George Washington Papers
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-01-02-0030

Passport from Robert Dinwiddie, 30 October 1753

Passport from Robert Dinwiddie

Virginia[Williamsburg, 30 October 1753]

To All to whom these Presents may come or concern Greeting

Whereas I have appointed George Washington Esqr. by Commission under the Great Seal, My express Messenger to the Comandant of the French Forces on the River Ohio, & as he is charg’d with Business of great Importance to His Majesty & this Dominion.

I do hereby Command all His Majesty’s Subjects, & particularly require All in Alliance and Amity with the Crown of Great Britain, & all Others to whom this Passport may come agreeable to the Law of Nations, to be aiding & assisting as a Safeguard to the said George Washington & his Attendants: (viz.)1

in his present Message to & from the River Ohio as aforesaid

Given under my Hand & the Seal of the Colony at the City of Williamsburg this Thirtieth Day of October, One Thousand seven hundred, fifty & three, in the twenty seventh Year of His Britannick Majesty’s reign.

Copy, P.R.O., C.O. 5/1328, f. 60; copy, P.R.O., C.O. 5/1344, f. 195.

For background to this document, see the editorial note to Commission from Robert Dinwiddie, 30 Oct. 1753.

1A blank space was left in the passport here for GW to fill in the names of the “attendants” selected to accompany him. He chose Jacob Van Braam as interpreter, Christopher Gist as guide, “& also hired four others as Servitors (vizt.) Barnaby Currin & John McGuier (Indian Traders) Henry Steward, & William Jenkins” (Diaries description begins Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds. The Diaries of George Washington. 6 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1976–79. description ends , 1:130).

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