1. There are in the Custis Papers (ViHi) receipts signed or marked by many of the people named here, acknowledging payment by Martha Custis or her steward Joseph Valentine. Because GW had business dealings with most of these people after his marriage to Martha Custis, the names of many of them will crop up elsewhere in this volume and in subsequent volumes, where they usually will be identified.

2. The amounts under this item indicate, and subsequent entries confirm, that Daniel Parke Custis left no bonded debt, only short-term obligations and current expenses. The sterling column shows no obligations of any kind.

3. The three pictures that John Wollaston painted in 1757 are the portraits of Martha Dandridge Custis, of her first husband Daniel Parke Custis, and of their children John Parke (Jacky) and Martha Parke (Patsy) Custis. These portraits are now owned by Washington and Lee University.

4. The figure 4,967½ refers to pounds of tobacco and is the only entry in a column, omitted here, headed “Tobacco.” On 7 April 1758, Lain Jones, acting as sheriff of New Kent County, certified that he had “Recd of Mrs Martha Custis the Tax on 63 Tithes @ 4 The Tax on 6264 Acres of Land at 2/3 tax on 1 Chariott & Cha[i]r due for the Year 1757” (ViHi: Custis Papers). The amount collected was £21.3 and some pence.

5. John Blair’s receipt for payment by Joseph Valentine of £22.10.5, on 17,438 acres of land, is dated 9 May 1758 (ibid.). The settlement accounts include the auditor’s official list of Custis lands (doc. III-A–6) at 17,779 acres. Quitrents were paid at 2s. sterling or 2s. 6d. current money on 100 acres. At that rate the payment here would be for 18,017 acres.

6. See note 4 above. The total of 138 pounds of tobacco at 20s. per hundred pounds comes to £1.7.7.

7. This very important notation made by GW does not appear on the ViHi copy of the account and is taken from the ViLxW copy. It describes the equal sharing of the profits of the estate by the three heirs, which continued until the paper assets of the estate were distributed in 1761 in the final settlement of the estate. See Editorial Note, 20 April 1759–5 Nov. 1761.

8. What follows in the two columns are the total appraised value, first, of the Custis slaves in each county and, second, of the slaves and goods combined, as computed in doc. III-A–1.

9. For GW’s instructions with regard to this stock in the Bank of England, see GW to Robert Cary & Co., 20 Sept. 1759, 10 Aug. 1760, 28 May 1762, and 10 Aug. 1764. In 1762 he ordered the stock transferred to Martha Parke Custis as part of her inheritance. See also doc. IV-C.

10. These five lots of goods add up to £1,081.12.5¾, which in the estate division was charged to the separate accounts of the heirs: £491.18.7¾ to Martha Washington (doc. III-C–1), £571.4.1½ to John Parke Custis (doc. III-C–2), and £18.9.8½ to Martha Parke Custis (doc. III-C–3). For references to the correspondence between Martha Custis and these British merchants with regard to the shipment of tobacco and the purchase of goods, see particularly GW to Robert Cary & Co., 1 May 1759, n.3, and GW to James Gildart, 12 June 1759, n.2. Robert Cary & Co. wrote Martha Custis on 26 Nov. 1757: “We have wrote to Messrs Oswald of Glasgow who will send the Stockings & Carpet by the first Vessel that goes for York River” (ViHi: Custis Papers).

11. Benjamin Hubbard paid off the principal with six months’ interest, £358.15, in January 1760 (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 63).

12. This loan was allotted to Martha Washington (i.e., GW) in 1761 as part of her share of the estate. On 1 Jan. 1765 GW entered total interest charges on this account of £21.5.2. from 24 Oct. 1749, and on 1 May 1765 he recorded having received payment of £49.14.6 in cash, which included an interest payment of 9s. 4d. for 1765 (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 150). GW added this note in the ledger: “If any Rect or discharge shoud be produced agt this Balle 1 third thereof i.e £9.6.8 to be charged to Jno. P. Custis & the like to his Sister because I have acc[ounte]d with the Estate for the whole Sum.” Presumably he had entered this in the missing dower account against his (or her) balance in her separate estate account (see doc. III-C–1).

13. In the estate account for 1758–59 (doc. IV-A), Blair is credited with paying £30 sterling in interest. After this loan was allotted to Martha Washington in 1761 GW entered it in General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 150, where he credited John Blair, Sr., with payments of £15 sterling in annual interest from 1760 to 1763 in return for Blair’s paying the quitrents on the Custis lands. General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends shows that Blair paid off most of the principal and interest in May 1763 in bills of exchange of £222 and £80 sterling and the rest in currency (£22.7.6) in November 1764.

14. This debt due the Custis estate from the estate of William Armistead of Gloucester County was allotted to Martha Washington. Carter Burwell assigned a debt of £132.1.8 owed him in sterling to Daniel Parke Custis in 1753. On 4 May 1763 a bill of exchange of £194.5.5 sterling for the principal and interest due was drawn on Bosworth and Griffith of London by Thomas Nelson, Ralph Wormeley, Dudley Digges, Jr., and Warner Lewis, but the bill was returned under protest. Despite payments of £60.12.2 in 1765 and £200 in 1772, the debt remained at £104.3.3 on 8 Dec. 1772. See General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 150, 192, and Ledger B, 14. GW sent the account to John Marshall in 1789 for him to sue for payment but forgave the debt upon learning of the distressed state of the family.

15. The loan seems to have been repaid or canceled before 1761.

16. Edmund Pendleton paid off the principal and interest on his loan on 28 April 1760 (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 57, included here as doc. IV-D).

17. Joseph Moreton’s bond was “taken in” on 26 April 1760 (ibid.).

18. On 5 Nov. 1759 John Mercer brought suit for payment of the protested bill (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 68), which had been assigned to Martha Washington, and a judgment of the General Court on 20 Oct. 1762 against William Bowler awarded GW £188.8.2 current money (£109.17.6 sterling). On 30 April GW received in settlement from Nathaniel Burwell £66.18.4 and from Edmund Pendleton £121.9.10 (ibid., 156).

19. Both Abner Clopton (b. 1731) and Edward Pye Chamberlayne were members of prominent families in New Kent County. Clopton (see doc. IV-A) and probably Chamberlayne had paid off their notes by the time of the final division of the estate in 1761–62.

20. The mortgage on Francis Foster’s land was assigned to Martha Washington. By 1765, when GW sold the loan to John Parke Custis (see GW’s Guardian Accounts, ViLxW), she had received £200 in interest, which was set at 5 percent per annum (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 151).

21. In the Custis Papers (ViHi) there is a memorandum in John Mercer’s hand stating that on 18 April 1758 he “Drew on” John Hanbury & Co. (by this time Capel & Osgood Hanbury) for “£1000 at 40” in favor of Bernard Moore and £200 in favor of Philip W. Claiborne; 28 April, on Robert Cary & Co., £1,500 at 40 in favor of Burwell Bassett; 29 April, on Hanbury, £300 in favor of William Dandridge; 16 May, £250 in favor of Thomas Moore; 16 May, on Cary, £750 in favor of Thomas Moore; 12 May, on Cary, £1,500 in favor of John Mercer; 18 May, on Cary, £200 in favor of Bartholomew Dandridge; 18 May, on Hanbury, £100 in favor of Bartholomew Dandridge; 18 May, on James Gildart & Co., £200 in favor of Dandridge; 20 May, on Hanbury, £100 in favor of Dandridge; and 14 June, on Cary, £50 in favor of Philip Johnson (Johnston). The sterling face amounts in all these bills of exchange are converted to Virginia currency at 40 percent in the Accounts. On 1 June 1758 Martha Custis wrote Robert Cary & Co. that she had written on 30 April informing the company of having drawn on it a number of bills of exchange in favor of Burwell Bassett totaling £1,500 sterling. Since then, she wrote, she had drawn bills in favor of John Mercer totaling £1,000, £750 in favor of Thomas Moore, and £200 in favor of Bartholomew Dandridge (ViHi: Custis Papers). In a letter of the same date she informed John Hanbury & Co. of the bills she had drawn on it, including one of £500 in favor of John Mercer, whereas Mercer indicated in his memorandum that all £1,500 for his bill was drawn on Robert Cary & Co. As Martha Custis explained in both letters, she drew these bills, “being obliged to make use of all the Money due to Mr Custis’s Estate” (Martha Custis to John Hanbury & Co., 1 June 1758, ibid.). Her sterling drafts amounting to £6,150 largely depleted the estate’s sterling balance except for the Bank of England stock valued at £1,650 sterling. See notes 22 through 31.

22. GW regularly credited the payment of interest on this loan to Joanna McKenzie by Dr. James Carter (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 142, 145, 160, 176, 203, 231, 269, 290, 318). GW also opened another account with Mrs. McKenzie when he set up his guardian account (ViLxW) for Martha Parke Custis in 1761.

23. Thomas Dansie paid GW two years’ interest (£10) on 7 Dec. 1760, and then paid an additional £2.7 on 15 April 1761 when Dansie’s bond was signed over to Martha Parke Custis as part of her inheritance (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 151). At Martha Parke Custis’s death in 1773, the loan was assigned to her brother as part of his moiety of her estate. Dansie had been married to Frances Parke Custis, Martha Washington’s sister-in-law, and his present wife, Ann Dandridge, was Martha Washington’s first cousin.

24. GW received £210 in 1761 as three years’ interest, and Bernard Moore’s bond of £1,400 was then assigned to Martha Parke Custis as part of her share of the estate (ibid.). At her death, it came to £1,747.8.8 sterling in unpaid principal and interest.

25. Claiborne’s loan was assigned to Martha Parke Custis in 1761 and went to John Parke Custis at her death (Ledger B, 215–216).

26. This loan was assigned to Martha Parke Custis in 1761. At her death, Burwell Bassett owed her, including the principal and interest on this loan, a total of £3,530.18, which was assigned to John Parke Custis (ibid.).

27. William Dandridge made regular interest payments on this loan to Martha Parke Custis after it was assigned to her in 1761, and on her death it was assigned to her brother (ibid.).

28. On 4 Nov. 1760 John Robinson paid £500 on this loan for Thomas Moore (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 108) and £250 on 7 Nov. 1761 (ibid., 142), leaving a balance of £806.7.4 owed to Martha Parke Custis. In November 1770, the unpaid interest due brought the total to £1,152.5.2, which GW reduced by £104.5. by acquiring two slaves and a bay mare at Thomas Moore’s estate sale. Carter Braxton paid off the debt in June 1770 with his bond for £1,050 (ibid., 204), and at Martha Parke Custis’s death the Braxton bond and one year’s interest of £52.10 due was assigned to John Parke Custis (Ledger B, 215–16).

29. John Mercer met no interest payments on this loan assigned to Martha Parke Custis before his death in 1768. His son James Mercer as executor of his father’s estate gave Martha Parke Custis a mortgage of £1,109.11.6 in 1771 for the unpaid interest. See GW’s Guardian Account Book, 4 Nov. 1771, and Ledger B, 221. Bond and mortgage for a total of £3,209.11.6 were taken by GW as part of his wife’s moiety in Martha Parke Custis’s estate (Ledger B, 215).

30. Bartholomew Dandridge met none of the interest payments on this bond assigned to his niece Martha Parke Custis and instead covered his arrearages with bonds of £150, £207.4.1, and £143.11.9 sterling (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 110; Ledger B, 215). At her death the three bonds plus yet more unpaid interest came to £1,219.9.4, most of which was assigned to GW in the settling of his stepdaughter’s estate.

31. Because of protested bills of exchange and unpaid interest this debt from money originally owed John Custis was £273.12.4 currency in April 1762 when John Robinson paid it off in cash to GW (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 145).