William Crawford’s visit was not purely social. By the fall of 1767 GW had concluded that because the Pennsylvania-Maryland boundary line (Mason and Dixon’s Line) would soon be completed, and because western expansion (temporarily barred by the Royal Proclamation of Oct. 1763) would soon be at least partially opened up by a treaty with the Indians, the time was ripe for acquiring some parcels of choice land in western Pennsylvania and the Ohio Valley. GW wrote to Crawford (17 Sept. 1767, DLC:GW), who had settled the year before at Stewart’s Crossing on the Youghiogheny River (butterfield [1] description begins C. W. Butterfield, ed. The Washington-Crawford Letters. Being the Correspondence between George Washington and William Crawford, from 1767 to 1781, Concerning Western Lands. Cincinnati, 1877. description ends , vii), and proposed a partnership for taking up land. Crawford quickly replied that he would “heartly imbrass your Offer upon the Terms you proposed,” and went on to sketch out the prospects, necessary procedures, and possible problems that the two land hunters might encounter (29 Sept. 1767, DLC:GW). Crawford’s appearance at Mount Vernon, allowing land discussions which were spread over a six-day period, was GW’s first opportunity to confer personally with his man in the field.

Abednego Adams (1721–1809), originally of Charles County, Md., married Mary Peake, a sister of Humphrey Peake. They appear to have settled for a time on land in the fork of Little Hunting Creek which Adams’s wife inherited from her father in 1761.

As an agent for the Alexandria partnership of Carlyle & Adam, Matthew Campbell (d. 1782) had come to Mount Vernon to pay GW £121 11s. 9½d. for wheat purchased from him during the past six months (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 271).

GW had given Crawford £20 on the previous day (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 269).

In 1767 Thomas Price was asked by the Truro vestry to inspect the work at the still unfinished Falls Church building, around which the town of Falls Church later developed (Truro Vestry Book, 116, DLC). Several years later GW bought “a Bricklayer named Isaac Web” from Thomas Price for £30 Maryland currency (General Ledger B description begins General Ledger B, 1772–1793. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 106).

Edward Payne served with GW as a vestryman of Truro Parish 1765–74. When Payne contracted with the parish in 1766 to build a chapel of ease (later called Payne’s Church) for the parishioners in the northwest corner of the parish, GW was appointed to the building committee (slaughter [1] description begins Philip Slaughter. The History of Truro Parish in Virginia. Edited by Edward L. Goodwin. Philadelphia, 1908. description ends , 22, 50).

Theresa Digges (b. 1744) and Elizabeth Digges (1743–1845) were the two eldest daughters of William and Ann Digges of Warburton Manor.

Humphrey Peake of Willow Spring married Mary Stonestreet, daughter of Butler Stonestreet (d. 1755) of Prince George’s County, Md. The Stonestreet home, Exeter, was on Piscataway Creek, which emptied into the Potomac almost directly across from Mount Vernon. Of the two daughters of Humphrey and Mary Peake, this is probably the elder, Ann Peake (d. 1827), often referred to in the diaries as “Nancy.”

GW may have originally planned to combine this visit to Eltham and Williamsburg with attendance at a session of the House of Burgesses which, although scheduled to open on 1 May, had met from 31 Mar. to 16 April (JHB description begins H. R. McIlwaine and John Pendleton Kennedy, eds. Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia. 13 vols. Richmond, 1905–15. description ends , 1766–69, 138, 140, 175–77). Billy is William Bassett (1760–1774), eldest son of Mrs. Washington’s sister Anna Maria Dandridge Bassett and Col. Burwell Bassett of Eltham. The Washingtons probably stayed at the home of Thomas Lawson, who ran John Tayloe’s ironworks on Neabsco Creek, Prince William County, from which GW bought some bar iron in 1761 (ViHi: Tayloe Papers; Lawson to GW, 28 June 1761, ICHi).

Benjamin Hubbard, who died about 1780, was one of a group of Quakers who moved from Pennsylvania to settle in Caroline County in the 1730s. Hubbard later embraced the established church and served as a Caroline County justice 1754–60. Hubbard’s ordinary, located about 37 miles southeast of Fredericksburg in lower Drysdale Parish, was his base of operations for an extensive mercantile business in the Mattaponi River valley from 1756 to 1780. GW had stayed at Hubbard’s as early as 1759, when he and his new bride apparently made a trip from the White House to Fredericksburg, possibly to visit the mother of the bridegroom (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 52, 55; campbell [1] description begins Thomas Elliott Campbell. Colonial Caroline: A History of Caroline County, Virginia. Richmond, 1954. description ends , 175–76, 347, 392, 412).

From Todd’s Bridge on the Mattaponi River, GW’s party followed his regular route through King William County to a fork in the road just beyond King William Court House. Although on previous trips GW chose the south fork, which crossed the Pamunkey River at Williams’ ferry near the White House, the party now took the east fork, remaining on the main road to arrive at Sweet Hall, the home of Thomas Claiborne, which lay on the Pamunkey River opposite New Kent County. About nine miles beyond Sweet Hall was Col. Burwell Bassett’s home, Eltham, which he inherited as the eldest surviving son of his father, William Bassett (1709–c.1743).

GW today paid a Dr. Lee, possibly Arthur Lee, £2 3s. 9d. for Patsy Custis (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 269; see main entry for 6 July 1768).