To George Washington from the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 3 November 1796
From the Commissioners for the District of Columbia
Washington 3rd Nov. 1796
Sir,
Upon an accurate research into the several laws past by the Legislature of Maryland respecting that part of the City formerly known by the names of Carrollsburgh and Hamburgh,1 it is thought, that the order lately made by you for a reconveyance,2 may not be extensive enough to include those Lots—We therefore take the liberty of requesting your signature to the enclosed, which will include all the Lands vested in the Trustees.3 We have the honor to be &c.,
G. Scott
W. Thornton
A. White
LB, DNA: RG 42, Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, Letters Sent.
1. The Maryland legislature’s act of 22 Dec. 1790 authorized the condemnation of up to 130 acres of land for the use of the Federal City. The law facilitated the confiscation of lots in the undeveloped municipality of Hamburgh (Hamburg; also called Funkstown) from proprietors unwilling to accept a reasonable price for the land (see John Eager Howard to GW, 22 Jan. 1791). Condemnation proceedings became unnecessary since Hamburgh proprietors signed an agreement in February 1791 to convey their lots to the federal government in return for compensation (see GW to William Deakins, Jr., and Benjamin Stoddert, 17 Feb. 1791, and notes 2 and 3 to that document). The Maryland “ACT concerning the territory of Columbia and the city of Washington,” 19 Dec. 1791, ratified GW’s 1791 agreements with the proprietors. That law described the boundaries of the federal district and designated the property owners in Hamburgh and Carrollsburg as among the landholders who would cede their property for the creation and development of the Federal City. The law noted that “many of the proprietors of lots in Carrollsburgh and Hamburgh, have also come into an agreement, subjecting their lots to be laid out anew, giving up one half of the quantity thereof to be sold … and they to be reinstated in one half the quantity of their lots in the new location, or otherwise compensated in land in a different situation within the city.” Landholders in Carrollsburg or Hamburgh were also directed to “execute deeds in trust … of all their lots” (, 2: Nov. 1791 Session, chap. 45). A supplement to this act, passed on 28 Dec. 1793, authorized the commissioners to “appoint a certain day for the allotment and assignment of one half of the quantity of each lot of ground in Carrollsburgh and Hamburgh” (, 2: Nov. 1793 Session, chap. 58). For more on the original proprietors, see Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 1 Oct. (first letter), and the source note to that document.
Carrollsburg consisted of a 160-acre parcel laid out in 1770 for Charles Carroll of Duddington. Bounded by what later became Washington’s N Street and 3d Street SW, it comprised a subdivision situated on the neck of land east of Saint James Creek. The 130-acre Hamburgh tract, on the north bank of the mouth of Tiber (Goose) Creek, ran from present-day 19th to 23d streets NW, and from H Street to the Eastern Branch. Plotted by German Jacob Funk, Hamburgh likely was named for Funk’s hometown (see GW to Deakins and Stoddert, 3 Feb. 1791, and n.1; see also , 1:59; 291; and , 17–18).
2. The commissioners are referring to GW’s Executive Order to Thomas Beall and John Mackall Gantt of 3 Oct. (see GW to the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 5 Oct., and n.2).
3. GW approved the enclosed form and returned a signed executive order of 10 Nov. to Beall and Gantt, trustees of the Maryland lands conveyed to the United States (see Executive Order to Beall and Gantt, 10 Nov., printed as an enclosure to GW to the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 11 Nov.; see also Agreement of the Proprietors of the Federal District, 30 March 1791, and the source note to that document; and Commissioners for the Federal District to GW, 30 June 1791, and the source note to that document).