George Washington Papers
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-07-02-0262

To George Washington from George William Fairfax, 16 November 1765

From George William Fairfax

Belvoir Novr 16th 1765.

Dear Sir

Herewith I enclose a Sketch of the Lands joining this the Tract &c. by the late Mr Green, which will shew you how the Chapple Land joins to that long slip formerly Trens, part of the Plat of Herreford and Masons land, with all the Courses of that and the Chapple land; and a rough plat &c. of Bryns and Warners to shew you that they agree to the Beginning of the Chapple Tract—formerly Colo: Traverse’s, which I believe is a corner to Tren⟨s⟩, all which I hope may be some help in Establishing your Bounds. The Notes upon the back of Herreford & Masons Copy was run in my Presence by George West1—which shews that no Corners was then to be found, but you’l be pleas’d to make use of the Papers and return them when finished. Mrs Fairfax joins in her Compts, and hope the disorder in your family is stop’d without any more bad consequences, and am Dear Sir Your Most Obed: humble Servt

Go: Wm Fairfax

Herreford & Masons Beg[innin]g (A) we found, and I think can fix Mr Gates’s bounds.2

ALS, NN: Emmet Collection. GW docketed this letter, “Sundry Platts & Courses of Lands Copied from some Papers sent me by Colo. Fairfax with the Inclos’d Letter 1765.” Another docket in his hand, probably written later, reads, “These are no otherwise of Consequence than as they shew the contiguity with the Land bought of Charles West & [William] Whiting.” The plat of Mason’s and Heryford’s grant is in DLC:GW. There is also in NjMoHP GW’s copy of the survey of a 1678 grant to John Wells and Thomas Derrick which bounded on the south of the Chapel land and the Mason-Heryford tract, and which may have been included with this letter. GW’s copy of a survey and plat made by John Warner of lands on Dogue Run was sold in the Henkel catalog no. 657, item 16, 10 Dec. 1890.

1In 1715 George Mason (1660–1716) and James Herryford (Hereford) were granted a 2,244–acre tract of land on the west side of Dogue Run. The so-called Chapel land, to the south of the Mason-Heryford land, was a portion of a 780–acre tract granted in 1678 to William Travers. GW was interested in buying the Chapel land from Charles and Ann Brown West, the present owners, but was unsuccessful in acquiring it until October 1772 (Mitchell, Beginning at a White Oak description begins Beth Mitchell. Beginning at a White Oak . . . Patents and Northern Neck Grants of Fairfax County Virginia. Fairfax, Va., 1977. description ends , 210–15; deed of Charles and Ann West to GW, 28 Oct. 1772, ViMtvL). For GW’s purchase of the Trenn-Whiting land, which lay to the east and north of the Chapel land, see Cash Accounts, June 1764, n.10. George West was surveyor for Fairfax County, 1754–57, and for Loudoun County, 1757–67. John Warner was King George County surveyor, 1727–41. George Byrn (Bryn) and the Rev. Charles Green were active in making surveys in Fairfax County in the 1740s.

2Mr. Gates is probably Isaac Gates.

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