From George Washington to James Keith, 26 April 1795
To James Keith
Mount Vernon 26th Aprl 1795
Dear Sir,
The continual pressure of public business has allowed me so little time to look into matters of more private concern that the enclosed accts have not yet been enter’d in my book of accts—& the complicated nature of them resulting from the blended adminn of the two Estates of John & Thoms Colvill,1 to a person not accustomed to such intricate statements has induced me to re[quest]2 that you would be so obliging as3 to number them in the order they ought to follow one another in my Ledger4 &—I would thank you too for making out a summary or recapitulatory account from which it would appear in a simple & short view, how the balance between me, and the Estate of Ths Colvill to which I was an Executor stands for I am at a loss to know what is due from me—& I find it is to no purpose to wait for a settlement of the affair of Sidney George as i[t] appears it is no nearer accomplishmt now than it was 3 years ago.5
I shall leave home this day, on my return to Philadelphia; and pray, as soon as you are able conveniently, to comply with the requests I have now made, that the Accts may be forwarded to me by Post6—With very great esteem & regard—I am—Dear Sir yr Obedt Hble Servt
Go: Washington
ADfS, MH: Obsolete and Miscellaneous File; LB, DLC:GW.
1. GW employed Keith, a lawyer of Alexandria, Va., to assist in settling the complicated transactions related to the estates of brothers John and Col. Thomas Colvill. For previous actions related to the Colvill estate, see Thomas Montgomerie to GW, 24 Oct. 1788.
2. GW inadvertently wrote “resquet.”
3. Instead of “obliging as,” GW originally wrote in the draft: “good as to inform me, if it be necessary to enter the whole of them as they stand in my Books? and in that case, that you would be so good as.”
4. GW’s ledger accounts of the Thomas Colvill estate are found in , folio 246; , 21, 135, 358; and , 13–15.
5. For the affair of Sidney George, see the notes to William Tilghman to GW, 16 Aug. 1793 and 1 March 1794. GW recorded a payment by George in June 1795 (see GW to Tilghman, 31 March 1794, n.1).
6. At the bottom of the page, GW noted that “Seven Accts were sent to Mr Keith.”