From George Washington to Thomas Walker, 10 April 1785
To Thomas Walker
Mount Vernon 10th Apl 1785
Dear Sir,
At the request of the Gentlemen who met in Richmond the day you parted with us, I have requested a meeting of the Proprietors of the Dismal Swamp in Richmond on Monday the 2d day of May next—at which time & place I should be glad to see you as it is indispensably necessary to put the affairs of the Company under some better management—I hope every member will bring with him such papers as he is possessed of respecting this business.1
I wrote you a line similar to this, to go from Richmond, but Mr Carter informing me that he is about to send a Servant into your neighbourhood I embrace the oppertunity as more certain to give you this information.2 I am—Dr Sir Yr most obedt Hble Servt
Go: Washington
ALS (photocopy), DLC:GW; LB (incomplete), DLC: William Cabell Rives Papers.
1. For a brief survey of the early history of the Dismal Swamp Company from its founding in 1763 by GW and his associates, see Walker to GW, 24 Jan. 1784, n.1. Some of the other members were in Richmond in October 1784 for a meeting of the company which did not materialize (see Thomas Walker to GW, 29 Aug. 1784, n.2), but as his diary and correspondence make clear, GW did not go to Richmond until mid-November 1784 and had not been there since. It is clear, therefore, that “the request of the Gentlemen who met in Richmond that day you parted with us” was made in November 1784. In any case, GW sent a notice to the printer in late March 1785 to be placed in the Richmond newspaper, calling for a meeting of the company in Richmond on 2 May (see GW to Bushrod Washington, 3 April). GW left Mount Vernon on 29 April and arrived in Richmond on Sunday afternoon, 1 May. The members of the Dismal Swamp Company met in the senate chambers on 2 and 3 May. For the work of the meeting, see the Resolutions of the Dismal Swamp Company, 2 May.
2. The letter to Walker that GW sent to Bushrod Washington in Richmond on 3 April for forwarding has not been found.