Mississippi Land Company Minutes of Meeting, 16 December 1767
Mississippi Land Company Minutes of Meeting
[16 December 1767]
At a General Meeting of the Mississippi Company at Stafford Court House in Virginia December 16th 1767.1
Present
| Richard Parker | Francis Thornton |
| Richard Henry Lee | William Brent |
| William Fitzhugh2 | John Augustine Washington |
| Francis Lightfoot Lee | William Fitzhugh Junr |
| Thomas Ludwell Lee | William Beale Junr |
| George Washington | William Lee |
Richard Parker Esqr chosen President this meeting
It is resolved that Messr Robt Brent, Richard Graham, Philip Thomas Lee,3 William McGachin, and George Plater be excluded from the Company for not having paid their Quota agreeable to the original Articles.
It is resolved that Mr Edwd Key deceased was not a member of this Company, having never signed the Original Articles or paid any money.4
It is resolved that Majr Thomas Addison, is not a member of this Company, but that application shall be made to him to become a member.
It is resolved that Mr John Hite is not a Member of this Company having never signed the Articles or paid any money.
It is resolved that Mr Samuel Washington be admitted as a Member of this Company on complying with the Articles thereof.
It is resolved that Messrs John Baylor, Bernard Moore and Thomas Walker, be admitted as members of the Company on their complying with the Articles thereof.
It is resolved that Mr Chas Digges have full power and Authority to sell or dispose of his share in this Company to Mr Thomas Montgomer⟨ie⟩ or any other person that the Company shall hereafter approve of.5
It is resolved that application shall be made to Mr Warner Lewis6 and Doctor Arthur Lee7 to become members of this Company.
It is the opinion of the Company, and so it is ordered, that the Treasurer of the Company, call a general meeting of the Company according to the Rules of the Company for that purpose, on the 21st day of March next ensuing,8 and if at that time a number of Members sufficient to form a general Meeting shall not be assembled, that in that Case the Comittee already appointed by the Company or the Treasurer of the Company being so directed by the Committee, shall have full power and Authority to demand and receive of each Member of the Company the Sum of £13.11.0 Sterling, amounting in the whole to the Sum of £54 ⟨illegible⟩ Sterling, which Sum the said Committee are impowered to dispose of in employing an Agent to proceed immediately to Britain, there to solicit the Company’s Grant, as fully, speedily, and effectually as the nature of the Business will admit.
It is resolved that Wm Lee Esqe the Treasurer, has presented his Account to this Company which is admitted.
It is resolved that Wm Lee Esqe be continued Treasurer to this Company.
It is resolved that the Treasurer pay the Expence of this meeting.
Copy, P.R.O., 30/8, Chatham Papers, f. 132. This document is printed in 318–19.
3. Philip Thomas Lee (1738–1778) of Maryland was called to the bar in Maryland in 1764 after studying in England. He was soon to return to England where he remained until the mid-1770s. His brother-in-law George Plater (1735–1792), lawyer in St. Mary’s County, Md., is also listed here as a delinquent member of the company.
4. Edmund Key (d. 1766) of St. Mary’s County, Md., was attorney general of Maryland.
5. Thomas Montgomerie was a merchant in Dumfries.
6. This was probably Warner Lewis, Jr. (1747–1791), the son of Warner Lewis (b. 1720) of Warner Hall, Gloucester County, and nephew of Fielding Lewis. The younger Lewis at this time may have still been in England studying, but he was back in Virginia by 2 June 1768, when he was married, and he signed the Mississippi Land Company’s petition to the king dated December 1768.
7. Arthur Lee returned to England in 1768 and replaced Thomas Cumming as agent for the Mississippi Land Company in London.
8. GW did not attend the meeting of 21 Mar. 1768 at Stafford County Court House, but in May 1768 when on his way to Mount Vernon after attending a session of the House of Burgesses in Williamsburg, he paid the treasurer of the company, William Lee, £16.18.9, his “prop[ortio]n of a sum Levied by the Mississippi Compy” (, folio 274). GW also failed to attend the meeting called for 15 April 1768 at Westmoreland County Court House. See Virginia Gazette (Rind; Williamsburg), 4 Feb. 1768; , 2:53. See also Mississippi Land Company’s Articles of Agreement, 3 June 1763, Mississippi Land Company’s Memorial to the King, 9 Sept. 1763, Mississippi Land Company Memorandum, 22 Nov. 1765, and notes to these documents.