To George Washington from George Washington, 20 June 1788
From George Washington
North Carolina Tarborough June 20th [1788]
Dr Sir
From a most distresd Situation, have taken up my Pen to request your Attention, though I have not the least reason to Expect it, owing to my entering myself into a Matrymonial State too soon, & allowing myself to be led astray by the deceitfull Tongue of a Woman, one beyond expression & occasioned through my haveing so great an Attachment to her, that she rul’d me as she thought proper, & made me enter into all kind of Extravagancy; which has brought me to ruin, & depriv’d me of seeing my friends for some time past, I have, since her death Marryed another, who I can with propriety call a Wife, but as her Parrents weare so much averse to the match, I am kep oute of her Fortune untill she comes of Age, which will be in a twelve month from this, I have wrote to my Father for his Assistance he den’ys bitterly, which reduce’s me to apply for your Astance, & am in hopes that you will take it under mature consideration—& grant it me, I should not have wrote at this time but I have lately Rented a House in greensVill Town, in this State, & am reduc’d to the necessaty of Keeping a Tavern; though I am not able to carry it on for the want of Moneys to set up a good one, therefore begg your assistance most seriously should you incline to assist me you may by Post, which will deliver me any service’s that your undoubted goodness may send me, if you could assist me in leting me have a place on the Dismall Swamp to live on I had much rather be a Planter, or I will take care of your Business there, let me know by the first post after this, as I shall wait with expectations of heareing from you. I am Sir with every sentiment of reguard
Geo. Washington
N.B. pray do not let my Father know of what I wrote to you for.1
ALS, ViMtvL. The letter was sent “⅌ post.”
1. This George Washington may be the son of Lawrence Washington of Chotank, GW’s boyhood friend. Lawrence of Chotank had a son George (b. 1758) who is thought to have died young. However on 15 Feb. 1777 GW wrote George Baylor about commissions for “Two young gentn namesakes of mine, the one Son to Mr Lawrence Washington, the other to Mr Robt Washington, both of Stafford County . . .” (ALS, DLC:GW). It is uncertain whether GW meant that the two young men both were named George. It is certain from this letter to GW, however, that this young George Washington and his father were well known to GW. The writer of the letter seems to have been still living in Tarboro in 1792 when Henry Irwin of Edgecombe County, N.C., wrote a will leaving £100 to “George Washington of Tarboro” (Ruth Smith Williams and Margarette Glen Griffin, Abstract of the Wills of Edgecombe County, North Carolina, 1733–1856 [Rocky Mount, N.C., 1956], 178).