From George Washington to Lord Stirling, 20 January 1775
To Lord Stirling
[20 January 1775]
My Lord,
Your Lordships favour of the 31st of October never came to my hands till a few days ago & then unaccompanied with any Printed Lists of the fortunate Prizes as mentiond in yr Letter. some time ago I came across one of these Lists in a Gentns possession by wch I found that out of the Six Tickets wch I kept on my own Acct two of them were fortunate—viz.
One of £200—No. 58 in the division of Wenhams great Lot, in Hardenbergs Patent, in Ulster County near Rochester.
The other (I think) of £6 & numered 347.1
If your Lordship will be obliging enough to let me know what kind of Lotts these are, and what kind of use they can be put to, I shall thank you2—Not having a list about me (at the time I examined my own) of the remaining 12 Tickets3 I could not tell whether any of them were fortunate or not, but have wrote to the purchasers for payment, & shall settle with Mr Cock agreeable to yr Lordships desire.4 In respect to my own Lotts you will please to do the needful in respect to the conveyance of them—My respectful Compts await Lady Sterlg—Lady Mary—& Lady Kitty,5 & I am with the greatest esteem Yr Lordships Most Obedt H. Servt
Go: Washington
ALB, DLC:GW. The letter was given this date in , 3:264–65. The letter is entered in the letter book between GW’s letter to John West, 13 Jan. 1775, and his letter to William Aylett, 6 Mar. 1775.
1. GW’s six tickets in Lord Stirling’s Delaware lottery were numbered 5,298 through 5,303 (, 83). See note 1 in Stirling’s letter of 31 October.
2. The lottery was a failure and GW never received lots or cash from the transaction.
3. These were the twelve tickets that Walter Magowan took to dispose of in Maryland. See Magowan to GW, 3 Feb. 1775.
4. GW had paid James Cocke £18 for the tickets he bought when he returned the unsold tickets in May 1774. After he received Walter Magowan’s order on Hector Ross for £36 in January 1775 for the twelve tickets that he had disposed of, GW remitted this. See , 83.
5. Lady Stirling was Sarah Livingston Alexander (c.1725–c.1791), daughter of Philip Livingston (1716–1778). The Stirlings had two daughters, Mary (1749–1831), who married Robert Watts (1743-1814), and Catherine, who married William Duer.