From George Washington to an Unknown Person, 6 January 1778
To an Unknown Person
[Valley Forge] 6th January 1778
Sir
I recd yours of the 20th decemr inclosing a letter from Colo. Marbury’s Freind to Majr Molleson. It was immediately forwarded and I hope will have the desired effect.1 I am Sir Yr most obt Servt
Go: Washington
LS, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, PHi: Etting Papers. The letter may have been intended for Maryland governor Thomas Johnson.
1. Luke Marbury of Prince Georges County, Md. served in 1776 as a captain of militia before being appointed to lieutenant colonel of Thomas Sim Lee’s battalion of Maryland militia in February 1777. In July 1777 Marbury became county lieutenant for Prince Georges County, and by September 1777 he was colonel of a Maryland militia battalion. Captured at Germantown on 4 Oct. 1777, Marbury was not exchanged until September 1781. “Majr Molleson” was probably the London-based Scottish tobacco merchant William Molleson, who was attempting to recover debts in Prince Georges County and elsewhere in Maryland about this time. In April 1775 Molleson had purchased, through his agent Thomas Contee, the brig Farmer from GW (see Thomas Contee to GW, 11 April 1775, and GW to George William Fairfax, 31 May 1775).