Wednesday 30th. Mercury at 58 in the Morning—62 at Noon and [ ] at Night.
A good deal of rain fell in the Night—showers all day with thunder; & alternate Squals and calm.
Doctr. Stuart went away after breakfast & carried the three Children Betcy, Nelly, & Washington Custis with him to Abingdon.
Arthur Lee Esqr. came to Dinner.
Eleanor Parke (Nelly) Custis (1779–1852) and George Washington Parke Custis (1781–1857), usually called Washington, were the two youngest children of David Stuart’s wife Nelly and her first husband, John Parke Custis. Little Nelly had been brought to Mount Vernon soon after her birth for her mother was too ill to take care of her. Washington, too, had lived with his grandparents most of his life. Although there seem to have been no legal documents drawn up, GW spoke of these two youngest children as “adopted” by him and Mrs. Washington (GW to Lawrence Lewis, 20 Sept. 1799, DLC:GW).
Arthur Lee, who served in the Virginia House of Delegates 1781–83 and the Continental Congress 1781–84, was one of the commissioners who concluded treaties with the Indians in Oct. 1784 and Jan. 1785, and was at this time awaiting the action of the Congress on his nomination to the Board of Treasury.