To George Washington from Harriot Washington, 7 January 1794
From Harriot Washington
Culpeper [Va.] January [7, 1794]
I hope My dear Uncle will excuse my troubling him so soon again, but as he is the only Freind, on earth that I can apply to, for any thing I am induced to think that my necesity will apologize for me. I have spent the winter in Culpeper with Cousin Carter, in a very retired manner, we have scarcely seen a person since we came up, and as I am just a going to return to Fredericksburg, I shall be thousand time’s oblieged to My dear Uncle, if he will give me as much money as will get me a silk jacket and a pair of shoes to wear to the birth night as that will be the first Ball I shall have been to this winter.1
Cousin Carter join’s me in love to you and Aunt Washington. I am My dear Uncle Your affectionate Neice
Harriot Washington
ALS, ViMtvL. GW’s docket reads “From Miss Harrt Washington Jan. 7—1794.”
1. Although Harriot had lived at Mount Vernon for some years, she was sent in late 1792 to live in Fredericksburg, Va., with GW’s sister, Betty Washington Lewis (GW to Betty Washington Lewis, 7 Oct. 1792). In November of 1793, Harriot accepted the invitation of her cousin, Betty Lewis Carter, to spend the winter at Western View, the Carters’ home near Stevensburg in Culpeper County, Va. (Harriot Washington to GW, 16 Nov. 1793). Harriot was planning to attend a ball held in Fredericksburg to honor GW’s birthday on 22 Feb., just as she had done the previous year when she made a similar request (Harriot Washington to GW, 5 Jan. 1793, and n.2).