Wednesday 28th. Thermometer at 36 in the Morning—38 at Noon and [ ] at Night.
Colo. Ball went away yesterday, after breakfast—tho’ it was unnoticed in the occurrances of the day.
Wind exceedingly high from the No. West & clear.
A Mr. Israel Jenny of Loudoun County came here in the Afternoon, respecting some Land which he has been endeavouring to obtain under an idea of its being waste, but which he finds to be within the lines of my Chattin run tract in Fauquier County, though claimed by Mr. Robert Scott who has put a Tenant upon it of the name of Jesse Hitt, who has now been upon it three years and thereafter to pay Rent.
Mr. Muse my Collector to be written to on this Subject as also concerning my Land in Ashbys Bend part of wch. is claimed by Mr. Landon Carter.
Israel Janney (died c.1823) was a son of Jacob Janney (d. 1786) of Loudoun County. He was interested in agricultural experimentation and was a pioneer in the use of gypsum (plaster of paris) to improve his lands.
GW’s Chattins Run tract in Fauquier County was on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge near Rector Town. The land in question amounted to 170–80 acres, and the suit brought against GW by Robert Scott ran on for years and was still unsettled in 1791. For further details of the dispute, see GW to Battaile Muse, 5 Jan. and 4 Feb. 1786, Muse to GW, 7 Feb., 21 Mar. 1789, 22 Aug. 1791, DLC:GW. GW’s Ashby’s Bent land, amounting to approximately 2,500 acres, was located in both Fauquier and Loudoun counties on the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge. Both this and the Chattins Run land was subdivided into small farms, or tenements, of about 100–200 acres each, which were rented out for periods of time varying from ten years to three lives.
It is uncertain which of the three Landon Carters then living in Virginia claimed the Ashby’s Bent land.