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 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 tract, 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 Mounty Vernon quarter from GW in 1759 and 1760, after which he disappears from GW’s records.