Mount Vernon in June 1758
Our Colonel George Washington is a multi-tasker. All these balls are up in the air. He's getting ready to run for the House of Burgesses.
He caught that ball and threw it up in the rotation to catch another ball:
Organizing the Virginia Regiment's supplies and troop movements for the Forbes Expedition.
Construction of Fort Loudoun in Winchester is still ongoing. He caught that ball and flipped it over to Lt Charles Smith to be foreman and overseer of that construction.
He's handling issues with the Indian allies. There are recycled bogus scalps being offered and he has to deny paying bounty without losing their interest in scouring the woods for enemy.
And while that is going on he catches another ball in the rotation -- t
he business of the home.
And it is quite a business.
He's going to expand the building of his home at Mount Vernon.
To George Washington from Humphrey Knight, 16 June 1758
From Humphrey Knight Mount Vernon ⟨1⟩6 June 1758 Sir I Receivd yours by Mr Posey
and Emeadiatley wrote up to you
to aquint you of all affairs
but fear full the Letter miscarride,
I instantly proceeded in
Geting Posseys work Vallued
and after it was Vallued
to Settle with him.
he told me, at first he would pay the hole acct,
but afterwards would pay but £25:0:0
which you will see in his Credit,
I have sent his Acct and Credit
in the Letter which I hope will Safeley Get to you1
I Expect to Discharge moxleys acct
which is in the hands of Mr Piper at Court,2
I Expect all the rents in next week without fail,
I shall act according to your orders in paying piper,3
John Berry Refuses to pay what adams Vallued his work to[.]4
the other people is willing to pay
and I beleive ready
but not without an Order from you or Mr John Augt. washington5
Sir I hope you will not be Douptfull of my Diligence
in your buseness
Ill Loose my life before any thing sha⟨mutilated⟩ Go amiss if I can help it,
our people has bin very Sickly
which has hurt us and a Great Deal of hinderence in building
which I hope your Hr will Consider the frames is all Sawd
but the Leaths which will soon be dun
the house will be raisd next week,6
Mr Grymes has had 6 hhds of Sweet Sented Tobco
from muddy hole which is all of that sort and 3 hhd which Come from the mountain Quartrs which was to light & I Carried Tobco from mudy hole and reprizd & maid em heavier In all mr Grymes has had 97
Plese to Excuse our making So little Tobco
I hope we Shall make a good Crop this year
I have planted Seventy thousand
and Shall finish next Season
our Corn is very likely and in good Order
the water fails at the mill Very mutch
I sent in the other letter how mutch Corn
She has got Sence Christmas and wheat.8
All our stock is well
and a fine parcell of Lambs
the roan mairs Colt groes very fast, I
Delivd to the Sloop
belonging to Norfolk
168–1/2 bushels of wheat
which was all we could Get ready
and I Delivd the Receipt to Colo. Carlile9
their is few people in our County
will plant their Crops
Our wheat is midlin⟨g⟩
Likeley our oats is very good
we Sewd of oats 90 bushels
I have Drawd Poseys acct of the book right and Set Down all his Credit
I shall be Diligent in geting your Debts in and all other things I hope, and shall with Safety Keep the money for You or your order and Should be glad to see Your Honr Down at your Estate in fairfax County
I am Sir your Most Hble Servant to Comd Humphrey Knight
ALS, DLC:GW.
Humphrey Knight was GW’s overseer at Mount Vernon in 1757 and 1758 until his death in the fall of 1758.
When closing out his account with the deceased Knight, GW wrote: “Note, this Humphrey Knight was an Overseer of mine & died while his Second Crop was growing—his share of which it is supposd coud not amount to so much as the Balle of the Acct for which he is here credited—viz.—for 30.15.9½” against a total indebtedness of £69.13.1½ incurred from 20 June 1757 (General Ledger A, folio 73).
1. John Posey, at this time captain of the 2d company of artificers in the 2d Virginia Regiment, was GW’s near neighbor living just downriver from Mount Vernon where he operated a ferry across the Potomac. See Diaries, 1:211. In his account with Posey (General Ledger A, folio 14), GW entered charges in “1757 & 58” against Posey “To Sundry Work done by my Carpenter valud to” £30, as well as additional charges of £6.18 and £18.15 for wheat. On 13 Sept. 1758 GW entered cash payments by Posey to Knight of £12.10, £5, and £25 (ibid.). GW’s account with Knight indicates that Posey made the payment of £25 on 15 June (ibid., 73). GW’s carpenter built for Posey among other things a kitchen (see John Patterson to GW, 17 June 1758). This is the first letter from Knight to GW that has been found.
2. This may have been Samuel Moxley with whom GW did business in the 1760s (see General Ledger A, folio 54), but the estates of Richard Moxley (d. 1757) and Thomas Moxley, Jr. (d. 1757), were being settled at this time, and as late as 1759 Harry Piper made a settlement for GW with the estate of William Moxley (d. 1752). The Piper named here was probably the merchant in Alexandria, Harry Piper (d. 1780).
3. No instructions from GW to pay Piper have been found, but Knight wrote GW on 13 July that he had “paid Mr Piper.” On 23 Aug. Knight confessed that four tenants had still paid only a part of their rent and that one had paid none.
4. According to John Patterson in a letter to GW on 17 June, it was “Mr Adams” who viewed and valued the work done for John Posey by GW’s carpenter. See note 1. Adams was probably Abednego Adams (1721–1809), one of GW’s closest neighbors, who lived near Little Hunting Creek. John Berry may have been John Barry, husband of Eleanor Wade Barry and clerk of the Truro Vestry, 1764 to 1775.
5. GW’s young brother Jack (John Augustine Washington) took over the management of GW’s farms when GW joined Braddock’s expedition in the spring of 1755 (see William Fairfax to GW, 14 April 1756, n.6), but he was no longer living at Mount Vernon when Knight became the resident overseer there.
6. The joiner John Patterson was in the process of adding another story to the story and one half of the house at Mount Vernon that GW inherited from his half brother Lawrence Washington. See John Patterson to GW, 17 June 1758, and notes to that document.
7. This was Benjamin Grymes, owner of the ship Arnold in the tobacco trade. Muddy Hole Farm, a part of the original Mount Vernon tract, was on Little Hunting Creek back from the Potomac. It included nearly five hundred acres, and eventually GW had seven fields on the farm for cultivation. For a description of GW’s Mountain Quarter, his Bullskin plantation in the lower Shenandoah Valley, see Christopher Hardwick to GW, 11 July 1758. GW’s nine hogsheads were shipped to Richard Washington in the Arnold in September 1758. “Reprizd” is used in the sense of started over.
8. Knight’s letter has not been found. For the miller’s report on GW’s mill on Dogue Run, see William Poole to GW, 9 July 1758.
9. The wheat was shipped in John Carlyle’s sloop to the merchant Charles Steuart in Norfolk. See General Ledger A, folio 11, and Knight to GW, 2 Sept. 1758. John Carlyle of Alexandria was GW’s business associate and friend.
Source:
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To George Washington from John Patterson, 17 June 1758
From John Patterson June the 17th 1758.
Honourable Sr I return you thanks, for Complying with my request,
& hope to give content for Your goodness.1 I
shall take the Roof off the House,
as soon as the Carpenters gets the Laths for to shingle on;
having the cheif of the Work fream’d,
at this Instant.
I shall want two inch plank for to Cover the Balusterade; & am of Opinion that Pine, is before Oak for that purpose.
But if you think proper to have the Latter, the Carpenters can get it.
Likewise its requesite the weatherboarding that is up; & will be, had a coat of Paynt, for which I spoke to Mr Washington, & he desir’d I would make Uce of the red Paynt, when Oyle was got; the sooner the better that the Work may not suffer. The sd Gent. desir’d I woould write, what Mr Possey’ Kitchen amounted to; the Value where of being fourteen Pound. And the other work Veiw’d by Mr Adams Six.2
Depend Sir on my deligence to forward the Work, & will stick to it early & laite til finish’d; &
shall allways make it my study to please & serve a Gent. that has done me such a singular peice of Service.
I remain Honrble Sir with the greatest respect Your Honours Most Oblidg’d, Most Humble Servt
John Patterson
P.S. Sr please to send the Wallnut plank, with the Oyle.3 The demensions is 6 feet long, by 1 f[oot]: 6 In. Broad, & 6:In. thick.
ALS, DLC:GW.
John Patterson (d. 1768), a joiner, or master carpenter, in the Northern Neck, was directing the repairs and improvements being made to the house at Mount Vernon, including the addition of another story. The progress of the work on the house during the summer and early fall of 1758 may be followed in the letters from Patterson, 13 Aug., 2 Sept.; from GW’s overseer Humphrey Knight, 16 June, 13 July, 24 Aug., 2 Sept.; from George William Fairfax, 25 July, 5 Aug., 1, 15 Sept.; and from John Carlyle, 4, 8, 22 August. Except for his letter to George William Fairfax of 25 Sept., no other in which GW gives instructions about or comments on Patterson’s work on Mount Vernon has been found. GW’s accounts reveal that he paid Patterson £20 cash in December 1757, £75 in May 1758, and in July 1759 gave him “an order on Messrs [John] Carlyle & [John] Dalton for [£]185–5.11” (General Ledger A, folio 49).
1. GW’s “goodness” presumably was the “singular peice of Service” that Patterson refers to later in this letter.
2. See Humphrey Knight to GW, 16 June 1758, nn.1 and 4.
3. According to his accounts GW paid Lewis Stephens £7 “for Lin-seed Oyl” (General Ledger A, folio 39).
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