From George Washington to Charles Washington, 25 January 1771
To Charles Washington
Dumfries Jan: 25th 1771
Dear Charles
I shoud be obligd to you to receive the Amount of the Inclosd Order, & either bring it up with you when you come to Mount Vernon, or keep it till I draw for it.1
I informd you by the next Post after receiving your Letter, that I had not one Paper in the world relating to the Land on Deep Run; but that my Brother Sam (if he had not parted with it to Mr Lawe Washington) had the original Deed.2
I have appointed a meeting of the Officers concernd in the Grant of 200,000 acres to meet at Winchester on Monday the 4th of March for which place I expect to set off abt the 1st of that Month, & may, probably, stay in the County a fortnight—this I mention that you may not delay your visit to Mt Vernon till that time.3 I am engagd here in a very disagreeable Arbitration which I suppose will keep me till sometime in next week—tell Colo. Lewis he may as well take a Ride up with you, as by that time, I expect to have my Mills quite compleated.4 I am Yr Most Affecte Br.
Go: Washington
ALS, CSmH. The letter is addressed to Charles Washington “in Fredericksburg” and sent “By Mr Crawford,” probably Valentine Crawford.
1. It is not known for what or to whom the “Order” was made.
2. The letters to and from Charles Washington have not been found. GW had inherited, under his father Augustine Washington’s will, half of his father’s moiety of a 4,360–acre undeveloped tract of land on branches of Deep Run and a branch of Aquia Creek in what was then King George and Stafford counties (Northern Neck Grants, Book A, 220, Vi). Deep Run flows into the Rappahannock River from the left bank about twelve miles northwest of Fredericksburg. The other half of Augustine Washington’s tract was inherited by GW’s brother Samuel. The land, over 2,000 acres, was divided between the two brothers, it seems, in 1755 (see GW to John Augustine Washington, 14 June 1755 and note 7). Samuel Washington sold his moiety of the Deep Run tract to Lawrence Washington (1728–c.1809) of Chotank. GW retained his portion but evidently made no attempt to improve the land. In 1796 he conveyed the land, then in Fauquier County, to his nephew Robert Lewis (see memorandum to Lewis, 13 Aug. 1796, printed in Scribner’s Monthly, 14 [1877], 75, and GW to Lewis, 19 Dec. 1796, DLC:GW).
4. For the prolonged arbitration procedures at Colchester in the dispute between Dr. David Ross and his company of Frederick, Md., on the one hand, and John Semple, on the other, see , 2:264, 3:3, 16. For the building of the mill on Dogue Run at Mount Vernon, see Cash Accounts for December 1769, n.3, for April 1770, n.6, and for August 1770, n.9. Also see GW to Charles West, 6 June 1769, n.4, and , 2:218, 222, 232–34, 243–45, 335.