From George Washington to Daniel Jenifer, 8 March 1775
To Daniel Jenifer
Mt Vernon 8th Mar. 1775.
Sir,
As you have been kind enough to mention the Conversation we had respecting Mr D. J. Adamss Land to the Creditors of his Father & procurd answers from some of them the Inclosed Letters will inform you of my determination in consequence thereof.1
I will pay Mr Stormat at the time mentioned in my Letters to the other Gentn with Interest but want to know whether he sets up a claim to more than the £150 Sterlg with the Intst wch may be due thereon being told that he talks of demanding a larger Sum for Cost, Charges, or something else which I could not very well understand—I am very willing to abide by the sum mentioned in the list of Debts given to me, & which you saw—I shall be ready to fix the Matter with Mr Adams & the Creditors at any time upon the terms now proposed & did not care how soon the business could be accomplished.2
The Skipper who was receiving Corn for Mr Stone did not care to take your Flour on Board—I shall therefore send it over to Captn Marshalls agreeable to yr desire3—I am with esteem Sir Yr Most Obedt Hble Servt
Go: Washington
ALB, DLC:GW. The letter is addressed to “Port Tobo—Maryland.” Daniel Jenifer (1729–1795) of Port Tobacco, Md., was the younger brother of Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer.
1. Daniel Jenifer had dinner at Mount Vernon on 25 Feb. (, 3:309). For the enclosed letters, see GW to Knox & Baillie, this date.
2. The “list of Debts” has not been found, but GW records in his account with Daniel Jenifer Adams paying “to the following persons in order to obtain Deeds for the Land—pr Contra”: Knox & Baillie £70.7.4, George Gray, £35.15.9, Robert Mundell, £13.5.0, and William Hanson, sheriff, £5.15.9, all in Maryland currency; John Stromatt £214.16.3, and John West £193.18.3, both in Virginia currency (, 99). For Daniel Jenifer Adams’s references to the problem with John Stromatt, see Adams to GW, 4 February. With regard to GW’s payments to Knox & Baillie, George Gray, and Robert Mundell, see GW to Knox & Baillie, this date, and note 3 of that document. GW also wrote Sheriff William Hanson of Charles County from Mount Vernon on this date: “Sir, If Mr D. J. Adams will suffer a Condemnation of the Attachd Effects I will, as it may contribute something to the validity of my Title to the Land pay you the Sum stipulated for—to wit £5.5 common M[one]y of the Provence. I am Sir Yr Most Obt H. St Go: Washington” (ALB, DLC:GW).
3. Mr. Stone is probably John Hoskins Stone. See Cash Accounts, February, n.11. Captain Marshall is Thomas Hanson Marshall of Marshall Hall, across the Potomac from Mount Vernon.