Robert Fairfax was preparing at this time to return to his home in England, Leeds Castle, where he lived until his death in 1793 (GW to Jonathan Boucher, 3 Feb. 1771, CSmH). He became the seventh Baron Fairfax when his brother Thomas died in 1781.

Rumney apparently brought a quantity of the “Best Bark” for Patsy Custis. Peruvian bark, also called cinchona, was one of the popular eighteenth-century remedies for epilepsy as well as for malaria. Before Rumney left Mount Vernon, he also furnished Patsy with a fresh assortment of pills, powders, and drops (receipt from William Rumney, 24 June 1772, ViHi: Custis Papers).

Besides the Fairfaxes, Dr. George Steptoe (d. 1784), of Westmoreland County, apparently visited Mount Vernon about this time; on 8 Jan., GW paid him £2 3s. for examining Patsy Custis and giving her a prescription (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 333; CUSTIS ACCOUNT BOOK description begins GW’s Accounts Kept for Martha Parke Custis and John Parke Custis, 1760–75. Manuscript in Custis Papers, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond. description ends ). Steptoe had graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1767.

Robert Adam had recently entered into a business partnership with two friends, Matthew Campbell (d. 1782) and James Adam (died c.1787), both merchants of Alexandria. Known as Robert Adam & Co., this firm dealt in several agricultural commodities including wheat, corn, flour, and fish and had plans to import goods from Great Britain and the West Indies for sale in Alexandria. The partnership lasted until the end of 1776, when it was dissolved because of “Declining Business,” but Robert Adam continued to operate his own milling and baking enterprises until his death in 1789 (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 324, 326, 341; Va. Gaz., D&H, 14 Feb. 1777; Robert Adam to GW, 10 April 1778, DLC:GW).

Joseph Watson (d. 1773), burgess for Dunmore County 1772–73, was a friend of both GW and Robert Adam (Adam to GW, 16 Sept. 1773, DLC:GW; Va. Gaz., P&D, 23 Sept. 1773).

GW’s workers were now extending the millrace a few hundred yards northeast to a point on Dogue Run, a short distance above the mouth of Piney Branch.

The January court met only today. At this session Lund Washington and James Wren, two witnesses to the signing of Valinda Wade’s deeds to GW 17–18 Dec. 1770, took oaths verifying those deeds, and the justices ordered the documents to be certified (Fairfax County Order Book for 1770–72, 169–72, Vi Microfilm).

This arbitration, which had been begun in Colchester 27 Aug. 1770, was in GW’s opinion “a very disagreeable” one (GW to Charles Washington, 25 Jan. 1771, CSmH). The arbitrators were obliged to meet in Dumfries for a third session beginning on 28 Mar. to settle it.

William Courts kept an inn, commonly called the Stone House, at the ferry landing in Colchester (Va. Gaz., P, 8 Sept. 1775). The Recruiting Officer: A Comedy, by George Farquhar, was a genial satire about the British army and its brutal recruiting system. First performed in London in 1706, the play was a great favorite of English and American audiences throughout the eighteenth century (FARQUHAR description begins Charles Stonehill, ed. The Complete Works of George Farquhar. 2 vols. 1930. Reprint. New York, 1967. description ends , 2:33–112). This production was staged by the American Company of Comedians, which had recently left Annapolis and would soon return to Williamsburg for the spring court days.

Excavation of the mill site in 1932 revealed a layer of “soft aqueous sand” under the wall separating the water pit, where the waterwheel stood, from the cog pit in which the gears needed for transmission of power were located. It was also discovered that there were “bad subsoil conditions generally under the southeast corner of the building,” where the raceway exited (BURSON description begins R. E. Burson. “A Report of the Findings of Mr. R. E. Burson on the George Washington Grist Mill, Situated on Dogue Run Creek, Mount Vernon, Va.” Mimeographed Report. Richmond, 1932. description ends , 10). The wall that fell today was probably one of the two walls meeting at this corner or the wall between the water and cog pits.

The Dogue Run dam at the head of the millrace was apparently under construction, but the heavy rain that fell 29–30 Jan. had swollen the stream, making the job more difficult.