Agreement with George Muse, 3 August 1770
Agreement with George Muse
[3 Aug. 1770]. “Articles of Agreement made and concluded upon this third day of August in the year of our Lord One thousand Seven hundred and Seventy, between George Muse of the County of Caroline . . . & George Washington . . . Witnesseth that the said George Muse hath this day agreed . . . to let the said George Washington . . . have one full third part of all the Land which he the said Muse now is, or hereafter shall be, entitled to under Govr Dinwiddies Proclamation of the 19th of Feby in the yr 1754. . . . In consideration whereof the said George Washington doth hereby agree for himself his Heirs ⟨mutilated⟩ to be at all the cost and charges which shall ⟨arise⟩ in Surveying and securing the said Muses share of the above Grant (the expense of Seating & Settling the same excepted) and permit him . . . to have . . . the other two thirds of the said share, free from any expense or cost . . . .”1
ADS, owned (1992) by Mr. James Ruddy, Rancho Mirage, California. The document, in GW’s hand, was signed by him and Muse and witnessed by Fielding Lewis, James Hunter, and Charles Washington. Muse’s bond, of this date, for £1,000 to comply with the terms of the agreement was appended to the document. For the complete text, see CD-ROM:GW.
On 3 Aug. GW was in Fredericksburg for a meeting of the veterans of the 1754 expedition. See references in Cash Accounts, August 1770, n.1.
1. On 4 Nov. 1770 the Virginia council ordered that a patent for a tract of 7,276 acres on the Great Kanawha be issued to GW and Muse, 3,953 acres for GW and 3,323 acres for Muse. Under the terms of his agreement with Muse, GW was entitled to one-third of Muse’s 3,323 acres, and he secured the rest by exchanging for it 2,000 acres nearby which he bought from William Bronaugh. See , 6:548–49, and Muse to GW, 3 Mar. 1784, n.1.