IV. Report of the Estate Commissioners, 5 November 1761
IV
Report of the Estate Commissioners, 1761
[5 November 1761]
We the Subscribers have pursuant to the Order of the Honble the General Court examined the Accounts of George Washington Esqr. against the Estate of Daniel Parke Custis Esqr. deceased and his Infant Children John Parke Custis and Martha Parke Custis1 to whom the said George Washington is Guardian2 and find the same fairly and justly stated and prooved by proper Vouchers and have therefore Settled the Ballances as due April last according to the several Accounts hereunto annexed. Given under Our Hands this 5th day of November 1761.
| (Signed) | Peyton Randolph |
| Ro. C. Nicholas | |
| Thos Everard |
D, ViLxW: Washington’s Account Book. GW entered this certificate of the commissioners in his account book along with the general estate account for 1758–59 (doc. IV-A) and the individual estate accounts of the Custis children for 1759 to 1761 (docs. IV-B and IV-C). He also entered one final general estate account, for April 1761 to April 1762, which simply shows a balance of £3.8.9⅓ current money in favor of each of the three heirs and £6.6.2 sterling against each (ViLxW).
1. The three commissioners were appointed by the General Court probably in its April session. The accounts the commissioners examined included the three named in the source note and included as docs. IV-A, IV-B, and IV-C. No separate account of Martha Washington’s (or GW’s) share of the account for 1759–61 has been found (see Editorial Note, 20 April 1759–5 Nov. 1761). GW kept an estate account in his for the income he received in 1759 and 1760 from the undivided financial assets of the estate. The commissioners certainly did not examine the account in this form, but it is printed here as doc. IV-D because it contains information that had to be conveyed in some form to the commissioners and the courts.
2. The General Court issued an order in October 1761 making GW the guardian of the two Custis children. See Appointment as Guardian, 21 Oct. 1761. GW had been managing the property of the children since his marriage in 1759 (see doc. I, n.4).