From George Washington to James Jay, 12 May 1780
To James Jay
Hd Qrs Morris-town 12th May 1780.
Dear Sir,
I have had the pleasure of receiving your favours of the 13th1 & 20th of April. The Box of Medicine mentioned in the former came safe to hand, and was the more acceptable, as I had entirely expended the first parcel with which you had been kind enough to furnish me.2
I have directed Colo. Hay to assist you in erecting a small Elaboratory,3 from which I hope you will derive improvement and amusement, and the public some advantages.
Major Beauman intends to return to West point in a few days. I have already signified to General Howe my consent to your then expending as much powder, as can be conveniently spared, in ascertaining those points in Gunnery, which you are anxious to prove by actual experimt, provided all matters are quiet.4
Give me leave to congratulate on your Brothers safe arrival at the Court of Madrid—an event truely important,5 and which gives particular pleasure to Dr Sir Yr Most Obedt & Hble Servt
Go: Washington
ALS, in private hands; Df, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. GW signed the cover of the ALS, which is addressed to Jay at Fishkill, New York.
1. For Jay’s letter to GW dated 13 April, see GW to Jay, 9 April, n.3.
2. GW is referring to invisible ink for espionage activities.
3. GW wrote Lt. Col. Udny Hay from Morristown on 13 May: “Sir James Jay has requested the assistance of a few Artificers for a day or two to erect a small Elaboratory. As he purposes making some experiments which may be of public utility and has already furnished me with some Chymical preparations from which I have derived considerable advantages I think it proper to gratify him—You will therefore be pleased to furnish him with the necessary hands. And should a few Boards or such matters be wanting to compleat the building which is to be of Logs, you will also procure them, if it be in your power—I wish you and Mrs Hay a pleasant Jou[r] ney” (Df, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW). Udny Hay went from Morristown to Fishkill, N.Y. (see his letter to Robert Howe, 14 May, in DLC:GW).
Margaret (Margriet) Smith Hay later became estranged from her husband and reported maltreatment to GW (see her letter to GW, 30 Aug. 1792, in 11:53). Following separation, Margaret Hay disputed payments of her annual allowance. She also stated in a deposition given at Albany on 12 May 1800: “Colonel Udney Hay … Oh cruel, ungrateful man!—Oh! the thot, how it rings my very soul!—He has taken from me my only child—the daughter dearer to me than life with all its blessings, and whose filial, endearing affection was my only stay and solace in sickness, in distress and in poverty” (Albany Gazette, 14 April 1800).
4. See GW to Howe, 5 May; see also Howe to GW, 27 April.
5. For the arrival in Spain of John Jay, United States minister to that country, see Samuel Huntington to GW, 9 May, and n.2 to that document.