Charles Smith pays GW Dec 1758 - Currency of the Realm
This economy was the land of Promissory Notes - promises to pay. Ledger books of these IOUs were recorded. Sometimes these Promissory Notes were traded for barters of services or land. Sometimes these IOUs were traded for other IOUs when they switched roles as creditor and debtor. This dominated over coins. Promissory notes and barter were the currency of the Realm in the colonies. Even tobacco was subsiding as currency since often its value could go up and down radically in certain years. This led the House of Burgesses to want money instead of tobacco for payment in 1759.
So back to Charles Smith paying GW.
Lt Charles Smith had given Washington for his Black Smith a promissory note -- really an IOU written in a ledger. Charles Smith then applied to the House of Burgesses in Williamsburg for payment, as per their promise to pay military expenses.
Lt Charles Smith, in a letter of 2 Dec 1758, said Williamsburg passed resolutions to make good on paying Charles Smith who owed George Washington's Blacksmith for iron needs for Fort Loudoun.
In any case George Washington records reciept of 28 pounds from Charles Smith in December 1758.
Find out how special this Lt Charles Smith was.
Read the story of Charles Smith the man entrusted by Col George Washington to be foreman of building the fort GW designed. This Charles Smith killed a man with Just One Punch in a bar in Fredericksburg. That punch of Charles Smith had to be by his right hand. He lost his left hand at the Battle of Fort Necessity.
That's it.
That's our lead story.
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Compiled by Jim Moyer 11/20/23
Table of Contents
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Lt Charles Smith
Next time you drive by the signs marking Fort Loudoun on 419 N Loudoun Street in Winchester VA, you will remember the story of a man who superintended the building of this fort, killed a man with just one punch.
And next time you drive by Abrams Delight, you will remember that same man married the granddaughter of Jost Hite who was one of the appraisers of the Hollingsworth estate which later saw the construction of a stone building known as Abrams Delight.
Next time your drive by the Springdale House in Bartonsville, you will remember that same man married Rebecca Hite, the daughter of John Hite who had built that home, known as Springdale House in Bartonsville. John Hite was the son of Jost Hite.
Next time you drive by The Nook in Berryville, you will remember that same man lived here.
Lt Charles Smith was that man.
He was the one who did it.
He punched Thomas Frazier, who died maybe more than a half hour later.
That punch of Charles Smith had to be by his right hand.
He lost his left hand at the Battle of Fort Necessity.
However this roster does not list him as wounded.
He's the guy in the picture below who threw the punch.
He was with George Washington at Fort Necessity 1754.
He supervised building Fort Loudoun 1756-1758.
He learned the art of building forts on the South Potomac.
He was the treasure of GW's first election win 24 July 1758.
He dispersed the funds to buy all the alcohol for that election.
He performed some accounting for GW's Bullskin plantations.
More sources here:
Below is a picture by Eric Cherry depicting that punch, followed by a newspaper article of the time telling that story. That picture does show two hands. We are still in pursuit of the truth whether or not Lt Charles Smith only had one hand.
The Punch
15 Sept. 1757
The Maryland Gazette (Annapolis)
reported on 22 Sept 1757
one week after the incident:
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“Last Thursday
an unhappy Affair
happened at
Fredericksburg in Virginia:
Thomas Frazier,
our late faithful diligent Post-Rider,
getting into some Dispute
in a Tavern with an
Officer of the Virginia Regiment,
the Officer [Lt Charles Smith]
gave him a Blow with his Hand
in the Face,
of which he died in
about Three Quarters of an Hour.
The Officer immediately
delivered himself up to Justice,
and ordered a
decent Burial for the Deceased.”
Source:
More sources here:
Letter from Charles Smith to GW
To George Washington from Charles Smith, 2 December 1758
From Charles Smith Fort Loudoun, Decembr 2d 1758 Dr Colo., As You wrote to me in Yr Last Concerning Deischargeing Different People’s Accots that had Money Due by the Contry for Servises Done at this Place, Every Person that brought there Accots in to Me I Sent Down to Williamsburgh Which they past [passed] and is Now Discharg’d. footnote 1
Your Acots of Smith’s [blacksmith] Worke & Waggonage is Past [passed] & the Money is Now in My hands, for Smiths [blacksmith] Worke Amounts upwards of £50, Waggonage upwards of £10, I have Drawn the Whole Accot between You & I & Shall be Ready to Settle with You at any time by Writeing or Self present. footnote 2
there is a Number of the 2d Virga Regiment come Down to Me but by Whose Orders I know knot, there in Great need of a Doctor but to Imploy one, I am afraid to do as I have no Orders but at the same time has Receivd them in to the fort & Draws provision as they Others untill further Orders of Your’s or Some Other Commanding Officer. footnote 3
I have no News Worth Notice but as all Your friends in this place is Well & Daily Wishing to heare of the Reduction of Fort Dequzne & Your Safe Returne at this place as they Immagin there Greatly Imposd upon in this County as there is Orders come up to Draughf the Milisa of the Above Sd County, footnote 4
I am Dr Sir, Your Most Obedient & Very Humbe Servt Chs Smith ALS, DLC:GW.
Founders Online Footnotes
1. GW’s letter to Smith has not been found.
2. For references to Smith’s hiring out GW’s blacksmith and wagon from Bullskin plantation in public works at Winchester, see Smith to GW, 12 Oct. 1758.
3. James Craik, surgeon in the 1st Virginia Regiment, arrived back in Winchester on 16 Dec. and immediately took steps to alleviate the bad situation there. See Craik to GW, 20 Dec., and also Robert Stewart to GW, 12 December.
4. “An Act for the defence of the Frontiers of this Colony . . .” (7 Hening 171–79), which was passed October 1758, confirmed that the governor could keep militiamen in the frontier forts, and draft other militiamen to relieve those then serving, until the 1st Virginia Regiment returned to the colony from Pennsylvania. Fauquier wrote John Buchanan on 14 Nov. that he would not “make alteration in the Plan agreed on here by the Burgesses, for the Frontier Counties . . . till the Return of the first Regiment . . . when I propose to disband every Man of the Militia” (Reese, Fauquier, 1:105).
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Cash Accounts, December 1758
Cash Accounts [December 1758] What is known as General Ledger A (DLC:GW) includes GW’s personal accounts with individuals for the years 1750 to 1774. Interspersed in the ledger among the individual accounts are GW’s cash accounts in which he recorded his cash intake (“Cash”) and his cash expenditures (“Contra”). Except for letter-book copies of his letters to London merchants very little of what must have been an extensive correspondence between the time he left the Virginia Regiment in December 1758 and 1774 has survived. For this reason it seems useful to print month by month with some annotation the cash accounts for these years. GW followed the same form for his cash accounts, except in 1761 and 1762, with only minor variations. No attempt has been made to preserve variations in form such as placement of dates and the omission of zeros in the money amounts. Before this edition of GW’s Papers is complete, his ledgers will be edited and printed in their entirety.
Cash
Decr 9—To Ditto [cash] of Lieutt Charles Smith £28.16. 4
Founders Online footnote: 1. For the source of this money paid to GW at Fort Loudoun by Charles Smith, see Smith to GW, 2 Dec. 1758.
Source:
There's more about Charles Smith:
When One Punch kills - everyone is surprised
Sep 17, 2021 https://jimmoyer1.wixsite.com/fortloudounva/single-post/when-one-punch-kills-everyone-is-surprised-yeah
Tobacco as Payment
4th Session of Assembly
Nov 21, 1759
5. An Act for paying the Burgesses Wages, for this present Session of Assembly, in Money;
This was the 4th session of 7 sessions of a House of Burgesses elected July 1758.
This Assembly had 7 sessions, that spanned from September 14, 1758 to April 10 , 1761.
This particular 4th session ran from (page 133), November 1, 1759 to of November 21, 1759
One paid in tobacco had taken a loss
3rd Session of Assembly..
Feb 24, 1759..
#88 (p. 62)- 7 matching terms
...That a Petition of Joseph Starling, setting forth, That in the Year 1756, being Under- Sheriff and Collector of the public Levy in King and Queen County, there remained a Depositum in his Hands of four Thousand five Hundred twenty-one and an Half Pounds of Tobacco; to be by him accounted for at the laying of the next public Levy, which Tobacco; he delivered to the respective Inspectors, and received from them the current Price of Transfer Tobacco; that Year, amounting to £2^. 2s. 4d. That at the last public Levy the aforementioned Depositum was levied of the Sherift' in Tobacco;, and the Petitioner, not having the Tobacco; in his Hands, was obliged to answer for the same, at the Rate of twenty -one Shillings and Six pence per Hundred, by which he became a Loser of ;£2o. 9s. 8d. and praying to be reimbursed for the said Loss....
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References to tobacco
References to Money
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