To George Washington from Edward Weyman, Jr., 10 January 1793
From Edward Weyman, Jr.
Charleston South Carolina January 10 1793
The Humble Petition of Edward Weyman Sheweth!
That by the death of Edward Weyman, his father, the place of Surveyor of the Port of Charleston is become vacant,1 and the Collector of the said Port having honoured your Petitioner with the said appointment until a permanent one is made, therefore prays that you will be pleased to confirm him in the same—Your Petitioner is induced to this from his knowledge of the business of the Office, and his father not leaving his private affairs in so elegible a situation as he could expect, and the whole dependence of an aged Mother resting solely on the success of this application2—And your Petitioner as in duty bound will ever pray.
Ed. Weyman
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. Edward Weyman, Sr. (1730–1793), a glass grinder and upholsterer who had been born in Pennsylvania, married Rebecca Breintnall in 1751 and moved to South Carolina by the mid–1750s. A member of the Sons of Liberty in the 1760s and of several secret correspondence committees in the early 1770s, Weyman was elected to the first and second South Carolina provincial congresses in 1775 and 1776 and state general assemblies in 1776, 1779–80, and 1782. While serving as a lieutenant in the Charleston artillery battalion in 1780, Weyman was captured by the British and exiled to St. Augustine. Exchanged in the summer of 1781, he subsequently joined Francis Marion’s brigade as an artillery captain. Following the Revolutionary War, Weyman was searcher for the port of Charleston c.1783–88. GW appointed him surveyor of Charleston on 3 Aug. 1789 and port inspector on 6 Mar. 1792.
2. Isaac Holmes was the collector of the customs for the port of Charleston. South Carolina senator Pierce Butler wrote GW on 6 Feb. about Weyman’s interest in this position. For the nomination of Edward Weyman, Jr. (1768–1813), as surveyor and inspector of the port of Charleston, see GW to the U.S. Senate, 18 Feb. 1793. The Senate confirmed Weyman’s appointment on the following day ( 1:129).