To George Washington from Robert Lewis, 4 December 1796
From Robert Lewis
Spring Hill Fauq[uie]r County [Va.]
Dec. 4th 1796
Hon. Uncle,
As some of your leases which were given for the term of ten years, on the Goose-Creek tract of Land in the County, will expire the 25th of this month,1 and as you seemed undetermined when I was last at Mount Vernon, whether you wou’d let them for a term as long as in the first instance, or by the year only; I have suspended giving the tenants in possession any encouragement with respect to new leases, until I shou’d hear from you—It is my wish to have your opinion on this subject as soon as you can make it convenient. I am daily importuned by the tenants for some reply. You supposed when we convers’d upon this business, that as the tenancies which wou’d become vacant this fall, would generally be improved, and of more value than, when originally let, it was best to rent them by the year only, if good tenants could be had; This I fear will be a difficult point to accomplish, as those who are esteemed punctual good men, will not be fixed in a situation of so much uncertainty, and for the short space of one year; therefore, I am, the more willing to adopt another opinion (with your concurrance) which you supposed wou’d be equally advantageous, that is to give a lease for a term not exceeding seven years, with absolute covenant on the part of the tenant not to sell, waste, or use more timber than what is necessary for fire-wood and inclosures, and further, that no additional clearings shall be made without the consent of the Landlord or his agent. Many there are who have cleared every acre they were entitled to, and many more who have greatly exceeded the limits prescribed in the leases by cutting into their reserve lands very considerably. I wou’d also suggest another article that might be added with as much propriety as either of the former (Viz.) Every tenant shall lay his farm off into three fields, and shall oblige himself under the forfeiture of his lease, not to cultivate either of those fields more than once in three years in Indian corn; and moreover, shall agree to sow the same field down in some kind of small grain, in the course of the year in which the corn shall be made. By this mode of cultivation your land will improve yearly, and be of far greater value when surrendered by the tenant at the expiration of his lease. Notwithstanding most of them have tolerable improvements, yet the land is much inferior to what it was formerly, owing to their mode of cultivation.
They have but two fields which are eternally under tillage, & by this practice, and on land which is naturally wavy, with a thin soil, the lotts have been so worn as to supersede the idea of raising the rents, more than thirty shillings per hundred acres; and this can only be warranted by the prices of all kinds of produce, which are still high comparing them with former years.
Shortly after my arrival here from Mount Vernon, I applied to Wm Garner (who I recommended to you as a good house-joiner) but a previous engagement prevented our bargaining.
I have completed a survey on the land which you were so good as to give me on Deeprun,2 and find there will be some part of it disputed, as one Savage a Surveyor sold a hundred and fifty acres of it to a man by the name of Earl, who sold it to another by the name of Barber who has had it in possession fifty one years;3 and I am told by the laws of this State he is entitled to it by possession; this being the case I have come to a determination to compromise, and sell him my right; the value of which is to be ascertained by three disinterested Gentlemen, I find also by my Grandfathers Will that you are entitled to one half of 4663 acres, and my Uncle Samuel Washington to the other half, which is said to have been run by Mr Lawrence Washington Senr of Chotank, who claims by purchase from you;4 as these are circumstances which you never informed me of, and as the purchasers from Mr Washington can produce no title from you, nor does their deeds recite how he came by the land; I have thought proper to write to you respecting it, and to beg you will give me some information more satisfactory than what I can collect from these men. I am well convinced (unless you were present when these lines run) that fair play has not been exercised in the division in regard to you: as the lower end of the land which is claimed by Warner Washington (as a purchaser from my Uncle Samuel) which lies in the main fork of Deeprun, is worth at least double as much as the upper end which is said to have been laid off as your part.5 Again in the division between you and Mr L. Washington there is no comparisson between the two tracts in regard to their quality. Mrs Lewis6 unites with me in love to my Aunt—I remain your much obliged and affectionate nephew
Robt Lewis
Typescript, supplied (1973) by Mrs. Simon Bolivar Buckner, Sausalito, California. Five obvious typographical errors have been corrected silently; the word “Senr” has been corrected from an inaccurate rendering in the typescript.
Since 1792, Lewis had acted as GW’s agent for his tenanted lands in Frederick, Berkeley, Loudoun, and Fauquier counties.
On 19 Dec., GW replied to Lewis from Philadelphia: “A day or two ago I received your letter of the 4th instant.
“As it is more than probable that my tenants on Goose Creek must have resolved, ’ere this, to go or stay; any opinion I can now give with respect to the terms will have arrived too late. If the case however should be otherwise, get the best Rent you can from them for the ensuing year, or even let them remain on the old Rent; as I am not disposed to give leases for more than Seven years, and wish for more time, & leizure, to consider the natur⟨e⟩ of my landed property, than I have been able to do for some years back, before I even grant them for that term. But if you find any difficulty in procuring leases in the manner I have mentioned, you may in that case, adopt the mode which you yourself have suggested, in your letter of the above date; & confine the tenants to the fulfilment of the conditions therein mentioned with respect to cultivation, &ca &ca.
“I have not here, nor do I possess any where, I believe, a single paper relative to the Land on Deep run. It was originally taken up by my father & Uncle; in doing which, One Warner who was the Surveyor, contrived to leave out about 170 Acres for himself, as was afterwards discovered, & recovered. My Uncle gave his part to Warner Washington, and my father left his part to my brother Samuel & myself. The first division took place during my non-age; the subdivision I left to my Brother Samuel to make; who had, as I have always understood, disposed of his property therein to Mr Lawrence Washington of Chotanck. In what manner the latter was accomplished I know not, not being able to at⟨tend⟩ to the matter myself. The 170 Acre Tract became mine, but by what means I am una⟨ble⟩ at this time, to give any distinct accoun⟨t of⟩—but think my elder brother Lawrence who was the acting Executor of my fath⟨ers⟩ will, recovered it from Warner (the Surveyor) and gave it to me.
“The original Patent for the large tract was for 5000 Acres—the half of which, as has been observed, came to my brother Samuel & me, by a devise in my father’s Will; it was him, not me, that sold to Mr Law[renc]e Washington of Chotanck. I never parted with a foot of mine until I gave it to you. Who Warner Washington sold to I know not.
“This is the best, indeed the only account I have it in my power to give, relative to the Lands on Deep run. You did well therefore, in my opinion, to compromise for the small tract, in preference to letigious investigation of Rights. And you must make the most you can of the other. Your Aunt unites with me in best wishes for yourself, Mrs Lewis & the family” (ALS [letterpress copy], DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW; illegible material in the letterpress copy is supplied in angle brackets from the LB). GW’s uncle was John Washington (1692–1746).
1. For GW’s 600-acre tract on Goose Creek and Chattins Run in Fauquier County, Va., usually referred to as the Chattins Run tract, see Bryan Fairfax to GW, 20 Jan. 1772, n.1, and Fairfax to GW, 15 July 1772, in , 9:8–9, 68–69; see also Agreement with Lewis Lemart, 10 April 1784, and n.2 to that document, in 1:278–79, and Schedule of Property, 9 July 1799, and n.2 to that document, in 4:512–27.
For GW’s past directions regarding the collection of rents from tenants on the tract, see GW to Battaile Muse, 18 Sept. 1785, and Muse to GW, 28 Nov. 1785, and n.7, in 3:253–56, 413–16.
2. GW and his brother Samuel had inherited the Deep Run tract, lying in what was then King George and Stafford counties, under the terms of their father Augustine Washington’s will (see GW to Charles Washington, 25 Jan. 1771, n.2, in 8:430–31; see also GW to John Augustine Washington, 14 June 1755, n.7, in 1:311–14).
For GW’s conveyance of his portion of the Deep Run tract to Lewis, see Deed to Robert Lewis, 13 Aug. 1796.
3. Lewis’s information regarding the name of the surveyor appears to be incorrect. GW, in his reply to Lewis, gave the surveyor’s name as “One Warner” (see source note above).
John Warner was King George County surveyor from 1727 to 1741.
The man in possession of the disputed land may have been William Barber, described by GW as “from the lower end of Fauquier.” Barber had arranged on 10 and 11 Jan. 1786 to rent approximately 50 acres of GW’s land in Fauquier County (, 4:262–63).
4. GW’s cousin and boyhood friend Lawrence Washington (1728-c.1813) was usually described as “of Chotank” because his home was on a bluff overlooking the Potomac near Chotank Creek in Stafford County. GW’s brother Samuel had sold his half of the Deep Run tract to Lawrence, whom GW remembered in his will (see George Washington’s Last Will and Testament, 9 July 1799, in 4:479–511).
5. Lewis refers to Warner Washington, Jr., the son of GW’s first cousin Warner Washington, Sr.
6. Lewis’s wife was Judith Walker Browne Lewis.