From George Washington to William Pearce, 26 October 1796
To William Pearce
Federal City 26th Oct. 1796
Mr Pearce,
Cyrus was obliged to come on to this place, in order to take the horses back, which Mr Frestal & Mr La Fayette rode, which is the cause of his delay.1
Mrs Washington desires me to inform you that there was some Butter left in the Cellar, and some Beef in a Tub which (after supplying James2) may be applied to any uses you think proper.
Let my Study be cleaned out, & the Room afterwards locked up. Do not miss the opportunity of getting our Baggage, &James, round by the first Vessel to Philada—taking a Bill of Lading for the several parcels, and sending it in a letter, that we may know when we get them All.3
When your family quit the house they are now in, and you remove to the Mansion, let Sinah & the other girl join the Mansion house people & Mrs Washington may, afterwards chuse either for a Washer woman.4
Have the Earth removed from the stone quarry where I shewed you—that Mr Blagden may be able to examine it when he calls there.5
Let all the Saddles and Bridles that I have left at home be cleaned & locked up—or they will be hacked about, injured, & perhaps lost.
The Mules for my Carriage—the two Colts from the Chariot Mares—& the one from the Augusta Mare must be well kept and attended to, till I come home. I shall write you more fully as soon as I get to Philadelphia6 in the mean while I remain your friend &ca
Go: Washington
ALS, ViMtvL. GW docketed the letter: “By Cyrus.” GW had contemplated enlisting the dower slave Cyrus as his waiting-man upon his retirement from the presidency or just prior to it (see GW to Pearce, 13 Dec. 1795).
1. The marquis de Lafayette’s son, George Washington Motier Lafayette, and the young man’s tutor Felix Frestel, had accompanied GW to Mount Vernon in late September. They remained there until 25 Oct., when they began their return to Philadelphia. They stopped at the Federal City, where GW apparently met with the D.C. commissioners about public lots and conducted other business affairs (see GW to the Fairfax County, Va., Court Justices, 28 Sept., and n.1; see also Thomas Peter to GW, 19 Oct., and n.4 to that document; GW to the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 21 Oct., n.2; and Gazette of the United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser, 20 Sept. 1796).
GW’s accounts for 4 Nov. reflect a reimbursement to his secretary George Washington Craik for “sundries pd for by him at Mt Vernon for his own & messrs frestel’s & Fayette’s Exps. to Philada” (). Young Lafayette and his tutor had arrived in the United States in late summer 1795, and had been members of the presidential household since the spring of 1796.
2. James Wilkes (Wilks), a hired servant in the presidential household, may have also served as a coachman (see GW to Pearce, 14 Nov.). GW’s presidential household accounts show that from around March 1796 through March 1797, regular payments were made to Wilkes for wages. Wilkes on occasion ran errands at Mount Vernon, which suggests that he occasionally accompanied GW on his trips to his plantation. For instance, on 15 Aug. 1796, while GW was at Mount Vernon, William Pearce’s account reflects a payment to “James Wilks to Buy Corks” (, p. 76).
3. No letter from Pearce to GW enclosing a bill of lading has been found, but Wilkes reportedly boarded the Philadelphia-bound ship that conveyed GW’s belongings (see Pearce to GW, 17 Nov.).
4. Sinah may have been the dower slave who served at the Mansion House farm by 1799. The “girl” possibly refers to a slave named Grace, whom GW assigned to work at the Mansion House farm upon Pearce’s move from his quarters to the mansion house (see Memorandum for James Anderson and Pearce, 5 Nov. 1796; see also GW to Anthony Whitting, 28 Oct. 1792, and n.3 to that document; and Washington’s Slave List, June 1799). The two slaves may have been among those provided to Pearce when he assumed his duties as Mount Vernon estate manager in early 1794. GW’s employment agreement with Pearce, dated 23 Sept. 1793, allowed the latter a “negro woman to wash & cook for his family” and a slave boy and girl to assist with work in his house and gardens. That agreement also provided Pearce and his family with the house then occupied by Union Farm overseer Hiland Crow (see also GW to Pearce, 6 Oct. 1793). For more on Pearce’s family, see Benjamin Chew, Jr., to GW, 16 Aug. 1793, and n.2 to that document.
5. For GW’s stone quarry and stonemason George Bladgen’s wish to examine it, see Gustavus Scott to GW, 14 Oct., and n.1 to that document.
6. GW arrived in Philadelphia on 31 Oct. and next wrote Pearce on 6 Nov., though that letter has not been found (see Pearce to GW, 13 Nov.).