1. The runaway woman was Ona (Oney) Maria Judge (Ona Judge Staines; 1774–1848), a dower slave maidservant to Martha Washington. After her successful escape from the Washingtons, Judge resided around Portsmouth, N.H., and married John “Jack” Staines. For a biography, see Dunbar, Ona Judge.

An advertisement over the name of GW’s steward Frederick Kitt appeared in Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia) for 24 May 1796. Headlined “Ten Dollars Reward,” the advertisement reported Judge’s flight “from the household of the President of the United States” on the afternoon of 21 May and described her as “a light Mulatto girl, much freckled, with very black eyes, and bushy black hair—She is of middle stature, but slender and delicately made, about 20 years of age. She has many changes of very good clothes of all sorts, but they are not sufficiently recollected to describe.

“As there was no suspicion of her going off, and it happened without the least provocation, it is not easy to conjecture whither she is gone—or fully, what her design is; but as she may attempt to escape by water, all masters of vessels and others are cautioned against receiving her on board, altho’ she may, and probably will endeavour to pass for a free woman, and it is said has, wherewithal to pay her passage.

“Ten dollars will be paid to any person, (white or black) who will bring her home, if taken in the city, or on board any vessel in the harbour; and a further reasonable sum if apprehended and brought home, from a greater distance, and in proportion to the distance.” A shorter advertisement ran in The Philadelphia Gazette & Universal Daily Advertiser for 23 and 24 May.

Late in life, Staines gave interviews to Benjamin Chase, who printed an account in The Liberator (Boston), 17 (1 Jan. 1847), p. 3; and to T. H. Adams, who published her remarks in The Granite Freeman (Concord, N.H.) for 22 May 1845. Speaking to Adams, Staines recalled taking passage on a ship bound to Portsmouth under the command of John Bolles. The Philadelphia Gazette & Universal Daily Advertiser for 13 May 1796 contained a notice that the sloop Nancy, with “John Bowles, master,” was in Philadelphia intending to sail for Portsmouth. The New Hampshire Gazette (Portsmouth) for 4 June reported the sloop’s arrival. These shipping facts and the recollection of Staines cast doubt on Lee’s report of the runaway being sighted in New York. GW continued to pursue Judge (see his letter to Oliver Wolcott, Jr., 1 Sept., and n.4; see also GW to Joseph Whipple, 28 Nov., CSmH, and Whipple to GW, 22 Dec., DLC:GW).

The boardinghouse keeper may have been Anthony Marcellin (Claude Antoine Villet de Marcellin; d. 1816), a Revolutionary War officer from France who taught French at Columbia College from 1792 to 1799 (see New-York Directory 1796, description begins John Low, The New-York Directory, and Register, for the Year 1796. New York, 1796. description ends p. 121; Thomas, Columbia University Officers and Alumni, description begins Milton Halsey Thomas, comp., Columbia University Officers and Alumni, 1754–1857. New York, 1936. description ends 73; Kilbourne, Society of the Cincinnati of Pennsylvania description begins John Dwight Kilbourne, Virtutis Praemium: The Men Who Founded the State Society of the Cincinnati of Pennsylvania. 2 vols. Rockport, Me., 1998. description ends , 1:629–32, 2:1292–93).

2. Lee probably is referring to Hannah Bushrod Washington (c.1738–c.1801), the widow of GW’s brother John Augustine Washington and the mother of Lee’s wife, Mildred Washington Lee. Mildred Lee died later in 1796 (see William Augustine Washington to GW, 12 Sept.).