To George Washington from Jeremiah Claypole, 3 June 1796
From Jeremiah Claypole
June 3rd 96—in Hampshire County Virginia
Sir
I Propose to pay the President of the United States Eight Dollars pr accre for what is Call’d Round Bottem—on the Ohio river—Provided it will be accepted by the President—or his agant1 from Your Obedt Humble Servt
Jeremiah Claypole
ALS, DLC:GW.
Jeremiah Claypole (Claypoole, Claypool), the stepson of a plantation owner in Hampshire County, Va. (now W.Va.), sold a “negro woman named Rachel and her children, with their future increase” in 1784 (
9). Claypole and a partner sold 152 acres in Hampshire County in 1798.1. GW evidently bargained with Claypole but reached no agreement (see Bartholomew Dandridge, Jr., to GW, 26 Sept. 1796, DLC:GW; see also Archibald McClean to GW, 2 July 1798, and GW to McClean, 6 Aug. 1798, in 2:364–66, 492–94).
For others interested in purchasing the Round Bottom tract, see Robert McLean to GW, 7 June 1796, and Thomas G. Johnston to GW, 1 Sept. 1796.