To George Washington from Thomas Marshall, 12 May 1785
From Thomas Marshall
Fauquier [Va.] May the 12th 1785.
Dear General
Your favor of the 3d Inst. I receiv’d by my Son & will with the greatest pleasure execute the small commission you are pleas’d to honor me with, by collecting & sending you the different seeds agreable to the list you inclos’d me. The Crown imperial —Tulip bearing Lawrel, & Cardinal flower, I am not acquainted with, but shall I dont doubt find them out by enquiry.1
In consiquence of a resolution of the last Assembly made in favor of such Officers as were in service in 79 & 80 and thereby deprived of the benefit of the act of Assembly allowing time for locateing Military Warrants, I have got your warrt as Assignee of Rootes, exchanged, shall carry it out with me & hope soon to give you a good account of it.2 I have the honor to be with the most respectful esteem Dear General Your most obedt Servt
T. Marshall
ALS, DLC:GW.
Thomas Marshall (1730–1802), the father of Chief Justice John Marshall and colonel of the 3d Virginia Regiment during the Revolution, was at the point of moving to Kentucky from Fauquier County, Va., where he was living when the county was created in 1759.
1. GW’s letter has not been found. GW apparently knew of Marshall’s impending move to Kentucky and had asked him to secure seed of these plants for Louis XVI’s garden at Versailles. See Lafayette to GW, 17 Dec. 1784, and note 1 of that document, and GW to Lafayette, 25 July 1785.
2. The Virginia assembly in its session of May 1783 passed “An act for giving further time to enter certificates for settlement rights, and to locate warrants upon preemption rights, and for other purposes” (11 291–93), and it further extended the time in both its May and its October sessions in 1784 (ibid., pp. 376, 476).