To George Washington from Bartholomew Dandridge, Jr., 5 December 1796
From Bartholomew Dandridge, Jr.
Phila[delphi]a 5 Decemr 1796.
My dear sir,
Your preparations for leaving this City and the period drawing nigh when that event will take place,1 reminds me that it is time for me to prepare some plan for myself by which I may obtain a livelihood after that shall happen; and impels me (tho’ with very great reluctance) to intrude on your usual indulgence for a moment. And that I may take up as little of your time as possible, I will briefly state to you the only plans I have yet contemplated, and beg your advice respecting them. 1st—If you should be disposed to divide & sell out your lands on the Kanhawa; I would with pleasure do every thing in my power to promote your advantage in that respect & for this end would willingly take up my residence at the Kanhawa. In this way I conceive the Land would produce you more than in any other. I could, I expect, at the same time dispose of some coarse merchandise to advantage. If you should not think proper to dispose of the lands in this way—perhaps, Sir, you would cause a settlement on your own account to be made on some part of them, to increase their value, & in which I might find employment.2
2dly I have thought of purchasing Goods at this place of the large whole-sale dealers—& sending them to Alexandria to establish a retail store. With industry & attention, I think this would be profitable.3
3dly That which I should most prefer, & wch would be most congenial to my disposition, would be to obtain the management of some small tenement of your’s, either of part of the land you had of Mercer, or of any of your’s in Berkely or Frederic.4 These are the outlines of plans on which whatever consideration you are pleased to bestow, will command my gratitude;5 and I beg you to accept, Dr Sir my sincere respect & affection.
B. Dandridge
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. GW left Philadelphia for Mount Vernon on 9 March 1797 (see , 6:236, 239).
2. On 1 Feb. 1796, GW had advertised for sale his Ohio and Great Kanawha River lands, and assigned Dandridge to handle all inquiries concerning them (see Advertisement, that date). Dandridge never settled on the Kanawha tracts; GW instead leased those lands to James Welch in December 1797. The tracts reverted back to GW’s estate after Welch had failed to make the required payments on them prior to GW’s death (see Welch to GW, 29 Nov. 1797, and n.1 to that document, in 1:490–91).
3. In 1800, Dandridge briefly operated a store at the corner of Fairfax and Prince streets in Alexandria, Va., where he sold dry goods, London cloths, and prints of GW (see , 1:95).
4. In 1774, GW purchased two lots that had belonged to George Mercer and totaled over 500 acres near the Shenandoah River in Frederick County, Va. (see GW to Edward Snickers, 4 Sept. 1784, in 2:67–69; see also GW to Battaile Muse, 28 July 1785, in 3:159–62). For GW’s other lands west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, including his land on Bullskin Run in Frederick County (later Berkeley County, W.Va.), see the Schedule of Property enclosed in his Last Will and Testament of 9 July 1799, and notes 3, 4, and 5, in 4:512–27.
5. No reply to Dandridge from GW has been found.
Dandridge sailed to Europe in the spring of 1797 and served as secretary to William Vans Murray, the newly appointed U.S. minister to the Netherlands, and then to Rufus King, U.S. minister to Great Britain (see GW to the U.S. Senate, 27 Feb. 1797, and n.1 to that document; see also Dandridge to GW, 8 April and 18 June 1797, in 1:82–84, 195–96; and Dandridge to GW, 20 Aug. 1798, in 2:537–38). Following his tenure as legation secretary, Dandridge was briefly a merchant before he was appointed in December 1800 as U.S. consul to the southern district of Saint Domingue. He held the latter post until 1801 and subsequently served as commercial agent at Port-au-Prince on the same island until his death (see , 153; and , 357, 402, 406).