To George Washington from Patrick Henry, 26 September 1785
From Patrick Henry
Richmond Sept. 26th 1785
Dear sir
Your Favor covering Mr Deakins’s Letter I received this Morning.1 As soon as Mr Massey’s Resignation was handed to me, the Appointment of Mr Neville was made & sent out to him with a Copy of the Resolution of Assembly. But for Fear they may have miscarry’d I inclose you a Copy, which I must beg you to put in a Way of being forwarded.2 With the highest Esteem & Regard I am dear Sir Your most obedient Servant
P. Henry
ALS, DLC:GW.
2. On 1 Jan. 1785 the Virginia house of delegates: “Resolved, That Thomas Massey, Esq., or in case of his death or failing to act through other cause, such person as shall be appointed by the Executive in his stead, be authorised, in conjunction with the person appointed or to be appointed on the part of Maryland, to open and keep in repair a convenient road from such part of the waters of the Potomac, to such part of the river Cheat or of the river Monongalia, as on examination, they shall judge most eligible; and that the sum of 3,333 1–3 dollars arising from the taxes of the year 1784, out of the money subject to votes of the General Assembly, be paid by the treasurer on the joint order of the persons to be appointed as aforesaid, to be by them applied, together with a like sum voted by the State of Maryland, to the purpose aforesaid” ( 101). Thomas Massie (Massey) resigned as major in the 2d Virginia Regiment on 25 June 1779. Presley Nevill (1756–1818), who moved from Frederick County, Va., to land on Chartiers Creek in Pennsylvania in 1775, served for a time during the Revolution as a lieutenant colonel in the 8th Virginia Regiment and as one of Lafayette’s aides-de-camp.