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From George Washington to Elizabeth Willing Powel, 6 February 1797

To Elizabeth Willing Powel

Monday Afternoon 6th February 1797

My dear Madam,

I accept your offer for my Coach horses;1 to be delivered after the third of March in good order.2

I bred them myself, and therefore cannot be mistaken in their ages; ten and eleven is the extent. No horses of true spirit can be more gentle; and never having received a fright are affraid of nothing. One of them was a little unwell about a month ago, but is now perfectly recovered, and is used (as you may have perceived) whenever the carriage is out.

No horses are better broke—none go quieter when drove by a person on the box, and I dare say would go as well with a Postilion (being perfectly good tempered) but as I never used them in that way, this is conjectural. As the leaders of four (in hand) and as Pole enders with six, they are equally docile and steady.

As the Coach would be lonesome without the horses—and the horses might repine for want of their Coach (having been wedded together Seven years) you had better take both. It is a very easy and convenient carriage for the City, but too heavy for the Road—thence I part with it; and will let it go cheap.3 Truly & affectionately I have the honor to be Your Most Obedt & Obliged

Go: Washington

ALS, ViMtvL.

1Powel wrote GW on this date: “I now beg leave to inform you that I will give One Thousand Dollars for your Horses on the Delivery of them, provided I understood you clearly on Saturday Evening [4 Feb.]—that they are only Ten & Eleven Years old—that they [are] perfectly sound—well broke, and gentle—will drive with a Postillion or in Hand as may be most convenient; for tho they are not for my own Use, yet it is most probable that I shall sometimes ride with them, as they are for my Nephew Mr T. Francis. You well know I do not wish to commit you; and if Mr Adams will pay the Value of them I will most readily yield all Claim to a preference on such a Subject” (ALS, DLC:GW; ADfS, ViMtvL). Thomas Willing Francis was the son of Powel’s sister Anne Willing Francis. Powel considered Vice President John Adams as a potential purchaser not only of GW’s horses, but of his coach and other articles (see Powel to GW, 8 Feb.). Adams had written his wife, Abigail, from Philadelphia on 30 Dec. 1796: “The President has a Pair of Horses to sell, one 9 the other 10 Years old for which he asks a thousand Dollars. And there is no Probability of procuring a decent Span for less than Six hundred dollars” (Adams Family Correspondence description begins Lyman H. Butterfield et al., eds. Adams Family Correspondence. 13 vols. to date. Cambridge, Mass., 1963–. description ends , 11:467–68).

2GW advised Powel on 6 March that he had sent her his coach horses as promised. On that same day, Powel sent GW a check for $1,000 in payment for those animals. She directed that the horses be delivered to her nephew, Thomas Willing Francis, after GW’s final departure from Philadelphia (see GW to Powel, 6 March 1797, and n.1, in Papers, Retirement Series description begins W. W. Abbot et al., eds. The Papers of George Washington, Retirement Series. 4 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1998–99. description ends 1:12–13).

3For Powel’s refusal to purchase the coach, see her reply to GW of 8 February. GW may refer to the ceremonial coach, made in England, that was purchased and presented to Martha Washington by the Pennsylvania legislature in 1777. Previously owned by Richard Penn, Jr., and sometimes called the Penn coach, the carriage was described as both “cream-colored” and a “Bottom Crane Neck Coach,” and reportedly was “decorated with gilt medallions” (Thomas Mifflin to GW, 11 June 1777, and n.2, in Papers, Revolutionary War Series description begins W. W. Abbot et al., eds. The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series. 25 vols. to date. Charlottesville, Va., 1985–. description ends 10:2–3; and Wharton, Martha Washington description begins Anne Hollingsworth Wharton. Martha Washington. New York, 1907. description ends , 223–24). Though coachmakers John or George Bringhurst manufactured a carriage for GW in the United States in 1780, GW most often called that vehicle his “Chariot.” As a result, it probably was the Penn coach that GW had repaired and refurbished in 1790 and that served as his ceremonial presidential carriage. Too heavy and cumbersome for the roads around Mount Vernon, the Penn ceremonial carriage was eventually sold and scrapped for its iron (see David & Francis Clark to GW, 13 Sept. 1790, and n.6; GW to William Washington, 26 April 1793; GW to John Mitchell, 20 March and 8 April 1780, in Papers, Revolutionary War Series description begins W. W. Abbot et al., eds. The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series. 25 vols. to date. Charlottesville, Va., 1985–. description ends 25:103–4, 353–55; GW to Clement Biddle, 23 Aug. 1797 and 3 March 1798, in Papers, Retirement Series description begins W. W. Abbot et al., eds. The Papers of George Washington, Retirement Series. 4 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1998–99. description ends 1:315; 2:114–15; and Decatur, Private Affairs of George Washington description begins Stephen Decatur, Jr. Private Affairs of George Washington: From the Records and Accounts of Tobias Lear, Esquire, his Secretary. Boston, 1933. description ends , 170–73, 202, 207).

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