Enclosure: Invoice to Robert Cary & Company, 1 May 1759
Enclosure
Invoice to Robert Cary & Company
Willmsbg 1 May 1759.
Invoice of Sundry Goods to be Shipd by Robt Cary Esq. and Company for the use of George Washington—viz.
1 Tester Bedstead 7½ feet pitch, with fashionable blew or blew and white Curtains to suit a Room lind wt. the Incld paper Window Curtains of the same for two Windows; with either Papier Maché Cornish to them, or Cornish coverd with the Cloth 1 fine Bed Coverlid to match the Curtains 4 Chair bottoms of the same; that is, as much Covering suited to the above furniture as will go over the Seats of 4 Chairs (which I have by me) in order to make the whole furniture of this Room uniformly handsome and genteel.
1 Fashionable Sett of Desert Glasses, and Stands for Sweet Meats Jellys &ca together with Wash Glasses and a proper stand for these also 2 Setts of Chamber, or Bed Carpets—Wilton 4 fashionable China Branches, & Stands, for Candles 2 Neat fire Screens 50 lb. Spirma Citi Candles 6 Carving knives and Forks—handles of Staind Ivory and bound with Silver A pretty large Assortment of Grass Seeds—among which let there be a good deal of Lucerne & St Foin,1 especially the former—also a good deal of English, or blew Grass[.] Clover Seed I have 1 Large, neat, and easy Couch for a Passage 50 Yards of best Floor Matting.
2 pair of fashionable mixd, or Marble Col[ore]d Silk Hose 6 pair of finest Cotton Ditto 6 pr of finest thread Ditto 6 pr of midling Do to cost abt 5/ 6 pr of Worsted Do of the best sorted—2 pr of wch to be White N.B. all the above Stockings to be long, and tolerably large 1 piece of finest and most fashionable Stock Tape 1 Suit of Cloaths of the finest Cloth & fashionable Colour made by the Inclosd measure.2
The newest, and most approvd Treatise of Agriculture—besides this, send me a small piece in Octavo—calld a new System of Agriculture, or a Speedy way to grow Rich3 Langleys Book of Gardening4 Gibson, upon Horses the latest Edition in Quarto.5
Half a dozn pair of Men’s neatest Shoes and Pumps, to be made by one Didsbury on Colo. Baylors Last—but a little larger than his—& to have high Heels6 6 pr Mens riding Gloves rather larger than the middle size One neat Pocket Book, capable of receiving Memorandoms & small Cash Accts to be made of Ivory, or any thing else that will admit of cleaning Fine soft Calf Skin for a pair of Boots—Ben. leathr for Soles.7
Six Bottles of Greenhows Tincture.8
Order from the best House in Madeira a Pipe of the best old Wine, and let it be Securd from Pilferers.
Go: Washington
LB, in GW’s hand, DLC:GW. For the form used to print GW’s invoices ordering goods from overseas merchants, see the note in GW’s Invoice to Robert Cary & Co., 20 Sept. 1759. Robert Cary & Co. shipped these goods, as well as goods GW later ordered on 12 June, with an invoice dated 6 Aug. 1759. GW acknowledged receipt of the goods on 25 Nov. 1759.
1. Lucerne (medicago sativa), or alfalfa, and St. Foin (Onobrychis sativa), or sainfoin, are similar fodder plants.
2. The enclosed measurements have not been found, but for GW’s more detailed description of his physique, see his letter to the London tailor, Charles Lawrence, 26 April 1763.
3. See GW to Robert Cary & Co., 12 June 1759, n.6, and Invoice from Robert Cary & Co., 6 Aug. 1759, nn.13 and 14.
4. This was New Principles of Gardening, or the Laying Out and Planting Parterres (London, 1728) by Batty Langley. It appears both in Cary & Co.’s invoice of 6 Aug. 1759 and in a listing of books that GW made probably in 1764 or shortly thereafter (see the headnote in Appendix D in the Settlement of the Daniel Parke Custis Estate, 20 April 1759–5 Nov. 1761).
5. Cary & Co. sent on 6 Aug. the only copy “in London” of “Gibson on Farriery,” probably William Gibson’s A New Treatise on the Diseases of Horses (London, 1751), which was in GW’s library at his death (, 545).
6. For GW’s earlier order of shoes from John Didsbury to be made on Col. John Baylor’s last, see GW to Richard Washington, 5 April 1758.
7. Thick leather used for soles of boots and shoes is called bend leather.
8. Thomas Greenough, whose apothecary shop was on Ludgate Hill, held letters of patent for tinctures used to clean teeth and to cure toothache.