To George Washington from William Crawford, 20 September 1774
From William Crawford
Stewart Crossing [Pa.] Sepr 20th 1774
Sir
It has not bin in my Power Since your Letter cam to my hand requesting me to Run the Land Over again at the round bottom I am now agoing to Set out for our new Expedition and taking my Instrements with me and Shall Comply with you in Each Article as far as is in my Power.1
I have I beleve as much Land Lying on the Litle Kanhaway as will mak up your ⟨qu⟩antity you want that I intended to Lay ⟨mutilated W⟩arrents on but if you want it you ⟨mutilated⟩ have it and I will Try to get Other Land for that porpuss it Lys about 15 or 20 Mils up the Litle Kanhaway on the Lower Side and is all ready Run out on[e] Tract of about 3000 Som od acres the other about 2500 well Marked and bounded[.] as soon as I can return I will Send you the Draft maid out but has not time to have it don now[.]2 I do not here any of Cresaps Cla[i]m now more then as no person Lives on that Land, or any of your Land now3 Since the Endeins broke out I Spoke to Lord Dunmore in rgard to it, and him Claim in what manner your properly to its Claim and those people took possesion of the Land ⟨mutilated⟩4 as you have the first Claim and a patent besids so that I belive it is out the power of any Person to P⟨mutilated⟩adise5 him against you.
I this day am set out with the first Devision for the Mouth of Hockhaking and there to Arect a post on your bottom whare the hole troops is to Rendevouse6 and from thence to Proceed to the Shawnee Towns if the Endiens do no[t] Comply with his Lordships Tearms which is to give 6 Hosteges for there good be heaviour which I beleve the[y] will do.
Lord Dunmore has had a Confrance with them but I do not now what ⟨is⟩ don as yeat but they will meet hi⟨m mutilated⟩ Hockhakin whare I belive we Shall Setle all matters.7
Your other matters here Mr young will in form you how they are Settled.
Val Crawford says som person has bin indeaviouring to Predgadise you against him about your bisness in his Care as far as I [k]now or belive he has don all ⟨he⟩ Cold do for you, and has bin at much Cost and expence but you will be better able ⟨to⟩ Judge when you See his return.
Lord dunmore has orders from home by the Last Mail to [take] charge of all the New Purches and to Exarsise the Law of Virginia till his royal Pleashure is farther nown. I am Sir ⟨mutilated⟩.
AL[S], DLC:GW. The signature has been torn off.
1. Crawford wrote GW on 8 May and 8 June about resurveying his Round Bottom tract.
2. In the summer of 1773, in his second survey of the soldiers’ land under the Proclamation of 1754, William Crawford surveyed a tract of 28,400 acres on the Little Kanawha. In November 1773, 9,000 acres of this were assigned to Robert Stobo’s heirs, 9,000 to Jacob Van Braam, and the rest to eleven other veterans or to their heirs or representatives (GW to Dunmore and Council, c.3 Nov. 1773). It probably was at this time that Crawford also surveyed for himself one or both of the tracts on the Little Kanawha, to which he refers here, for he wrote GW in January 1774 that in the early fall of 1773 “Lord Dunmore promised me most faithfully that when I sent him the Draft of the Land on the Litle Kanhaway that he would Patent it for me” (10 Jan. 1774). On 14 Nov. after his return from Dunmore’s expedition against the Shawnee, Crawford wrote GW: “Them Drafts of Land on the Litle Kahaway I shall send them to you and Leve you at your Choyce to do as you Like.” The following spring, on 6 Mar. 1775, Crawford again wrote GW about the two tracts on the Little Kanawha and sent him the “two plats which you must fix Warrants to your Self.” GW wrote Andrew Lewis on 27 Mar. 1775 sending a survey of 1,800 acres on the Little Kanawha and suggesting that he patent it in Botetourt County where Lewis’s son Samuel was surveyor, but no evidence has been found to confirm that GW used patents to claim land on the Little Kanawha.
3. “Any” appears right after “or” and immediately before the underlined portion. Crawford may have meant to leave out the underlined words.
4. , 5:51–53, has printed between “Land” and “as you have” the following words: “[mutilated] it [mutilated]n make no [mutilated]ds you.”
5. Hamilton prints this work as “PredjuDiss.”
6. This was Fort Gower. See John Connolly to GW, 1 May 1774, n.1.
7. Before any treaty could be agreed on, the Shawnee attacked Andrew Lewis’s portion of the army at Point Pleasant and were defeated. For the terms of the treaty that were finally agreed on, see William Crawford to GW, 14 Nov. 1774, n.1.