To George Washington from Thomas Glascock, 22 August 1773
From Thomas Glascock
Richmond County Augt 22. 1773
Sir
I have seen your Advertizement in the Gazate for the disposal of your lands on the Banks of the Ohio and the Kanhawa’s.1 You have not been so particular as to mention that the Leases are to be for Years or lives, but I am willing to suppose they are intended for Life or Lives, and therefore (as I am now in the Gout, And consequently cannot be at the meeting of the Ohio Company, where I might probably see you in person) Write, and desire that you will lay me out 500 Acres of as good land as I may have a right to expect, and as near the supposed intended seat of Government as possible,2 to which (as soon as I can receive advice that it is really done and where) I will repair, with the remains of my shattered fortune, and shall farther hope that the Lease will be for my life at least, and one or two I shall hope for, Of this you will be kind enough to advise me as soon as may be that I may sell out and be ready for movement as soon as may be, in the Interim I am Sir Your devoted hble Sert
Thomas Glascock
P.S. Could I serve you in the Capacity of a Clerk, (tho’ my pain now vexes me) or in any other capacity, (so that there may not be too much travelling) I shall hope for your favours.3 T.G.
ALS, DLC:GW.
Thomas Glascock (Glasscock; died c.1775), of Richmond County, attended the Virginia assembly in May 1769 as a burgess from his county and joined other burgesses in signing the Nonimportation Agreement. Evidence of Glascock’s “shattered fortune” surfaced as early as 1767 when he advertised that tracts of land totaling 15,000 acres in Halifax County were “To be SOLD uncommonly cheap for ready Money, short Credit, or for NEGROES at a very high Price” (Virginia Gazette [Rind; Williamsburg], 19 Feb. 1767). Glascock’s brother William recently had publicly charged that Thomas was “unfit for any kind of business” as he spent “the chiefest part of his time mad or drunk” (Virginia Gazette [Rind; Williamsburg], 1 April 1773). The form of Glascock’s will suggests that very little of what once had been extensive holdings was left at the time of his death.
2. It was still the expectation that the Walpole Company would found a new colony in the Ohio country. See Boucher to GW, 18 Aug. 1770, n.4; GW to Botetourt, 9 Sept. 1770, n.3; and GW to Botetourt, 5 Oct. 1770, n.4.
3. No response to Glascock’s letter has been found.