From George Washington to Tobias Lear, 29 April 1796
To Tobias Lear
Philadelphia 29th April 1796
My dear Sir
Yesterday’s Post brought me the letters which had arrived in the Commerce, Captn Tuttell; enclosing Invoice and Bill of lading for the long expected Seeds (which by the bye have cost me at least four times as much as I expected).1
The Invoice and Bill of lading are now sent to you, lest from the want of them, any difficulty or delay should arise on account of the duties2 and they are accompanied with an earnest request that the packages may be forwarded to Mr Pearce with as little delay as possible the season for sowing the Peas and Succory being already far advanced. The Winter vetch cannot be sown before Autumn.
If you incline to try some of these Seeds at your farm you are very welcome to part of each sort.3 When the purposes for which Mr Murrays letter, Invoice & Bill of lading are sent, are answered be so good as to return them to Dear Sir Your Affectionate Sert
Go: Washington
P.S. If the Seeds should, before the arrival of this letter, have been sent to Mount Vernon, I pray you to contrive the one4 by some safe conveyance to Mr Pearce. And Washington request you will send the letter he has written to his Sister Peter. It relates to their Carriage & some other matters entrusted to his enquiries.5
ALS, ViMtvL: Storer-Decatur Collection; ADfS, owned (1970) by CCamarSJ; LB, DLC:GW. Lear docketed the ALS as received on 4 May. The draft and letter-book copy do not include the last two sentences of the postscript.
1. The enclosures evidently included James Maury’s letter to GW dated 26 Dec. 1795. The Columbian Mirror and Alexandria Gazette (Va.) for 28 April 1796 reported the arrival at Alexandria of the brig Commerce from Liverpool, England.
2. An entry under 15 May in Lear’s account with GW in records a cash payment of 11 pounds and 10 shillings “for freight of 4 Bags & 1 Cask from Liverpool in the Brigantine Commerce.”
3. George Augustine Washington had established at GW’s urging what became known as “Walnut Tree Farm,” a 360-acre tract on Clifton’s Neck at the northeast corner of River farm (see GW to George Augustine Washington, 25 Oct. 1786, in 4:307-10). After Lear married Frances “Fanny” Bassett Washington, George Augustine Washington’s widow, GW arranged a life lease of the farm to the couple, dated 21 Sept. 1795 (DS, owned [1996] by John H. Freund, Armonk, N.Y.).
4. GW wrote “this letter” instead of “the one” on his draft, almost certainly referring to the letter (not found) that he wrote William Pearce on this date.
5. The letter from George Washington Parke Custis to Martha Parke Custis Peter has not been identified.