From George Washington to George McCarmick, 12 July 1784
To George McCarmick
[Mount Vernon] 12th July 1784
Genl Washington requests Mr McCarmick to set up the Advertisements herewith enclosed at the following places. Leesburgh—Shepherdstown—Hagerstown—Martinsburg—Warm springs, and the Oldtown, or thereabouts. The above to be of those which have the writing in the Margin. The others to be set up along the road above the Oldtown, and at such other places over the mountains as Mr McCarmick may think best—letting Mr Simpson know the places, that he may not send those which are inclosed to him, to the same.1
The letter to the Commanding officer at Fort Pitt to be sent by Mr McCarmick or Simpson as they may agree—it ought to go safe & soon.2
Mr McCormick will please to inform those persons, or the leaders of them who are settled upon the Generals Land on Millers run, that he, McCor[mic]k, has seen & read his Deed for it—that the said Deed bears date the 5th day of July 1774—& the Survey the 23d of March 1771—that this Land was granted in virtue of the Kings Proclamation in Octor 1763 & is part of 3000 acres bought of Capt. Posey (an officer) who was entitled to so much under the Proclamation, as is recited in the Deed—that the agreement between the States of Virginia and Pennsylvania secures this right to the General, who did, at their first settling upon the land, & at sundry times since, which is easy to be proved, give them notice that it was his, & forewarned them of the consequences of persevering in an error; & lastly, it may be neighbourly & friendly in Mr McCormick to advise them, if they have a mind to avoid all the expence, & all the disagreeable consequences which may result from the prosecution of his right to the highest Court it can finally be determined in; it might be well for them to think seriously of an accommodation, either by removing, or becoming Tenants—& that this is not to be delayed beyond the time the Genl has appointed to rent his Mill &c.3
If Mr McCormick shou’d see Mr Hite 4 who assisted Colo. Crawford in surveying the Generals Lands in the Ohio & Gt Kanhawa, he would be obliged to him for asking Mr Hite whether, in case the General shou’d find it necessary when he gets to Mr Simpson’s, to take a Surveyor down with him, it would suit him to go; & upon what terms, by the day or month. The General does not [wish] Mr Hite engaged actually, because he does not, at this time certainly know whether he shall want a Surveyor or not.
G: Washington
LB, DLC:GW.
Maj. George McCarmick at this time lived in Yohogania County, Pa., not far from GW’s Millers Run (or Chartiers Creek) property in Washington County. After GW won his suit in October 1786 against the settlers who claimed most, if not all, of his 2,813 acres at Millers Run (see note 3), he engaged McCarmick to act for him in treating with the squatters who remained (see McCarmick to GW, 31 Oct. 1786, and GW to McCarmick, 27 Nov. 1786).
1. The advertisements to lease Washington’s Bottom on the Youghiogheny and the tract at Great Meadows and 240 acres at Bath in Berkeley County, Va., are printed in note 3, GW to Thomas Richardson, 5 July 1784.
3. For GW’s acquisition of his Millers Run property, see GW’s correspondence in 1772 and 1773 with William Crawford, who made the original survey for GW and sought to protect his claims. See particularly Crawford’s letters of 1 May 1772 and 29 Dec. 1773. See also , 4:22–23. When GW met at Gilbert Simpson’s place at Washington’s Bottom in September with claimants to different portions of the Millers Run tract, he found them adamant in their insistence upon the legitimacy of their claims. GW employed the Pennsylvania lawyer Thomas Smith to institute suits of ejectment against the squatters. GW’s own deep involvement in the prosecution of the suits may be followed in his correspondence with Smith and others over the next two years. His diary entries for 14, 19, and 20 Sept. 1784 (, 4:21–23, 26–31), with the editors’ copious notes, provide an extensive summary of the entire proceedings; but see also, in particular, the editorial note in Thomas Smith to GW, 9 Feb. 1785.
4. The copyist wrote “Lite.”