8th. Engaged to advance by, or at the April General Court for the use of Mr. Bryan Fairfax £150, or thereabouts, to discharge the Balle. of his Bond to Doctr. Savage. Also promised, if I could, to take up a Bill of Excha. of about £160 Sterg. with Int[eres]t thereon at the same time; In consideration of which I am to have the liberty of taking any of the Tracts of which he has given me a Mem[orandu]m at the prices there Stipulated in case I like them, or either of them upon examination thereof within [ ] Months from this date. If not he is then to become my Debtor for the money I shall advance on these two Accts.
Receivd 563½ Bushels of Oats from Arlington.
GW paid £150 on Bryan Fairfax’s account to Dr. William Savage or his agent Thomas Montgomerie at the Fairfax County court, 20 April 1772, but did not make good Fairfax’s bill of exchange, which had been drawn on the merchant John Muir of Alexandria and was held by John Baynes of Maryland (, folio 5; Fairfax to GW, 15 July 1772, DLC:GW). Nevertheless, Fairfax was grateful for GW’s help in discharging his debt to Savage. “I could not have raised the money without your Assistance,” he told GW in a letter dated 3 Aug. 1772 (DLC:GW). GW was compensated for the £150 with a tract of land in Fauquier County, which he chose from Fairfax’s holdings there during May of this year (see main entries for 27, 29 May and 25 Sept. 1772).
Arlington plantation in Northampton County on the Eastern Shore of Virginia was part of the Custis lands owned by Jacky Custis (, 1:262–63). GW paid £10 13s. 4d. for freight of these oats (, folio 3).