From George Washington to Tobias Lear, 16 November 1796
To Tobias Lear
Philadelphia 16th Novr 1796.
My dear Sir,
I hardly know what apology to make for the positive manner, in which I declared the Certificate for the hundred shares in the Bank of Columbia, had never been in my hands. The fact is otherwise, and I delay no time to correct my error.1
I found it last night, and account for it thus. Given to me, I suppose, (for I have not the most obscure recollection of the circumstance) at a time when my mind was occupied on, or immediately called to, some other subject, I put it loose in my travelling Chaise-box, where Papers (frequently wanted at Mount Vernon) always remained; intending, I presume, to file it with the other certificates, in the same box; but not doing it then, and forgetting to do it afterwards, as also every recollection of having seen it, it might have remained there ’till dooms-day undiscovered, if I had not, for another purpose, examined every paper therein seperately; and by that means found the certificate which has puzzled both you and me, to know what had become of it.
Mr Dandridge (as I presume he has informed you) applied, without encouragement, to the Revd Mr Medor of this City (one of the Moravian Clergy) for the Speedy admission of Maria into the S[c]hool for young Ladies, at Bethlehem.2 Since then, I have written to the Principal of that School—The Revd Mr Vervleck, but have not received his answer. When it comes I will forward it to you.3
Mr Smith of Alexandria, to whom my flour was sold, is craving, earnestly, a prolongation of payment, ninety days. This I do not like for two reasons—1. because it carries along with it, distrust of his circumstances; and 2. because the doing of it, would be inconvenient, and a derangement of my own measures. I have however, not wanting to distress him, placed the matter upon the following ground. Pay Mr Pearce the aggregate of his estimate of the Sums necessary to pay his own wages; the Overseers; & other incidental expence of the Estate, on or before the 24th of next month, & I will wait until the first day of March next for the balance—provided he can, and will give indubitable surety that both these shall be done.4
As Mr Pearce may not be well acquainted with business of this sort, or indeed with the adequacy of the Security which may be offered—Personal or Real—I have taken the liberty of mentioning the matter to you—praying, if you should go down to your farm, that you would aid him with your advice.5
Washington Custis has got settled at Princeton College, and I think under favourable auspices; but the change from his former habits is so great & sudden; and his hours for study so much increased beyond what he has been accustomed to, that though he promises to be attentive, it is easy to be perceived he is not at all reconciled to it, yet. That of getting up an hour before day, to commence them, is, I will venture to pronouce, not the least irksome to him, at present.6
Offer my respects to Mrs Lear, & love to the Children, in which Mrs Washington unites.7 and be assured of the sincere esteem & regard of—Dear Sir Your Affectionate frd
Go: Washington
ALS, NNGL; ALS (letterpress copy), DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW. A note underneath the date line of the ALS indicates that Lear received this letter on 18 November. The letterpress copy was docketed by GW: “14th Nov. 1796.” Lear replied to GW on 20 November.
1. In 1795, Lear had purchased on GW’s behalf 100 shares in the Bank of Columbia and five shares in the Bank of Alexandria, all registered in Lear’s name. On 15 June 1795, GW acknowledged receipt of the now-unfound certificate of shares, which showed GW’s stock ownership. The shares were not officially transferred to GW’s name until the summer of 1797 (see Lear to GW, 20 Nov. and 2 Dec. 1796; see also Lear to GW, 3 June 1795).
2. No letter from Bartholomew Dandridge, Jr., to Moravian minister John Meder has been found. However, his communication with Meder pertained to recent efforts to admit Anna Maria Washington, Lear’s stepdaughter and GW’s grandniece, into the Moravian seminary for girls in Bethlehem, Pa. (see also Lear to GW, 20 Nov.). On 4 Nov., Martha Washington wrote Lear’s mother, Mary Stillson Lear, from Philadelphia: “… as soon as we came to town [on 31 Oct.] the President sent Mr Dandridge to enquire of the Minister of the Moravian church—if he could get Maria into the school at Bethlehem—I am sorry to tell you that his answer was that the school was full—so that it would be some time before she could be taken in—The President says he will wright to Bethlehem and endeavor if it is possible to get her in” (, 293–94).
One of the first of its kind in the United States, the boarding school for girls opened in Bethlehem in the 1740s. It changed locations several times before its reorganization in 1785, when the school, then named Moravian Seminary for Young Ladies, began admitting non-Moravian students. During the Revolutionary War, wounded soldiers were treated in what later became the seminary’s central building. Eleanor Lee, the daughter of Thomas and Mildred Washington Lee, was among the students enrolled at the school in 1796. GW reportedly recommended her for admission. The school’s curriculum in the 1790s included reading, writing, history, geography, and sewing, and the admission ages ranged from 8 to 12 years (see , 2:1313; see also “Historical Sketch of the Moravian Seminary for Young Ladies, at Bethlehem, Northampton Co., Pa. Founded 1785,” Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society, 1 [1876], 8–9, 12; and , 20–30, 352).
John Meder (1740–1816), a native of Livonia (modern-day Estonia and sections of Latvia), had served as a missionary in Barbados and later as a Moravian pastor at Lititz and Nazareth, Pennsylvania. From 1792 to 1794, Meder was one of the trustees of the Young Ladies Academy of Philadelphia. In 1796, he resided at 74 Race Street in Philadelphia (see , 125). He was one of several clergymen to sign an address to GW on the subject of his retirement from the presidency (see Address of the Philadelphia Clergy, 3 March 1797, found at Reactions to GW’s Retirement, 23 Jan.-3 March 1797, Document IV). Meder died in Bethlehem.
3. GW wrote Rev. Jacob Van Vleck on 9 Nov., but that letter has not been found. GW forwarded Van Vleck’s reply of 15 Nov. when he wrote Lear on 25 Nov. (see n.1 to that document).
Born in New York, Jacob Van Vleck (1751–1831) studied in Europe before moving to Pennsylvania, where he served as a Moravian pastor at churches in Bethlehem, Nazareth, Lititz, and Salem. Consecrated a bishop in 1815, Van Vleck headed the Moravian Seminary for Young Ladies at Bethlehem from 1790 to 1800. During a visit to Bethlehem in 1782, GW met Van Vleck. A member of the Moravian congregation at Bethlehem recorded the following in a diary entry for 25 July 1782: “After dinner we had the pleasure to welcome his Excellency Gen. Washington, who is accompanied by two aids and no escort, with our trombones. The Sisters’ House was first visited, and next the Single Brethren’s House, in the chapel of which the party were refreshed with cake and wine, while Bro. Jacob Van Vleck played on the organ” (John W. Jordan, “Bethlehem During the Revolution,” Pa. Mag., 13 [1889]:89).
4. For Alexander Smith’s debt to GW, see Smith to GW, 4 Oct.; see also Smith to GW, 9 Nov.; GW to Smith, 14 Nov.; and GW to William Pearce, 14 November.
5. On 18 Nov., Pearce paid a visit to Lear’s Virginia plantation Walnut Tree Farm and discussed Smith’s debt (see Lear to GW, 20 Nov.; see also Pearce to GW, 17 Nov.; and GW to Pearce, 20 Nov.).
6. George Washington Parke Custis had begun his schooling at the College of New Jersey at Princeton by early November (see GW to Custis, 15 Nov., and n.2 to that document).
7. GW refers to Lear’s mother, Mary Stillson Lear, his son Benjamin Lincoln Lear, and stepchildren Charles Augustine Washington, George Fayette Washington, and Anna Maria Washington. Lear’s wife, Frances Bassett Washington Lear, had died in March (see Lear to GW, 25 March 1796).