From George Washington to George Lewis, 18 January 1795
To George Lewis
Philadelphia Jany. 18th 1795
Dear Sir
Herewith you will receive Plats, and descriptions of two tracts of land which I hold in Kentucky, on the Waters of rough Creek.1 If you have any knowledge of the land in the part of the country these are said to lye in: or if your brother John or any other, within your reach has, I shd be obliged to you for such information respecting them as can be obtained. I wish also to know in what part of the State of Kentucky they lye; and what the selling price of lands thereabouts is. In a word, what you think mine are worth from the description given of them—& part they lye in.
The papers I send are copies, which you may keep; and when you go in to Kentucky, as I think you said it was your intention to do the coming spring, I would thank you for investigating this subject fully; & for writing me a particular account of the Land; and what you suppose it is worth and would sell for; whether they lye in, or out of the settled part of the State; what the properties of the land are, and whether the strea⟨m⟩s, with which it is said to abound, are fit for water works. If they lye near your own lands I could wish to receive the details from your own view of them, & observation thereon.2
My love to Mrs Lewis,3 in which your Aunt and the family join, concludes me your sincere friend and affectionate Uncle
Go: Washington
ALS (letterpress copy), NN: Washington Papers.
1. The enclosed plats have not been identified, but for a plat drawn by GW of his tracts on the south side of Rough Creek in what is now Grayson County, Ky., see Willard Rouse Jillson, The Land Adventures of George Washington (Louisville, Ky., 1934), 43.
2. George Lewis returned from Kentucky on 17 July and in a letter of 18 July informed GW of his unsuccessful efforts to view the lands (ViMtvL).
3. Catherine Daingerfield Lewis (1764–1820), daughter of Col. William Daingerfield (d. 1781) of Spotsylvania County, had married George Lewis in 1779.