1. The preceding spring, on 6 April 1785, GW has this entry in his diary: “Sent my Shad Sein and Hands to the Ferry to commen⟨ce⟩ Fishing for Mssrs. Douglas & Smith who had engaged to take all the Shad & Herring I can catch in the Season—the first at 15/. a hundred, and the other at 4/. a thousand” (Diaries description begins Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds. The Diaries of George Washington. 6 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1976–79. description ends , 4:114). After receiving this letter from Smith & Douglass, GW wrote the Alexandria firm of John Murray & Co. on 6 Mar. about buying his fish but on 8 Mar. rejected Murray’s offer to take “two or three hundred” barrels of herring (John Murray & Co. to GW, 6 Mar.; GW to John Murray & Co., 8 Mar.). On 10 Mar. another merchant in Alexandria, George Gilpin, wrote GW that having learned that Smith & Douglass had “declined fishing this season,” he was offering to supply GW with as many as 150 fish barrels. Also on 10 Mar., both John Murray & Co. and Smith & Douglass wrote GW from Alexandria, the first noting that on that day GW had agreed to take 200 fish barrels from the company and the other stating: “We shall give ourselves no further trouble about the casks but request it of you to have them counted the half casks to be half price” (DLC:GW). After all of this to-do, GW reported on 7 April that George Augustine Washington “went to Alexandria and engaged 100,000 Herrings to Smith and Douglas (if caught) at 5/ pr. thousand” (Diaries description begins Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds. The Diaries of George Washington. 6 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1976–79. description ends , 4:305). The account with Smith & Douglass in Ledger B description begins General Ledger B, 1772–1793. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , 225, shows that they purchased from GW on 10 May 118,280 herrings at five shillings per thousand for £29.11.4 and 1,342 shad at twenty shillings per hundred for £13.8.9. It also shows the company in return supplying GW on 6 May with 84 hogsheads, 1 pipe, 16 half pipes, and 2 tierces and, on 15 May, paying him in cash £19.9.1, the balance due on the total value of the fish (£43.0.1). There is nothing in GW’s ledger to indicate that GW bought fish barrels in 1786 from either John Murray & Co. or George Gilpin. The partnership of Smith & Douglass was dissolved later in the year.