Although John Posey joined in the chase today and on other occasions during the next few months, he was now, in GW’s opinion, a man “reduced to the last Shifts,” for he was being destroyed financially by enormous debts that he had acquired over the past several years (GW to Posey, 24 Sept. 1767, DLC:GW). GW was one of Posey’s principal creditors, holding mortgages on his lands and slaves for a total of £820 Virginia currency conveyed since 1763. With interest accumulating at the rate of £41 a year and miscellaneous charges against him, Posey now owed GW nearly £1,000 (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 168, 256). But Posey was strongly opposed to selling his property to clear his books and had begged GW several times to lend him more money in order to avoid that end. GW had agreed not to press Posey for repayment of his previous loans and was willing to act as his security for a £200 sterling loan from George Mason, but he refused to advance Posey any more cash (GW to Posey, 24 June and 24 Sept. 1767, DLC:GW).

The Mount Vernon tract was the original Washington family land on Little Hunting Creek, being part of a grant for 5,000 acres between Little Hunting and Dogue creeks that the proprietors of the Northern Neck had made 1 Mar. 1674 to Col. Nicholas Spencer (d. 1689) of Albany, Westmoreland County, and GW’s great-grandfather, Lt. Col. John Washington (1632–1677) of Bridges Creek, Westmoreland County (Northern Neck Deeds and Grants, Book 5, 207–8, Vi Microfilm). The Spencer-Washington grant was divided in 1690 between Colonel Spencer’s widow, Frances Mottram Spencer (died c.1727), and John Washington’s son Lawrence Washington (1659–1697/98). Mrs. Spencer chose the western half of the grant which bordered on Dogue Creek, or Epsewasson Creek as the Indians had called it, and Lawrence Washington took the eastern half on Little Hunting Creek (survey and division by George Brent, 18 Sept. and 23 Dec. 1690, ViMtvL). The Little Hunting Creek tract was inherited by Lawrence’s daughter Mildred Washington (1696–c.1745), who, after her marriage to Roger Gregory of King and Queen County, sold it for £180 to her brother Augustine Washington, GW’s father (deed of Roger and Mildred Gregory to Augustine Washington, 19 Oct. 1726, ViMtvL).

From Augustine the tract passed to GW’s half brother Lawrence, who during the 1740s named it Mount Vernon (will of Augustine Washington, 11 April 1743, DLC:GW). After Lawrence’s death in 1752, his widow Ann and her second husband, George Lee (1714–1761) of Westmoreland County, rented the tract and 18 slaves to GW for her lifetime at the rate of 15,000 pounds of tobacco or £93 15s. Virginia currency a year, and upon Ann’s death in 1761, it became GW’s outright by virtue of a provision in Lawrence’s will (deed of George and Ann Lee to GW, 17 Dec. 1754, ketchum description begins Richard M. Ketchum. The World of George Washington. New York, 1974. description ends , 25; General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 47; will of Lawrence Washington, 20 June 1752, ViMtvL). Although the tract was originally supposed to contain about 2,500 acres, it now contained only about 2,126 acres because of a change in the northern boundary that had been made about 1741 (survey by R. O. Brooke, c.1741, callahan description begins Charles H. Callahan. Washington: The Man and the Mason. Washington, D.C., 1913. description ends , facing p. 3; GW’s quitrent lists 1760–73, DLC:GW). GW had purchased several additional tracts adjoining this original Mount Vernon land.

Dr. William Rumney (d. 1783), who was born and trained in England, served as a surgeon with the British army in the French and Indian War and settled in Alexandria in 1763.

Triplett’s land bordered on part of GW’s Dogue Run farm (see main entry for 17 Mar. 1770).

Charles Dick (b. 1715), of Caroline and Spotsylvania counties, supplied GW’s troops in 1754–55 as a Virginia commissary for the British forces. By 1768 Dick’s mercantile business was centered in Fredericksburg. George Muse of Caroline County, married Elizabeth Battaile (d. 1786) in 1749 and had a son, Battaile Muse (1751–1803), who also appears in the diaries.

GW lost 3s. 6d. in playing cards with his friends (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 269).

As an executor for Thomas Colvill’s estate, GW signed an advertisement in Rind’s Virginia Gazette (24 Dec. 1767) announcing that “upwards of six hundred acres of valuable land . . . will be sold to the highest bidder, at the court-house of Fairfax county, on the 3d Monday in next month (being court day).” The high bidder was Benjamin Moody.

GW today recorded losing 11s. 3d. at cards (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 269).

The freezing over of the Potomac River and Little Hunting Creek enabled GW to survey their shorelines on this day more easily than he usually could, “the ice permitting him to work from the water at will, which greatly simplified the calculating” (Fitzpatrick, Diaries description begins John C. Fitzpatrick, ed. The Diaries of George Washington, 1748–1799. 4 vols. Boston and New York, 1925. description ends , 1:247 n.1).

toulston: Towlston Grange on Difficult Run, home of Bryan Fairfax.

Thomasin (many spellings) Ellzey (Elzey) was a vestryman of Truro Parish from the 1765 election to the dissolution of the Virginia vestries in 1785. He was a son of Lewis Ellzey (d. 1786) and Mary Thomasin Ellzey (d. 1791). Thomasin married Alice, daughter of Col. Thomas Blackburn (d. 1807) and Christian Scott Blackburn, of Rippon Lodge.

GW was connected with the Whiting family of Gloucester County through his Uncle John Washington (1692–1746), who had married Catherine Whiting (1694–1734), daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Whiting of Gloucester County. The Mr. Whiting who loaned GW the dog today may be Catherine’s nephew Francis Whiting (d. 1775), who was born in Gloucester County and moved to the Shenandoah Valley later in his life. Francis’s older brother Beverley Whiting (c.1707–1755), burgess of Gloucester County, may have been the Beverley Whiting who was one of GW’s godfathers (Va. Mag., 32:130; General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 126; freeman description begins Douglas Southall Freeman. George Washington: A Biography. 7 vols. New York, 1948–57. description ends , 1:47n).