From George Washington to James Wood, 18 November 1790
To James Wood
Mount Vernon, November 18. 1790.
Dear Sir,
I have been duly honored with your favor of the 6th, and thank you gratefully for your kind recollection of my interest in the survey made for Mullen on Timber ridge in Hampshire county.1 The enclosed (left open for your perusal) is a request that Colonel Heth, as Collector, would furnish you with the means for securing the land when the term, limited by law shall occlude Mullen, or any person or persons claiming under him.2
The conferring of one favor is very apt to beget the request of another—but, without further preface or apology, I will ask you, my good Sir, to enquire at the Register’s office, if surveys, of which the enclosed may be duplicates (for really I know little about the matter) were ever lodged there3—and, if so, what has been done with them—If none such have been lodged there, then what will be the cost of patenting these which are now sent, provided (being on the No. West side of the river Ohio) they come legally and properly into the Land office of this State? I wish to obtain Patents, and shall be ready to pay the cost of them when it is made known to Dear Sir Yours &ca
G. Washington
LB, DLC:GW.
1. For Wood’s agency in obtaining title for GW to the 400–acre tract on Timber Ridge in Hampshire County, see Wood to GW, 8 July 1790 and source note, and GW to Wood, 8 Aug. 1790 and note 4. Wood wrote from Richmond on 6 Nov. 1790 in response to GW’s request of 8 Aug. 1790. He informed GW that he had just visited the state register’s office and found that Thomas Mullin had not yet taken steps to obtain a patent for the Timber Ridge land and probably would not do so before 1 Dec. 1790. Consequently Wood would need £100 in certificates before that date to pay into the treasury for GW’s title to the land. “I find that Certificates for Militia Service or Suplies furnished them, will Answer the Purpose, and may be purchased at a Cheaper rate, than those bearing an Interest of 6 ⅌Ct; the prices here I understand to be about 8/ in the pound, perhaps they may be lower in Other parts of the Country. I beg your Instructions before the end of the month, which shall be punctually Executed” (DLC:GW).
2. No letter around this time from GW to Bermuda Hundred customs collector William Heth has been found.
3. The enclosed surveys have not been found.