To George Washington from Thomas Stone, 16 January 1776
From Thomas Stone
Annapolis: Jan. 16th 1776
Sir:
I am much obliged by your Civility and Politeness to Mr Polk.1 After many Disappointments I got the Deed from Mr Adams & his Sisters to You executed, in the Begining of last Month: & desired your Friend Doctr Craik to have it recorded and the Original sent to Mr Lund Washington. The Delay in this Affair was not, I am inclined to believe, owing to any Disinclination in Mr Adams to do what was right, but was occasioned by accidental Circumstances. I was much ⟨illegible⟩ed at hearing he had destroyed much Timber on the Land after he had engaged to sell it to You, but on Inquiry I found very little foundation for the Information I had received; And that it arose from his having worked up some Trees fell before the Agreement with You into Staves2—He has now entered into the Service of this Province as a Leiutenant3—Mr Chase does not remember any Letter in favour of Doctr Wilkerson to You4—Capt. Price of one of the Maryland Rifle Companies under your Command is appointed Majr in a Battalion raised in this Province.5 We have this day ordered three Companies to march to the Eastern shore Counties of Virginia to assist the Inhabitants in repelling any Attack made by Dunmore, who seems determined to extend the Calamities of War to every defenceless place within his Compass.6 I most sincerely wish You Health And that your virtuous Endeavours may be crowned with Success & Glory—I am Yr most Obt very humble Sert
T: Stone
ALS, NNPM.
1. Stone may be referring to Robert Polk of Annapolis who received a privateer’s commission from Congress on 5 Sept. 1776.
2. For Lund Washington’s negotiations to obtain for GW land in Charles County, Md., belonging to Daniel Jenifer Adams, see Lund Washington to GW, 3 Dec. 1775, and the references in notes 2 and 3 of that document, particularly GW to Lund Washington, 20 Aug. 1775, n.4. The deed that Adams and his sisters Anna and Elizabeth Mason Adams executed on 4 Dec. 1775 was registered on 5 Jan. 1776 (Charles County Court Land Records, vol. 3, pp. 60–61, MdAA). Although GW acquired Adams’s land in the hope of using it in an exchange for land adjoining Mount Vernon owned by Thomas Hanson Marshall, he still owned the land at the time of his death (, 4:515, 523–24).
3. Daniel Jenifer Adams became a first lieutenant in Capt. Reazin Beall’s independent Maryland company on 14 January. Adams served as brigade major of the Maryland flying camp from 27 Aug. to 1 Dec. 1776 and was commissioned major of the 7th Maryland Regiment on 1 April 1777. He resigned his commission on 8 June 1779.
4. No letter to GW in 1775 or 1776 from anyone named Chase has been found. This was probably Samuel Chase (1741–1811) although it may have been his cousin Jeremiah Townly Chase (1748–1828), both of whom were in Annapolis attending the sixth Maryland convention as was Stone.
5. Thomas Price of Frederick, Md., was made major of Col. William Smallwood’s Maryland regiment on 14 January.
6. The convention took this action on 15 January. The three companies of minutemen came from Dorchester, Queen Annes, and Kent counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore (, 120–21).