George Washington Papers

From George Washington to Thomas Freeman, 8 May 1786

To Thomas Freeman

Mo[un]t Vernon 8th May 1786

Sir,

Being informed that Mrs Crawford is on the point of having her negroes sold to discharge a Debt due from her late husband, Colo. Crawford, to Mr James Cleveland, for whom you are Agent; I will, rather than such an event shall take place, agree to apply any money of mine, which may be in your hands, towards the discharge of the execution; and desire, in that case, you will receive such security as Mrs Crawford can give for reimbursing me.1 I am Sir &c.

G: Washington

LB, DLC:GW.

1See Hannah Crawford’s earlier plea for help, 4 June 1784. See also her letter to GW of 16 Mar. 1787, written after the Virginia legislature on 9 Jan. 1787 had acted positively on her petition for aid as the widow of William Crawford. Crawford was killed while serving “his country during the late war” (House of Delegates Journal, 1789–1790, description begins Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia; Begun and Holden in the City of Richmond, in the County of Henrico, on Monday the Sixteenth Day of October, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty-Six. Richmond, 1828. description ends 83, 150). In 1775 GW sent James Cleveland out to his Ohio lands with a party of workers (see GW’s instructions to Cleveland, March 1775, and Cleveland to GW, 12, 21 May 1775).

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