To George Washington from Joseph Davenport, 30 November 1773
From Joseph Davenport
Novr 30th 1773
Sr
on the Recept of your Letter1 I went immediately to the Office and the Clerk was gone to Wmsburgh, upon which I got Mr William Dandridge2 and Several other Gent. (who was Supposed to be acquaintd with Searching the Record) to go in to the office and they Could find no Such deeds as you Wrote for, which Obliged me to wait till two oClock this afternon at which time a young man came that had wrote in the Office Several years under the Deputy & who I was told under stood the Office better than the Deputy himself & he could find none but Such as he has Sent the Originals of, which I am Sure is not what you wanted.
I Saw Colo. Quarles and he told me that there was never any deed Passed from him and Gregory to Black, but that the land was acknowledged by one Grisly (who drew it the Lottery) to Black, and there is no Such deed as that to be found on the Record.3 I am Sr yr most Hbl. Sert
Jos. Davenport
ALS (photocopy), ViHi: Lee Family Papers.
1. GW’s letter to Davenport, GW’s overseer of Claiborne’s in King William County, has not been found.
2. William Dandridge of Huntington, Martha Washington’s first cousin, owned the land immediately to the east of Romancoke plantation which GW was purchasing for John Parke Custis.
3. See GW to Robert Cary & Co., 10 Nov., nn.3 and 6. Col. John Quarles (died c.1778), who owned the ordinary at King William Court House, was the primary heir to the property in King William County of his father, Col. James Quarles (d. 1771). Roger Gregory, also a resident of King William County, was married to Mary Cole Claiborne Gregory, sister of Thomas Claiborne of Sweet Hall, and was one of Claiborne’s trustees. For the tract of Romancoke called Gooches acquired by Jeffery Grisley and sold by him to William Black, see GW to Robert Cary & Co., 10 Nov., nn.3 and 6; see also GW to Dandridge, 6 Dec., n.1.