LB, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW.

This letter to Bacon, and the one following addressed to Richard Washington, as printed here appear at the end of the letter book that GW kept during the summer of Braddock’s campaign. (For a description of the letter book, see the editorial note preceding the entry of 2 Mar. 1755, above.) GW copied the two letters in his letter book immediately following the copy of his letter to Charles Lewis, dated 14 Aug. 1755. At a later time GW copied both letters in another letter book devoted to his business correspondence. The letters to Bacon and Washington are the first two in the business letter book, and they are followed by a copy of a letter to Richard Washington dated 15 April 1757. GW did not sign the original copies, but he did sign both when he recopied them.

GW shipped 2 hogsheads of tobacco to Anthony Bacon (c.1717–1786) in 1755 and 18 more in 1757. Bacon had been a ship captain in the Maryland trade and was now a prospering London merchant. He later became an important government contractor in the war, was elected to Parliament, and established himself as “a major figure in the coal and iron industries” (Price, France and the Chesapeake description begins Jacob M. Price. France and the Chesapeake: A History of the French Tobacco Monopoly, 1674–1791, and of Its Relationship to the British and American Tobacco Trades. 2 vols. Ann Arbor, Mich., 1973. description ends , 1:596–97).