1. These were payments for the flour and herring that Thomas Newton, Jr., had sold for GW. See GW to Newton, 23, 27 Jan., 12 Feb., and notes; see also Cash Accounts, November 1773, n.1.

2. These bills of exchange were for GW’s purchase of William Black’s plantations. See GW to Robert Cary & Co., 5 Dec. and notes.

3. GW wrote in his Cash Memoranda, 1772-75 description begins “Pocket-day-Book or Cash-Memorandums,” 9 Aug. 1772–27 May 1773, 29 May 1773–22 March 1774, 26 Oct. 1774–3 May 1775. Manuscript in George Washington Papers, Library of Congress. 24 March-31 October 1774. Manuscript in Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, Calif. description ends on 16 Dec.: “To Cash recd from Mr Wm Herbert on Acct of his Fishing at my Landg (exclusive of £21 recd Sepr 23d last)—[£]54.7.10.”

4. Robert McMickan was acting as GW’s attorney in Kingston, Jamaica, to collect from Daniel Jenifer Adams for the sale of GW’s flour. See GW’s correspondence with both McMickan and Adams in 1773 and 1774. This entry is at the top of a new page in the ledger with only the date of “Decr.”

5. GW records in his account with James Craik the payment of this amount from Craik for flour (General Ledger B description begins General Ledger B, 1772–1793. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 44).

6. John Parke Custis’s fiancée, Eleanor Calvert, and her companion Mary Read were visiting Mount Vernon when Martha Parke Custis suddenly died on 19 June 1773. This was “for Sundries bot for them of Mrs Charlton” (Cash Memoranda, 1772-75 description begins “Pocket-day-Book or Cash-Memorandums,” 9 Aug. 1772–27 May 1773, 29 May 1773–22 March 1774, 26 Oct. 1774–3 May 1775. Manuscript in George Washington Papers, Library of Congress. 24 March-31 October 1774. Manuscript in Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, Calif. description ends ).

7. This is GW’s second of three payments to Charles West for a 484–acre tract of land on Dogue Run purchased in 1772. See General Ledger B description begins General Ledger B, 1772–1793. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 59, and GW to Charles West, 6 June 1769, nn.2 and 3.

8. See note 2. GW wrote in his Cash Memoranda, 1772-75 description begins “Pocket-day-Book or Cash-Memorandums,” 9 Aug. 1772–27 May 1773, 29 May 1773–22 March 1774, 26 Oct. 1774–3 May 1775. Manuscript in George Washington Papers, Library of Congress. 24 March-31 October 1774. Manuscript in Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, Calif. description ends on 4 Dec.: “N.B. the foregoing Sums of 4875 & 500 are in full payment of the Land bought of Mr Black—& to be charged to Mr Custis who is to be credited for the foregoi⟨ng⟩ drafts.”

9. See Account with Mary Washington, 27 April 1775. GW had breakfast with his mother on 8 Dec. (Diaries description begins Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds. The Diaries of George Washington. 6 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1976–79. description ends , 3:219), and he paid his mother “in presence of my sister ⟨Betty⟩” (Cash Memoranda, 1772-75 description begins “Pocket-day-Book or Cash-Memorandums,” 9 Aug. 1772–27 May 1773, 29 May 1773–22 March 1774, 26 Oct. 1774–3 May 1775. Manuscript in George Washington Papers, Library of Congress. 24 March-31 October 1774. Manuscript in Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, Calif. description ends ).

10. GW may have bought the butter molds from James Allan in Fredericksburg.

11. Alexander Campbell was a merchant in Dumfries in the mid–1770s. On 4 Feb. 1774 GW’s Cash Accounts record a payment of £32.15 received from Governor Eden “on acct of the money wch I paid Colo. Carlyle & Mr Campbell for him.”

12. In his Cash Memoranda, 1772-75 description begins “Pocket-day-Book or Cash-Memorandums,” 9 Aug. 1772–27 May 1773, 29 May 1773–22 March 1774, 26 Oct. 1774–3 May 1775. Manuscript in George Washington Papers, Library of Congress. 24 March-31 October 1774. Manuscript in Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, Calif. description ends GW added: “for wch Mr Custis is to be chargd as he is to be credd by my drafts on Robt Cary.”

13. Thomas Alford (Alfred) appears to have been Roberts’s apprentice at the mill.

14. On 16 Dec. 1773 Philip Langfitt signed a memorandum of an agreement with GW whereby GW hired from Langfitt a slave cooper. The agreement reads in part: “The said Philip Langfit doth agree to hire unto the above named George Washington for and during the term & time of three years to commence from the date hereof a certain Negro man Slave named Nase (a Cowper by Trade & now in the possession of the said George Washington).... and the said Philip Langfit doth farther agree to and with the said George Washington that if the said Negro Nase should happen to die before the expiration of the three years as aforesaid, or shall be disabled, or by any other means the said George Washington shall be deprivd of the use & benefit of his labour that an allowance for the time so lost shall be made in proportion to the Sum stipulated for the whole term of three years.

“The said George Washington on his part agreeing to Cloath & feed the said Negro Nase in the manner Negro’s generally are Cloathd & Fed; & to pay his Levy & other Taxes; and moreover to advance the said Philip Langfit the Sum of Fifty pounds Virga Currency as a full compensation for the three years Services” (AD, in GW’s hand and signed by Langfitt, DLC:GW). Langfitt lived in Truro Parish, Fairfax County.

15. Margaret Manley was the widow of GW’s neighbor Harrison Manley, who died in 1773. GW bought wheat for his mill from Manley.

16. On 18 Dec. GW wrote in his Cash Memoranda, 1772-75 description begins “Pocket-day-Book or Cash-Memorandums,” 9 Aug. 1772–27 May 1773, 29 May 1773–22 March 1774, 26 Oct. 1774–3 May 1775. Manuscript in George Washington Papers, Library of Congress. 24 March-31 October 1774. Manuscript in Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, Calif. description ends : “Mem[orandu]m charge Mr Lund Washington with a New Negro boy named Syphax sold him—at the price of [£]45.0.0.”

17. Anne Clifton Slaughter, wife of Thomas Slaughter, was the daughter of Elizabeth Brent Clifton, widow of William Clifton from whom GW bought Clifton’s Neck at Mount Vernon in 1760. Mrs. Slaughter went to Mount Vernon on 22 Dec. to borrow the money, which was not repaid until 1788 (General Ledger B description begins General Ledger B, 1772–1793. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 97; Diaries description begins Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds. The Diaries of George Washington. 6 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1976–79. description ends , 3:220).

18. The “Negro doctor” that GW mentions from time to time in his accounts was probably not one of his own slaves, but was perhaps from a neighboring plantation. There were a number of slaves, both men and women, who gained considerable reputation as doctors and were borrowed by neighboring planters to treat their slaves. This practice was considerably curtailed by laws passed by the colony of Virginia to govern the administration of medicine by slaves. The 1748 session of the Virginia legislature passed an act entitled “An Act directing the trial of Slaves committing capital crimes; and for the more effectual punishing conspiracies and insurections of them; and for the better government of negroes, mulattoes, and Indians, bond or free,” which included the provision that “any negroe, or other slave” convicted of the preparation or administration of medicines with intent to poison were to receive capital punishment “without benefit of clergy.” Those administering medicines without bad intent or consequence were allowed benefit of clergy; this allowed the culprit, to avoid the death sentence, and instead to be “burnt in the hand, by the goaler in open court, and suffer such other corporal punishment as the court shall think fit to inflict.” The reason for the law was that “many negroes, under pretence of practising physic, have prepared and exhibited poisonous medicines, by which many persons have been murdered, and others have languished under long and tedious indispositions, and it will be difficult to detect such pernicious and dangerous practices, if they should be permitted to exhibit any sort of medicine.” The act provided, however, “that nothing herein contained shall be construed to extend to any slave or slaves administering medicines, by his, or her master’s or mistress’s order, in his, or her family, or the family of another, with the mutual consent of the owner of such slave, and the master or mistress of said family” (6 Hening description begins William Waller Hening, ed. The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature, in the Year 1619. 13 vols. 1819–23. Reprint. Charlottesville, Va., 1969. description ends 104–12).

On the last page of the almanac that GW used for recording his 1767 diary are printed some cures by “the famous Negro Doctor HARRY of Caroline’s Medicines for Poison, Pains in the Head, Stomack, or Belly, which were never known to fail perfecting a Cure.” Included are a purge and a vomit for poison (DLC:GW). Dr. Harry’s services were used upon at least one occasion on one of the Custis plantations in the York River area. In the Custis Papers at ViHi is the following receipt dated 6 Feb. 1765, signed by Joseph Ellyson: “recd of Pan Gran Parrabo Boswell the Sum of Three pound for the Use of Mich. Yates, on acct of his Negro Doctor Harry, administoring Means to three negroes in the Estate of Colo. Washington.” On the reverse Ellyson signed another receipt to Boswell for twenty-two shillings “for three Sixths, or the half of the Expences of fetching & carrying of the Negro Docter to his Master.” Pangranparobo Boswell was an overseer on one of the New Kent County plantations. Michael Yates was a Caroline County physician. For more on black doctors, see Blanton, Medicine in Virginia description begins Wyndham B. Blanton. Medicine in Virginia in the Eighteenth Century. Richmond, 1931. description ends , 173–77.

19. Morris and Davy were overseers at Dogue Run and the mill, respectively. Mike, or Michael, was a carpenter.

20. See Francis Willis, Jr., to GW, 17 Oct. 1773, n.1.

21. John Fitzgerald (d. 1799), a native of Ireland, came to America in 1769. By 1775 he and Valentine Peers (1756-1830) were partners in a wheat-purchasing business.

22. According to the Cash Memoranda, 1772-75 description begins “Pocket-day-Book or Cash-Memorandums,” 9 Aug. 1772–27 May 1773, 29 May 1773–22 March 1774, 26 Oct. 1774–3 May 1775. Manuscript in George Washington Papers, Library of Congress. 24 March-31 October 1774. Manuscript in Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, Calif. description ends this is William Wilson. John & James Wilson & Sons of Kilmarnock, Scotland, had a store and a factory in Alexandria by 1773. John died circa 1773. William Wilson may have been the same man of that name who later was a partner in the firm of James Wilson & Sons in Alexandria.