George Washington Papers

From George Washington to James Barry, 26 October 1797

To James Barry

Mount Vernon 26th Oct. 1797

Sir,

Since you left this, yesterday I have conversed with my Manager on the subject of flour, according to your desire.1

The result is, that on Tuesday next, provided immediate notice is given, he could have fifty barrels of Superfine at Alexandria. It would however, employed as my Boats are in getting materials together for my Distillery,2 be vastly more convenient for me to deliver it to a Vessel at my Mill.

If you take the above mentioned flour I shall expect eight dollars and a half per barrel for it. I am—Sir Your Obedt Hble Servt

Go: Washington

ALS (letterpress copy), NN: Washington Papers.

1The Irishman James Barry, a trading partner of Thomas Law, visited Mount Vernon on 24 Oct. with the Spanish minister, Don Carlos Martinez de Yrujo y Tacon (1763–1834; Diaries description begins Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds. The Diaries of George Washington. 6 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1976–79. description ends , 6:264–65). Barry had earlier acted as Spanish agent and Portuguese consul for the states of Maryland and Virginia.

2For references to the building of GW’s distillery, see James Anderson to GW, 21 June 1797, n.4.

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