1. The commissioners’ book of proceedings for 7 Feb. reads: “Letter recd from Mr Law with a Request that a Copy of it may be transmitted to the Executive. Copy of the same inclosed to the President in a Letter of this date” (DNA: RG 42, Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, Proceedings, 1791–1802). This entry refers to Law’s letter to the commissioners of 6 Feb. (see Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 7 Feb., n.1).

The commissioners’ proceedings for 7 Feb. also record another “Letter recd” that day “from Mr Law” (DNA: RG 42, Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, Proceedings, 1791–1802). Law’s letter to the commissioners of 7 Feb. pertained to “A Gentleman in Baltimore” who “bought a House at Greenleafs point,” but refused to make payment on it until Law’s “mortgage is taken off.” Law requested the release of property from a mortgage. Lots 740, 741, and 744 were specified in the letter and involved property that Robert Morris and John Nicholson had conveyed to Law (DNA: RG 42, Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, Letters Received). For the commissioners’ reply to Law of 7 Feb., see Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 6 Feb. (second letter), n.12. For the full text of the letter, see DNA: RG 42, Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, Letters Sent.

2. Discussions about plans for a roof for the U.S. Capitol began in the winter of 1798. Around that same time, the walls of the Capitol’s north wing were nearly completed (see Arnebeck, Through a Fiery Trial description begins Bob Arnebeck. Through a Fiery Trial: Building Washington, 1790–1800. Lanham, Md., and London, 1991. description ends , 464–65).

3. Daniel Carroll of Duddington had three brick houses near the Capitol. Several houses on and near South Capitol Street also had been constructed by Robert Morris and John Nicholson on lots that Carroll had conveyed to them (see Carroll to GW, 6 Feb., and n.5 to that document).

Prior to 1796, the office of the commissioners was located in Georgetown. In 1796, their office moved to an unspecified location in the Federal City near Little Hotel (Scott’s Tavern), in the vicinity of the President’s House. For that hotel, see n.5 below; see also GW to William Thornton, 26 Dec. 1796, and n.4 to that document.

4. The letter to Law from George Ralph, the rector of Christ Church, Washington Parish, written on 6 Feb. from Washington, D.C., reads: “With cheerfulness will I relinquish my house, either for a moderate rent, or by a fair sale, if it form a part of an arrangement so manifestly necessary to the interest, I had almost written, to the policital salvation, of this neglected City.

“What can avail all other exertions if The Capitol be neglected? How easily might a part of it be fitted up before November next for the Commissioners’ office & its dependencies! & In the intermediate time far better accommodation can be obtained here But, Sir, your efforts will not avail. The City has been destroyed by the non-residence of those who ought, from its commencement, to have sacrificed partial convenience to the general advantage: suffer me to say, that The Comss: will not forsake their beloved George Town & why fatigue yourself by eneffectual exertions.

“I speak freely & allow me to say confidentially; yet, as a proof of the sincerity of these sentiments, altho’ my stake is little, I freely shall give up my All” (DLC:GW).

Ralph had a house on E Street between 6th and 7th streets, NW. In 1795, he also had purchased a house, where architect Etienne (Stephen) Hallet previously had resided, on the north side of East Capitol Street. Ralph ran a boarding school at the latter location. He offered the Capitol Hill house for sale in the summer of 1797 (see Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 7 Feb., and n.1 to that document; see also Bryan, National Capital description begins Wilhelmus Bogart Bryan. A History of the National Capital: From Its Foundation through the Period of the Adoption of the Organic Act. 2 vols. New York, 1914–16. description ends , 1:258, 260–61; and Arnebeck, Through a Fiery Trial description begins Bob Arnebeck. Through a Fiery Trial: Building Washington, 1790–1800. Lanham, Md., and London, 1991. description ends , 272, 285, 448).

5. Scott’s Tavern, likely the same establishment as the Little Hotel, was built by architect James Hoban. Located near the President’s House on the north side of F Street, near 15th Street, Scott’s Tavern opened around June 1795 (see Wilhelmus B. Bryan, “Hotels of Washington Prior to 1814,” in Records of the Columbia Historical Society 7 [1904]:79–80; see also Bryan, National Capital description begins Wilhelmus Bogart Bryan. A History of the National Capital: From Its Foundation through the Period of the Adoption of the Organic Act. 2 vols. New York, 1914–16. description ends , 1:261, 279–80).

“Dr Brown” may be Gustavus Richard Brown of Port Tobacco, Md., or possibly Samuel Brown (1769–1830), one of the earliest physicians in Washington, D.C. (see Bryan, National Capital description begins Wilhelmus Bogart Bryan. A History of the National Capital: From Its Foundation through the Period of the Adoption of the Organic Act. 2 vols. New York, 1914–16. description ends , 1:324). Born in what is now Rockbridge County, Va., Samuel Brown studied medicine in Philadelphia under the guidance of Dr. Benjamin Rush. After earning his medical degree from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, Brown established a medical practice in Bladensburg, Md., and appears to have worked briefly in Washington, D.C. He wrote Thomas Jefferson from “Washington City” in March 1797 (Jefferson Papers description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. 41 vols. to date. Princeton, N.J., 1950–. description ends , 29:321–22), but later that year, moved his medical practice to Lexington, Kentucky. There, he taught surgery, anatomy, chemistry, and pharmacy at Transylvania University from 1799 until 1806. After residing in New Orleans, near Natchez, Miss., and in Huntsville, Ala., Brown returned to Lexington, where from 1819 to 1825 he was chair of the theory and practice of medicine at the newly organized medical school of Transylvania University.

6. For GW’s appeals to the commissioners that they reside in the Federal City, see GW to Thornton, 26 Dec. 1796.