Monday 19th. Mercury at 73 in the Morning. 79 at Noon and 78 at Night.
Morning cloudy, but clear afterwards, with the wind at So. West.
Rid to Muddy hole, Dogue run, and Ferry Plantations; and to the Meadows (where people were at Work) at the two latter.
Finding my Corn was in danger of being lost by Grass & weeds, I stopped Brickmaking, and sent Gunner, Boatswain, Anthony, and Myrtilla to assist at Dogue run in weeding it.
The grass at the Ferry being forwarder, and better than that at Dogue Run, where the Scythmen began last to cut, I removed them (tho’ the grass was not half down) to the former place. 4 Cutters at work.
Mr. Herbert & wife—Mr. Throcmorton & his Wife—Miss Hannah, & Miss Kitty Washington, & Mr. Willm. Craik came here to dinner & all stayed the Evening except Mr. Herbert who returned to Alexandria.
A Monsr. Andri Michaux—a Botanest sent by the Court of France to America (after having been only 6 Weeks returned from India) came in a little before dinner with letters of Introduction & recommendation from the Duke de Lauzen, & Marqs. de la Fayette to me. He dined and returned afterwards to Alexandria on his way to New York, from whence he had come; and where he was about to establish a Botanical garden.
Albion Throckmorton (died c.1795), of Frederick County, son of John Throckmorton (1731–c.1795), of Gloucester County, married Warner Washington’s oldest daughter, Mildred Washington (c.1766–1804), in Dec. 1785, apparently against the wishes of her family (, 177; GW to George William Fairfax, 10 Nov. 1785, DLC:GW; , 50–52). Throckmorton served as cornet in the 1st Continental Dragoons during the Revolution. Hannah and Catharine Washington, usually called Katy or Kitty, were Mrs. Throckmorton’s sisters.
André Michaux (1746–1802) was a French botanist whose work in America would later produce Flora Boreali-Americana (1803). He sent a note to GW the day after his visit, enclosing some seeds and promising to send live plants. In 1793 GW subscribed a small sum to assist the American Philosophical Society in financing an expedition Michaux planned to make to the Pacific. Thomas Jefferson collected the money on behalf of the society and wrote an elaborate set of instructions to guide Michaux in his research, just as he would do for Meriwether Lewis ten years later. While the objectives of the expedition were ostensibly scientific, Michaux was in reality acting as the agent of the French minister Edmond Genet in a scheme to mount an assault on Spanish possessions beyond the Mississippi. After Genet’s recall Michaux’s expedition was terminated by Genet’s successor in Mar. 1794.