1From George Washington to George Washington Parke Custis, 23 July 1797 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 14th instt has been duly received, and gives us pleasure to hear that you enjoy good health, & are progressing well in your Studies. Far be it from me to discourage your Correspondence with Doctor Stuart, Mr Law, Mr Lear or Mr Lewis; or indeed with any others, as well disposed and capable as I believe they are, to give you specimens of correct writing, proper subjects, and...
2From George Washington to George Washington Parke Custis, 22 May 1797 (Washington Papers)
Having heard nothing from you, or of you, since you left the Federal City, but hoping you got safe to Princeton, the sole intention of this letter is to cover the enclosed. The one from your Sister will, I presume, detail the little occurences which have happened since you left us. and the other arrived after your departure —We are much in the same situation as when you left us. AL , ViHi :...
3From George Washington to George Washington Parke Custis, 13 June 1798 (Washington Papers)
It is now near four weeks since any person of this family has heard from you, although you were requested to write to some one in it, once a fortnight, knowing (as you must do) how apt your Grandmama is to suspect that you are sick, or some accident has happened to you, when you omit this? I have said, that none of us have heard from you, but it behooves me to add, that from persons in...
4From George Washington to St. George Tucker, 30 May 1797 (Washington Papers)
Your favor of the 24th Ulto, from Winchester, came duly to hand; but presuming you were on a Circuit, I have allowed time for the completion, to offer you my acknowledgment of its receipt. My Sollicitude for the establishment of a National University in this Country, has been great, and unceasing; but as the sentiments of the Legislature have not been in unison therewith, I had postponed the...
5From George Washington to George Lewis, 9 April 1797 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 31st Ult. from Culpeper County, came to my hands late at night on the 5th instt; and the enclosure for your brother Fielding was sent to him early next morning. The melancholy occasion of your writing has filled me with inexpressable concern. The debt of nature however sooner or later must be paid by us all, and although the seperation from our nearest relatives is a heart...
6From George Washington to George Washington Parke Custis, 10 May 1798 (Washington Papers)
Your letter by Colo. Fitzgerald has been received—and I shall confine my reply at present, to the query contained in ⟨mutilated⟩ Postscript—viz.—“to whom I am to apply for money in case of want.” This has the appearance of a very early application, when it is considered that you were provided, very plentifully it was conceived, with necessaries of all sorts when you left this (two months ago...
7From George Washington to George Ball, 17 March 1799 (Washington Papers)
It is somewhat singular, that instead of receiving Three hundred and three pounds in April of the last year, as per agreement for the land I sold you (lying in Gloucester County of this State) that I should never have seen, nor heard a tittle from you, respecting this payment, at the time it became due, nor since for near a year. The first Instalment of the residue will become due the 10th of...
8From George Washington to George Washington Parke Custis, 19 March 1798 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 12th instt has been received; and it gives me, and your friends here much pleasure to find that you are ⟨agree⟩ably settled, and disposed to prosecute your studies with zeal & alacrity. Let these continue to be your primary objects & pursuits; all other matters, at your time of life, are of secondary consideration, for it is on a well grounded knowledge of these your...
9From George Washington to George Washington Parke Custis, 15 April 1798 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 2d instant came duly to hand, and gave us the pleasure (as you may naturally conceive from our solicitude for your well doing) at hearing that you had got over a slight indisposition; was happy in your present situation; and going on well in your studies. Prosecute these with deligence & ardour, and you will sometime hence, be more sensible than now, of the rich harvest you...
10From George Washington to George Deneale, 19 February 1799 (Washington Papers)
You will please to grant a license for the Marriage of Eleanor Parke Custis with Lawrence Lewis, and this shall be your authority for so doing from—Sir Your Very Hble Servt ALS , NNPM ; ADf , DLC:GW ; LB , in hand of Albin Rawlins, owned (1976) by Miss Penissa Wills and Mr. L. J. Wills, Halesowen, England. GW had Thomas Peter and George Washington Parke Custis witness his application to the...
11From George Washington to George Washington Parke Custis, 24 July 1798 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 21st Instt was received ⟨last night⟩ The question, “I would thank you to inform me whether I leave it entirely, or not, so that I ⟨may⟩ pack up accordingly,” really astonishes me! for it would seem as if nothing I could say to you made more than a momentary impression. Did I not, before you went to that Seminary, and since by letter, endeavour to fix indelibly on your mind,...
12From George Washington to George Washington Parke Custis, 3 April 1797 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 25th Ulto has been duly received; and as your Grand Mamma or Sister, will write to you by the Post, I shall leave it to them to furnish you with the details of our journey, and the occurances since our arrival. It gives me singular pleasure to hear that your time has been so well employed during the last Winter, and that you are so sensible of the good affects of it...
13From George Washington to George Washington Motier Lafayette, 5 December 1797 (Washington Papers)
With that pleasure which I shall always feel at hearing from you, or of any thing which may contribute to your happiness, I received your several letters from New York—dated in October, and that of the 2d of November from Sea, by Mr Latimer. If my best vows would have contributed to a prosperous Voyage, and a happy meeting with your Parents and Sisters in France, both must have happened to the...
14From George Washington to George Washington Parke Custis, 7 January 1798 (Washington Papers)
System in all things should be aimed at; for in execution, it renders every thing more easy. If now & then, of a morning before breakfast, you are inclined, by way of change, to go out with a Gun, I shall not object to it; provided you return by the hour we usually set down to that meal. From breakfast, until about an hour before Dinner (allowed for dressing, & preparing for it, that you may...
15From George Washington to George Washington Parke Custis, 10 July 1797 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 1st instant was received by the last mail (on friday) and your other letter of the 8th of June remains unacknowledged; owing principally to engagements without doors, in my Harvest fields, and to company within; for we have scarcely been alone a day for more than a month; and now have a house full, among whom are your Sisters Law & Peter. To hear you are in good health, and...
16From George Washington to George Lewis, 13 November 1797 (Washington Papers)
The running off of my Cook, has been a most inconvenient thing to this family; and what renders it more disagreeable, is, that I had resolved never to become the master of another Slave by purchase; but this resolution I fear I must break. I have endeavoured to hire, black or white, but am not yet supplied. A few days ago, having occasion to write to Mr Bushrod Washington on other matters, I...
17From George Washington to George Thacher, 27 January 1798 (Washington Papers)
It is not long since the Papers herewith sent have been in my possession, altho’ from the date they bear, one would be led to think otherwise. If the statements are just, the case merits attention; and as Mr Goodwin has mistaken the road by which the application (if redress can be afforded) is to be made, I have taken the liberty of transmitting them to you, on the supposition that he is a...
18From George Washington to George Pearson, 15 September 1797 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 12th of May has been received, but not until within these few days: to which you will please to consider the following as a reply. Having been long in public life, and but little in this State for the last five and twenty years; and moreover, having had but very little agency in the Administration of the deceased Colo. Thomas Colvils affairs even antecedant thereto, no...
19From George Washington to John Fitzgerald, William Herbert, and George Gilpin, 22 November 1797 (Washington Papers)
On Monday last, in Alexandria, Colo. Marstellar applied to me to rent my lot with the house on it in that place for three years, from the expiration of the year for wch it is now engaged (at Sixty pounds until Feby). I answered, that I was well disposed to receive him as a tenant and for the term above mentioned, but was unable to fix the rent then; being unacquainted with such as were usual...
20From George Washington to George Washington Parke Custis, 29 August 1797 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 21st Instt came to hand by the last Post; and, as usual, gave us pleasure to hear that you enjoyed good health; were progressing well in your Studies; and that you were in the Road to promotion. Senior class having left, or being on the point of leaving College—some of them with great eclat—ought to prove a strong stimulus to those who remain to acquire equal reputation...
21From George Washington to John Lambert, 20 November 1798 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to John Lambert, 20 Nov. 1798. Lambert’s letter to GW of 24 Oct. : “Answd Nov. 20 1798.”
22To Alexander Hamilton from George Washington, [26 September 1798] (Hamilton Papers)
[ Mount Vernon, September 26, 1798. Letter not found. ] “List of Letters from G—— Washington to General Hamilton,” Columbia University Libraries.
23From George Washington to William Hartshorne, 27 March 1798 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to William Hartshorne, 27 Mar. 1798. On 27 Mar. Hartshorne wrote GW : “Thy favor of this date I recd.”
24From George Washington to John McDowell, 13 June 1798 (Washington Papers)
An ardent wish that young Custis should apply closely to his studies, & conduct himself with propriety under your auspices induces me to give you the trouble of receiving these enquiries, and to know if he is in want of any thing that can be provided for him, by Sir Your obedt & Very Hble Servt What is the course of his studies, at present. ALS , ViHi : Custis Papers.
25From George Washington to James Mease McRea, 21 May 1798 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to James Mease McRea, c.21 May 1798. On 21 May 1798 GW wrote to John Fitzgerald : “The enclosed, I would thank you for forwarding to the Postmaster in Alexandria.”
26To Alexander Hamilton from George Washington, [9 October 1798] (Hamilton Papers)
[ Mount Vernon, October 9, 1798. Letter not found. ] “List of Letters from G—— Washington to General Hamilton,” Columbia University Libraries.
27From George Washington to William Booker, 6 May 1799 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to William Booker, 6 May 1799. On 15 May Booker wrote GW : “Your letter of the 6 Inst. I duly receivd.”
28From George Washington to Tobias Lear, 31 July 1797 (Washington Papers)
I am alone at present, and shall be glad to see you this evening. Unless some one pops in, unexpectedly, Mrs Washington and myself will do what I believe has not been [done] within the last twenty years by us, that is to set down to dinner by ourselves. I am Yr affectionate ALS (photocopy), Charles Hamilton catalog no. 23, 13 Dec. 1967. In his Letters and Recollections, 120, Lear added here...
29From George Washington to Burwell Bassett, 13 December 1797 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to Burwell Bassett, Jr., 13 Dec. 1797. On 22 Dec. Bassett wrote GW : “Yours of the 13th reached me to day.”
30From George Washington to George Ball, 7 May 1797 (Washington Papers)
By the Post of friday I received, with no small degree of surprise, your letter dated the 24th Ulto with a Post mark on the back dated Lancaster Courthouse the 29th. Had not the matter you complain of been discussed and explained, at the time our bargain was closed for the Gloucester Land there might, in appearance, have been more cause for the observations you have been pleased to make than...
31To Alexander Hamilton from George Washington, [15 March 1799] (Hamilton Papers)
[Mount Vernon, March 15, 1799. Letter not found.] “List of Letters from G—— Washington to General Hamilton,” Columbia University Libraries.
32From George Washington to Bartholomew Dandridge, 26 June 1799 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to Bartholomew Dandridge, 26 June 1799. On 17 Oct. Dandridge wrote from London thanking GW for his “very Kind letter of the 26. June.”
33From George Washington to Bennett & Watts Co., 12 May 1798 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to Bennett & Watts Co., 12 May 1798. Sotheby Parke-Bernet in catalog 4158, item 213, advertises a five-line letter to Bennett & Watts Co. in which GW sent for “half a pound of best Indigo, & a stock lock of middling size and quality.”
34From George Washington to John Trumbull, 10 December 1798 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to John Trumbull, 10 Dec. 1798. On 24 Mar. 1799, Trumbull wrote GW : “I have duly received the Letter which you did me the honour to write on the 10th Decr last.”
35From George Washington to Thompson & Veitch, 20 July 1798 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to Thompson & Veitch, 20 July 1798. On 30 July Thompson & Veitch wrote GW : “We are favoured with yours of the 20th Instant.”
36From George Washington to William Booker, 22 June 1798 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to William Booker, 22 June 1798. On 6 July Booker wrote GW : “I receivd your Letter of the 22 Ulto.”
37To Alexander Hamilton from George Washington, [14 September 1798] (Hamilton Papers)
[ Mount Vernon, September 14, 1798. Letter not found. ] “List of Letters from G—— Washington to General Hamilton,” Columbia University Libraries.
38To Alexander Hamilton from George Washington, [11 August 1799] (Hamilton Papers)
[ Mount Vernon, August 11, 1799. Letter not found. ] “List of Letters from G—— Washington to General Hamilton,” Columbia University Libraries.
39From George Washington to Thomas Peter, 1 February 1799 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to Thomas Peter, 1 Feb. 1799. On 1 Feb. Peter wrote GW : “Your esteemed favor of this date” arrived.
40From George Washington to George Ball, 6 March 1797 (Washington Papers)
Enclosed is the copy of a letter I wrote to you in answer to yours from Lancaster, & to that place directed it supposing your residence to be in that County. This letter will be directed to the care of the Postmaster in Fredericksburgh, but as you are not particular in designating the place at which you are to be found, it may not, any more than the former, find its way to you. The receipt of...
41From George Washington to Clement Biddle, 28 February 1798 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to Clement Biddle, 28 Feb. 1798. On 3 Mar. GW wrote to Biddle of “writing to you on the 27th & 28th Ulto.”
42To Alexander Hamilton from George Washington, [4 March 1799] (Hamilton Papers)
[Mount Vernon, March 4, 1799. Letter not found.] “List of Letters from G——Washington to General Hamilton,” Columbia University Libraries.
43To Alexander Hamilton from George Washington, 27 March 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Mount Vernon, March 27, 1798. Letter not found. ] “List of Letters from G—— Washington to General Hamilton,” Columbia University Libraries.
44From George Washington to John Marsden Pintard, 13 January 1799 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to John Marsden Pintard, 13 Jan. 1799. On 22 June 1799 GW wrote Elias Boudinot that he had “written to Mr Pintard on the 13th of January.”
45From George Washington to James Craik, 30 November 1797 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to James Craik, 30 Nov. 1797. On 1 Dec. Craik wrote GW : “Every Since the rect of your Letter yesterday. . . .”
46From George Washington to Benjamin Lincoln, 22 May 1799 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to Benjamin Lincoln, 22 May 1799. American Book-Prices Current (1964), 70:884, records that this letter “introducing a Mr. Ralph Wormeley” was sold by Christie, Manson & Woods on 19 Dec. 1963, item no. 241.
47From George Washington to James Mease McRea, 4 August 1798 (Washington Papers)
The letters enclosed, were sent up to your Office yesterday afternoon, and were returned to me. It is not the first, nor second time I have been served in this manner; but it may be considered as an evidence of the inattention with which the duties of your Office are discharged. I am Sir Your Hble Servant ALS (letterpress copy), DLC:GW . James Mease McRea (c.1765-1809) served as postmaster at...
48From George Washington to George Washington Motier Lafayette, 25 December 1798 (Washington Papers)
Having written a long letter to General La Fayette I shall write but a short one to you; and it shall relate principally, if not altogether, to domestic concerns. At the time you left this country you could not, less than I did, believe that in the course of events any occurrence could arise, which would again take me from the walks of Mount Ver[no]n—But the injuries we have received, and are...
49To Alexander Hamilton from George Washington, 5 July 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Mount Vernon, July 5, 1798. Letter not found. ] “List of Letters from G—— Washington to General Hamilton,” Columbia University Libraries.
50From George Washington to William Thornton, 7 October 1797 (Washington Papers)
Genl Washington presents his compliments to Doctr Thornton. Mrs Washington recollecting her promise of saving him a few of the Spanish Chesnuts, some are now sent. They are immediately from the tree, & should, without delay, be planted where they are intended to remain—or put into a box with earth, otherwise they will soon get hard and worm eaten, & the vegetation be prevented. AL , DLC :...