George Washington Papers

Cash Accounts, May 1763

Cash Accounts

[May 1763]

Cash
May 3— To Ditto [cash] for Burgesses Wages £ 33.18. 61
To Ditto of Mr [Joseph] Valentine for Marsh Acct 2.15.0 of Ditto Rent for Monconck 4.2 Ditto Int. of Mr Wm Dand[ridg]e 22.0.5 Ditto for Corn Sold 132. 160.15. 5
4— To Collo. Basset Balle Acct 86. 7. 8
To Cash for a Trip to the Dismal3
of Collo. Lewis £ 3.0. 0
of Collo. Bassett 3.    
of Dr Walker   3.    
9.    
of G. Washington   3.    
12.    
due G. W——n 3.5.10 1/2
£15.5.10 1/24
Contra
May 2— By 1 Penknife 7/6—Club at Trebells 5/ 0.12. 6
By Mr Wm Scott Strachen’s Acct5 1. 5.  
By Mr Jno. Kirkpatricks Acct 25. 7. 4 1/2
By Play Tickets 12/6. By Doctr Walkr £56 5.12. 6
By Mr Dangerfield for hire of his Bricklr7 30. 0. 0
3— By Club at Trebels 10/—Play 8/9 0.18. 9
By Barber 13/9—By Mrs [Christiana]
Campbell £2		 2.13. 9
4— By Servts at Collo. Bassets 0. 6. 9
6— By Ferriage at Hickmans8 0.11. 7
By Exps. at Hubbards9 1. 7. 9 1/4
By Collo. Tuts People10 0. 6. 0
7— By Expences at Colchester 4/11 0. 4. 0
12— By Mr B[ryan] Fairfax balle due for Land bot
of him		 25.10. 012
By Mrs Washington 0.12. 6
16— By Servants 5/—pd Edwd Williams 40/ 2. 5. 0
By Ferriage at Fendals 17/6—Ferrymen 2/613 1. 0. 0
17— By Ditto at Machodick 3/1½.14 Do at Laytons
3/615		 0. 6. 7 1/2
18— By Exps. at Siers’s 4/. Collo. Lees Servants
3/616		 0. 7. 6
 
By Ferriage at Dansies 3/9. Club at Trebls 7/6 0.11. 3
19— By Play Ticket 5/—Coffee 1/3—Dinr at Trebls
5/3		 0.11. 6
20— By Supper at Trebels 3/6—pd Dinr at
So[uth]alls 3/917		 0. 7. 3
By writ of Ad quod damnum for [Simon]
Pearson18		 0.11. 3
21— By Supper at Trebells 6/—3 Watch Prints 7/6 0.13. 6
By Servants 2/6—Coffee 1/ 0. 3. 6
25— By Expens. in a trip to the Dismal Swamp viz.
Ferriage to Norfolk 1. 5. 0
Gave the Ferrymen 0. 5. 0
paid at the Ropewalk 0. 1. 3
Ferriage to Portsmouth 0. 1. 6
Exps. at Ives’s 1/6—gave Servts there 2/619 0. 4. 0
27— Exps. at Roberts’s 1/320—Fish 1/3 0. 2. 6
Pilot into the Swamp 0. 5. 0
Collo. [Mills] Reddicks Servants 0. 3. 6
Willis Riddick Ditto 0. 2. 6
28— Paid Mr Griffin at the Bridge for Services 0.10. 0
Horse hire to Mrs Wood21 0.11. 3
29— Tavern & Horse hire pd Jno. Reinsburg 1.17. 6
Ferriage to Hampton 0.15. 0
pd Ferrymen 2/6 0. 2. 6
30— pd Mrs Brough’s Acct22 4. 3. 1 1/2
Mr Jas Mitchells at York—at twice23 2.19. 9
Gave Collo. Bassets Joe for attendg on us 0. 5. 0
Returnd to Collo. Basset for Balle due to
him when he parted with us		 1.11. 6
By 2 Watch Keyes @2/6. 0. 5. 0
By 1 Broach 15/—Barber at York 1/ 0.16. 0
By Raffling for Glasses 20/. Do for Buckles 6/ 1. 6. 0
31— By Jas Martin[,] Barber 13/9 0.13. 9
By Mr [William] Trebell Subscription to
Wmsburg Purse Apl24		 1.10. 0
By Alexr Craik Sadler 5/7½—Buttons 4/625 0.10. 1 1/2
By Mr Secrety [Thomas] Nelson Subn to
Wmsburg P[urse]		 1.10. 0
By Mrs Campbells acct 40/—Copying Rep⟨ts⟩
15/		 2.15. 0

AD, General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 160, 165.

1. This was GW’s pay for the assembly session of 2 Nov.—23 Dec. 1762: “my Burgesses Wages this Session of Assembly—viz. 52 days @10/”—£26; “12 Travelling days @10/”—£6; and “Ferriages going & coming”—£1.18.8 (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 122). For his attendance at the May 1763 session, see note 13. See also Cash Accounts, 1761, n.7.

2. Moncock Hill, the smallest of the four dower plantations, was probably a part of the Mangohick Dividend tract on the Pamunkey River in King William County. The tract was owned at one time by Daniel Parke (Harris, New Kent County description begins Malcolm Hart Harris. Old New Kent County. 2 vols. West Point, Va., 1977. description ends , 2:937–40).

3. GW made his first trip to the Great Dismal Swamp in May 1763 with Fielding Lewis, Burwell Bassett, and Thomas Walker (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 194). On 25 May, presumably the day they left Williamsburg for Norfolk and the swamp, William Nelson “in behalf of himself and many others” petitioned the Virginia council for the unclaimed land in the Dismal Swamp (Dismal Swamp Land Company: Articles of Agreement, 3 Nov. 1763, n.1). GW evidently took extensive notes of his travels through the swamps in late May, for on the occasion of his second visit to the Dismal Swamp in October 1763, he entered in his diary under the date of 15 Oct. 1763 a circumstantial account of where he had gone and what he had observed when traveling in May from Suffolk down the west side of the swamp into North Carolina and then back up the east side of the swamp to Suffolk again. The account is printed in Diaries description begins Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds. The Diaries of George Washington. 6 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1976–79. description ends , 1:319–26.

4. In General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 194, headed “Adventurers for Draining the Dismal Swamp,” GW has entered for May 1763, on one side of the ledger, “By Sundry Sums of £3 put in by Messrs Lewis[,] Basset, Walker & myself in our first trip to the Dismal Swamp—[£]12”; and on the other side, “To Expences in visiting, & examining the Swamp the first time in May—[£]15.5.10.”

5. William Scott Strachen may be William Strachan of Fredericksburg who moved from the town sometime between 1766 and 1768.

6. GW paid Thomas Walker £5 in Williamsburg for “Fee paid Macleane & Stuart of Phila.” (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 155).

7. See Diaries description begins Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds. The Diaries of George Washington. 6 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1976–79. description ends , 1:297, for identification of the three William Daingerfields living in Virginia at this time. GW has this entry in his Diaries description begins Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds. The Diaries of George Washington. 6 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1976–79. description ends for 3 May 1763, “Mr. Daingerfields Negro Bricklayer Guy came here to work” (ibid.).

8. This was probably John Hickman of King William County, the son of William Hickman.

9. Benjamin Hubbard’s ordinary was in Caroline County southeast of Fredericksburg.

10. Colonel Tut is undoubtedly Richard Tutt (died c.1767), who was appointed colonel of the Spotsylvania County militia in 1756.

11. Colchester was a settlement of Scottish merchants on Occoquan Creek not far from Mount Vernon.

12. GW bought from Bryan Fairfax 275 acres of land on Difficult Run, between the Great and Little falls of the Potomac, for £82.10 (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 49). The principal reason for GW’s buying the land was its location at the bridge over Difficult Run on the road from Alexandria to Leesburg and Winchester. It served as a stopping place for GW’s wagons to and from his Bullskin quarters. The deed is recorded in Loudoun County Deed Book C, 458-60 (ViLeeLCh).

13. GW apparently crossed over into Maryland on this day to begin his journey back to Williamsburg for the session of the assembly that began on 19 May. A ferry ran from Benjamin Fendall’s landing on the Potomac River in Charles County, Md., to Hooe’s ferry landing in Virginia. James Nottingham kept the ferry and tavern at Fendall’s in 1764.

14. This is probably the ferry that crossed from Maryland to Upper Machodoc Creek which flows into the Potomac River just below the present Dahlgren Proving Grounds.

15. Layton’s ferry was on the Rappahannock River about twenty miles above Hobbs Hole (Tappahannock).

16. Colonel Lee was probably Philip Ludwell Lee (1727–1775) of Stratford Hall in Westmoreland County.

17. James Barrett Southall (1726–1801) took over Henry Wetherburn’s tavern on the Duke of Gloucester Street in Williamsburg after Wetherburn died in 1760.

18. See Cash Accounts, January 1763, n.1.

19. Ives may be Timothy Ives, who was a merchant in Norfolk. For the trip to the Dismal Swamp, see note 3.

20. Roberts may be Lemuel Roberts of Norfolk County. Roberts’s ordinary was about ten miles from Suffolk, probably just south of Portsmouth (Diaries description begins Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds. The Diaries of George Washington. 6 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1976–79. description ends , 1:325–26).

21. Mr. Griffin and Mrs. Wood have not been identified.

22. Mary Brough kept a tavern near the wharves in Hampton.

23. James Mitchell (d. 1772) ran the Swan Tavern in Yorktown.

24. The Williamsburg horse race was run twice a year, in the spring and fall, for a purse of £100.

25. Alexander Craig (c.1717-1776) was a saddler in Williamsburg.

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    Washington Papers
    Title
    Cash Accounts, May 1763
    Author
    Washington, George
    Date
    May 1763

    Reference

    Cite as
    “Cash Accounts, May 1763,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-07-02-0129. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, vol. 7, 1 January 1761 – 15 June 1767, ed. W. W. Abbot and Dorothy Twohig. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1990, pp. 209–212.]