To George Washington from Andrew Moore and Samuel Legrand Campbell, 14 November 1798
From Andrew Moore and Samuel Legrand Campbell
Lexington Virga Novr 14th 1798
Sir,
The Trustees of Washington Academy having received your letter dated 17th June1 have directed us to apply for a conveyance of the shares which you have been pleased to bestow on the Seminary over which they Superintend. Mr James Gold will present you with a form such as he may be advised is proper, and will take the necessary steps to have it proved and recorded.2
The Trustees wish on every suitable occasion to express their high sense of the favor conferred as well as the respect they entertain for your person and character. With due consideration we are in behalf of the Board Your Mo. Obt & Much obliged Servts
Andrew Moore
S. L. Campbell
LS, DLC:GW.
When Liberty Hall Academy (by 1798 Washington Academy and later Washington College) was incorporated in 1782, Andrew Moore (1752–1821), a native of Rockbridge County, was one of the twenty trustees of the academy named in the instrument of incorporation. He had been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 1789, and reportedly he was instrumental in persuading GW in 1796 to donate his one hundred shares in the James River Company to Liberty Hall in Lexington, Va. (Hugh Blair Grigsby, “The Founders of Washington College,” Historical Papers [Washington and Lee University], 2 [1890], 1–111; see particularly pp. 56–62). Samuel Legrand Campbell (1766–1840), also a native of Rockbridge County, was elected a trustee of Liberty Hall Academy on 23 Oct. 1793 and at this time was acting as rector of the academy. He graduated from Liberty Hall in 1788 and studied at the medical college in Philadelphia before beginning his practice in Lexington (“Sketches of Trustees,” ibid., 3 [1892], 85–128; see particularly pp. 93–95).
1. GW’s letter of 17 June 1798 is printed in Washington Academy Trustees to GW, 12 April 1798, n.2.
2. GW’s assignment to Washington Academy of one hundred shares in the James River Company reads: “THIS INDENTURE made the Seventh day of Decemr in the Year One thousand Seven hundred Ninety eight, Betwixt George Washington Mount Vernon Virginia of the one part & the Rector & Trustees of Washington Academy of the other part Witnesseth, that the said George Washington (in pursuance of an Act of the Legislature of the Commonwealth of Virginia, passed the October session one thousand Seven hundred eighty five, entitled ‘an Act to amend an Act for Vesting in George Washington esquire, a certain Interest in the Companies established, for opening & extending the Navigation of Powtomack & James Rivers[’] hath given granted assigned & appointed, and by these presence doth give grant assign & appoint, to the Rector & Trustees of Washington Academy (formerly known by Liberty Hall Academy) and to their Successors, one hundred complete shares in the James River Company, which said one hundred shares were vested in the said George Washington by the said Commonwealth, as by reference to the Laws thereof will at large appear. TO HAVE & TO HOLD the said one hundred shares with all & singuler their appurtenances, to the said Rector and Trustees and their successors (free from all incumbrences whatever except such requisitions, Conditions, & Contingencies as said shares are or shall be subject to, similer to and in Proportion to the other Shares in said Company and in conformity to their respective rules and regulations) To be used by said Rector & Trustees & their successors forever, for the purposes spacified in an act of said Legislature entitled, ‘an act entitled an act for incorporating the Rector & Trustees of Liberty Hall Academy’ Passed in the Year One thousand Seven hundred & eighty two. In Witness whereof the said George Washington hath hereunto set his hand & seal the day & Year above written. Done at Philada in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Go: Washington” (Vi).
The deed was “Signed Sealed & delivd in the presence of Wm Hay, George Syme, James Gold, [and] John Davidson,” recorded in Henrico County court on 8 Mar. 1799, and approved by the James River Company on 28 June 1799. James Gold who conveyed the deed to GW at Mount Vernon was at this time a merchant in Lexington. For the background to this, see Washington Academy Trustees to GW, 12 April 1798, and notes.