George Washington Papers
Documents filtered by: Recipient="Washington, George" AND Period="Colonial"
sorted by: author
Permanent link for this document:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-09-02-0355

To George Washington from Samuel Athawes, 12 February 1774

From Samuel Athawes

London 12th Feby 1774.

Dear Sir

As my Friend the Honble George Wm Fairfax Esqr. has long since acquainted you with his arrival & of his Situation at York my Congratulations on the occasion will come very late however they are very Sincere & the Proverb says better late than never. By a Letter which I have lately received from him I find both himself & his Lady have had a kind of seasoning, indeed we have had a very extraordinary variable Winter one day a severe Frost & the next sometimes very close & Foggy however they were both pretty well recovered & seem in very good Spirits.

I am now to acknowledge the receipt of your several Favors of the 25th Sepr & 15th octor last & to acquaint you that the Letters they coverd & the two Packages from Capt. Boucher are forwarded to your Friend Mr Fairfax at York.1

If there should be any Tobo for the Neptune this year I shall take it as a particular Favor if you would write to my Friend Colo. Nelson at York that Capn Punderson on his arrival knowing the Quantity may immediately dispatch Craft for them I hope to get him away sometime in March.2

I know not whether my Friend the Revd Mr Burnaby & yourself hold any Correspondence but I am confident he holds you very gratefully in his remembrance & very truly in his Esteem—he called upon me a few days since, was very particular in his Enquirys respecting your Health & expressd no small Satisfaction at the acct I was enabled to give him from your Letters & from what I had heard Colo. Fairfax say of you when he left Virginia.3 I am with Esteem Dear Sir Your very Obedt Sert

Saml Athawes

LS, ViMtvL. .

1GW’s letter to Athawes of 15 Oct. 1773 has not been found. In his letter to George William Fairfax of 15 Oct. 1773, GW mentions “dryed Peaches & homony” being sent to Athawes on board Capt. John Thomas Boucher’s ship.

2Colonel Nelson is Thomas Nelson (1738–1789) of Yorktown who in the summer of 1774 shipped 307 hogsheads of tobacco (Evans, Thomas Nelson description begins Emory G. Evans. Thomas Nelson of Yorktown: Revolutionary Virginian. Charlottesville, Va., 1975. description ends , 28). Capt. Jonathan Punderson’s Neptune is recorded as entering York River in the issue of the Virginia Gazette (Purdie and Dixon; Williamsburg) of 23 June 1774.

3Andrew Burnaby visited Mount Vernon in late 1759 and early 1760. See Burnaby to GW, 4 Jan. 1760, and notes.

Index Entries