From George Washington to Benjamin Grymes, 31 July 1755
To Benjamin Grymes
[Mount Vernon, 31 July 1755]
To Benja. Grymes Esqr.Fredericksburgh
Sir
I don’t remember not recollect to have receivd more than one letter from you,1 and that I shoud have answerd sooner; but knowing that I cou’d give you no satisfactory acct myself, of your Bed &ca, I thought it more advisable to desire Doctr Walker to enquire of
Mr Gist, and of Colo. Cresap (at whose Ho. I perfectly remember the great Tent was left) concerning them, and to let you know their answer.
I have since recollected, and think I am very certain, that Vanbraam who (was left out after Gist and I came off on Foot) was charged with these and other things, told me that after havg had most of his Horses tired, he was oblig’d to leave your things, with many of my own, out at Mr Gists Ho. where they must have been burnt and destroy’d with his Plantation.2
If you are going to England I heartily wish you a good Voyage, and the attainment of your utmost desires. I am Sir Yr most Obt Servt
Go: W——n
LB (original), DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW.
Benjamin Grymes (1725–c.1776), son of John Grymes (c.1691–1748) of Brandon, Middlesex County, was by 1752 living as a merchant and planter in Spotsylvania County. In 1755 he sold his Spotsylvania plantation, Smithfield, and thereafter engaged in a number of economic ventures in and around Fredericksburg until his financial affairs went into trusteeship in the late 1760s.
1. No letter from Grymes to GW has been found.
2. GW was referring to events of Dec. 1753, during his return from Fort Le Boeuf. Among GW’s companions on this journey were Christopher Gist and Jacob Van Braam, the latter hired by GW as a French interpreter. The French destroyed Gist’s plantation at the time of their attack on Fort Necessity in July 1754. Dr. Thomas Walker (1715–1794) had been named by Braddock as one of his commissaries. See GW to Mary Ball Washington, 7 June 1755, n.1. Walker—a physician, merchant, and land speculator—was also an experienced explorer.