To George Washington from Tobias Lear, 22 September 1790
From Tobias Lear
New York September 22nd 1790
Sir,
I have the honor to inform you that a Ship arrived here last evening from London after a passage of 36 days from Torbay.1 By her intelligence is received of the dispute between G. Britain and Spain being finally accommodated. Another Vessel arrived here at the same time from Lisbon in 35 days, and brings the same accounts.2
I have nothing to add since my letter of the 20th Inst: but the best respects and affectionate remembrance of Mrs Lear and myself to all our friends. With the highest respect and most sincere attachment I have the honor to be Sir, Your obliged & very humble Servant3
Tobias Lear
P.S. Johns wife has requested me to forward the enclosed letter to him, which I take the liberty to do at this time.4
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. The ship Montgomery, Captain Bunyan, sailed from London on 9 July 1790 and arrived at New York fifty-three days later (New-York Daily Gazette, 18 and 21 Sept. 1790; New-York Journal, & Patriotic Register, 21 Sept. 1790; Gazette of the United States [New York], 22 Sept. 1790).
2. Lear’s footnote keyed to this sentence reads: “This last arrival was the report of last evening; but as the papers of this morning do not mention it, I am inclined to think it is not true.” The arrival of the ship, Diligence, from Lisbon was announced in the New-York Daily Gazette on 23 Sept. 1790.
3. Lear wrote a second letter to GW on 22 Sept. 1790, providing him with further recent foreign intelligence (see Alexander Hamilton to GW, 21 Sept. 1790, n.1).
4. The enclosed letter from the wife of John Mauld, GW’s porter from 1789 to 1792, who accompanied the family to Mount Vernon, has not been found.