To George Washington from William Crawford, 5 May 1770
From William Crawford
May the 5th 1770
Dr Sir
Inclosed is a Rough Draft of your Land and Calculated with the alowence of teen percent in the hundred.1
I did not Enter that Land for you on they teen Mile Creek as it Epear to me from the new Map Don by Mr Scull2 that the Monongahalia will be left out when they back Line is Run at that bent at the Mouth of they teen Mile Creek or at any Rate whare the Land Lyes.
I ofard to pay the Office fees if they would Return me the Purches mony if that Land did not fall in Pensilvania the[y] would not agree to Return me the mony at any Rate.
But told me if I did not think it in Pensilvania not to Enter it as such Presedents would be attended with Confusion and Trouble to them Therefor I thought proper to Refair3 it till I went up and Run a Line from Fort-pitt till it Entersects the Line now Run which will Determine the matter without dou⟨t⟩ and if it should be in Pensilvania then the Clark will send me a Warrant sending to him as we have agreed on it I shall have the other Paece at the mouth of the Run Run out as soon as I go out as they Servayor will be there again I go out.4
There is no sartentey about the Quit Rents what they will be and it is Suposed they will Open the office on the former Terms as no Land from Over the mountain has bin Enter Since they new manner of opning of it nor will any be fond of it which will oblidge them to Opin on the Former Terms.5
The Endien Traders Land is to be Laid of on the north side of the Litle Khanaway from the mouth to the head and by they Lolarel hill till it falls in with the Pensilvania Line and then with it till it falls to the head or as far as it goes and so a straight Line West till it Entersects or stricks the Ohio which will Leve out great part of all the Land on the west side of the Monongahalia to the Ohio from the Proprioters Line as According to the Opinion of Such as Judge the matter the western Bounds will [be] a Crooked Line agreed to the Meanders of Dolawar River.
The Enden Traders have not got there Land Confirmd to them yeat from any Acount they have had ⟨yeat⟩ Capt. Trent is still in Ingland wating to have it Setled.6
I Shall do Every thing in my Power to inform my self in Regard to the Lands where the[y] are to be Laid of till I see or hear from you I am your most Humble Sarvent
W. Crawford
N.B. When you com up you will see the hole of your Tract finisht and have it all Patent in on[e] Tract I spook to Mr Thilman about it and told him you wanted to Command som part of the River and he agreed the Servayor should Run it out and you pay all under one and have a patent for the hole in one.7
Colo. Carlyle has promised me to show you Mr Sculls Map just Dun from the best intelligents Som Actual Survays Som from Report or best Accounts he co[u]ld Get.
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. Crawford is referring to the land, later called Washington’s Bottom, that he had had surveyed for GW on the west bank of the Youghiogheny River. See GW to Crawford, 17 Sept. 1767, n.2, and Crawford to GW, 7 Jan. 1769, n.3.
2. William Scull’s Map of the Province of Pennsylvania, was published in Philadelphia in 1770. On 11 Nov. 1772 George Croghan wrote Thomas Wharton: “Scull’s Map is a very fraudulent one & has been published with a view to D’ceive the publick here, wh. they have done effectually & rob’d ye. people of vast sums of Money & phaps they had in view likewise to get a line settled with ye. proprietors of ye. New Colonie by that Map” (, 4:15).
3. “Refer” is an obsolete form of “defer.”
4. Crawford had written GW on 7 Jan. 1769 of his intention to secure for GW land on Ten Mile Creek. For references to the inconvenience arising from the lack of a western boundary for Pennsylvania, see note 5 of that document.
5. For a discussion of the mode of securing grants of land at this time in western Pennsylvania, see John Armstrong to GW, 3 Nov.—20 Dec. 1767.
6. William Trent (1715–1787), the Pennsylvania land speculator and Indian trader, went to London in January 1769 on behalf of the “Suffering Traders” to secure approval of the land concessions made to them by the Indians in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in October 1768. The prolonged lobbying efforts of William Trent, who did not return to Pennsylvania until the spring of 1775, in the end proved fruitless. See Andrew Lewis to GW, 1 Mar. 1770, n.2, and Jonathan Boucher to GW, 18 Aug. 1770, n.4.