, inspectors could charge mill owners a 3d. inspection fee for each barrel of flour weighing 220 pounds net or less and 6d. for each barrel over 220 pounds (HENING, 8:143--44). On 17 June 1771 GW had credited Shaw with £3 2s. 1½d. for inspecting 497 barrels, half the lower legal rate, and today credited him with £1 14s. 1½d. for 273 barrels, again half the lower legal rate. Although Lynn may have received the other half of the inspection fees, no cash payments to him for that purpose are recorded in GW's ledger (LEDGER A, 341; LEDGER B, 58).
7. Went up with Mrs. Washington and Patcy Custis to see Mr. Adams New Store. Returnd before Dinr.
GW did much business with Robert Adam & Co.'s store during the next 2½ years, and there is some evidence that he obtained "better terms than common" in return for his patronage (LEDGER B, 42, 133; GW to Matthew Campbell, 7 Aug. 1772, DLC:GW).
8. Rid to the Harvest field at the Mill--Doeg Run and Muddy hole.
9. Rid to Muddy hole, & into the Neck before Dinner and to the Mill &ca. after Dinner. J. P. Custis came.
10. At home all the forenoon. In the Afternoon Rid to the Mill &ca. Mr. Benjn. Dulany & Mr. Tilghman came in the Evening.
Benjamin Tasker Dulany (C.1752--1816), younger son of Daniel Dulany the younger and Rebecca Tasker Dulany, had been a student with Jacky Custis at Boucher's school in Annapolis. Dulany became a frequent visitor at Mount Vernon during this period, for he was courting Elizabeth French, whom he married in 1773.
11. At home all day with those Gentlemen.
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12. Mr. B. Dulany &ca. went up to Church in Alexa. and returnd again in the Afternoon.
The new church in Alexandria was still not finished, but the Fairfax vestry agreed with John Carlyle during this year to complete work on it for £220 (see main entry for 31 July 1768; POWELL, 87).
13. Mr. Dulany Mr. Tilghman & J. P. Custis went to Belvoir.
14. The above Gentlemen returnd to Dinner. I rid to the Ferry & Mill Plantn. In the Afternn. we went on board of Captn. Jordan. Mr. Geo. Digges returnd with us.
15. At home all day. Mr. Tilghman went away in the Morning early--the other Gentlemen in the afternoon.
16. Went up in the Afternoon with Mrs. Washington, J. P. Custis, Miss Custis, & Milly Posey to a Ball in Alexandria. Lodgd at my House in Town.
17. Came home to Dinner. Mr. Byrd returnd in the Afternoon.
18. At home all day except Riding to the Ferry Plantn. Mr. Byrd here.
19. Went with Mr. Byrd & J. P. Custis to Pohick Church & Dined at Belvoir. Returnd in the Evening.
20. Colo. Fairfax & Lady, Mr. W. Washington Lady & 3 Children; Mrs. B. Fairfax, Miss Carlyle, Mr. Norton, Mr. Prentis, Mr. Whiting & Mr. Jno. Lewis Dined here & in the afternoon Colo. Lewis came.
Mr. Norton is John Hatley Norton (1745--1797) of Yorktown, who, after his father's return to London in 1767, became the Virginia agent for John Norton & Sons of London (PRICE, 401--2). Mr. Prentis is Joseph Prentis (1754--1809) of Williamsburg, a ward of Norton's father-in-law, Robert Carter Nicholas. Both Norton and Prentis had been invited by George William Fairfax to accompany him this summer to Warm Springs, "not so much for the recovery as for the Establishment of his [Norton's] Health" (Robert Carter Nicholas to John Norton, 4 Aug. 1772, MASON [1], 263).
21. Colo. Fairfax & the two Mrs. Fairfax's--Miss Carlyle, Mr. Norton & Mr. Prentis went away after Breakfast.
22. At home all day with the Company that remaind yesterday. Mr. Jenifer Adams Dined here.
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Daniel Jenifer Adams (b. 1751), only son of Josias and Ann Jenifer Adams of Charles County, Md., had been taken into a trading partnership with GW, John Carlyle, and Samuel Brodie. Flour from GW's and Carlyle's mills was to be shipped to the West Indies on board the brig Fairfax, captained by Brodie. Adams was to be the supercargo, or agent, who would accompany the flour and decide on which island and at what price it should be sold (FREEMAN, 3:295, 307, 345; see "Remarks" entry for 24 July 1772).
23. Dined (with the above Compa.) at Belvoir & lodged there.
24. Dined at Belvoir this day also, & returnd in the Evening with Colo. Lewis, Mr. Jno. Lewis, Mr. Byrd & Mr. Whiting.
25. Went a fishing and dined at the Fish House at the Ferry Plantation.
26. Mr. W. Washington & Wife, & Mr. Norton & Mr. Prentis dined and Lodged here as did C[aptain] Posey.
27. The above four went away after Breakfast. As did Mr. Byrd also, along with them in order to set of home the next day.
28. Colo. Lewis & Son, and Mr. Whiting went away after Breakfast. So did J. P. Custis to Mr. Boucher's.
29. Rid to the Mill Plantation the Mill, and Doeg Run--also to the Meadow at the Mill. Mrs. Cox came here. Captn. Posey Daughter went over to Mary[lan]d.
Mrs. Cox may be Elizabeth Cox (d. 1792), wife of Presley Cox of Fairfax County. She was at Mount Vernon "making and altering Gowns for Mrs. Washington [ and ] Miss Custis" (LEDGER B, 55).
30. Rid into the Neck.
31. At home all day. Mr. Hy. Peake dined here. Mrs. Cox went away after Dinner.
Acct. of the Weather in July
July 1st. Lowering kind of a forenoon but clear afterwards with the Wind Southerly.
2. Wind tolerably fresh from the Southwest in the forenoon, and very Sultry. In the Afternoon a pleasant Shower, but not much of it.
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3. Very hot and Sultry with the Wind Southerly.
4. Very hot with a little Wind from the Southward. In the Afternoon a little, & but a little Rain.
5. Again very hot--Wind in the same Quarter. In the Afternoon a very pretty Rain.
6. Still warm and Sultry, Wind being Southerly.
7. Wind pretty fresh from the Southward--but Warm & Sultry Notwithstanding--appearances of Rain in the Evening but none fell.
8. Very Warm, with appearances of Rain but none fell. Wind Southerly.
9. Wind Easterly & Weather cooler than the preceeding days.
10. Cool & pleasant with the Wind still Easterly.
11. Much such a day as yesterday wind being in the same place.
12. Still tolerably Cool--Wind Southerly however.
13. Wind fresh from the Southward but pretty warm notwithstandg.
14. Lowering Morning with a little Rain (& but little) abt. Noon. No Wind. In the Night a little more Rain.
15. Lowering Morning, with little or no Wind. Clear afternoon & very warm.
16. Clear & Warm in the forenoon--a fine Shower betwn. two and five Oclock in the Afternoon.
17. Clear & pleasant, but tolerably warm.
18. Lowering all day with the Wind very fresh from the So. West.
19. Clear & pleasant with but little Wind.
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20. Much such a day as yesterday with but little wind.
21. Wind tolerably fresh in the forenoon & pleasant but Calm, & very warm afterwards.
22. Clear and tolerably pleasant with but little Wind & that Northerly.
23d. Lowering all the forenoon with some Rain which fell moderately, but in no quantity. Afternoon clear.
24. Clear in the forenoon, with some appearances of Rain but none fell here. But little Wind & that from the So. West.
25. Clear but Warm, with little wind from the Southward.
26. Much such a day as yesterday, except there being a little more Wind from the Westward.
27. Warm with but little Wind and that from the Southward.
28. Clear, Calm, and exceeding Hot.
29. Clear, & very Warm, Wind Southerly but very little of it.
30. Very Warm, notwithstanding the Wind blew fresh from the So. West. In the Afternoon a moderate Rain for upwards of two hours.
31. Cool, Wind blewing fresh from the Northwest which dryed the Ground fast.
Remarks & Occurs. in July
July 3d. Began my Wheat Harvest at Muddy hole & Doeg Run in the following Manner. Viz.--At Doeg Run with the two Davy's two Sons of Brummit as Cradlers, & the Wheat being rather green no regular assortment of Cradlers was allotted to them as yet.
At Muddy hole, Palmer (who did not work himself, but only acted as an Instructer) and Six of the youngest Cradlers began.
Brummit may be William Brummitt, who lived dose enough to GW to have made occasional use of the blacksmith at Mount Vernon (LEDGER B, 76).
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6. Began in the Neck with Mike & Tom and three white Men. But as hands were Shifted from place to place there were sometimes more, & sometimes less in each Field.
10. Finished the Harvest at Muddy hole & carried the hands from thence to the Ferry Plantation.
11. Finished at Doeg Run, from whence some hands went into the Neck, and the Rest to the Mill.
18. Compleated my Harvest in the Neck--The Ferry Plantation, & every where else. Began to Sow Wheat in the Neck.
22d. Began to cut my Meadow at the Mill & finished it the 30th.
23. Began to Ditch the Swamp at the Ferry.
24. Captn. Brodie Saild for the West Indies with my Flour on Board 273 Barls.
27. Began to Sow Wheat at Muddy hole; also at Doeg Run.
30. Finished Sowing one Cut in the Neck--that is the uppermost but one on the Creek 67 [bushels].
31. Began to Sow Wheat at the Mill.
Where & how my time is Spent
Augt. 1. Rid to the Ferry Plantn., Mill, Doeg Run, and Muddy hole.
2. Went to Pohick Church and Dined with Mrs. Washington & Patcy Custis at Captn. McCartys. Came home in the Afternn.
3. At home all day alone.
4. Rid to the Ferry Plantation and returnd from thence.
5. At home all day alone.
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6. Rid to the Ferry Plantation Mill Doeg Run and Muddy hole.
7. At home all day writing & Posting my Books.
8. Ditto--Ditto.
9. At home all day alone.
10. Rid to the Ferry Plantation to the Mill & where my Ditchers were at Work there. In the Evening Doctr. Rumney, Mr. Kirkpatrick, Mr. Balmain & Mr. Cox came here.
Mr. Cox may be Presley Cox (d. 1783).
11. Went with those Gentlemn. a Fishing and Dined undr. the Bank at Colo. Fairfax's near his White Ho[use]. Found Mrs. Cox here when we returnd.
In 1758 George William Fairfax obtained the position of collector of the customs for the South Potomac River Naval District (VA. EXEC. JLS., 6:100). The fishing party was dining near the customshouse, which was painted white to be clearly seen by ship captains, and thus referred to locally as Fairfax's White House.
12. After Breakfast the Gentlemen went away. Mrs. Cox continued, & I rid to my Ditchers at the Mill.
13. Went into the Neck and run round and divided the New Plantn. I intend to make there into three fields.
14. Rid to the Ditchers at the Ferry and Mill. Mrs. Cox went away about 12 Oclock.
15. At home all day alone.
16. At home this day also. In the afternoon Captn. Posey & his Daughter returnd.
17. Went up to Alexandria to Court. Stayd all Night. Dind with Mr. Adam.
The court met 17--21 Aug., and GW attended each day (Fairfax County Order Book for 1772--74, 89--118, Vi Microfilm).
18. In Town all day and Night. Din'd & Supd at Arrells.
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19. Ditto. Ditto. Dined at Arrells. Suppd no where.
20. Still in Town. Dined at Arrells ge went to the Ball in the Afternoon.
On this day Robert Hanson Harrison and William Ellzey brought suit for GW against John and William Barry to force a division of the 193--acre tract on Dogue Creek, part of which GW had bought 18 Dec. 1770. GW excused himself from the bench while the case was being heard. The court ruled in his favor and ordered county surveyor George West to divide the land fairly between the two parties before the court met in September. The surveying and other costs were to be equally shared by GW and the Barrys. Five justices were appointed to supervise the division: Sampson Darrell, Daniel McCarty, George Mason, John West, and John West, Jr., but only three were required to be present (Fairfax County Order Book for 1772--74, 114--15, Vi Microfilm).
21. Dined at Arrells again & returnd home after Dinr.
22. Rid to the Plantations at the Ferry, Mill, Doeg Run, & Muddy hole--also to the Mill & Ditchers there.
23d. At home all day alone.
24. Went a Hunting, and into the Neck, but found nothing; came home by 12 Oclock.
25. At home all day a writing.
26. At home this day also.
27. Went with Mrs. Washington and Miss Custis to Mr. William Digges's and Dind there--only Betcy & Jenny Digges at home. Returnd in the Afternoon.
JENNY DIGGES: Jane Digges (c.1754--1826) was apparently the youngest of William and Ann Digges's many children (BOWIE, 255; RAMSBURGH, 130--31).
28. Surveyd Mr. John West's Land in my Neck at his request.
29. Rid to Muddy hole, Dogue Run and to the Ditchers at the Mill.
30. At home all day. Mr. Willm. Digges Dined here.
31. At home all day alone. In the Evening Mr. Custis came.
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Acct. of the Weather in Augt.
Augt. 1. Cool--wind still Westerly.
2. Clear & pleasant, but rather Cool. Wind hanging still to the Westward.
3. Cool yet--Wind Eastwardly & Weather Clear.
4. Still Cool with the Wind Easterly.
5. Warmer, Wind getting Southerly.
6. Clear, Calm and Warm.
7. Very Warm in the forenoon. Wind pretty fresh in the Afternoon from the Southward.
8. Exceeding warm in the forenoon. Cooler afterwards the Wind rising from the Southwd.
9. Still Warm, with great appearances of Rain about two Oclock & all the Afternn. but only a few drops fell.
10. Great appearances of Rain all this day also with the Wind fresh from Southward--but none fell.
11. Wind very high all day from the Southwest & for the most part clear.
12. Cooler than the preceeding days. Wind Northerly and weather quite clear.
13. Warmer than Yesterday but not hot. Wind Southerly & Weather clear.
14. But little Wind and very Warm.
15. Clear and Warm with the Wind fresh from the Southward.
16. Very warm--in the Evening great appearances of Rain but none fell here.
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17. Still very Warm--in the Afternoon a very fine Rain all around but very little here.
18. Cloudy with little Showers about none here. Wind Westerly ge not warm.
19. Wind Westerly with appearances of Clouds but no rain here.
20. Clear and pleasant with but little Wind and that Westerly.
21. Clear and pleasant again with but little Wind.
22d. Quite clear with very little Wind & something Warmer than the preceeding days.
23. Clear with the Wind Southerly & rather Warm.
24. Cloudy a little and something Cooler.
25. Cloudy with fine Rain till towards 2 Oclock--then close ge constant for an hour or two which wet the Ground thoroughly.
26. Clear with but little [wind] & warm.
27. Wind fresh all the Forenoon from the Southward. In the afternoon frequent Showers of Rain--some of them pretty heavy.
28. Clear and pleasant in the forenoon being neither warm nor Cool. In the afternoon Clouds but no Rain.
29. Very little Wind and pretty warm in the forenoon.
30. Clear, and pleasant the Wind at East but not fresh.
31. Wind at So. & pretty fresh Weather clear.
Remarks & Occurs. in Augt.
Augt. 3d. Finished Sowing the Cut next the Tumbling Dam at Doeg Run with Wheat 43 Bls.
The same day began to Sow Wheat at the Ferry Plantn.
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4. Finished Sowing the uppermost Cut with wheat in the Neck--the Cut next Abn. Adams's 64 Bls.
10. Dennis Curran, Cook Jack, Schomberg Arlington, Peter ge London began to Work on my Mill Race, Scouring it out.
11. Finished the third Cut in the Neck with Wheat 65½ Bushls.
12. Also finished the Cut at Doeg Run about Jno. Gists Houses 53 Bushels.
14. Sowed all the Ground at the Ferry on this side the Swamp 68½ Bushels put therein.
17. Finishd Sowing the large Cut with Wheat at Muddy hole, 70 Bushls. & began to Sow the Small Field adjoining.
19. Finishd that also and Sowd 14 Bushls. of Wheat in it.
Finishd the third Cut with wheat at Doeg Run; to wit that next Marshalls Plantn. and Sowd 43 Bush. therein.
20. Finishd my fourth & last Cut in the Neck 74½ Bushels which makes the whole amount sowed there upon 210 Acres, 271 Bushls.
29. Finishd sowing the 4th. & last Cut with Wheat at Doeg Run Qr. 50 Bushls. which makes in all Sowed thereupon abt. 150 Acres 189 Bushels.
Where & how my time is Spent
Septr. 1st. Rid to the Ferry & from thence to the Mill. In the Afternoon Doctr. Rumney came & lodgd all Night.
2. Rid to the Ditchers at the Mill the Doctr. going away after Breakfast.
3. Rid to the Ditchers again.
4. Set out with Mrs. Washington & Miss Custis (attended by Mr. Custis) on a Visit to Mr. Boucher &ca. Breakfasted at Mr.
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Wm. Digges's (the Horses & carriage being got over the day before) and dined at Mr. Bouchers with Govt. Eden and Mr. Calvert ge his two Daughters.
In June, Jonathan Boucher had married Eleanor Addison (1739--1784) of Oxon Hill, niece of his benefactor Rev. Henry Addison. The Washingtons had intended to pay their respects to the newlyweds earlier in the summer but had been prevented by "Harvest, Company, and one thing or another" (GW to Boucher, 18 Aug. 1772, DLC:GW). Benedict Calvert's two eldest daughters were Elizabeth (Betsey) Calvert (born c.1752) and Eleanor (Nelly) Calvert (1754--1811). Unknown to the Washingtons or the Bouchers, Jack), Custis was at this time courting Nelly Calvert. When their romance did become known several months later, Boucher was shocked: "Never . . . had I the most distant Suspicion of any such Thing's being in Agitation,'' he wrote GW. "You will remember, I always thought, that He was enamoured of Miss Betsey [Calvert]; tho' even in that, I suspected not, that there was any Likelihood of its be coming so serious, without my first knowing more of it" (8 April 1773, DLC:GW).
5. Dined at the same place ge in the said Company. Mr. Calvert & Daughters went away in the Afternoon.
6. Went to Church with Govr. Eden in his Phaeton.
St. Barnabas Church, located several miles southeast of Mount Lubentia, was the parish church for Jonathan Boucher's parish of Queen Anne.
7. Dined at Mr. Calverts (going With the Govr. in his Phaeton & calling at Mr. Sprigs). Mr. Igns. Digges & Family dind here also--we lodgd--they retd.
Osborne Sprigg, Jr., son of Osborne Sprigg (1707--1750) and Rachel Belt Sprigg, lived less than two miles northwest of Boucher's house in Prince George's County.
8. At Mr. Calverts all day and Night. The Govr. returnd to Annapolis this Morning.
9. Mr. Boucher who came to this place with us returnd home early this Morning. We dined at Mr. Igns. Digges with a good deal of Compa. among whom Mr. Calverts D[aughte]rs he himself going to Annapolis.
10. At Mr. Digges's all day. Miss Calverts came, & returnd in the afternoon.
11. Returnd home by the way of Mr. William Digges's where we Dined & where my Boats met us.
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12. Rid to Muddy hole, Doeg Run, Mill & Ferry Plantations--also to the Ditchers in my Mill Race.
13. At home all day; In the Afternoon Mr. Willis came & lodgd.
14. Set out for Fredericksburg about 7 Oclock; Dined & Fed my Horses at Peytons on Acquia & reachd Fredericksburg abt. Dusk. Lodgd at my Mothers.
GW's purpose in going to Fredericksburg at this time was to meet with other veteran officers of the French and Indian War "to consider of a proper method to obtain the Lands granted" by the king's Proclamation of 1763 (resolutions of veteran officers, 15 Sept. 1772, MoSW).
15. Rid to my two Plantations on the River & returnd to Mr. Lewis's to Dinner. Spent the Eveng. at Weedons.
GW was preparing to advertise Ferry Farm in the Virginia Gazette "To be SOLD, RENTED, or EXCHANGED, for back lands in any of the northern counties" of Virginia (5 Nov. 1772). Fielding Lewis agreed to act as GW's Fredericksburg agent in this business.
Weedon's tavern was probably the scene of today's meeting of the veteran officers. Fourteen officers, including GW, were present and agreed to organize in order to push their claims. Each man was to be assessed £3 for every thousand acres claimed, and five officers living in the Fredericksburg neighborhood were appointed to disburse the collected money for surveying and other expenses (resolutions of veteran officers, 15 Sept. 1772, MoSW).
Sale of Washington's Ferry Farm near Fredericksburg is announced in Purdie and Dixon's Virginia Gazette, 5 Nov. 1772. (Colonial Williamsburg Photograph)
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16. Dined at my Brother Chas. & spent the Evening at Colo. Lewis's.
GW today recorded paying his mother £30 cash in the presence of brother Charles (LEDGER B, 45).
17. Set of on my return home. Dined at Dumfries & reachd home abt. Dusk. Found Mrs. French & her Daughter & Miss Molly Manly here.
18. Went upon the Survey ge Division of Wades Land between Barry & me. Colo. West, Mr. Jno. West, Captn. McCarty, & Captn. Darrel Commrs. came home with me as did Val. Crawford Mr. Geo. West & Chs. West.
As ordered by the court on 20 Aug., George West divided the disputed tract on Dogue Creek, allotting 75 acres to GW and 118 acres to William Barry (GW's list of quitrent lands for 1772, DLC:GW). GW received less land, probably because he received riparian rights on the creek as part of his share of the property. Almost 11 years later GW bought the 118 acres from William Barry and his wife, Sarah, for £150 Virginia currency (deed of William and Sarah Barry to GW, 16 June 1783, ViMtV).
19. Went on the same business again to day. Mrs. French &ca. went away after Breakfast. Colo. West Jno. West came home with me to Dinnr. & went afterwds.
20. At home all day--Weather clear and Warm with but little Wind.
21. Went up to Court at Alexa. Dined at Arrels, & supped at Arrels. Lodged at my own House.
The court met 21--24 Sept., and GW was present the first three days (Fairfax County Order Book for 1772--74, 118--31, Vi Microfilm).
22. In Alexandria Still. Dined and Supped at Arrels.
GW today paid John West, Jr., £436 9s. for the land near Mount Vernon that West had previously agreed to sell to him (see main entry for 29 April 1769). Two separate tracts were specified in the deeds: the undisputed section which GW had been renting from West since 18 Sept. 1770, said here to contain 196 acres, and the six-acre strip over which West and John Posey had been contending. Having bought Posey's rights to the strip 8 June 1772, GW with this purchase effectively ended the dispute between the two men and established his own unchallengeable right to that land (LEDGER B, 41; West's deed to GW, 21 Sept. 1772, MoSW; excerpt from West's deed to GW, 22 Sept. 1772, American Art Assoc. Catalogue, 21--22 Jan. 1926, Item 295).
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23. In Alexandria till the Afternoon. Dined at Arrels & came home with Colo. Fairfax & Val. Crawford.
24. Went with Colo. Fairfax to Survey Charles Wests land -- wch. I finished a little before Night. Mr. Bryan Fairfax came here.
GW and Fairfax were surveying the 484 acres of land on Dogue Creek that West had previously promised to sell to GW (see main entry for 28 May 1772). This tract extended west from the creek into Belvoir Neck, and because GW was primarily interested in the eastern part next to his mill, he agreed to sell Fairfax 72 acres of the land in the neck at the same rate he was to buy it from West: 25s. an acre, a total price of £90 (LEDGER B, 63, 66). West deeded the full 484 acres to GW on 28 Oct. 1772, and within the next few months GW gave a deed to Fairfax for his 72 acres (deed of Charles West to GW, ViMtV; General Index to Fairfax County Deeds for 1742--97, 218, Vi Microfilm).
25. Rid with Mr. Bryan Fairfax to look at some Land of his on Pohick. Tom Gist came this aftern.
Bryan Fairfax was showing GW this 463½-acre tract on the South Run of Pohick Creek with the hope that GW would pay off his £160 bill of exchange in return for it, but GW declined to accept the deal (Fairfax to GW, 3 Aug. and 2 Dec. 1772, DLC:GW; see "Remarks" entry for 8 Jan. 1772). Fairfax later sold the tract to Alexander Henderson of nearby Colchester for £166 (deed of Fairfax to Henderson, 16--17 April 1773, Fairfax County Deeds, Book K-1, 433--54, Vi Microfilm).
Christopher Gist had a brother Thomas and a son Thomas. This Tom Gist is probably the son, who lived in southwest Pennsylvania on the main route to the Ohio country (BAILEY [5], 154).
26. Went and resurveyed Wests Land--some mistake happening the first time. Mr. Gist & Mr. Vale. Crawford both went away this Morning.
27. Set of for Pohick Church and got almost there when word was brought that Mr. Massey was Sick. Returnd & found Nanny Peake & Biddy Fleming here who went away after Dinner.
Bridget Fleming was an unmarried daughter of Thomas Fleming of Alexandria (will of Thomas Fleming, 7 April 1786, Fairfax County Wills, Book E-1, 160, Vi Microfilm).
28. At home all the forenoon. In the Afternoon Rid to the Ferry Plantn. the Mill and Dogue Run.
29. Rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run & Mill and to the Ditchers on the Race. In the Afternoon Prior Theobald came here and lodged.
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30. Went to Colo. Fairfax's & Dined. Returnd in the Eveng. Mr. Fitzhugh--Mr. Brown & Mr. Burwell came here in the Afternoon.
Mr. Fitzhugh could be almost any of the many Mr. Fitzhughs living in Stafford or King George counties. Mr. Brown may be one of Dr. William Brown's brothers Mr. Burwell is probably one of the two younger Lewis Burwells. Colonel Burwell who came the next day is Robert Burwell, and John Fitzhugh is probably John Fitzhugh of Marmion, but may be John Fitzhugh (1727--1809) of Bell Air, Stafford County.
Acct. of the Weather in Septr.
Septr. 1st. Wind at No. Et. & Weather Cloudy but no Rain fell.
2. Clear, & Wind fresh from the No. West. Warm notwithstanding.
3. Clear & Warm, wind in the same place as yesterday.
4. Very Sultry Morning with great appearances of Rain which fell in the Afternoon for abt. an [ ].
5. The Air somewhat Coold, the Wind getting Northwardly.
6. Cool & pleasant--Wind still Northwardly.
7. Warmer a good deal but pleasant. Weather clear.
8. Rather Warmer than yesterday, but clear with the Wind Southerly.
9. Very Warm and Sultry all day and Night.
10. Cloudy & Warm all the day; in the Night a good deal of Rain.
11. Frequent Shower's about Noon. In the afternoon the Wind got to Northwest and blew fresh.
12. Wind fresh from the Northwest all day and Cool.
13. Clear and Cool tho there was but little Wind and that Southerly.
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14. Lowering for the most part of the day with but little wind moderately warm.
15. Clear and but little Wind--very warm.
16. Misting & sometins Raining with but little Wind & Warm.
17. Clear forenoon and Warm with Showers in the Afternoon.
18. Clear and very pleasant. At the sametime Warm with a little Wind from the Southd.
19. Very pleasant being much such a day as yesterday.
20. Pleasant but warm with little Wind and that Southerly.
21. Very Warm with the Wind Southerly.
22. Misting in the Morning & for most part of the day, with a very heavy Rain & high wind in the Afternoon. Much Rain fell in the Night.
23. Clear and Cool. Wind at No. West--but not very fresh.
24. Much such a day as yesterday.
25th. Still cool with the Wind Westerly and fresh.
26. Same kind of day as yesterday.
27. Very Cloudy & like for Rain all the forenoon with the Wind Northerly. In the Afternoon Misting.
28. Misting more or less all day with but little [wind] and not Gold.
29. Clear, and Warm, and without any wind.
30. Much Such a day as Yesterdy.
Remarks & Occurs. in Septr.
Septr. 1st. Finish'd Ditching at the Ferry Plantation--200 Rod in the whole.
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2. Finishd Sowing Wheat at Muddy hole Plantation 123½ Bushls. in the whole.
Finishd Sowing Wheat at the Ferry Plantation also 84 Bushls. on the other side the Swamp next Mrs. French's making in all 152½ Bushl. Sowed there.
3. Sent Adam & Jupiter from Muddy hole to work on the Mill Race. Also Bath & Robin from Dogue Run there.
4. Began to Sow Wheat at the Home House.
9. Finishd Sowing Wheat at the Mill Plantation 89 Bushl.
10. Compleated Sowing my Wheat at the Home House 66½ Bush. which makes in all this year
17. This day agreed with my Overseer Powell, at the lower Plantation on Rappah. [Little Falls Quarter] to continue another year on the same lay as the last provided the Number of hands are not Increased--but, if I should add a hand or two more, & let him (as I am to do at any rate) choose 5 of the best Horses at that Quarter & the upper one [Ferry Farm] he is in that case to receive only the 8th. of what Corn, Wheat, & Tobo. he makes on the Plantation.
29. Danl. Minor and Joshua Key came here to work.
Joshua Kay was a boat builder who during the next two years repaired GW's fishing boats and ferryboat. He also built a boat with a 29-foot keel for GW (LEDGER B, 74).
Where & how my time is Spent
Octr. 1st. At home all day with the Gentn. that came yesterday Afternoon--Colo. Burwell g: Mr. Jno. Fitzhugh & Colo. Fairfax
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came to Dinner. Colo. Burwell & Mr. Jno. Fitzhugh Stayd all Night. The other Gentn. went away after Dinner.
2. Colo. Burwell & Mr. Fitzhugh went away after Dinner.
3. I rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run &ca. before Dinner, in the Afternoon went into the Neck.
4. Set of for the Annapolis Races. Dined and lodged at Mr. Boucher's.
Jacky Custis accompanied GW on this trip to the races (LEDGER B, 60).
5. Reachd Annapolis. Dined at the Coffee House with the Jocky Club & lodgd at the Govrs. after going to the Play.
6. Dined at Majr. Jenifers--went to the Ball and Suppd at the Govrs.
The four days of racing began this morning at 11:00. The Maryland Gazette expected "good Sport, as a great Number of Horses are already come from the Northward and Southward, to start for the different Purses." GW lost £1 6d. on this year's races (LEDGER B, 60). The ball was held at the Assembly House, "Tickets for Gentlemen [priced] at a Dollar each (without which they cannot possibly be admitted)" ( Md. Gaz., 1 Oct. 1772).
Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer in a portrait by John Hesselius. (National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.)
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7. Dined at the Govrs. and went to the Play afterwards.
The plays attended by GW this week were part of the fall season of David Douglass's American Company, which opened in Annapolis 1 Sept. (RANKIN, 166--67).
8. Dined at Colo. Loyds and went to the Play. From thence early to my Lodgings.
Edward Lloyd (1744--1793), of Wye House, Talbot County, Md., was the son of Edward Lloyd (d. 1770) and Anne Rousby Lloyd. He was a member of the Maryland General Assembly with a handsome town house in Annapolis. He was married to Elizabeth Tayloe, daughter of John Tayloe of Mount Airy in Richmond County, Va.
9. Dined at Mr. Ridouts. Went to the Play & to the Govrs. to Supper.
Playing at the theater today were a new comedy, The West Indian, and a new comic opera, The Padlock ( Md. Gaz., 8 Oct. 1772; RANKIN, 132, 164).
10th. Dined with Mr. Carroll of Carrollton & set out for Mr. Bouchers which place I arrivd at abt. 8 Oclock.
11. Got home to a late Dinner. Jno. Parke Custis came with me found Mrs. Barnes there.
12. Rid to the Ferry, Mill, Doeg Run & Muddy hole Plantns. before Dinner & went into the Neck to run some lines afterwds.
13. Went up to Alexandria & returnd home to Dinner. C[aptain] Posey came.
14. Went into the Neck to lay of some Fencing &ca. Posey went away.
GW today paid Posey £11 11s. 3d. for his right to 3,000 acres of land under the Proclamation of 1763 (LEDGER B, 61).
15. Rid to the Mill &ca.
16. At home all day. Mr. Piper & Mr. Adam came to Dinner and went away afterwards. Captn. McCarty his wife & Son came after Dinnr. & stayd the Night.
Capt. Daniel McCarty and his wife, Sinah Ball McCarty, had one son, Daniel McCarty (1759--1801), who married a daughter of George Mason.
17. They went away after Breakfast. I rid out in the Afternoon to the Mill & Doeg Run.
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18. Dined at Belvoir & returnd.
19. Went up to Court at Alexa. Returnd in the Afternoon.
The court was in session 19--20 Oct., but GW was not recorded among the justices present (Fairfax County Order Book for 1772--74, 131--39, Vi Microfilm).
20. Rid to the Ferry, Mill, Doeg Run & Muddy hole Plantns.
21st. Set of for Williamsburg. Dined at Colchester & lodgd in Dumfries. Mrs. Washington Mr. & Miss Custis with me.
22. Reachd Fredericksburg to Dinner. Lodgd at Colo. Lewis's.
23. Dined at Caroline Court House and reachd Hubbards in the Afternoon. Founderd two of my Horses.
24. Reachd Todds Bridge to Breakfast & Colo. Bassets in the Evening.
Captn. Crawford came there to Dinner.
25. Assisting Crawford with his Surveys.
William Crawford had returned from the Ohio country with 13 surveys totaling 127,899 acres out of the 200,000 acres of bounty land promised in 1754 by Governor Dinwiddie to soldiers and officers of the Virginia Regiment. Crawford and GW were now preparing to enter the surveys and have patents issued to the various officers and men, or to their survivors (receipt for surveys from Thomas Everard, 13 Nov. 1772, ICHi).
26. About the same business day also.
27. On the same business.
28. Still employed in the same Work.
29. Ditto--Ditto.
30. Ditto--Ditto.
31. Went a fox hunting & killed a Fox in Compa. with sevl. others.
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Acct. of the Weather in Octr.
Octr. 1. Clear, Calm & pleasant being warm.
2. Very pleasant & warm without any Wind.
3. Such a day as yesterday but rather Warmer.
4. Very lowering with Mists now and then but no Rain.
5. Misting, & sometimes Raining in the forenoon with the wind Eastwardly.
6. Much such a day as yesterday. Misting more or less all day--wind in the same place.
7. Misting & sometimes Raining pretty smartly.
8. Clear & pleasant. Wind Westerly but neither cold nor very fresh.
9. Very pleasant without much wind--that however Westerly.
10. Very pleasant again with but little wind.
11. Cloudy & lowering with the wind westerly but no Rain.
12. Very foggy Morning but clear afterwards.
13th. Clear & very warm with but little Wind & that Southerly.
14. Much such a day as yesterday.
15. Clear, Calm & pleasant with but little Wind.
16. Very pleasant & clear with but very little Wind.
17. Just such a day as Yesterday.
18. Such a day as yesterday. Wind a little fresher from the Southward.
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19. Warm & pleasant with but little Wind. In the Eveng. a black Cloud with thunder & Lightning but little Rain.
20. Warm & pleasant in the Afternoon another black Cloud with Thunder--Lightning & Rain--which cleard away with a high No. West Wind.
21. Clear with the Wind high from the No. West all day.
22. Calm and pleasant being moderately Cool.
23. Clear, calm, and very Warm.
24. Exceeding warm with very little Wind and that Southerly.
25. Still Warm, but Cloudy with Rain at Night and the Wind Easterly.
26. Wind fresh from the same point with more or less Rain all day.
27. Much such a day as the preceeding one.
28. Not much unlike yesterday. Wind in the same Quarter now & then Raining.
29. Still lowering with the Wind Easterly.
30. Wind high from the Westward with squally Clouds & now then Rain.
31. Clear, & pleasant with but little Wind & that Southerly.
Remarks & Occurs. in Octr.
Octr. 7. Finished getting and Securing my Fodder at the Ferry Plantn.
8. Turnd the Water into My Mill Race this day finishing cleansing it out.
10. Finishd Securing my Fodder at the Mill.
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12. Finished Do. at Muddy hole & Doeg Run.
13. Also finishd Do. in the Neck.
Where & how my time is Spent
Novr. 1st. At Colo. Bassetts all day.
2. Went to Williamsburg in Company with Captn. Crawford. Dined at Southalls & went to Mr. Baylor's Ball in the Evening.
In town GW lodged with Edward Charlton, while the rest of the family remained at Eltham (LEDGER B, 62; CUSTIS ACCOUNT BOOK). John Baylor (1750--1808) was the eldest son of Col. John Baylor (1705--1772), of Newmarket, Caroline County (CAMPBELL [1], 218; MEADE [1], 2:464--65).
3. Breakfasted, Dined & Suppd at the Governors.
4. Dined at the Speakers and Supped at Mrs. Vobes.
Jane Vobe had changed her mind about leaving Williamsburg, and by February of this year had opened a tavern called the King's Arms, across the street from the Raleigh, in the house where John Carter had been living ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 6 Feb. 1772). She remained in business there until about 1785.
In the council today was presented a petition that GW had prepared on behalf of himself and veterans of the Virginia Regiment, renewing his arguments for allowing the veterans more than 20 surveys for their 200,000 acres and asking the councillors "to direct in what manner Patents ought to issue for the Lands already surveyed." The latter business was postponed until 6 Nov., but the request for more surveys was rejected without further consideration (VA. EXEC. JLS., 6:510, petition of GW and Virginia Regiment to Lord Dunmore and Virginia council, Oct. 1772, PPRF).
5. Dined with the Council. Spent the Evening in my own Room.
6. Took a Cold Cut at Southalls & went up to Colo. Bassetts.
On this day GW appeared before the council and presented a plan that he had devised for apportioning the 127,899 acres of veterans' bounty lands already surveyed. Although the council had set the quantity of each claimant's land the previous year, there remained the more complex problem of giving everyone equal quality of land. The council accepted GW's solution to the problem and authorized issuance of patents according to his plan. But
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before the council rose, GW promised that if objections about the equity of distribution were raised at a meeting of veterans scheduled for Fredericksburg on 23 Nov. or "any Reasonable time after," he would "give up all his Interest" in the 20,147 acres allotted as his share "and submit to such Regulations" as the council might think proper (VA. EXEC. JLS., 6:513--14; FREEMAN, 3:298--300).
7. Busy with Captn. Crawford all day.
GW today paid Crawford £31 15s., the balance due to him from the veterans of the Virginia Regiment (LEDGER B, 36, 61).
8. At Colo. Bassetts all day.
9. Ditto--Ditto.
10. Rid up with Mr. Hill to Rockahock, & Plantations, in New Kent; & returnd, after Dining with Mrs. Chamberlayne, to Colo. Bassetts at Night. Mr. Custis went with me.
James Hill of King William County had become steward of the Custis estates on 17 Mar. of this year, succeeding Joseph Valentine, who had died 7 Dec. 1771 (agreement of GW with Hill, 17 Mar. 1772, MH). Although Hill was now living on some of the Custis land near Williamsburg, he retained his own plantation of about 640 acres in King William (William Dandridge to GW, 21 Dec. 1771, DLC:GW; LEE [3], 327).
11. Went with Mr. Custis over to Claibornes & returnd to Dinnr.
12. Went to Williamsburg with Mrs. Washington Mr. & Miss Custis lodged at Mrs. Amblers also dined there & spent the evening at Mrs. Vobes.
Although GW and Jacky stayed this night in Mrs. Ambler's house, they apparently lodged at Edward Charlton's place for the remainder of their visit, leaving the ladies to continue lodging with Mrs. Ambler (LEDGER B, 62; CUSTIS ACCOUNT BOOK; receipt from Edward Charlton, Nov. 1772, ViHi: Custis Papers).
13th. Dined at Mrs. Dawsons & went to a Ball at the Apollo [Room, Raleigh Tavern] in the Evening.
14. Dined with Mrs. Ambler & Spent the Evening at the Coffee House.
On 23 Jan. 1772 an anonymous advertisement appeared in Purdie and Dixon's Virginia Gazette, informing the public that "PRIVATE LODGINGS may be had for seven or eight Gentlemen, during the Assembly, at the Coffeehouse,
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Washington's trips to Williamsburg included many visits to the Raleigh Tavern. (Colonial Williamsburg Photograph)
near the Capitol." This coffeehouse is probably the one "in the main Street" that Mrs. Campbell had briefly occupied before moving to Waller Street and possibly the one that Richard Charlton had operated as a tavern during the late 1760s ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 16 May 1771; see main entries for 4 May 1768 and 2 May 1771). In the fall of 1774 John Webb of Halifax, N.G., advertised "For SALE That valuable and well situated Lot in Williamsburg where the Coffeehouse is now kept," but it apparently was not sold until 1777 or later ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 13 Oct. 1774 and P, 26 Sept. 1777).
15. Dined and Spent the Evening at the Speakers.
16. Dined at Mrs. Amblers & Spent the Evening there also after setting a while with Colo. Bassett at Mrs. Dawsons.
Among the expenses that GW recorded in his ledger under this date were 7s. 6d. for "seeing Wax work" and 11s. 6d. for a "Puppit Shew" (LEDGER B, 61).
17. Rid to the Plantations under Mr. Hill near Town & dined at Southalls.
18. In my own Room setling Mr. Hills Accts. all Dinner time--but spent the Evening at Anderson's.
19. Dined at Mrs. Dawson's and Spent the Evening in my own Room a writing.
20. Set out about two Clock for Colo. Bassetts.
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GW was obliged to leave Williamsburg today in order to be present in Fredericksburg for the meeting of the Virginia Regiment, scheduled three days later. He left with some reluctance, because he had not been able to finish his personal business in Williamsburg "by reason of the late coming in of the merchants" (GW to Charles M. Thruston, 12 Mar. 1773, DLC:GW; Va. Gaz., P&D, 12 Nov. 1772).
21. Left Colo. Bassetts on my return home. Dined at King William Court House and lodged at Mr. Hubbards.
22. Breakfasted at Hubbards, and reachd Fredericksburg about 4 Oclock. Lodgd at Colo. Lewis's.
23. At Fredericksburg--attending the Intended meeting of Officers at Captn. Weedens.
Besides GW, six officers were present or represented at this meeting. Learning of GW's recent actions on behalf of the veterans, they warmly thanked him for his efforts and approved his distribution of the surveyed lands as an equitable one. He should, they recommended, be excused from his offer to sacrifice his own bounty lands in case of a redivision (resolves and statement of officers of the Virginia Regiment, 23 Nov. 1772, H. Bartholomew Cox). The council considered this recommendation on 9 Dec. and agreed that if no complaints were received by June, GW would be released from his promise (VA. EXEC. JLS., 6:516; FREEMAN, 3:302--3).
24. On the same business all day and at the same place.
25. Still in Fredericksburg.
26. Rid over the River to my Plantation's & examind the Land at the upper place.
All of the "tillable & Pasture Land" of the Ferry Farm had now been let by Fielding Lewis to James Hunter, Sr., and William Fitzhugh, both of whom had quarters adjoining the Ferry Farm (GW to Hugh Mercer, 11 April 1774, DLC:GW).
27. Set of from Fredericksburg & reachd Colo. Henry Lees where we lodged.
GW today recorded paying his mother £15 cash in the presence of his sister Betty (LEDGER B, 45, 62).
28. Stayed at Colo. Lees all day.
29. Reachd home to Dinner.
30. At home all day--writing.
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Acct. of the Weather in Novr.
Novr. 1. Clear, very Warm, & but little wind--that Southerly.
2. Clear & warm in the forenoon with Rain in the Afternoon, after which clear & Cool.
3. Clear & pleasant, being somewhat cool Wind Westerly.
4. Rather Warmer than Yesterday with some appearances of Rain.
5. Very Cool Wind fresh from the Westward & clear.
6. Clear, but not so cool as yesterday. Evening a little lowerg.
7. Lowering all day, with a little Rain now and then.
8. Still lowering in the forenoon & warm--clear afterwards.
9. Clear and pleasant with but little Wind & that Southerly.
10. Clear and Pleasant with but little Wind & that Southerly.
11. Wind Easterly & pretty fresh in the forenoon but calm & warm also clear in the forenoon.
12. Clear & warm in the forenoon but cool, cloudy & a good deal of Rain afterwards with high So. Westerly Winds.
13. A little Rain, with flying Clouds & high Wind from the Westward.
14th. Clear & somewhat Cool Wind still pretty fresh from the same quarter.
15. Cold & raw wind getting to the Northwest.
16. Very Cold, with appearances of falling Weather, wind at Northwest.
17. Wind fresh from the same Point and very cold but clear.
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18. Very hard frost, but pleasant afterwards, with the Wind moderate, & more Southerly.
19. Very pleasant with but little Wind & that Southerly.
20. Pleasant forenoon & clear after the fog broke away which was very heavy.
21. Foggy Morning, but clear and pleasant afterwards.
22. Cloudy, with Rain more or less all day.
23. Much such a day as yesterday Wind being at No. Et. all day.
24. Weather as the day before but the Rain rather more constt.
25. Still Raining more or less Wind in the same Quarter.
26. Clear Morning but Cloudy and unsettled afterwards.
27. Clear and very pleasant with but little Wind.
28. Remarkably pleasant & Calm in the forenoon--but lowering before Sunset, with the Wind spring[ing] up fresh from South, & Shifting more Easterly. In the Night blew a mere hurricane & was attended by a good deal of Rain.
29. Clear after the Morning with the Wind high--from the South & West.
30. Windy and Cold.
Where & how my time is Spent
Decr. 1st. At home all day a Writing to Williamsburg.
Most of GW's two days of writing was in regard to the bounty lands, including his final reports sent to the council in Williamsburg.
2. At home all day. Messrs. Dulany & Tilghman came at Dinner time, & stayd all Night.
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3. Went a Fox hunting, found one in Mr. G. Alexanders Pocoson & killd it after 3 hours chase. In the Afternoon Mr. B. Fairfax and Mr. Wagener came here.
4. Went a hunting again but found nothing. Mr. Wagener & Messrs. Tilghman & Dulany went home in the Afternoon.
5. Went a hunting with Mr. Fairfax. Found a Fox between Edd. William's & Johnsons which we lost after a Chase of two hours.
Edward Williams became GW's tenant in 1760 when GW bought the Clifton's Neck land. Williams was still there in 1786, when he was listed for tax purposes as having 12 whites and no blacks (LEDGER A, 113; LEDGER B, 19; HEADS OF FAMILIES, VA., 17).
6. Mr. Fairfax went away after breakfast, & Mr. Jno. Fitzhugh of Marmion came in the Afternoon.
JNO. FITZHUGH OF MARMION: possibly the son of William Fitzhugh (1725--1791) of Marmion in the old Chotank neighborhood. Another John Fitzhugh, son of Maj. John Fitzhugh (d. 1733) of Marmion, had died earlier in the year.
7. Mr. Fitzhugh went away abt. 12 Oclock. I rid to the Ferry Plantation before Dinner.
8. Rid over Muddy hole, Doeg Run, & Mill Plantations before Dinner. In the Eveng. my Brothrs. Jno. g: Chas. & Mr. Jno. Smith came.
John Smith is probably John Smith (1750--1836), son of John Smith of Cabin Point. By this time the elder Smith's lands, Fleets Bay plantation in Northumberland County and a large tract in Gloucester County, had been sold to satisfy the enormous debts of his estate, and in 1773 young John, with his brother Edward Smith (1752--1826), moved to Frederick County, settling near Winchester ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 6 Aug. 1772; TYLER [2], 95--100).
9. Went into the Neck abt. 11 Oclock a fox hunting. Touchd the Drag where we found the last but did not move the Fox.
10. At home all day.
11. My Brothr. Jno. set of homewards Mr. Smith to Frederick. I accompanied him as far as Alexa. from whence I returnd in the Afternoon--Mr. Dulany--Doctr. Brown & Mr. Brown with me.
12. Doctr. Brown went away abt. 12 Oclock & Mr. Brown after Dinner.
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13. My Brother Chas. returnd home very Early this Morning and Mr. Dulany went up to Alexa. after Breakfast.
14. Went into the Neck on foot crossing the Creek with a Gun. Captn. McCarty & his Bro. Thadeus, & a Dutch Minister Dined here.
Thaddeus McCarty (c.1737--1812), of Loudoun County, was the youngest of the three sons of Denis and Sarah Ball McCarty of Cedar Grove, and hence a brother of GW's neighbor Capt. Daniel McCarty. Thaddeus married Sarah Elizabeth Richardson in 1768.
15. Went a Hunting & found two Foxes both of which were killd, but only one got, the Dogs running out of hearg. with the 2d.; found these Foxes on the Hills by Isaac Gates's.
The Isaac Gates family lived southwest of Mount Vernon. Gates occasionally used the services of GW's blacksmith and weavers, paying for them with chickens and eggs. In 1782 he was listed for tax purposes as having six whites and no blacks (DIARIES, 2:89, n.1; LEDGER A, 87; HEADS OF FAMILIES, VA., 18).
16. Mr. Val. Crawford who came yesterday went away this day. At home all day.
17. Govr. Eden & Mr. Custis came here to Dinner & Mr. Geo. Digges after Dinner.
18. Mr. Boucher, his Wife & Sister came to Dinner.
GW means Boucher's unmarried sister Jane (1742--1794), who lived in her brother's household (BOUCHER [1],200).
19. Mr. William Digges & his four Daughters came as also a Mr. B. Buckner who hot. Flour of me.
William Digges's will written in 1780 mentions four daughters: Theresa, Ann, Jane, and Elizabeth. Two other daughters are known: Susannah who died young and Mary who died single (BOWIE, 255; RAMSBURGH, 130--31). Baldwin Mathews Buckner (d. 1778) and his brother John Buckner (d. 1790), both of Gloucester County, were in partnership in the West Indies trade. Their younger brother Mordecai Buckner of Spotsylvania County, had served under GW in the Virginia Regiment (LEDGER B, 65; BUCKNERS, 154--58).
20. All the above Company here all day.
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21. The whole went over to Mr. Digges's. Mrs. Washington, myself &ca. went with them & stayd all Night.
Today William Shaw inspected 300 barrels of flour for GW and was credited with £1 17s. 6d. in fees (LEDGER B, 58).
22. Returnd home early in the Morning, & went up to Alexa. to Court. Came back in the Aftern.
The court met 21--22 Dec., but GW was not recorded present. On the previous day the justices had registered GW's brand for his flour, "G: WASHINGTON," in accordance with the act passed during the last session of the assembly (Fairfax County Order Book for 1772--74, 158--65, Vi Microfilm; see main entry for 3 April 1772).
23. Went a Hunting but found nothing. In the Evening Colo. Fairfax came.
On this day Baldwin Buckner, on behalf of himself and his brother John, contracted with GW to buy 300 barrels of "Superfine Flour & Cask" for £300 13s., to be paid the following April at the meeting of merchants in Williamsburg (LEDGER B, 65).
24. At home all day. After breakfast Mr. Buckner went away as Colo. Fairfax did after Dinr.
25. Went to Pohick Church and returnd to Dinner. Found Mr. Tilghman here.
26th. At home all day with Mr. Tilghman.
27. At home all day. Mr. Tilghman went away after Breakfast.
28. Went out a hunting. Found a fox back of Captn. Darrells & killd it. Doctr. Rumney & a Lieutt. Winslow Dind here the former stayd all Night.
29. Doctr. Rumney stayd all day & Night. To Dinner Came Mr. Wren, Mr. Cart, & Mr. Addison the former of whom went away.
Mr. Wren is probably James Wren (d. 1808) of Fairfax County, who supplied the building plans for Pohick Church (SLAUGHTER [1], 70). Mr. Carr is probably either Overton Carr or his father, John Carr (1706--1778), of Bear Castle, Louisa County. Mr. Addison may be Rev. Henry Addison or any one of the three sons of his brother John Addison (1713--1764) of Oxon Hill: Thomas, John, or Anthony Addison.
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30. Went a Hunting but found nothing. Messrs. Addison & Carr dining here--as did Mr. Manley.
31. Mr. Magowan came here Yesterday in the Afternoon & this day with Messrs. Carr & Addison went up after Dinner to Alexa.
Acct. of the Weather in Dec.
Decr. 1st. Cloudy & like for Falling weather; being also Cold.
2. Clear in the forenoon but Cloudy & cold afterwards.
3. Clear & calm in the forenoon but Wind fresh from the Northward abt. Midday--which died away in the Afternoon.
4. Clear and Calm in the Morning, but Winday afterwards from the Northwest.
5. Calm & Cold Morning, & very Cold day. Wind hard from the Northwest.
6. Very like for Snow in the Morning with the Wind at South. Afternoon clear but still Cold.
7. Clear and pleasant with but little Wind & that Southerly.
8. Clear & warm with the Wind in the same Quarter.
9. The forenoon quite calm, warm & pleasant. Afternoon a little more Windy from the Southward.
10. Much such a day as yesterday being very pleasant.
11. Very pleasant, but somewhat Cooler. Wind Northwardly.
12. Clear, Calm, & very pleasant.
13. Wind pretty fresh from the Southwest & very lowering.
14. Clear and very pleasant, with little or no wind & that Southerly.
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15. Tolerably, but a little Cloudy in the forenoon & calm, wind fresh from the Eastward in the Afternoon with Rain all Nig[ht].
16. Raining in the forenoon but clear afterwards & pleasant.
17. Very pleasant, being Mild and little Wind.
18. Wind Eastwardly & Raining more or less all day.
19. Misting Raining, & Foggy all day with but little Wind.
20. Much such a day as yesterday, but not quite so wet & bad.
21. Exceeding pleasant with but little Wind from the Southwd. & Clear.
22. Wind Southerly and pleasant, being clear.
23. Wind pretty fresh from the Northwest but not Cold.
24. But little Wind, & that Easterly with Rain more or less all Day.
25. Moderate, & tolerably clear in the forenoon. Afternoon Lowering with a good deal of Rain in the Night.
26. More or less Rain all day with the Wind Easterly.
27. Raining this day also with variable Winds which sometimes was pretty fresh from the No. West.
28. Calm and very pleasant Morning. Wind pretty fresh from the So. West afterwards.
29. Clear, Calm, & pleasant all day with but little Wind.
30. Calm and pleasant in the Morning. A good deal of Wind from the Westward afterwards.
31. Calm, Clear, & pleasant all day.
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The following is the opinion of the late Lord Chanceller Cambden, and Chanceller York, on Titles derivd by the Kings Subjects from the Indians or Natives.
"In respect to such places as have been, or shall be acquired by Treaty or Grant from any of the Indian Princes, or Governments, your Majestys Letters Patents are not necessary, the Property of the Soil, vesting in the Grantee by the Indian Grants, Subject only to your Majestys Right of Sovereignty over the Settlements, and over the Inhabitants as English Subjects who carry with them, your Majestys Laws wherever they form Colonies, and receive your Majestys Protection, by Virtue of your Royal Chartres."
OPINION OF THE LATE LORD CHANCELLOR CAMBDEN: In 1757 the East India Company had requested an opinion from Charles Pratt, first Earl Camden, and Charles Yorke, two prominent English jurists, on the validity of land grants acquired in India from native rulers. The Camden-Yorke opinion, upholding the validity of such grants, was clearly intended to apply only to company grants in India. In 1772, however, the opinion was resurrected by agents of the Vandalia Company and bowdlerized versions, such as the one quoted here by GW, were widely circulated in America to give substance to the claims of land speculators that purchases from Indian tribes were valid without sanction from the crown (LIVERMORE, 106--7; ABERNETHY, 116).
Sales of the Pews in Alexandria Church--to whom--&ca.
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The new church at Alexandria was formally presented to the Fairfax vestry on 27 Feb. 1773 (POWELL, 87). By that date GW had paid the £36 10s. for his pew, and all of the pews were ready for use. But he was disturbed to learn that some of the vestrymen were proposing to refund the purchasers' money and reclaim the pews as the common property of the parish, paying for them by a general tax on the parishioners. Such action, GW wrote to vestryman John Dalton on 15 Feb. 1773, would be "repugnant . . . to every Idea I entertain of justice . . . and the right of reclaiming the Pews by the Vestry . . . I most clearly deny; therefore, as a Parishioner who is to be sadled with the extra charge of the Subscription Money I protest agt. the Measure. As a Subscriber who meant to lay the foundn. of a Family Pew in the New Church I shall think myself Injurd" (DLC:GW). According to the vestry book, GW was not officially sold a pew in the church until April 1785 (FREEMAN, 6:3, n.11).
The Camden-Yorke opinion and the list of pews in the church in Alexandria are written in the front inside cover of GW's 1773 almanac.
TOWNSD. DADE: There were at least five Townshend Dades living at this time and their genealogies appear to be hopelessly confused and contradictory. This is probably Townshend Dade (d. 1781), the father of Rev. Townshend Dade, Jr., (b. ca. 1748), minister of Fairfax Parish from 1765 to 1778.
Where & how my time is Spent
Jany. 1st. Dined at Belvoir and returnd in the Afternoon. Found Mr. Grafton Dulany, Mr. Ben. Gallaway, Mr. Sam Hanson & Mr. Magowan and Doctr. Rumney here.
Grafton Dulany, son of Mary Grafton and Walter Dulany, the commissary general for Maryland, was a student at Jonathan Boucher's school in Annapolis. He became a Loyalist in the Revolution and served with the Maryland Loyalist Battalion in Florida, where he died in 1778 (LAND, 325). Benjamin Galloway, son of Samuel Galloway of Tulip Hill, Anne Arundel County, Md., lived at Hagerstown, Md. Samuel Hanson, son of Samuel Hanson of Green Hill (b. 1719) and Ann Hawkins Hanson, usually called himself Samuel Hanson of Samuel, in order to distinguish himself from several cousins of the same name. He may have been a student at Boucher's school with Jacky Custis and Grafton Dulany.
2. Doctr. Rumney went away after Breakfast. Lord Sterling Captn. Foy with Colo. Fairfax came to Dinner. The latter went away afterwards. The other Gentlemen stayd.
Capt. Edward Foy was secretary to Lord Dunmore. William Alexander (1726--1783) of New Jersey called himself Lord Stirling, although his claim to a Scottish earldom was disallowed by the House of Commons. He had served as aide and secretary to Gov. William Shirley of Massachusetts during the French and Indian War, and in the coming Revolution he was to serve
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throughout the war as a major general in the Continental Army. Stirling was a man of wealth and social prominence, but for several years he had overextended himself and was currently attempting to solve his financial difficulties by holding a lottery. It was to promote this "Delaware Lottery" that he visited Mount Vernon. He put 60 tickets into GW's hands, 6 of which GW kept himself, 12 were given to Walter Magowan to sell, and 42 were sent, by Stirling's instructions, to James Cocke, mayor of Williamsburg (LEDGER B, 83). The venture, however, was a failure, and Stirling eventually refunded the money to those who had bought tickets. George William Fairfax had written GW earlier to make arrangements for Stirling's and Foy's visit (GW to Fairfax, 19 Jan. 1773, DLC:GW).
3. In the Afternoon Mr. Ben Dulany came here. The other Gentlemen continued all day here.
4. Lord Sterling & Captn. Foy set out after Breakfast for the Northward thro Alexa. to which place I accompanied them. The two Dulanys & Mr. Hanson allso went away after Breakfast.
5. Mr. Gallaway went away. Mr. Magowan & I went a Hunting. Found a fox on Ackatinck just by Lawson Parkers and lost it. In the Afternoon Mr. Dulany came.
Lawson Parker was listed as head of a household of six whites in Fairfax County in 1782 (HEADS OF FAMILIES, VA., 18). His wife, Mrs. Dorcas (or Dorchas) Parker, sometimes acted as a midwife to GW's slaves (LEDGER B, 91, 149, 156).
6. The 4 Mr. Digges's came to Dinner also Colo. Fairfax, Colo. Burwell Messrs. Tilghman, Brown, Piper, Adam, Muir, Herbert, Peake, and Doctr. Rumney all of whom stay'd all Night except Mr. Peake.
The four Mr. Diggeses were probably Ignatius Digges of Melwood, William Digges of Warburton, and William's two sons, George and Dr. Joseph Digges. Mr. Brown may be Bennett Browne (Brown), who had business dealings with James Tilghman, Jr., of Alexandria (LEDGER B, 79). There was a merchant of this name in Urbanna, near the Rappahannock River ( Va. Gaz., P&D, 9 June 1775). William Herbert (1743--1818), merchant of Alexandria, emigrated from Ireland to Virginia c.1770. Herbert married Sarah Carlyle, eldest daughter of John Carlyle by his first wife, Sarah Fairfax Carlyle.
The large host of dinner and house guests who descended upon Mount Vernon this day may have been celebrating Twelfth Night and Twelfth Day.
7. All the above Company went away before Dinner except Doctr. Rumney & Mr. Magowan who both went afterwards.
8. I rid to Muddy hole, & into the Neck before Dinner. Captn. McCarty Dined here, & Mr. Magowan lodged.
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9. Mr. Magowan returnd to Maryland. I went a Hunting. Found a Fox near Timber Landing & lost it near Mrs. French's.
Penelope French's home, Rose Hill, was on the Fairfax Rolling Road, or Back Road, between the upper reaches of Dogue Run and Pike Branch (STETSON [1], 102).
10. At home all day. Mr. Geo. Digges Messrs. David & Chas. Stewart--Mr. Danl. Carrol Junr. & Mr. Richmond dind & lodged here.
Charles Steuart (1750--1802) and David Steuart (1751--1814) were sons of Dr. George Steuart, of Annapolis, and Ann Digges Steuart. Charles later married Benedict Calvert's oldest daughter, Elizabeth. Daniel Carroll, Jr. (d. 1790), was the son of Commissioner Daniel Carroll (1730--1796) of Rock Creek, in Frederick County, Md., and his wife, Elizabeth Carroll of Duddington. In 1776 he married Elizabeth Digges (1753--1845), daughter of William Digges of Warburton.
Mr. Richmond is probably Christopher Richmond of Maryland, who in 1785 was a member of the Potomac Company. He was also at that time auditor of Maryland.
11. Went a Hunting with the above Gentlemen. Found a Fox by Gilbt. Simpsons & killd him by Mrs. Frenchs. Mr. P. Pendleton & Mr. M. Campbell dined & lodgd here the others went away.
Philip Pendleton either no longer wanted or could not afford the parcel of land near Bullskin Run that GW had agreed to sell him 6 June 1771, because about this time he transferred his right to buy it to GW's brother Samuel (LEDGER B, 22, 36). Pendleton had not paid any part of the purchase price or the interest due, and Samuel would prove to be too impoverished to pay. Reluctant to press his brother on the matter, GW eventually allowed Samuel to keep the land and wrote off the debt (GW to David Stuart, 21 Sept. 1794, PHi: Dreer Collection).
12. At home all day, Mr. Peake dind here, who with Mr. Campbell went away afterwards.
13. Went into the Neck in the forenoon to lay of a Fence at Hallerys.
HALLERYS: GW probably means Samuel Halley (Haley), who had married John Sheridine's (d. 1768) widow, Barberry. Halley and his wife still lived in Clifton's Neck on the land her father-in-law, John Sheridine of Charles County, Md., rented from GW.
14. Mr. Pendleton went away after Breakfast. I rid up to Alexandria. Dind with Mr. Robt. Adam & returnd.
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15. Rid to the Ferry, Mill, & Mill Plantation before Dinner writing afterwards.
16. Rid into the Neck, to the Mill and Muddy hole.
17. At home all day alone. Mrs. Barnes went up to Alexandria.
18. At home all day alone.
19. At home all day alone.
20. At home all day alone.
21. Ditto. Ditto. In the Afternoon Doctr. Rumney came & stayd all Night.
22. At Home all day, Doctr. Rumney continuing here.
23. Doctr. Rumney went away after Breakfast. I went by the Mill to Doeg Run Plantation to lay of a fence there. Returnd to Dinner--Abedo. Adams here.
24. At home all day alone.
25. Went a hunting, & found a Fox upon the Hills by Edd. Wathings which run near 4 hours & was either killd or treed--but the wind blewing fresh we were thrown out & coud only judge from Circumstances. Came home to Dinner & found Doctr. Rumney here who stayd all Night.
Edward Wathing (Wathen) made shoes at various times for GW's slaves and in return had work done at GW's blacksmith shop (LEDGER B, 77).
26. Doctr. Rumney continued here all day. In the forenoon I rid to the Mill & returnd to Dinnr.
27. At home all day Doctr. Rumney continuing here this day also.
28. After breakfast Doctr. Rumney returning home I rid to Muddy hole Doeg Run, Mill, & Ferry Plantations.
29. At home all day alone.
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30. Went a Fox hunting with Lund Washington. Took the drag of a Fox by Isaac Gates, & carrd. it tolerably well to the old Glebe then touchd now & then upon a Cold Scent till we came into Colo. Fairfax's Neck where we found about half after three upon the Hills just above Accotinck Creek. After running till quite Dark took of the Dogs & came home.
The old glebe was located on the Colchester-Alexandria road, along a branch of Accotink Creek. The 300-acre tract was bought from John Heryford in 1734 as a glebe for Truro Parish and in 1737 the vestry contracted for the building of a mansion house on the land. In 1752, however, the vestry sold this land and instead bought an adjoining tract of 176 acres from Rev. Charles Green to use as its new glebe (SLAUGHTER [1], 12, 29; Fairfax County Deeds, Book C-1, 362--63, Vi Microfilm).
Fairfax's Neck, or Belvoir Neck, was the neck of land between Dogue and Accotink creeks, where Belvoir was located.
31. At home all day alone.
Account of the Weathr. in Jan.
Jany. [1.] Calm, clear, & exceeding pleasant.
2. Calm & very pleasant in the Forenoon with Wind, Clouds, & Rain from the Southward & Eastward in the Afternoon.
3. Clear with the Wind pretty fresh first from the Southwest, & then from the Northwest. But neither Cold nor frosty.
4. A little Cool, but not frozen in the Morning. Clear, calm & pleasant afterwards.
5. Ground not frozen. Morning Cloudy & Calm--clear and Windy, but not cold afterwds.
6. Remarkable White frost, but Calm, clear and pleasant afterwards till the Evening when it clouded up & began to Rain.
7. Misty Morning but clear afterwards, with the Wind fresh from the South.
8. No Frost. Calm in the Forenoon Windy from the Westward afterwds. clear all day.
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9. Very white frost & ground pretty hard froze. Wind after 10 Oclock fresh from the Southward.
10th. Lowering Morning. Clear Midday & Raining in the Evening with but little Wind & that Southerly.
11. Ground a little frozen. Clear & Calm day.
12. Wind fresh from the So. Wt. in the forenoon. Then shifting to the No. West blew hard but moderated towards Night. Clear all D[ay].
13. Lowering Morning & very like for Snow--ground hard froze. Afterwards clear. Wind South.
14. Raining more or less all day. Wind Easterly. Ground froze.
15. Ground froze--day clear & Cold. Wind very hard from the No. West.
16. Ground very hard froze--but calm and moderate after the Morning.
17. Wind Shifting to the No. West in the Night it turnd exceeding cold froze the ground very hard & shut up the Creeks. Thawd very little all day.
18. Very piercing. The River allmost froze over but opend with the Wind wch. contd. Northerly thawd none.
19. More moderate; the Wind getting Southerly but thawd little--lowering in the Evening.
20. A Sleet till the Afternoon, with the wind (tho not much of it) at No. East. After that thawing and foggy--quite Calm.
21. A little Snow in the Night--ground about an Inch thick in the Morning. Variable Weather in the forenoon but clear afterwards with the Wind No. of West but neitr, hard nor cold.
22. Ground hard froze, fore part of the day Cold, Wind at No. West. Latter part calm, clear and more moderate.
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23. Ground very hard froze again and day variable--sometimes threatning snow--then promising to be fair and warm. Wind for the Most part Easterly but not much of it.
24. Ground very hard frozen. But little wind all day & that Easterly; with Rain now and then all the Afternoon. Evening moderate.
25. Ground froze again, but afterwards thawd--notwithstanding the Wind blew fresh from No. West till the Eveng.--clear all day.
26. Wind Southerly, & day moderate, but cloudy and lowering.
27. Raining very slow, and moderately all the forenoon, and ceasd about Noon. No wind all day, and Warm. No frost in the Morning it beginning to Rain in the Night.
28. No Frost. Very warm all day. Wind blew very fresh from the Southward which veer'd round to the Northwest before Morning & turnd very cold.
29. Exceeding cold--ground very hard froze & the Wind blowing very hard from the Northwest till the Evening when it lulld.
30. Ground very hard froze & thin Ice almost over the whole River. Day moderate with but little Wind & that Southerly.
31. Wind Southerly, all day & towards the Evening fresh. Cloudy more or less all the day.
Where, how, or with whom, my time is Spent
Feby. 1. At home all day. In the Afternoon Mr. Bryan Fairfax came here & Stayd all Night--as did three Travellers going to Maryland.
2. Mr. Fairfax & I went out with the hounds. Touchd upon the Drag of the Run[nin]g Fox upon the Hills just above Wathings but it being cold, as the day also was, we took the Dogs of and came home.
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3. Went out again and touchd upon a Fox upon the Hills by Gates's & found another in Colo. Fairfax's Neck abt. 2 Oclock which was killd after an hours chace. This Fox was found upon the Hills.
4. At home all day with Mr. Fairfax.
5. Mr. Fairfax went away. I continued in the House all day a Writing.
6. Rid into the Neck, and taking the Hounds with me, after being at the Plantns. found a fox between the two which was killd in ¾ of an hour.
7. At home all day alone.
8. Doctr. Rumney came to Dinr. and stayd all Night. I contd. at home all day.
9th. Doctr. Rumney continued all day, & Night. After an early Dinner I set of to Mr. Robt. Alexanders upon Fox hunting Party & in the Afternoon, Young Mr. Danl. Dulany Revd. Mr. Montgomerie, Mr. Tilghman & Jno. Custis came here & stayd all [night].
This Daniel Dulany (1750--1824) was called Daniel Jr. or Daniel III and was the son of Daniel Dulany the younger (1722--1797) and Rebecca Tasker Dulany of Hunting Ridge near Baltimore. He was educated in England and returned to Maryland about 1770, where he began to practice law in his father's Annapolis office. Having strong Loyalist feelings, Dulany left Maryland for England on 17 July 1775. There he remained for the rest of his life, except for a brief visit to America in 1785. His property in Maryland was confiscated (LAND, 192, 309--65).
John Montgomery was at this time minister at St. Anne's, sometimes called Middle Neck, Parish in Anne Arundel County, Md. During the Revolution he and his wife, Margaret Dulany Montgomery, daughter of Walter and Mary Grafton Dulany, fled to England.
This whole party of young people was undoubtedly on its way to Benjamin Dulany's wedding, which took place on 10 Feb. at the bride's home, Rose Hill, near Mount Vernon. A newspaper announced the marriage of "Benjamin Dulany, Esquire, of Maryland, to Miss FRENCH, of Fairfax county, with a fortune of twenty thousand pounds" ( Va. Gaz., R, 11 Mar. 1773).
10. Found a Fox in Mr. Phil. Alexanders Island which was lost after a chase of 7 hour's.
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Philip Alexander (d. 1790) lived on an island in the Potomac River which was part of the 904 acres left him by his father, Gerard Alexander (Fairfax County Wills, Book B-1, 327, Vi Microfilm). The island, just north of Four Mile Run, contained 302 acres (STETSON [1], facing p. 10). Commonly called Alexander's Island, it had earlier been known as Holmes Island.
11. Found a fox in the same place again which was killd at the end of 6 hours after wch. I came home & found Mr. Dulany & Mr. Custis here.
12. At home all day Mr. Dulany continuing here.
13. Still at home. Mr. Dulany & Mr. Custis went to Mrs. Frenchs after Breakfast.
The two young men undoubtedly went to visit young Daniel Dulany's brother Ben and his new bride.
14. At home all day alone.
15. Went up to Court, & returnd again in the Afternoon.
The Fairfax court met on 15 and 16 Feb. and GW attended both days, although he arrived late on the second day (Fairfax County Order Book for 1772--74, 166--71, Vi Microfilm).
16. Went up again this day also and returnd in the Afternoon.
17. Went to Colo. Fairfax's to Dinner and returnd again in the afternoon.
18. At home alone all day except one William Thompson's coming abt. a Lott of Land in Fauquier.
From 1772 to 1775 William Thompson rented 115 acres of land in Fauquier County from GW for £4 a year (LEDGER B, 73). This may be the man who visited Mount Vernon with Charles Washington on 17 Feb. 1771.
19th. Rid to the Ferry, Mill, Doeg Run & Muddy hole Plantations before Dinner; at home alone afterwards.
20. Rid in the Forenoon to the Mill & Mill Plantation. Mr. Thomas Hite, & Mr. Wm. Shaw dind here, & went away after it.
Thomas Hite (1750--1779) son of Jacob Hite (d. 1778) and his first wife, Catherine O'Bannion Hite, lived in Berkeley County, Va. He was a justice of the county and a member of the House of Burgesses and later the House of Delegates until his death. In 1776 Hite was one of the trustees for the new
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town of Warm Springs in Berkeley County. He was married to his stepsister, Frances Madison Beale (DU BELLET, 4:336--50; Tyler's Mag., 3:49--50). In 1770 GW had been involved in a legal dispute with Hite (William Grayson to GW, 23 Sept. 1770, PHi: Gratz Collection).
Shaw had inspected 200 barrels of flour for GW on 16 Jan. and 137 on 10 Feb. for fees totaling £2 2s. 1½d. (LEDGER B, 58).
21. At home all day. Mr. Hoops & a Mr. Warton calld here but would not stay dinner--taking a Cut before it.
MR. WARTON: probably a member of the prominent Wharton family of Philadelphia.
A CUT: a lunch or snack.
22. At home all day alone.
23. At home this day also alone.
24. Rid to the Ferry--Mill--Mill Plantn. Doeg Run & Muddy hole. In the Afternoon Mr. Bryan Fairfax & Mr. Robt. Alexander came here.
25. Went a hunting with those Gentlemen, & being joind by the two Mr. Triplets, Mr. Manley, & Mr. Peake all came here to Dinner & Mr. Thos. Triplet stayd all Night. Found a Fox in this Neck but did not kill it.
26. Went a Hunting again with the above Company. Found a Fox in Colo. Fairfax's Neck with part of the Dogs but believe it was not killd. Found Mr. Tilghman here upon our return at Night.
27. Mr. Fairfax--Mr. Tilghman & Mr. Alexander went away after Breakfast. I contind. at home all day alone.
28. At home all day. About Noon Mr. Francis Willis--Mr. Warnr. Washington & my Brothr. Saml. came here.
Acct. of the Weather in Feby.
Feby. 1. Wind shifting in the Night to the No. West blew fresh & turnd Cold especially towards Night.
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2. Ground very hard froze, & River quite shut up. Day somewhat more moderate Wind not blowing hard but coming still from the same Point.
3. Ground very hard froze which thawd but little being Cloudy & like for falling weather all day--with the wind what little there was of it Southerly.
4. Raining more or less all day. Calm all the forenoon. In the Afternoon the wind came out from the No. & No. East.
5. Cloudy Morning with some Snow which had slightly coverd the Ground. More or less Cloudy till the Evening with the Wind at No. West--but not hard.
6. Ground froze in the Morning, but thawd afterwards, being Warm, Calm & pleasant.
7. Ground not froze--day warm & Pleasant till the Evening when the wind coming out from the No. Wt. blew violently, & turnd Cold.
8. Ground very hard froze. Forepart of the day cold & high Wind from the No. Wt. Latter part Calm, & more moderate.
9. Ground froze--but wind getting Southerly it presently turnd warm & thawing.
10. Ground not froze. The day very pleasant till the Evening when the Wind shifted to the No. West & began to freeze.
11. Ground froze again, but the Wind soon getting Southerly it turnd very pleasant.
12. Open Morning, & abt. 9 Oclock perfectly calm. Soon after wch. the Wind came out hard from the No. West and Shifted to the Southwest.
13. Ground hard froze--day Cold. Wind at No. West and fresh.
14. Cold Morning, but more moderate afterwards--being Calm & clear. Grd. hard froze.
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15. Wind, what little there was of it Southerly--day pleasant but ground froze notwithstanding.
16. Very pleasant, clear, & but little Wind which blew from the Southward.
17. Ground a little froze, but soon thawd. Wind however pretty fresh from the No. Wt. in the forenoon but calm afterwards & lowering.
18. Snow about 2 Inches Deep, or more, with the Wind pretty cool from the Northward. Afternoon Calm.
19. Clear and Cool, tho the wind was Southerly--blowing pretty fresh.
20. Clear but not very warm. Wind fresh from the So. West and weather variable. Snow for the most part gone.
21. Wind coming out hard from the No. West in the Night it froze exceedingly & the day very cold Wind continuing fresh from the same Point.
22. Last Night colder by odds than any this year--froze over the River, & every thing in the Cellars; day continuing very Cold--wind still at No. West but not fresh.
23. Weather somewhat more moderate--but still Cold, Wind continuing at No. West & North.
24. Quite calm, clear, and pleasant; Ground which had been froze exceeding hard thawd a little at Top.
25. Day quite Calm, & Cloudy, yet thawing a little--ground being very hard froze in the Morning.
26. A thick fog, or Mist, which continued without Wind & being Cold till the Evening when it set in to Raining.
27. A Good deal of Rain fell in the Night. Morning Misting and day Cloudy--with the Wind at No. West but neither hard nor Cold. Afternoon quite clear & perfectly Calm.
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28. Clear, & remarkably pleasant with the Wind fresh from the Southwest.
Where, how, or with whom my time is Spent.
March 1st. At home all day--in Company with Mr. Willis, Mr. Warner Washington & my Bro. Saml.
2. Set of for Williamsburg abt. 8 Oclock. Dined at Portobacco & Lodged at Laidlers.
Governor Dunmore had summoned the General Assembly to meet in Williamsburg beginning 4 Mar. to deal with problems resulting from a flood of bogus money that had been loosed on the colony by a counterfeiting ring in Pittsylvania County (H.B.J., 1773--76, 6--7; FREEMAN, 3:309--11).
3. Breakfasted at Port Royal, & Supped and Lodged at Todds Bridge.
In Port Royal, GW patronized the tavern run by William Buckner (LEDGER B, 82; CAMPBELL [1], 219, 413).
4. Dined at Doncastles, and got to Williamsburg abt. half an hour by Sun. Lodgd at Mr. Charltons, spending the Eveng. in my own Room alone.
In Dec. 1775 Thomas Doncastle described his tavern as "the noted and well accustomed TAVERN in James City County, about 15 Miles from Williamsburg, on the main Road from said City to New Kent Courthouse, Ruffin's Ferry, and the Brickhouse Ferry" ( Va. Gaz., D&H, 30 Dec. 1775). GW today used Ruffin's ferry to cross the Pamunkey River (LEDGER B, 82).
5. Dined at the Speakers & Spent the Evening there also.
In the House of Burgesses today, GW was appointed to the standing committee of privileges and elections (H.B.J., 1773--76, 10).
6. Dined at the Treasurers & Spent the Evening at Mrs. Campbell's.
7. Dined at the Governors and Spent the Evening at Mrs. Campbells.
GW and Governor Dunmore were planning a trip sometime in the summer to inspect western lands in the Ohio Valley (FREEMAN, 3:317). The House of Burgesses did not meet today, Sunday (H.B.J., 1773--76, 13).
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8. Dined, and Spent the Evening at Mrs. Campbells.
9. Dined at the Attorneys and Spent the Evening in my own Room Writing.
10th. Dined at Mrs. Campbells and Spent the Evening there also.
11. Dined and Spent the Evening in the Club Room at Mrs. Campbells.
12. Did the same.
After passing an act authorizing new treasury notes to replace the colony's current compromised ones, the House of Burgesses today turned its attention to what it perceived as increasing British encroachments upon both English liberty and colonial rights (H.B.J., 1773--76, 26--28). A group of younger burgesses, including Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and Richard Henry Lee, proposed that the house create a committee of correspondence, whose "first measure would be to propose a meeting of deputies from every colony at some central place," as Jefferson later recalled (JEFFERSON [2], 1:8). Sitting as a committee of the whole house, the burgesses drafted a resolution authorizing and appointing an 11-member committee of correspondence and then passed it in open session without dissent (H.B.J., 1773--76, 28). GW was not a member of the committee of correspondence.
13. Dined no where but reachd Colo. Bassetts in the Afternoon on my return home.
On this Saturday the burgesses passed an act making it a felony to counterfeit paper money of other British colonies, but the General Assembly did not finish its business until the following Monday, when it was prorogued by the governor (H.B.J., 1773--76, 31--36; HENING, 8:651--52).
14. Set off about 10 Oclock. Dind at King William Court House and lodgd at Todds Bridge.
15. Breakfasted at Port Royal about 12 Oclock, and lodgd at Mr. Lawe. Washingtons.
16. Breakfasted in Port Tobacco & reachd home abt. 4 Oclock in the Afternoon.
17. At home all day alone.
18. Ditto--Ditto. Except Riding to Muddy hole & the Plantation in the Neck & to sheridines Point where my People were clearing a fishing Landing.
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19. Went a hunting. Found a Fox by Muddy hole Plantation and killd it after a chase of two hours & 3 Quarters.
20. Rid to the Ferry, Mill & Doeg Run Plantations--also to the Mill.
21. At Home all day alone.
22. At Home this day also--alone.
23. Went over to Mr. Wm. Digges's to Dinner, to Meet Govr. Eden who with Mr. Calvert Mr. Digges, Mr. Geo. Digges & Mr. Custis returnd with me. Found Mr. Loyd Dulany here.
GW wrote James Tilghman, Jr., in Alexandria, "I expect Govr. Eden, and some Gentlemen from Maryland here this afternoon. If you are disengaged, I should be glad if you would come down & stay with us a day or two, or as long as they remain" (23 Mar. 1773, NjMoNP).
24. At home with those Gentlemen til the Evening when we went to Mr. Digges's again. Mr. Ben. Dulany also Dind with us.
25. At Mr. Digges's all day.
26. Ditto--Ditto.
27. Returnd home to Breakfast. Mr. Loyd Dulany, and Mr. Geo. Digges with me, at home all the remaining part of the Day.
28th. Went with Mr. Dulany, and Mr. Digges, &ca. to Dine with Mr. Benj. Dulany at Mrs, Frenchs. Returnd again in the Afternoon.
29. Went a hunting with those Gentlemen. Found a Fox by Thos. Baileys & had it killd by Cur Dogs in half an hour. Retd. to Dinner Mr. Manley with us.
Thomas Bailey had worked on GW's millrace in 1770. He also bought corn from GW and had some work done at the Mount Vernon blacksmith shop (LEDGER A, 130).
30. Went a hunting again. Found Nothing. Colo. Fairfax & Mr. Lan. Lee--also Mr. Herbert & Mr. Miller Dined here, the last two stayd all Night.
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Lancelot Lee was George William Fairfax's nephew, the son of his sister Ann Fairfax Washington Lee by her second husband, George Lee of Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland County. MR. MILLER: William Milnor, a Philadelphia merchant who had business connections with William Herbert and was interested in buying fish from GW.
31. Mr. Herbert & Mr. Milner, also Mr. Digges went away before Breakfast--Mr. Dulany continuing.
Acct. of the Weather in Mar.
March 1st. Snowing all the forenoon--Wind being at No. East, which shifting to the No. West blew hard and dispeld the Clouds.
2. Ground a little froze. Day clear & pleasant with but little Wind & that Southerly.
3. A little Raw in the morning, & Cool, tho' the Wind continued in the same place. Afternoon Muddy & like for falling weather.
4. Wind fresh from the Northward & Snowing till about lo Oclock. Afterwards clear, & more moderate, Morning being very Cold & disagreeable.
5. Wind Westerly, Clear, & tolerably pleasant--but Cool.
6. Lowering and like for falling Weather all day. In the Night Rain.
7. Close & heavy Morning--but no Rain. Afternoon clear & pleasant with but little wind.
8. Clear and very pleasant Morning--but somewhat Cooler in the Afternoon Wind Westerly.
9. Lowering Morning & Rainy day. Wind Easterly but not Cold.
10th. Heavy & Cloudy all day, & sometimes a little Rain.
11. Clear and turnd a little Cooler--Wind Westerly.
12. Very pleasant, being Calm clear & warm especially in the Morning.
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13. Raw & Cool with the Wind Easterly and cloudy withal.
14. Raining & Snowing till abt. 10 Oclock a good deal of the former having fallen in the Night. Wind Northerly and Cold.
15. Cloudy & Raw in the forenoon with the Wind still Northerly which shifting Southerly it became warm clear & pleasant.
16. More or less Cloudy all day with the Wind about So. Et. and South.
17th. A good deal of Rain fell last Night. This day variable with some Rain. At length the Wind came to No. Wt. & blew hard.
18. Clear & somewhat Cool. Wind blowing hard at No. West till the Evening when it turnd Calm.
19. Very pleasant--calm & clear in the forenoon--a little Wind from the Southward in the Afternn.
20. Lowering all day and sometimes Raining--with the Wind Southerly, warm, and growing.
21. Wind at North East and Raining more or less all day--in the Evening fast as it had done the Night before.
22. Raining all the forenoon with the Wind fresh from the No. West. Afternoon clear with less Wind thoh. from the same point.
23. Clear and pleasant with very little Wind, and that Southerly.
24. Calm, and Clear in the forenoon--lowering afterwards with the Wind at No. East and pretty fresh.
25th. The Wind having shifted in the Night to No. and No. Westerly, their came on a Most violent Storm, attended with much rain, which did inconceivable damage by the freshes--Many Houses Trees &ca. being blown down. This Storm of Wind & Rain continued with little abatement all this day likewise.
26. Raining ceasd, but the Wind continued to blow very hard at No. West, till Night.
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27. Wind still at No. West, but not much of it. Weather Clear and pleasant.
28. But little Wind and that Southerly. Weather clear & very Warm.
29. Clear, Calm, and very Warm.
30. Lowering all day with some Rain about Noon--the Wind being pretty fresh from the Southward.
31. Clear and pleasant with very little Wind.
Where, how, or with whom my time is Spent
April 1st. Rid to my Mill, and Plantations on this side the Creek. Mr. Dulany went away after Breakfast & Colo. Frans. Thornton & his Son came to Dinner & stayd all Night.
Col. Francis Thornton was probably Francis Thornton (d. 1784) of Society Hill, King George County. He was a justice of the peace, colonel of the county militia, and a well-known breeder of horses. He had married Sarah Fitzhugh in 1747 and had two sons, John and William.
2. They with myself &ca. went up to Alexandria to the Genl. Muster & returnd in the Afternoon. One old Wilper came here to Dinner.
John David Woelpper (Wilper), born in Germany, was living in or near Philadelphia at this time. Now about 64 years old, he was asking GW for advice regarding a land grant for his service as a sergeant in GW's Virginia Regiment during the French and Indian War. GW went out of his way to help Woelpper, and the old sergeant returned the favor by giving GW advice on bringing Germans to America to be settled on GW's Ohio Valley lands (see GW to William Milnor, 23 Jan. 1775, DLC:GW; Woelpper to GW, 23 Mar. 1774, DLC:GW).
3. Colo. Thornton & Son went away after Breakfast. Mr. Custis also returnd to Maryld.
Jacky Custis probably carried with him a letter which GW wrote to Benedict Calvert on this date. Having just been apprised that Jacky had contracted a secret engagement to Calvert's daughter Eleanor (Nelly), GW wrote Calvert his feelings on the matter: "I am now set down to write to you on a Subject
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of Importance, & of no small embarrassment to me. My Son in Law [stepson] & Ward, Mr. Custis, has, as I have been informd, paid his Addresses to your Second Daughter, & having made some progress in her Affections required her in Marriage." He then expressed his approval of Nelly, but added firmly that Jacky was too young and inexperienced for marriage and needed to complete his education. "Delivering my Sentiments thus, will not, I hope, lead you into a belief that I am desirous of breaking of the Match--to postpone it, is all I have in view; for I shall recommend it to the young Gentleman with the warmth that becomes a Man of honour (notwithstanding he did not vouchsafe to consult either his Mother, or me, on the occasion) to consider himself as much engaged to your Daughter as if the indissoluble Knot was tied; and as the surest means of effecting this, to stick close to his Studies (in which I flatter myself you will join me) by which he will, in a great measure, avoid those little Flirtations with other Girls which may, by dividing the Attention, contribute not a little to divide the Affection" (DLC:GW).
4. Mrs. Fairfax and Polly Brazier Dined here, as did Majr. Wagener. The latter stayd all Night. Mr. Jno. Baylor came in the Afternoon.
5. At home all day, Majr. Wagener contd. till the Afternoon--Mr. Baylor all day & Night. Mr. Campbell and Captn. < > of the Brig Nancy Dind here.
BRIG NANCY: This brig was probably from the West Indies, and seems to have been tied up at GW's dock for at least five days. On 8 April GW bought a parrot for 6s., probably from the captain of the Nancy (LEDGER B, 88). The brigantine Nancy, Capt. John Cox, master, which sold a barrel of flour to Lund Washington on 12 May may have been the same vessel (LEDGER B, 140).
6. Mr. Baylor went away after Breakfast. The Captn. Dined here again & Mr. Campbell lodgd all Night.
7th. Mr. Herbert, Doctr. Rumney & the Captn. Dined here the Doctr. staying all Night. I went into the Neck this day.
8. The Doctr. went away after Breakfast. The Captn. Dind here.
9. At home all day. The Capt. Dined here--otherwise alone.
10. At home all day alone. Mr. Custis came in the afternoon.
John Parke Custis was probably returning from the Calvert home of Mount Airy with Benedict Calvert's reply (8 April 1773, DLC:GW) to GW's letter (3 April 1773, DLC:GW) regarding Custis's betrothal to Calvert's daughter Nelly. Calvert agreed with GW that the match, which met with his approval, should be postponed while Custis studied at King's College in New York City.
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11. Went to Pohick Church with Mrs. Washington & Mr. Custis & returnd to Dinner.
12. Set of for Annapolis with Mr. Custis. Dined & lodgd at Mr. Bouchers with Govt. Eden & others.
Jonathan Boucher had written to GW 8 April: "I am told, You have Business to our Provincial Court, the next week; I hope to see You either agoing, or returning. The Govr., Mr. Calvert, the chief Justice, & Mr. Dulany dine here on Monday: shou'd You set out on that Day, You know, You can be here in Time to Dinner" (DLC:GW). GW's business at the Maryland court was to submit a proved account against Daniel Jenifer Adams for £106 14s. 6d. Virginia currency. Adams, who had taken some of GW's flour to the West Indies to be sold (see main entry for 22 July 1772), had perpetrated what GW feared was a swindle, and GW was afraid he would be able to get no money from Adams for his cargo (for further information, see letters of GW to Robert McMichan, 12 Jan. 1773, 12 Feb. 1773, Feb. 1773, and 14 June 1773, DLC:GW).
GW's visit to Jonathan Boucher's home is his last contact with Boucher recorded in the diaries. In the fall of 1774 Boucher, coming under increasing attack for his personal resistance to the rising activism of local Whigs, moved to The Lodge, a plantation near Oxon Hill, across the Potomac from Alexandria (BOUCHER [1], 93; Va. Gaz., Pi, 1 June 1775). On 6 Aug. 1775, a month before he and his wife sailed for England, Boucher wrote GW a long letter regarding GW's apparent lack of sympathy toward his sufferings, which concluded: "You are no longer worthy of my friendship: a man of honour can no longer without dishonour be connected with you. With your cause I renounce you" (BOUCHER [1], 141). In 1797, however, Boucher published a collection of sermons on the Revolution and included a long dedication to GW in which he wrote: "I was once your neighbour and your friend: the unhappy dispute . . . broke off our personal connexion: but I never was more than your political enemy; and every sentiment even of political animosity has, on my part, long ago subsided" (BOUCHER [2]). GW replied 15 Aug. 1798 in a friendly letter that closed "With very great respect" (DLC:GW).
13. Got to Annapolis. Dind & lodgd at the Governors--where I also Supped.
14. Dined and Suppd at Mr. Loyal Dulany's. Lodgd at the Govrs.
15. Dined at Colo. Sharpes and returnd to Annapolis. Supd & Lodgd at the Governors.
Horatio Sharpe (1718--1790), former governor of Maryland, had retired in 1769 to his summer home on the Whitehall River in Anne Arundel County, seven miles from Annapolis. Sharpe had been governor during the French and Indian War and had been active in strengthening the frontier forts. He
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had been replaced in 1769 by Robert Eden, brother-in-law of the proprietor of Maryland.
16. Dined and Supped at Mr. Danl. Dulany's. Lodgd at the Govrs.
17. Left Annapolis. Dined & lodgd at Mr. Calverts.
18. Reachd home to Dinner after passing through Piscataway Town.
19. At home all day alone except Mr. Smith (manager of Messrs. Herberts &ca. fishery) who stays here.
Mr. Smith may be Edward Smith (1752--1826). According to Toner, Smith--who first appeared at Mount Vernon on 7 July 1770--was a clerk for Herbert & Co., the firm which contracted for the catch from one of GW's fisheries (DLC: Toner Collection). Herbert & Co. probably rented one of the fisheries on Clifton's Neck ( Md. Gaz., 9 Sept. 1773).
20. Dined at Belvoir with Mrs. Washington & Patcy Custis. Returnd in the Afternoon & found Mr. Tilghman, Mr. Harrison, Mr. Robt. Adam & his Nephew as also David Arrell. All of whom Stayd all Night.
Mr. Harrison is either Robert Hanson Harrison or Richard Harrison, a merchant (see main entry for 14 Oct. 1773). Robert Adam's nephew must have been his brother John's son Robert (Fairfax County Wills, Book E-1, 315--17, Vi Microfilm).
David Arell (d. 1792), son of Richard and Eleanor Arell, was a lawyer in Alexandria. During the Revolution he became a captain in the 3d Virginia Regiment.
21. Mr. Adam & Nephew went away after breakfast. The rest stayd to Dinner & all Night. Mr. Robt. Brent came to Dinner & stayd the Evening.
Robert Brent (c.1730--1780), the son of George and Catherine Trimmingham Brent, lived at Woodstock on Aquia Creek in Stafford County and owned the quarry at Aquia. Brent had undoubtedly come to see GW about the estate of Brent's aunt Elizabeth Clifton. Mrs. Clifton had appointed GW one of her executors, but GW was showing some reluctance to serve in an active capacity. Brent, another of the executors, wrote GW in Feb. 1774, urging him to accept the office. He added that he did not feel it would be a troublesome business, for Mrs. Ann Slaughter, who was Mrs. Clifton's only daughter and heiress, would probably continue to live apart from her husband, and in that case "the trust may be said in some measure to have ceas'd, as it does on her becoming a Widow" (DLC:GW).
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22. All went away before breakfast. I rid into the Neck after it.
23. Rid to Doeg Run & Mill. Mr. W. Washington & Lady came to Dinner & stayd the Night.
24. Lord Fairfax & Colo. Fairfax--Mr. Calvert, his Lady & two Daughters, & Mr. Geo. Digges & sister Teresa dind here. The two first went away--the others contd.
25. At home all day with the above Company.
26. Went with Mr. Calvert &ca. to the Fishing Landing at the Ferry. Found Doctr. Digges Mr. Tilghman & Mr. Fitzgerald here upon our return who Dind & stayd all Night.
John Fitzgerald (d. 1800), a native of Ireland, came to America in 1769 and settled in Alexandria as a partner of Valentine Peers (Piers) in a mercantile business. During the Revolution he served as aide-de-camp to GW. After the Revolution, Fitzgerald was mayor of Alexandria, collector of customs, and served as a director and later as president of the Potomac Company. He later married Jane Digges, daughter of William Digges of Warburton.
27. At home all day with the above Company. Mrs. Calvert Mrs. Washington & my wife went to hear Mrs. Masons Funeral Serm.
Ann Eilbeck Mason (Mrs. George Mason) in a copy of a John Hesselius portrait. (Mr. S. Cooper Dawson, Jr.)
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This funeral sermon was for Ann Eilbeck Mason, wife of Col. George Mason of Gunston Hall. She had died on 9 Mar., following a long illness, and was buried at Gunston Hall. This memorial service was preached at Pohick Church by James Scott, rector of Dettingen Parish (MASON [2], 1:481).
28. Mr. Calverts Family, Mr. Washingtons, & the other Company all went away after Breakfast. I contd. at home all day.
29. Rid into the Neck, & from thence went to Sheridines Point attempting to clear it for the Sein.
30. Went to the Point again and made one or two pretty good Hauls.
Acct. of the Weather in April
April 1st. Warm and pleasant in the forenoon--but Cloudy & Cold in the Afternoon, Wind blowing fresh from the No. West.
2. Clear and Cool, Wind blowing fresh from the same quarter.
3. Much such a day as yesterday Wind from the same place but not quite so fresh.
4. Clear, Calm, and pleasant in the forenoon. In the Afternoon wind fresh from the No. Wt. and turning Cool.
5. Wind at No. West all day--fresh and Cool.
6. Clear, Calm, and pleasant. Wind what there was of it came from the Southward.
7. Clear but the Wind pretty fresh from the Southward & Warm.
8. Wind tho not much of it from the same quarter. Warm and Smoaky.
9. Very warm and Smoaky with but little Wind & that Southerly.
10th. Just such a day as the preceeding one. What little Wind there is coming from the same Quarter.
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11. Clear, Wind coming from the No. West blew hard, & turnd Cold.
12. Calm, clear, & pleasant, growing warm again.
13. Much a day as the preceeding one.
14. Lowering Morning & rainy afternoon with the Wind fresh from the No. East--all day.
15. Raining & drisling forenoon but clear afternoon--Wind getting to the South East.
16. Clear and pleasant with the Wind Westerly.
17. Lowering forenoon with the Wind at No. East. Afternoon Rainy & Cool.
18. Wind very fresh and Cool all day, from the No. East.
19. Much such a day as yesterday with the Wind fresh & a little Rain now & then.
20. Cool in the Morning but warm afterwards--wind getting to the Southward.
21. Clear and very warm with but little Wind and that Southerly.
22. Clear and warm, Wind in the same place and but little of it.
23. Again Warm and Clear with little or no Wind from the Southward.
24. Calm & warm in the forenoon, but Cool in the Evening Wind springing up fresh from the Eastward.
25. Rather Cool with Easterly winds. Clear but Smoaky.
26. Clear, Calm, and pretty warm in the forenoon--but Cool in the Evening, Wind fresh from the Eastward.
27. Cold & raw all day, Wind fresh from the Eastward and like for Rain--but none fell.
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28. Cold, raw, and Misting in the forenoon--but warm afterwards--Clouds dispersg.
29th. Clear and tolerably warm in the forenoon but cool, the wind blowing a little fresh from the Eastward in the Afternoon.
30. Wind still Easterly, and Weather much the same as yesterday.
Where--how or with Whom my time is Spent
May 1st. Went to the different Fishing Landings on both sides the River as high as broad Creek & found that few Fish had been catchd.
This was a bad year for the herring and shad fisheries. The catch during May was much smaller than that of 1772 or 1774 (LEDGER B, 42). Broad Creek enters the Potomac in Prince George's County, Md., four miles above Piscataway Creek.
2. Went to Belvoir and dined. Returnd in the Afternoon.
One of the Mason children made this pencil drawing of the family home, Gunston Hall, ca.1830--40. (Board of Regents of Gunston Hall)
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3. Went by the Church to Colo. Mason's where I dind and returnd in the Afternoon. F[oun]d Mr. Ramsay here who stayd all Night.
4. Went with Mr. Ramsays to the fishing Landings at the Ferry & Sheridines point.
5. Mr. Ramsay went away before Dinner. I rid to Muddy hole, Dogue Run--Mill & Ferry Plantations. Found Mr. Hall & Mr. Adam's here, who dind & went away afterwards.
6. At home all day. Mrs. Fairfax & Mrs. Washington came & went before Dinner. Mr. Tilghman came to Dinr. & stayd all Night.
7th. Mr. Tilghman & Captn. Mathis dind here--both of which went away afterwds.
8. Mr. Custis, set of for Mr. Calverts on his way to New York. I rid to the Plantations in the Neck.
Jacky Custis was on his way to enroll at King's College, now Columbia University. GW had been dissatisfied with his young stepson's progress under Jonathan Doucher and his desire to settle Jacky in college was further strengthened by the young man's engagement to Nelly Calvert. GW's first choice was the College of Philadelphia but Boucher persuaded him to enroll his stepson in King's College where Dr. Myles Cooper, president of the college, had introduced extensive reforms in curriculum and discipline. Although GW planned to leave for New York on 10 May to place Jacky in school, young Custis left two days early to spend some time at his fiancee's home in Maryland.
9. At home all day. Messrs. Ramsay, Rumney, & Herbert dind here--the last of whom went away. The others stayd all Night.
10. Those two Gentlemen stayd to Dinner, after which I set out on my Journey for New York. Lodgd at Mr. Calverts.
11. Breakfasted at Mr. Igns. Digges. Dind at the Coffee Ho. in Annapolis & lodgd at the Govrs.
12. Dined, Supped & lodgd at the Governors.
13. After Breakfast & abt. 8 Oclock set out for Rockhall where we arrivd in two hours & 25 Minutes. Dind on Board the Annapolis at Chester Town & Supped & lodgd at Mr. Ringolds.
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ROCKHALL: The route GW took from Annapolis to Philadelphia crossed the Chesapeake Bay by packet or ferryboat from Annapolis to Rock Hall in Kent County, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Another traveler who took the same route a year later in bad weather needed 4½ hours to make the same 25-mile crossing (FITHIAN, 130).
The Annapolis was owned and commanded by Capt. Thomas Eden, Gov. Robert Eden's brother. Thomas Eden's mercantile firm, T. Eden & Co., was engaged in the tobacco trade between Maryland and England (EVEN, 155, 164). Governor Eden was accompanying GW and Jacky Custis to Philadelphia, where he had a horse entered in the races.
Chestertown, Kent County, Md., was on the Chester River. Although it was officially named New Town, the names Chester or Chestertown were more commonly used at this time and the name was officially changed in 1780 to Chestertown. The town had been a port of entry for Cecil, Kent, and Queen Anne's counties on the Eastern Shore since 1708, and was a flourishing place during the eighteenth century, rivaling Annapolis in importance.
Thomas Ringgold (c. 1744--1776), a merchant, lived with his wife, Mary Galloway Ringgold, in Chestertown (CLARK [2], 82; BEIRNE, 79).
14. Stopd at George Town, on Sasafras, & dind & lodgd at Mr. Dl. Heaths.
Georgetown, Kent County, Md., is on the Sassafras River about 16 miles northeast of Chestertown. Daniel Charles Heath was the son of James Paul and Rebecca Dulany Heath, a sister of Daniel Dulany the younger (MCGRATH, 299; LAND, 191--92, 219, 354).
15. Dined at Newcastle & lodgd at Wilmington.
New Castle and Wilmington, both in New Castle County, one of the Three Lower Counties on Delaware. Dr. Robert Honyman in 1775 described Wilmington as "a large place, at least as large as Fredericksburgh [Va.], but much better built, the houses being all of Brick, & very neat" (HONYMAN, 11). New Castle, on the Delaware River at the confluence of Brandywine Creek and Christina (Christiana) River (Creek), was the capital of the Three Lower Counties until 1777. A British officer described it in that year as "small, and its Buildings mean & scattered" (SERLE, 257).
16. Breakfasted at Chester & Dined at Govr. Penns in Philadelphia.
Richard Penn (1735--1811) was the second son of Richard and Hannah Lardner Penn and the grandson of William Penn. He was appointed lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania in 1771 to replace his brother John, who returned to England. Richard served until Aug. 1773, when John returned to America and reclaimed the lieutenant governorship, thereby beginning a bitter feud between the two brothers. Richard returned to England in 1775. The governor's house, later owned by Robert Morris, was occupied by GW during his presidency.
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17. Dined again at Govt. Penns & spent the Evening at the Jocky Club.
The Jockey Club was formed in 1766 to promote racing and the breeding of good horses. Many prominent men in Philadelphia were members, including Governor Penn, president of the club, and John Cadwalader, vice-president (JACKSON, 116--17). The meeting on this evening was held at Michael Duff's tavern on Second Street, and among the visitors attending were GW, Jacky Custis, Lord Stirling, and Gov. Robert Eden of Maryland (JACKSON, facing p. 118).
18. Dined with sevl. Gentlemen at our own lodgings and went to the Assembly in the Evening.
OUR OWN LODGINGS: GW lodged at the same place both on his way to New York and on his return (see main entry for 2 June 1773). On 3 June he paid 10s. "By Board at Mrs. Greydon" (Cash Memoranda, DLC:GW). Rachel Marks Graydon, widow of Alexander Graydon, for many years ran a fashionable boardinghouse in Philadelphia. At the time of GW's visit she was probably still at the famous old house known as the Slate House on Second Street at Norris's Alley. The house had had a long history and several famous occupants before it became a boardinghouse. In later years Mrs. Graydon moved to a larger house on Front Street (GRAYDON, 62--63).
The Philadelphia Assemblies, or subscription balls, begun in the winter of 1748--49, are the oldest series of society balls in the country. The directors of the assembly laid down strict rules governing the dances, the refreshments, and the behavior of the participants. For those who did not wish to dance, there were other entertainments, such as cards (BALCH [1], 14, 39--42).
19. Dined at the Govrs. and spent the Evening at Mr. Allans.
MR. ALLANS: probably William Allen (1704--1780), Philadelphia merchant and chief justice of Pennsylvania 1750--74. Allen had held a number of other important posts in the provincial government. His son James (1742--1778) mentions in his diary that "Governor Eden & Coll. Washington are in Town came to the races. . . . I asked Gov. Eden & Coll. Washington to dinner but they are engaged during their stay" (ALLEN, 180).
20. Dined with Mr. Cadwalader & went to the Ball.
John Cadwalader (1742--1786) was the son of Dr. Thomas Cadwalader and Hannah Lambert Cadwalader. He and his brother Lambert were Philadelphia businessmen.
On 18, 19, and 20 May an important series of races was run in Philadelphia, which GW and Jacky Custis almost surely attended, although there is no mention of it in the diaries. The races were run under the auspices of the Jockey Club and were among the most important social events of the year in Philadelphia. Governor Eden had entered his bay horse, Why-Not, in the Jockey Club Purse, the first and richest of the races, but the race was won by Israel Waters's horse, King Herod ( Pa. Chronicle, 24 May 1773; HARRISON [3], 2:117--18).
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21. Dined with Mr. Merideth & Spent the Evening at Mr. Mease's.
Mr. Meredith is either Reese Meredith (1705--1777) or his son Samuel Meredith (1741--1817). Both were Philadelphia merchants. Samuel was at the meeting of the Jockey Club GW had attended a few nights before (JACKSON, facing p. 118). During the Revolution he served as a brigadier general of Pennsylvania militia, and he was a member of the Continental Congress 1786--88. GW later appointed him first treasurer of the United States.
Mr. Mease is probably either Matthew or James Mease, both members of the Jockey Club, who had met GW at the meeting 17 May (JACKSON, facing p. 118). James was GW's host at dinner during the latter's stay in Philadelphia the following year (see 21 Sept. 1774). He became a commissary of the Continental Army in 1776 and clothier general in 1777 (LMCC, 1:205, n. 6).
22. Dined at Mr. Morris's & Spent the Evening at the Club.
Mr. Morris could be either Robert or Gouverneur Morris, both of whom were members of the Philadelphia Jockey Club (JACKSON, 117). The dub which GW visited after dinner may have been the Jockey Club.
23. Set out for New York with Lord Sterling, Majr. Bayard & Mr. Custis after Breakfasting with Govr. Penn. Dind with Govr. Franklin at Burlington & lodgd at Trenton.
Major Bayard is probably Maj. Robert Bayard, a member of the Jockey Club (JACKSON, 118). Lord Stirling had been a guest at the 17 May meeting of the Jockey Club (JACKSON, facing p. 118).
William Franklin (1731--1813), son of Benjamin Franklin, became the last royal governor of New Jersey in 1763. His championship of the rights of the crown led to an estrangement between father and son. During the Revolution he was held prisoner for two years by the Americans and went to England shortly after his exchange.
24. Breakfasted at Princeton. Dined at Bound Brooke & reachd Lord Sterlings at Basking Ridge in the Afternoon.
Lord Stirling's new home on the outskirts of Basking Ridge, N.J., was seven miles southwest of Morristown. The still unfinished house and grounds were designed in imitation of a large British estate, complete with deer park. The enormous expenses involved in building this country seat were partially responsible for Lord Stirling's financial straits (see 2 Jan. 1773).
25. Din'd and Lodg'd at Lord Sterling's. Drank Tea at Mr. Kimbles.
Peter Kemble (1704--1789), president of the royal council of New Jersey, lived near Morristown.
26. Din'd at Elizabeth Town, & reachd New York in the Evening wch. I spent at Hull's Tavern. Lodg'd at a Mr. Farmers.
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Hull's tavern, run by Robert Hull, was located "in the Broadway" ( N.Y. Gazette & Weekly Mercury, 8 Nov. 1773). In 1774, according to John Adams, Hull's tavern was at "the Sign [of] the Bunch of Grapes" (ADAMS [1], 2:102).
27. Din'd at the Entertainment given by the Citicens of New York to Genl. Gage.
Gen. Thomas Gage (1721--1787) had been for ten years commander in chief of British troops in North America with headquarters at New York. He was at this time relinquishing his post and returning to England for a brief visit. He returned to America a short time later as the last royal governor of Massachusetts. GW had known Gage during the French wars, when Gage served as lieutenant colonel of the 44th Foot in the ill-starred Braddock expedition. The entertainment GW attended was a farewell from the merchants of New York to General Gage, held at Hull's tavern ( Rivington's N.Y. Gazetteer, 3 June 1773).
28. Dined with Mr. James Dillancey & went to the Play & Hulls Tavern in the Evening.
MR. JAMES DILLANCEY: James De Lancey (1732--1800), eldest son of Lt. Gov. James De Lancey (1703--1760) of New York, was a merchant and landowner. He was also the owner of New York's largest racing stable, and GW had met him 17 May at the meeting of the Philadelphia Jockey Club, of which De Lancey was a member (JACKSON, facing p. 118). Although at first a supporter of the colonial position, he later became a Loyalist and fled to England with his family.
The plays GW saw this evening were Hamlet and a new farce by William O'Brien called Cross Purposes, performed for the first time. The playhouse was a large, red, wooden building on the north side of John Street (MONAGHAN, 123; DAY, 3:127).
29. Dined with Majr. Bayard & Spent the Evening with the Old Club at Hulls.
THE OLD CLUB AT HULLS: In the mid-eighteenth century, "most public houses of any reputation or following had their own loosely knit groups of customers, who met weekly to dine, drink, play cards or discuss, and from them developed an amazing number of social clubs of a more carefully organized type" (BRIDENBAUGH, 22).
30. Dined with Genl. Gage & spent the Evening in my own Room writing.
GW wrote to Rev. Myles Cooper, president of King's College, concerning financial arrangements for Jacky's stay at the college. He sent Cooper bills of exchange for £100 for Jacky's use and asked him to establish credit for him with recommended merchants. However, GW added, if Jacky was too extravagant he hoped Cooper would "by your friendly admonitions . . . check the progress of it" (GW to Cooper, 31 May 1773, PHi: Gratz Collection).
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GW had evidently discussed arrangements for young Custis's room and board with Cooper earlier, for on 5 July 1773 Jacky wrote reassuringly to his anxious mother: "I believe I may say without vanity that I am look'd upon in a particular Light by them all [the faculty]. There is as much Distinction made between me, & the other Students as can be expected. I dine with them [the professors] (A liberty that is not allow'd any but myself) associate & pertake of all their recreations & their Attention to my Education keeps pace with their other good offices. . . . I have a large parlour with two Studies or closets, each large enough to contain a bed, trunk, & couple of chairs, one I sleep in, & the other Joe [his servant] calls his" (DLC-GW).
31. Set out on my return home. Dind with Captn. Kennedy near New Ark & lodgd at Amboy.
Capt. Archibald Kennedy (d. 1794) lived on an estate called Pavonia between Newark and Powles Hook. He had been a captain in the British navy, until he lost his command after refusing to take stamped paper aboard his ship in Boston harbor for safekeeping during the Stamp Act controversy. Kennedy was suspected of being a Loyalist during the Revolution and much of his property was destroyed. In 1790 he went to England and two years later, upon the death of a cousin, became the eleventh earl of Cassillis.
Amboy is Perth Amboy, N.J.
Acct. of the Weather in May
May 1st. Cool, & clear, Wind being pretty fresh all day from the No. West.
2. Wind So. West, & West, & Cool especially in the Evening.
3. Wind much in the same place & very cool in the Morning.
4. Wind Easterly all day with some appearances of Rain very little of which fell altho it thunderd more or less all the Afternoon.
5. Wind at No. West, and Cool, till the Afternoon when it grew warm again.
6. Calm & warm all day. Very Smoaky as it hath been for a Month pass'd.
7. Warm and clear (except smoak). Wind pretty fresh from the Eastward.
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8. Wind Easterly in the Morning and pretty fresh--also Cool. Afternoon Calm--clear & Warm.
9. Warm, & Clear, all day. Calm in the forenoon. Wind fresh from the So. East afterwards.
10th. Clear and Warm all the day. Wind at So. East.
11. Clear & Warm again. Wind continuing in the same place.
12. It began about 9 or 10 Oclock to Rain from the Southward & contd. more or less so all day.
13. Now & then Raining. Wind from the same Quarter & fresh.
14. Cloudy & somewhat Cool wind Shifting more Westerly.
15. Windy & Cloudy all day being also Cool.
16. Little or no Wind, & that being Southerly it grew warm again.
17. Again warm Wind Southerly & clear. In the Afternoon Thunder Lightning & Rain.
18. Clear & pleasant being at the same time a little warm.
19. Clear and pleasant the Wind Westerly.
20. Still clear & midling Cool wind fresh from the west.
21. A little Rain in the Morning but clear & pleasant afterwards.
22. Raining in the forenoon but clear afterwards then Raing. in the Night.
23. Cloudy in the forenoon but clear & warm afterwards with but little Wind.
24. Clear & tolerably with but little wind.
25. Clear in the forenoon, cloudy afterwards & Cool. Wind Easterly.
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26. Misting till about 9 or 10 oclock then clear and warm there being but little Wind and that Southerly.
27. Cool Wind Westerly and Weather clear.
28. Much such a day as yesterday--in all respects.
29. Clear and pleasant being rather Cool wind still Westerly especially towards the Evening.
30. Very warm--there being but little Wind.
31st. Very warm notwithstanding the Wind blew tolerably fresh from the Southward.
Where, how, or with whom my time is Spent
June 1st. Breakfasted at Brunswick on the Banks of the Rariton, din'd at Princeton and lodgd at Bristol.
BRUNSWlCK: New Brunswick, N.J., on the Raritan River.
While at Princeton, GW "paid Doctr [John] Weatherspoon Presidt of Princeton College £48.16.0 Jersey" currency, equal to £39 9d. Virginia currency, for the schooling of William Ramsay, Jr., eldest son of William Ramsay of Alexandria (LEDGER B, 47).
On this same visit, GW looked up his two nephews, George and Charles Lewis, sons of Betty and Fielding Lewis, who were enrolled at the college. He gave his nephews and the Ramsay boy each a present of one pistole for pocket money (Cash Memoranda, DLC:GW).
Bristol, Pa., is 20 miles northeast of Philadelphia and 3 miles northeast of the Neshaminy Creek.
2. Got to Philadelphia by Nine Oclock to my old lodging. Dind at my lodgings & spent the Evening there.
3. Rid to the Meadows along the River before breakfast. Abt. 11 Oclock left Phila. Dind at the Sorrel Horse 13 Miles from it & lodgd at the Ship Tavern 34 [miles] off.
GW probably rode along the Schuylkill River. This area was popular for drives and outings because of the scenic meadows and large estates on both sides of the river. The Sorrel Horse Tavern was just east of Radnor Meeting House in Radnor Township. Michael Stadleman, whose family kept several taverns in the area, bought the building about 1765 and called it the Horse
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and Groom. The name was shortly afterwards changed to the Sorrel Horse (BARKER [2], 218).
The Ship Tavern was built by an Irishman, Thomas Parke (c. 1704--1758), and seems to have been run after his death by his wife, Jane Edge Parke. It was one mile west of Downingtown on the Lancaster Road. Later, the sign was moved to a building in West Whiteland Township, east of Downingtown (LANDIS, 42 [1918], 24--25).
4. Breakfasted at the Sign of the Bull 13 Miles from the Ship. Dind at Lancaster 19 Miles further & lodgd at Wrights Ferry 10 Miles from Lancaster.
Wright's ferry, now called Wrightsville, is on the south bank of the Susquehanna River in York County. The ferry crossed from Columbia, in Lancaster County.
5. Breakfasted in York Town. Dind at the Sign of the Buck 14 Miles from Yk. wch. is 12 Miles from Wrights Ferry & lodgd at Suttons 15 M. from the Buck.
YORK TOWN: York, Pa. Sutton's was probably a tavern called the Black Horse in Harford County, Md., near the Baltimore County line. A village called Blackhorse now occupies the site.
6. Breakfasted at Slades 10 Miles from Suttons & dind and lodgd at Baltimore Town.
Slade's tavern was probably located on My Lady's Manor in Baltimore County, Md., a few miles east of the present town of Cockeysville.
7. Breakfasted at the Widow Ramsays 15 Miles from Baltimore & lodgd at Mr. Calverts.
The Widow Ramsay's, known as "Stevens" during the Revolution (MD. RED BOOKS, 134), was about 16 miles south of Baltimore at the junction of the Baltimore road with a road leading to the Carroll estate, Doughoregan Manor (W.P.A. [2], 461).
8. Reach'd home to Dinner about two Oclock. Mr. Buckner came here in the Evening & lodgd.
In Dec. 1772 GW had sold the finn of Baldwin & John Buckner, of Gloucester, 300 barrels of superfine flour, for which he received a bond to secure payment the following April in Williamsburg. Fielding Lewis was delegated to collect some debts for GW in Williamsburg at that time but was unable to collect from the Buckner brothers. The money was finally paid in June by Richard Robinson (LEDGER B, 65; GW to Lewis, 20 April 1773, PHi: Gratz Collection; GW's account with Lewis, 20 April 1773, NjMoNP).
9. Went up to Alexandria wth. him & returnd in the Afternn.
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10. At home all day alone.
11. Mr. Buckner & Mr. Robinson dind here--also Captn. Harper & a Mr. Large. After Dinner Miss Reed, Miss Nelly Calvert, Doctr. Rumney & Mr. Campbell came all of them staying the Night.
Mr. Robinson is probably Richard Robinson, who paid GW the £616 13s. which had come due in April from Baldwin & John Buckner's bond. GW recorded the payment in June 1773 (LEDGER B, 65).
John Harper (1728--1804), a Quaker from Philadelphia, carried a letter of introduction from Reese Meredith of that city. Harper and his partner, William Hartshorne, were considering moving their mercantile firm to Alexandria (5 May 1773, DLC:GW). The partnership was dissolved in 1775, and Harper became a prosperous shipping merchant in Alexandria.
Mr. Large is probably Ebenezer Large, a Philadelphia merchant.
Miss Mary Read, evidently a sort of retainer in Benedict Calvert's family, was left in his will a legacy "for Services in my family" (Prince George's County, Md., Wills, No. 1, T, 258--62, MdAA Microfilm).
12. Captn. Harper Mr. Large & Mr. Campbell went away after Breakfast, Mr. Buckner & Mr. Robinson after Dinner.
13. Went up with Miss Reed &ca. to Alexa. Church. Returnd to Dinner with Mr. Willis. Doctr. Rumney wt. away.
GW was apparently attending worship service at the new church for the first time.
14. At home all day Mr. Willis continuing here.
15. Still at home being here Mr. Willis. In the forenoon Mr. Tilghman came.
16. Mr. Willis went away after Breakfast. Mr. Robinson & Mr. Buckner came to Dinner & stayd all Night.
17. All of the Company here Rid to the Mill. To Dinner came Lame Jno. Washington & Miss Terrett.
Lame John Washington (d. 1787) of Leedstown, King George County, was crippled in both legs. He was a son of Robert Washington (d. 1765) and grandson of John Washington (b. 1671) and Mary Townshend Washington of Stafford County. His second wife, Constantia Terrett Washington, was a daughter of GW's neighbor, William Henry Terrett. The Miss Terrett who came with him to Mount Vernon was probably his wife's younger sister Susanna.
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18. Every one but Miss Reed & Miss Nelly Calvert went away after Breakfast. In the Afternoon my Bror. Jno. his wife, Daughter Jane & young Child came here.
The two children who came on this visit were Jane Washington (1759--1791), who later married GW's nephew William Augustine Washington (1757--1810), and her brother, another William Augustine Washington (1767--1785), who died unmarried.
19. At home all day. About five oclock poor Patcy Custis Died Suddenly.
GW wrote to Burwell Bassett 20 June that "yesterday removed the Sweet Innocent Girl into a more happy, & peaceful abode than any she has met with in the afflicted Path she hitherto has trod. She rose from Dinner about four Oclock, in better health and spirits than she appeared to, have been in for some time; soon after which she was siezd with one of her usual Fits, & expired in it, in less than two Minutes without uttering a Word, a groan, or scarce a Sigh. This Sudden, and unexpected blow, I scarce need add has almost reduced my poor Wife to the lowest ebb of Misery" (20 June 1773, NNMM).
20. Colo. Fairfax & Lady as also Mr. Massey dind here--Patcy Custis being buried--the first went away. Mr. Massey stayd.
Patsy was laid to rest in the family vault, about 200 yards south of the main house. Rev. Lee Massey read the funeral service, and GW paid him £2 6s. 3d., about normal compensation (LEDGER B, 90; JONES [1], 99--100). The coffin, which had been bought from James Connell of Alexandria, was draped with a black pall belonging to GW (LEDGER B, 90; Robert Adam to GW, 16 Sept. 1773; HAMILTON [1], 4:261).
21. Mr. Massey went away after Breakfast. I continued at home all day.
22. My Brother, his Wife, Miss Reed & Nelly Calvert Dind at Belvoir & returnd in the Afternn. I contd, at home all day.
23. My Brother & Family also Mrs. Reed went away early. I contd. at home all day.
24. Mr. Digges & Mrs. Tracy came here to Dinner also Mr. Hoops & his Wife the latter of whom went away afterwards as did Mr. Digges. Miss Calvert came in the Afternoon.
MRS. TRACY: GW means Miss Tracy Digges; see main entry for 26 June. David Hoop's wife was his bride of seven months, Mildred Syme Hoops, daughter of Col. John Syme (1728--1805), of Hanover County, who was a half brother of Patrick Henry. Hoops lived in Louisa County until the death
