From George Washington to Isaac Weatherinton, 20 October 1799
To Isaac Weatherinton
Mount Vernon ⟨20th⟩ Oct. 1799
Sir,
Your letter ⟨of the 20th⟩ of August is but just come to hand. I thank you for the information contain⟨ed in it⟩ of the Tresspasses which are committed on the small piece of land which I have adjoining to yours, & Squire McCrakin’s.1
It would, in future ⟨be⟩ friendly and obliging in you, or him (as my Land adjoins your tracts) to endeavour to prevent such invasion of private property; or if this cannot be done by admonishing the Trespassers of the injustice & impropriety ⟨of⟩ such conduct, then to furnish me with ⟨the n⟩ames, places of abode, and other circumstances of those who pay so little regard to the rights of others, that they may be prosecu⟨ted to⟩ the utmost extent of the Law; for ⟨such iniqui⟩tous practices ought to be made a common cause. If this letter should ever ⟨re⟩ach your hands be so good as to acknowledge the rect of it by the line of Posts, & yr letter will get speedily to hand; by private oppertunities there is no certainty. I am Sir Yr very Hble Servt
Go: Washington
ALS (letterpress copy), NN: Washington Papers.
1. Weatherinton wrote to GW from “Hampshire County Virginia between the Mouths of big and little Capekapon Creek August 24th [not 20 Aug.] 1799”: “Sir I take this oppertunity of informing you as I think it my Duty So to do that the people have made frequaint practices of trespassing upon your Land and timber this twenty years or better and last Winter and Spring there Was A number of Walnut and poplar Sawlogs taken off the Said Land beside other timber for Cannoes and Waggon Stuff the Said Land lays in Hampshire County on the River potomak adjining Squire Virgil McCrakin and myself” (ViHi). On 8 Mar. 1753 GW secured a grant of 240 acres then in Frederick County, on the Potomac River between the Great and Little Cacapon rivers (see Land Grants, from Thomas, Lord Fairfax, in , 1:47–48). GW wrote at the bottom of Weatherinton’s letter of 24 Aug.: “In acknowledging the receipt of this letter, I requested Mr Weatherinton to communicate to me the names of the persons who had committed these Tresspasses and the facts relative thereto.”