George Washington Papers

To George Washington from the Fairfax County Committee of Correspondence, 14 November 1775

From the Fairfax County Committee of Correspondence

Alexandria November 14. 1775

Sir

By order of the Committee of this County There was Ship’d from hence by Messrs Henley & Call, the 18th of November 1774–157 barrl flour, in the Schooner Volitile, Capt. Woodbury, Amountg £215.10/—and the freight paid here £23.11/—also fifty bushls beans amount £10—and Eleven barrl bread & five barrels of Flour, by the Capts. Hilton & Rust—Amount £14.9.3—The Contingent Charges pay’d here £5.3.6—Makes in the whole £268.13.9—say Two hundred Sixty eight pounds Thirteen shillings & nine pence.1 Our Committee has also by the favor of John Custis Esqr. sent £53.13.3, to be distributed as you see necessary Among the deserving poor of Boston; there are still some more Subscriptions to come in which shall be forwarded as soon as they are received.

This Committee has never been favoured with a line from the Committee in Boston, acknowledging, the receipt of any thing being received from hence, which surprizes them—You have too Much bussiness upon your hands to request an enquiry into it.2 May every happiness Attend you, in your endeavours in Establishing that Liberty so essentially necessary for the good of Mankind, and that You may return with Laurels among your freinds, is the Sincere wish of Sir your Mo. Obedt hble Servt

John Dalton,3 for Fairfax Commte
Wm Ramsay

LS, in John Dalton’s writing, DLC:GW.

1Several committees of correspondence in Virginia sent supplies to Boston for relief of the inhabitants after Parliament ordered the port closed effective 1 June 1774.

2Robert Hanson Harrison wrote to James Warren on 15 Dec.: “I have it in command from his Excellency to Transmit to you, the Inclosed Letter from John Dalton & William Ramsay, Esqrs., Two of the Committee for the County of Fairfax in the Colony of Virginia: By which you will see that they have sent the sum of £53: 13: 3 by John Custis, Esqr., who arrived here this week, for the suffering poor of Boston: As your Honourable Court may make a distribution of this money in a manner probably, which will better answer the benevolent intentions of the Contribution, than what his Excellency can, It is his desire, that you will have an Order made respecting the same & send some person with It, to whom the money may be paid—The Letter you will please to return. . . . P.S. If you can Certifye that the other Donations were received, It will give the Fairfax Committee Satisfaction” (photocopy, DNA: RG 93, Photocopies of State Records). The following day the Massachusetts house of representatives appointed a committee to study the matter. The committee reported on 2 Jan. 1776, and on 2 and 3 Jan. the General Court recommended that GW give the money to the Boston committee of donations, most of whose members had fled the city, “for them to distribute among said Poor, if his Excellency shall judge proper” (Mass. House of Rep. Journal, Nov. 1775–Feb. 1776 sess. description begins A Journal of the Honorable House of Representatives of the Colony of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England. Watertown, Mass., 1775. (Microfilm Collection of Early State Records). description ends , 46–47, 105; see also “Mass. Council Journal,” July 1775-Feb. 1776 sess. description begins In Journals, Minutes, and Proceedings, State of Massachusetts Bay, 1775–1780. (Microfilm Collection of Early State Records.) description ends , 421).

3John Dalton (d. 1777) was a trustee of Alexandria and one of the town’s leading merchants.

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