George Washington Papers

To George Washington from Benedict Calvert, 25 August 1773

From Benedict Calvert

Mount Airy [Md.] Augst 25th 1773

Dear Sir

I Received yours by Major Jennifer at Annapolis and have given Orders to my Deputy to look out for such a person as you want. He tells me that Tradesmen well recommended sell very high. I have desired him to buy none but such.1 I was in hopes to have had the pleasure of attending the Governor to Mount Vernon, but some business at my Office on the Eastern Shore obliges me to set off on Sunday.2 I expect to be back the last of next Week. If you have any commands there shall be glad to execute them.

I am very much obliged to you for the Wheat you was so kind as to spare me I wish mine in return had been better. Everybody here joyn in their respectfull Compliments Nelly who goes with the Governor will deliver hers in person.3 I am Dear Sir Your Most Obedt Servt

Benedt Calvert

ALS, MiDbEI; Sprague transcript, DLC:GW.

1. The letter conveyed by Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer from Mount Vernon on 18 Aug. (Diaries description begins Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds. The Diaries of George Washington. 6 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1976–79. description ends , 3:199) has not been found. GW was evidently trying to acquire a joiner. On 21 Dec. 1773 James Cheston assigned a convict named John Broad to GW for a term of seven years (DLC:GW). GW notes in his Cash Memoranda, 1772-75 description begins “Pocket-day-Book or Cash-Memorandums,” 9 Aug. 1772–27 May 1773, 29 May 1773–22 March 1774, 26 Oct. 1774–3 May 1775. Manuscript in George Washington Papers, Library of Congress. 24 March-31 October 1774. Manuscript in Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, Calif. description ends on 4 Feb. 1774 that he “paid Mr Calvert for the Joiner he bot of Mr Cheston for me” the sum of £45 Maryland currency. Broad seems to have been sick frequently and died in February 1776 after complications from an accidental wound. See Lund Washington to GW, 31 Jan. and 22 Feb. 1776.

2. Benedict Calvert served as collector of customs for the Patuxent district of Maryland and as such he and his deputy were in a position to take up the indentures of any craftsmen entering Maryland through that district. There was a dispute in jurisdiction between the Patuxent and the Chester customs districts, part of which lay on the Eastern Shore. See Cappon, Atlas of Early American History description begins Lester J. Cappon et al., eds. Atlas of Early American History: The Revolutionary Era, 1760–1790. Princeton, N.J., 1976. description ends , 40.

3. For the visit of Gov. Robert Eden and his party to Mount Vernon on 27 Aug., see Diaries description begins Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds. The Diaries of George Washington. 6 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1976–79. description ends , 3:200.

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    Washington Papers
    Title
    To George Washington from Benedict Calvert, 25 August 1773
    Author
    Calvert, Benedict
    Recipient
    Washington, George
    Date
    25 August 1773

    Reference

    Cite as
    “To George Washington from Benedict Calvert, 25 August 1773,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-09-02-0237. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, vol. 9, 8 January 1772 – 18 March 1774, ed. W. W. Abbot and Dorothy Twohig. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1994, pp. 313–314.]

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