George Washington Papers

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 (Sage and Jones, Hampshire County Records, description begins Clara McCormack Sage and Laura Sage Jones. Early Records, Hampshire County Virginia, Now West Virginia, Including at the start most of known Va. aside from Augusta District. Delavan, Wis., 1939. description ends 9). Claypole and a partner sold 152 acres in Hampshire County in 1798.

1GW 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 Papers, Retirement Series, description begins W. W. Abbot et al., eds. The Papers of George Washington, Retirement Series. 4 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1998–99. description ends 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.

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