[Diary entry: 1 February 1798]

1. Clear wind about So. Wt. & Mer. 28 in the Morning. Pretty brisk from No. Wt, about Noon & calm towards night & clear all day. Mer. 40 at Night & 45 when highest. A Mr. Lad & a Mr. Gibbes from Rhode Island dined here & returned to Alexandria.

John G. Ladd was a merchant in Alexandria. GW was possibly referring to George Gibbs (1776-1833) of Newport, R.I., a well-known mineralogist (Brady, Beautiful Nelly description begins Patricia Brady, ed. George Washington’s Beautiful Nelly: The Letters of Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis to Elizabeth Bordley Gibson, 1794–1851. Columbia, S.C., 1991. description ends , 46, 50). Of Mr. Gibbes from Rhode Island, Nelly Custis later remarked: “I do not know what subjects he discusses with gentlemen . . . as I have seen too little of him, to fathom his scull, yet his conversation to Ladies is composed of . . . Hearts, darts, hopes, fears, heart achs, & all the etcetera superfluous of the tender passion” (Eleanor Parke Custis to Elizabeth Bordley, 20 Mar. 1798, ViMtvL).

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Source Project: Washington Papers
Title: [Diary entry: 1 February 1798]
Author: Washington, George
Date: 1 February 1798

Reference

Cite as: “[Diary entry: 1 February 1798],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/01-06-02-0007-0002-0001. [Original source: The Diaries of George Washington, vol. 6, 1 January 1790 – 13 December 1799, ed. Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1979, pp. 279–280.]