To George Washington from Wakelin Welch & Son, 8 October 1789
From Wakelin Welch & Son
London 8th October 1789
We had the honr of receiving your Excellencys favour of the 16th Augst the two inclos’d Letters therein we forwarded & whenever Messrs Fenwick & Co. draws for the Wine their order shall be punctualy paid.
One Adams here is Suppos’d to be the first optician we have, he purposes to make the Terrestial Globe upon the New & approv’d method, it may take up two Months to Compleat & that will be as early as a Conveyance may offer, for after this Vessell none is expected to Sail before February.1
The Bag Sent by the Packet is as yet not Sent up, they come no further than Falmouth, & whether the Capt: is permitted to forward it, without an order from the Post Office we shall make an Enquiry after. We beg leave to Subscribe Ourselves Your Excellys Much Oblig’d & Hume Servts
Wake. Welch & son
LS, DLC:GW.
1. The terrestrial globe was made by Dudley Adams, the son of George Adams, instrument maker to George III. After his father’s death in 1773 he joined his brother George Adams the younger (1758–1795) who had succeeded to the elder Adams’s optical business as well as to his official post. The firm, established on Fleet Street, became one of Great Britain’s leading optical manufacturers. In their letter to GW of 14 Feb. 1790, Wakelin Welch & Son announced they had shipped the terrestrial globe, charging GW £28.19 for the purchase (, 302). It now stands in GW’s study at Mount Vernon.