George Washington Papers

Cash Accounts, April 1760

Cash Accounts

[April 1760]

Cash
April 25— To Ditto [cash] of Colo. Custis’s Estate—by Sundrie Hands1 £790. 4. 5 1/2
To Ditto of Mr Lewis Martin for a Horse I sold him2 32. 5. 0
28— To Ditto of the Country pr an Acct renderd3 14. 4. 4
To Ditto for my Burgesses Wages4 45.16. 0
Contra
April 11— By Cash advanc’d Vale Crawford to buy butter with 1.10. 0
12— By 39½ Bushels Oats 2.16. 0
15— By Dinner & Club at Alexa. 2/6. Mendg Sein 3/ 0. 5. 6
18— By Mr Barnes’s Davy—for taking up Boson5 0.10. 0
19— By repairs to my Chair 7/6. Exps. at P. Tobo 9/96 0.17. 3
20— By Ferriages at Cedar Point 17/6—gave Ferrymen 1/37 0.18. 9
21— By my Brother’s Servants 2/.  Ferry at Southerns 3/68 0. 5. 6
 
22— By Exps. at McGraths 4/.  gave away 1/ 0. 5. 0
By Ferry at Williamsons 3/6—gave away 1/9 0. 4. 6
24— By Candles 1/.  paid Mr Craik Jeweller £1.15.6 1.16. 6
25— By 1 Quire Paper 2/6 0. 2. 6
By Colo. Fairfax’s and my Subscription to Purse in W. 1.10. 0
28— By Barber 7/6—paid Colo. Randolph for the use of Valiant10 2.12. 0
By Atchison & Parker my Note to Sampson Darrell11 90. 0. 0
By Mrs Webb mendg a Fan 2/6—Dinner at Weathes. 3/312 0. 5. 9
29— By Mr Bassetts Servants 3/.  Ferry &ca at Dansies 5/6 0. 8. 6
By Exps. at Todds 5/9—By old Acct 24/1 1. 9.10
By Cash given at the Charity Sermon 1. 1. 3
30— By Exps. at Port Royal &ca 13/4½—Ferry at Hoes 16/ & 1/6 1.10.10 1/2

AD, General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 89.

1Two receipts of 25 April 1760 signed by GW in Williamsburg undoubtedly accounted for a part of this sum: £127.12.6 from Capt. Joshua Morton “towards the discharge of his Bond” (NN: Washington Collection) and £10.16 from Joanna McKenzie, “Being a Years Intt on her Bond due 23 May next” (owned [1985] by Mr. Thomas Budnik, Alexandria, Va.).

2There is the following entry, dated 1 Dec. 1759, in GW’s account with Lewis Burwell Martin: “To a large bay horse sold you at Colo. Bassetts—money to be paid in April Court next—[£]32.10” (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 68).

3At the end of the record of his pay as colonel of the Virginia Regiment, from June 1757 to January 1759, in his account with the paymaster Alexander Boyd, GW made this notation: “This Acct I settled with Mr Boyd in Jany 1759 & Recd the Balle due to [me] Mar. 1760” (ibid., 46).

4Burgesses received 10s. a day for travel to and from Williamsburg to attend sessions of the assembly as well as for the days they were in attendance (4 Hening description begins William Waller Hening, ed. The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature, in the Year 1619. 13 vols. 1819–23. Reprint. Charlottesville, Va., 1969. description ends 278–80; 7 Hening description begins William Waller Hening, ed. The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature, in the Year 1619. 13 vols. 1819–23. Reprint. Charlottesville, Va., 1969. description ends , 322–23, 342–43). GW had attended two sessions of the assembly: the February 1759 session and the November 1759 session.

5Davy was one of Albraham (Abram) Barnes’s slaves. GW’s slave Boson ran away on 14 April. GW had recently considered trying to buy land from Barnes in the part of Fairfax County known as Sugar Lands (Diaries description begins Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds. The Diaries of George Washington. 6 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1976–79. description ends , 1:269, 234).

6GW wrote in his diary on 19 April: “Crossd at Mr. Possey’s Ferry and began my journey to Williamsburg about 9 Oclock. Abt. 11 I broke my Chair and had to Walk to Port Tobo. [Md.] where I was detaind the whole day getting my Chair mended” (ibid., 269–70).

7If GW crossed at the lower of the two Cedar Points in Maryland, he must have used Hooe’s ferry to cross the Potomac.

8Samuel Washington lived at his plantation on the Virginia side of the Potomac in the Chotank area of Stafford County (later King George County). GW crossed the Rappahannock on Southern’s (Southings) ferry below Leedstown.

9Williams ferry crossed the Pamunkey into New Kent County from King William County in the vicinity of the Custis plantation Claiborne’s.

10This may have been Col. Peter Randolph of Chatsworth, Charles City County. He was a neighbor of William Byrd III whose Valiant, “a noted running horse,” raced in the colony as early as 1757 and at this time was covering mares in Virginia (Harrison, Turf Stocks description begins Fairfax Harrison. Early American Turf-Stock, 1730–1830. 2 vols. Richmond, Va., 1934–35. description ends , 2:73–74).

11Aitcheson & Parker was a mercantile firm in Norfolk. GW paid William Aitcheson in Williamsburg on 28 April “By my Note of hand assignd by Sampn Darrell—[£]90” (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 96). This was part of a note GW gave Darrell for the land he bought from him in December 1757. See George Johnston to GW, 8 Jan. 1760, n.2.

12Mrs. Webb may be Anne Bickerton Webb, widow of George Webb (d. 1758) of St. Peter’s Parish, New Kent County. Henry Wetherburn (d. 1760) ran a tavern on the Duke of Gloucester Street near the capitol in Williamsburg. GW left town on Monday afternoon, 28 April.

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