George Washington to William Crawford, 9 June 1781
To William Crawford
New Windsor June 9th 1781
Dear Sir,
Mr Randolph delivered me your letter of the 23d Ulto—& sometime ago I was favoured with another from you.1 give me leave to thank you most sincerely for yr kind attention to my Interest, & to assure you that I shall ever hold in grateful recollection your friendly endeavors to serve me.2 My whole time is, and has been since I came into the Service, so much engrossed by the public duties of my Station, that I have totally neglected all my private concerns, which are declining every day, and may, possibly, end in capital losses, if not absolute ruin, before I am at liberty to look after them.
With respect to the round bottom, I can give you little or no information—as far as a bad Memory serves me (for I have no papers by me to refer to)—I located it in the Office of Mr Thoms Lewis Surveyor of Augusta, and laid some rights, which I had purchased, upon it, to the Amount of the contents of your Survey but what has been done in the matter since, I know not, nor am I quite certain that all that I have hear said was actually done.3 If without giving yourself much trouble you could enquire into this matter, and pursue the necessary measures to secure this Land for me I shall acknowledge it as an Act of kindness—will repay any expence you may be run to in the prosecution of the business—and make grateful returns when it is in my power to do so. I could wish to obtain a Patent for it, after obviating other claims; for I have heard, I think, that there is a caveat, to prevent my obtaining a Patent.
Can you tell me how matters stand with respect to my Racoon Tract?4 Are the People who live on it stil unconvinced of my havg a Patent for it? If on the contrary they know, or believe, that I have such a Patent, what do they propose to do in that case? It is hard upon me, to have property which has been fairly obtained, disputed and withheld5—on the other hand, if the Settlers on the Land, either through ignorance or disbelief of its being mine, have made improvements of6 value thereon & wish to live on and enjoy them, I would agree that they should remain Seven years longer upon their respective ⟨Plantns⟩ on terms which should in their own eyes appear moderate and easy, even if it amounts to nothing more than a bear acknowledgt subject nevertheless at the expiration of that term to such reasonable Rents as the Land and Improvemts are worth; and shall be adjudged just for both Landlord & Tenant—Upon these terms I would give Leases for lives—or a great length of years—provided also (in the latter case especially) some mode can be adopted to let the value of the Rents every Seven or ten years, be so raised as to bear some proportion of the increased value of the Land.
I shall thank you for giving me information respecting this matter—and the round bottom—and in general, what situation my landed affairs in that Country are in; it not being impossible nor yet very unlikely (as I can give no attention to them myself) that my other Patented Lands may be settled upon and claimed in the same way as that is on Racoon. I pray you also to be so kind as to let me know how Simpson employs his time—his force—and my Mill—He has not that I can hear of rendered any Acct or paid one farthing for the profits of my Mill or share of the Plantation since he has been on the Land. which is poor encouragement for me to leave my property in his hands7 Does the boundary as it is now settled between Virginia and Pensylvania affect the property of those Lands which were Surveyed & Patented in Virginia but which by the late line are thrown into Pensylvania? This, I believe, is the case with respect to my Tract on Racoon Creek if no more of it8—I shall hope to receive a long full Acct from you on the several matters contained in this letter by the first safe opportunity9—Should Genl Clark be able to prosecute his intended expedition and you accompany him I sincerely wish you Success in the enterprize & health to encounter the fatigues of it. My best wishes attend you—Mrs Crawford & family10—and I am Sincerely & Affectly Yr friend & Servt
G: W——n
ADfS, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. GW addressed his draft to “Youghiogany,” which indicated Crawford’s home along the Youghiogheny River in western Pennsylvania (see , 187).
1. See Crawford to GW, 23 May, and n.1. In his diary entry for 9 June, GW reported the arrival of Capt. David Meade Randolph with letters (see , 3:379; see also George Rogers Clark to GW, 20 and 21 May).
2. For an overview of Crawford’s activities as GW’s agent for western lands, see , 187–88, 195–204; see also GW to Crawford, 17 Sept. 1767, and Crawford to GW, 29 Sept., in 8:26–32, 37–41.
3. GW had detailed transactions related to his Round Bottom tract when he wrote Thomas Lewis on 5 May 1774 (see 10:46–48).
4. GW refers to land upon Raccoon Creek, Pennsylvania.
5. GW next wrote and struck out “from me” on his draft.
6. GW wrote and struck out “any” following this word on his draft.
7. GW wrote his remarks about Gilbert Simpson toward the end of the draft and marked them for insertion at this point. For a brief report from Simpson, see his letter to GW, 7 May 1781.
8. The extreme western and southwestern borders of Pennsylvania were in dispute until commissioners from Virginia and Pennsylvania met at Baltimore in 1779 and settled upon the Mason-Dixon line as surveyed in 1767 as the boundary. Individual land claims remained contested until a final boundary settlement in 1784. For details, see John E. Potter, “The Pennsylvania and Virginia Boundary Controversy,” Pa. Mag. 38 (1914): 407–26.
9. No subsequent letters from Crawford to GW have been found. For Crawford’s gruesome death in June 1782 after being captured while leading a raid, see , 276–78.
10. Hannah Vance Crawford (1723–1817) married William Crawford after her father had employed Crawford as a surveying assistant. They had at least two daughters, born in 1748 and 1749, and a son, born in 1750 (see , 1:261). She appealed to GW for financial assistance after the war (see her letter to GW, 4 June 1784, in 1:423; see also GW to Thomas Freeman, 8 May 1786, and Hannah Crawford to GW, 16 March 1787, in 4:36 and 5:89–90).