To George Washington from Tobias Lear, 17 January 1797
From Tobias Lear
Washington [D.C.], January 17th 1797.
My dear Sir,
Your respected favor of the 13th instant reached this place last evening, and should have been answered by return of the mail; but I had been absent for some days at the Great Falls, on the business of the Potomac Company, and did not get home till this day.1
I trust, my dear Sir, that after knowing my reasons for not having sooner acknowledged the receipt of your kind letter of the 14th of december, covering one from the Revd Mr Van Vleck, and accompanied by Fulton’s Treatise on inland navigation, you will have the goodness to pardon the omission. Mr Van Vleck was kind enough to say, that as the Roads in that part of the Country were very bad in March, he would allow me ’till the end of may to bring Maria on, and only requested, in case any unforeseen accident should prevent my doing so by that time, that I would give him previous information thereof. He added, that, when convenient, he would wish to know the ages of the young Ladies, and if they had passed through the measles & small pox. On these points I could not satisfy him with respect to Colo. Ball’s daughter.2 I wrote, soon after, to the Colonel informing him of the permission given to enter his daughter at the School, and requesting he would satisfy me on the points above mentioned.3 To this letter I have received no answer; and I thought it unnecessary to trouble Mr Van Vleck with respect to one until I could satisfy him as to both, and therefore have not written to him. I was certainly culpable in not acknowledging the receipt of your letter; but observing nothing in it which required an immediate reply, I delay’d doing it until I should be able to write to Mr Van Vleck. I intended going to Colo. Ball’s from the Great Falls; but a heavy rain on saturday4 had raised the runs and made the roads very bad, which determined me to return home. I have written to him again, and should I not receive an answer before this day week I shall go up there.5
I shall, with pleasure, execute Mrs Washington’s commission respecting the butter, as well as any other which you or she may be so good as to lay upon me before your return to Mount Vernon.6
I am truly sorry that any inconvenience should arise from the not coming forward of the deeds of the land on which the Arsenal is to be erected. Had I received intimation thereof, such part as is executed should have been forwarded before this time. The deed for the land purchased of the Wagers was to have been recorded at the last Berkley Court; but the absence of young Wager, who was in Philadelphia & some of the witnesses prevented its being done at that time. It will be recorded at the Court of the present month. The deed for the other tract has not yet been executed in the manner pointed out by Mr Lee, the Attorney General. The Executors of Thomas Rutherford Junr in whom the land was vested by a Bond of conveyance, from Griffith, the devisee of Harper, had the land surveyed and a deed drawn in proper form, which was submitted to Mr Lee in September last; but he was of opinion that it would be more proper for them to get a deed from Griffith before they conveyed to the United-States. Griffith lives in Kentucky and the Executors of Rutherford assured me that they immediately sent to Griffith for a deed; but that their letter never reached him, and that they have now sent a person out for the express purpose of getting said deed, and his return is daily expected. Their obligation to convey to the United States is still binding, ⟨and⟩ as the money is not yet paid them, they are anxious to get it done. In consequence of this delay of Rutherford’s deed, I have not yet forwarded the other, expecting daily to hear it was ready, when one trip up the country would enable me to finish both at the same time. I shall go up next week, and, at all events forward Wager’s deed.7
Mr Pearce informed me about a fortnight since, that Mr Smith proposed that his note due you should be discounted at the Bank of Alexandria, which would lodge the money there at once, and that he would pay the discount. As this would settle the business, I told Mr Pearce I thought it would be best to do it, as the security of the money would be more satisfaction to you than the interest for 60 days could be benefit, and advised him to do it; but as Mr Pearce had endorsed the note for you, he had some hesitation in doing it, as he wished to have the business closed before he left Mount Vernon; I therefore advised him to get another note from Mr Smith on which I would put my name, as the last endorser, which was done and the Bank has discounted one thousand dollars of it, and will do the rest as soon as they can with convenience.8
I have perused Fulton’s Treatise on inland navigation with some attention; but find that he only means to apply his inclined plains to small streams, and to raise boats of about 4 tons burthen. It is ingenious; but will not apply to the navigation of the main River here.9
I am happy in being able to inform you that con⟨side⟩rable progress has been made in the excavation of the ⟨Loc⟩k seats at the Great Falls—a large quantity of stone is prepared for building the Locks, and lime is ready on the Bank of the River;10 but the uncommon lowness of the water during the summer & autumn totally prevented the passage of Boats to get those materials down. We shall take advantage of the first opening to do it.11 I am apprehensive that we shall lose the services of our Engineer; for he seems to be so largely engaged in his own business & speculations that he cannot give the time which the Directors think necessary to the works. Tomorrow there will be a meeting either to fix or dismiss him.12
My mother and the little Boys are in good health & unite with me in offering their highest respects to Mrs Washington & yourself, and best wishes to the family. With the most affectionate & grateful attachment I have the honor to be, my dear Sir, Your very sincere & respectful
Tobias Lear.
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. Lear, the president of the Potomac River Company, met with two of the company’s directors from 12 to 14 Jan. at the Great Falls of the Potomac River, which had a canal and locks under construction. Allegations of “an extravagant and unnecessary Expenditure of money” at that place during the past year prompted the meeting. The meeting’s objective was to “examine on the spot into the state of the Works and compare the same with the Expenditures.” The directors devised a summary of their investigation, which outlined labor and material costs and included a description of the company’s ongoing work at the site (DNA: RG 79, Proceedings of the Board of President and Directors of the Potowmack Company, 1785–1800).
2. Lear had sought to enroll his stepdaughter Anna Maria Washington and her cousin Mildred Thornton Ball, the 10-year-old daughter of Burgess Ball, in Jacob Van Vleck’s boarding school in Bethlehem, Pa. (see GW to Lear, 14 Dec. 1796, and n.1 to that document; see also GW to Lear, 16 Nov. 1796, and notes 2 and 3).
3. Lear’s letter to Ball has not been identified.
4. The previous Saturday was 14 January.
5. Neither Lear’s second letter to Ball nor a reply to Lear from Ball has been identified. Ball had a home in Loudoun County, Va., where Anna Maria spent the winter (see Lear to GW, 2 Dec. 1796).
Though Lear planned to enroll Anna Maria at Van Vleck’s boarding school, illness precluded her from attending. Mildred Thornton Ball also never attended (see GW to Van Vleck, 14 June 1797, in 1:186–87).
6. GW had requested Lear to procure butter for Mount Vernon in his letter to him of 14 Dec. 1796.
7. On 22 Feb. 1796, Lear had reached an agreement, involving the Wager family, Robert Griffith, and Thomas Rutherford to purchase land for an arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Va. (now W.Va.) on behalf of the United States. By a deed dated 15 June 1796, the Wager family conveyed to the United States a 20-acre island in the Potomac River and a parcel called Harpers Ferry Tract. Adjoining the latter tract was an approximately 310-acre parcel containing a sawmill. Lear made agreements with Rutherford for the sawmill tract, but the courts still had not made final decisions on the matter. Attorney General Charles Lee was to draw the deeds for the tracts, but their execution was delayed due to John Wager, Jr.’s travels to Philadelphia and for other reasons (see Lear to GW, 30 May 1796, and n.2 to that document; see also Lear to GW, 19 Oct. 1795, and Lear to GW, 23 Feb. and 30 March 1796). In the winter of 1797, Lear traveled to Berkeley County, Va. (now W.Va.) and returned to the Federal City on 10 Feb. (see Lear to GW, that date). While Lear was on business in Berkeley County, John Wager, Sr., and John Wager, Jr., signed a document, dated 1 Feb. 1797 at Harpers Ferry, Berkeley County, affirming their 15 June 1796 deed to be “true,” and stating that the “non Recording” of the deed would not invalidate it or the sale of the land to the United States. The document asserted that the deed’s date “shall be on” 1 Feb. 1797 “Instead of the 15 day of June” 1796, “and that the recording thereof take place from and after” 1 Feb. 1797. On 24 July 1797, the Berkeley County court ordered the recording of the deed “acknowledged by John wager John wager Junr two of the parties thereto … together with the duly Authenticated Certificate as the Execution of mary wager … and the other endoresements” (DNA: RG 156, Records of the Office of the Chief of Ordnance, Letters Received).
The letter from Rutherford’s executors to Griffith has not been identified. However, on 20 Feb. 1797, the executors of Rutherford’s estate signed a deed conveying to GW, as the president of the United States, the 310-acre tract devised by Robert Harper to Griffith and later vested in Rutherford’s executors. The tract included the future village of Bolivar, Jefferson County, W.Va., where the armory workers were later housed (see James Biser Whisker, The United States Armory at Harper’s Ferry, 1799–1860 [Lewiston, N.Y., and Queenston, Ont., 1997], 1–11).
8. For Alexander Smith’s debt to GW, see Smith to GW, 4 Oct. 1796; see also Smith to GW, 9 Nov. 1796; GW to Smith, 14 Nov. 1796; GW to William Pearce, 14 Nov. 1796; and Pearce to GW, 17 Nov. 1796. GW’s account with Lear shows the latter owing him $1,000 on 4 Jan. 1797 for “Cash from the Bank of Alexa. discounted on Alexander Smiths note” (, 5). The same account indicates that Lear owed GW $3,835.33 on 4 April. This was for “Cash from the Bank of Alexa: being the balance of” Smith’s note (, 5). According to a transaction in GW’s ledger for 29 April 1797, Lear owed a further $120.85 for “Interest on Alexander Smiths note (for 4835 Dolls. 33 Cents) 5 Months viz.—from Decr 1st 1796 to May 1st 1797 at 6 p.Cent” (, 6).
9. Robert Fulton’s Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation was enclosed with GW’s letter to Lear of 14 Dec. 1796 (see n.3 to that document). The “main River” in Washington, D.C. was the Potomac River.
10. A report made by Lear and two directors of the Potomac River Company during their 12–14 Jan. meeting at the Great Falls (see n.1 above) mentions an “Excavation and other work done on the Lock seats” and “between the Bason and the River, in the Course of the Lock Seats.” The report also notes the construction of a guard wall in the Potomac River “on the upper side of the Entrance into the Locks,” and remarks on disbursements “according to Contract” for about 4,000 “feet of Cut Stone,” and 1,000 “Bushels Lime” (DNA: RG 79, Proceedings of the Board of President and Directors of the Potowmack Company, 1785–1800).
11. The Centinel of Liberty and George-Town Advertiser for 24 Feb. 1797 reported the “uncommon low water of the last season” at the Great Falls. That newspaper also announced the Potomac River Company’s “arrangements to convey articles for the present season … through the course of the Lock-Seats at the Great Falls and put them on board Boats in the River below; where they will be conveyed to tide water.”
12. During their January investigation of the ongoing work at the Great Falls, the Potomac River Company directors discovered that their chief engineer, Christopher Myers, had used company “materials and labour” to construct houses on his privately owned lot, while he failed to ensure completion of company buildings. Moreover, the directors suspected Myers’s non-compliance with earlier orders for him to erect company buildings “in the cheapest manner that the nature of the Thing would admit of.” Lear and the directors concluded their investigation by ordering Myers to “settle with the Company” for the materials and labor used “in his service” (DNA: RG 79, Proceedings of the Board of President and Directors of the Potowmack Company, 1785–1800). Myers failed to appear at a meeting that was held on this date in Georgetown, D.C., for a broad investigation into his actions. The proceedings of that meeting read in part: “The Engineer not meeting the Board as was expected, They adjourned to John Gadsbys Tavern in Alexandria on Saturday next [21 Jan.] at which time and place the Engineer has been desired to attend” (DNA: RG 79, Proceedings of the Board of President and Directors of the Potowmack Company, 1785–1800). At a meeting held on 2 May 1797, Lear and three directors passed a resolution to fire Myers for his refusal “to deliver plans,” his frequent absences, and his failure to properly inspect “materials prepared for the Potomack Company’s use by Contract,” which later were deemed unfit. The directors also cited unnecessary expenditures and incompetence as other reasons for Myers’s dismissal (DNA: RG 79, Proceedings of the Board of President and Directors of the Potowmack Company, 1785–1800; see also Robert J. Kapsch, The Potomac Canal: George Washington and the Waterway West [Morgantown, W.Va., 2007], 95–100).