Sunday May 18th. Set out in Company with Mr. George Johnston. At Colchester was informd by Colo. Thornton and Chissel that the Assembly wd. be broke up before I could get down. Turnd back therefore & found Colo. Fairfax and his Family and that Lightning wch. had attended a good deal of Rain had struck my Quarter & near 10 Negroes in it some very bad but with letting Blood they recoverd.
George Johnston, of Belvale, was a burgess for Fairfax County 1758–65. Colchester, a small settlement of Scottish merchants, lay on Occoquan Creek about eight miles below Mount Vernon. Colonels Thornton and Chissel may have been Col. Presley Thornton, burgess for Northumberland County, and John Chiswell, of Hanover County.
On 23 May the House of Burgesses passed a bill authorizing the raising of £32,000 and up to 700 soldiers plus officers for the relief of Fort Loudoun (, 1758–61, 176).