To George Washington from Anthony Strother, 9 July 1755
From Anthony Strother
Fred[e]r[icksburg] July 9th 1755
Sir.
The extraordinary favour you have conferd on me and my Son, in procureing him a Commission on the establishment1 calls for our most gratefull Acknowledgments, which give me leave to assure you I shall ever retain a sense of. When I was at Alexandria I could not be informd for certain whether you were to go out, and indeed must own my Attention was so taken up with so unusuall a sight that I never once thought of applying to you for your interest, which neglect you have been too generous to resent.2
Our friends here are all well, your sister Lewis has got another son3—I wish you health and prosperity & am Sir Yr most obliged Humble servt
Anthony Strother
ALS, DLC:GW.
The cover is addressed: “To Colo. George Washington at the Ohio ⅌ favr of Mr Boyde.” Alexander Boyd, paymaster for the Virginia forces, set out for the army about this time to pay the colony’s troops for June and, if the money could be found, for July. He also carried £200 sterling for Col. James Innes at Fort Cumberland.
Anthony Strother, a Fredericksburg merchant, in 1748 bought from the executors of Augustine Washington’s estate 165 acres of the farm (Ferry Farm) that GW had inherited from his father in 1743. Strother was also a witness to the signing of Augustine Washington’s will on 11 April 1743 and gave his oath when it was proved on 6 May 1743.
2. The presence of Braddock’s army at Alexandria during late March and early April apparently attracted many curious visitors to the town.
3. GW’s only sister, Betty Washington (1733–1797), who in 1750 became the second wife of Fielding Lewis (1725–1781), had just borne her third child and son, Warner Lewis. He did not survive to adulthood.