To George Washington from Fielding Lewis, 26 March 1780
From Fielding Lewis
26th March 1780.
Dear Sir
At the request of my Friend Mr James Hunter I inclose You a Letter for Mr Fras Gallibert a French Mercht Prisoner at New York desireing it may be forwarded to him.1 I informed You in my last of my bad state of health since which I am much mended,2 a little warm weather I think will compleat the cure, the rest of my family are well except my Son George who has never been well since his illness when in the Army, frequently complaining of Rhumatick pains, he left this with his wife last Fryday to settle in Frederick.3 I have given him my Plantation on the River where he intends to build, one of the Lotts of Mercers Land which You bought joins him on which there is a quantity of Rail timber which article I fear he may want in a few Years if You incline to sell it I shall be glad to purchase,4 or I would make an exchange with You, giving my part of Waugh plated Lands5 for so much of what You bought of Mercers Estate as You shall judge of equal value.
We have no late advices from Charles Town but are under great apprehensions for its safety.6 I hope Genl Woodford with the Virginia Troops will be there in time to assist tho’ I think they were slow in their march that way;7 will not the Irish demands of a free Trade opperate to our advantage?8 I think we must have peace soon We all join in our Loves9 to you & your Lady I am Dr Sir Yr Affectionate
Fielding Lewis
ALS, ViMtvL.
1. The enclosed letter has not been identified. Presumably the same Francis Galibert who sent this letter later became a merchant in Marseilles, France (see National Gazette [Philadelphia], 14 Nov. 1792).
2. Lewis probably is referring to a letter that has not been found. His last known letter to GW, dated 2 March 1779, does not elaborate on poor health.
3. Lewis wrote from his home in Fredericksburg, Virginia. George Lewis and his wife departed on Friday, 24 March, for Frederick County, Va., where they lived until the 1790s (see , 162–63, and , 319).
Catherine Daingerfield (1764–1820) of Spotsylvania County, Va., had married George Lewis on 15 Oct. 1779.
4. Fielding Lewis is referring to property that he had purchased along the Shenandoah River in Frederick (now Clarke) County, Va., bordering land formerly owned by George Mercer (see , 101–2, 311).
5. Several generations of the Waugh family had owned substantial property in Stafford County, Va. (see , 233–48).
6. For the British expedition against Charleston, S.C., see Anthony Wayne to GW, 26 Dec. 1779, source note, and Philip Schuyler to GW, 12 March 1780, n.7.
7. The Virginia troops sent from GW’s command in December 1779 under Brig. Gen. William Woodford arrived at Charleston on 7 April 1780 (see Woodford to GW, 9 April; see also GW to Samuel Huntington, 29 Nov. 1779, source note).
8. For recent free trade debates and legislation in Ireland and England, see , 250–54, 264–70.
9. Lewis’s wife was GW’s sister Betty. The complimentary closing also may have encompassed GW’s mother, Mary Ball Washington, who lived near the Lewis home.