From George Washington to Anthony Singleton, 1 March 1788
To Anthony Singleton
Mount Vernon March 1st 1788
Sir,
Two of the enclosed Certificates dated Jany 4th 1788 were received at the Auditors office on my acct by Doctor Stuart when he was in Richmond, but as he was, by some means or other, prevented from having the necessary business respecting them transacted at the Treasurer’s Office before he left that place, and has informed me that you will be so good as to do whatever is proper to be done respecting them, I have taken the liberty of sending them to you, requesting that you will be so kind as to return them to me compleated, as soon as possible, because I depend upon them for discharging a part of my taxes of the Year 1787.1
I have likewise enclosed to you five others recd in the year 1786.2 as I see they are of the same tenor And I suppose require the same to be done with them as the above two. These last mentioned warrants have laid by me since their dates—I am so little acquainted with matters of this kind that I hardly know the use of them, much less the necessary forms they must pass before they are receivable in taxes.3 I am &c.
Go. Washington
LB, DLC:GW. Immediately following GW’s letter in the letter book is a list of the auditor’s warrants sent to Singleton.
Upon the passage by the Virginia legislature of “An act providing a sinking fund for the gradual redemption of the public debt” in December 1787 (12 452–54), Anthony Singleton of Richmond was made the state’s agent for the sinking fund. Singleton, who served as a captain in the 1st Continental Artillery from 1777 to 1783, married in 1788 Lucy Harrison Randolph, daughter of Benjamin Harrison (d. 1791) of Berkeley and widow of Peyton Randolph of Wilton. In 1792 he was named a director of the new bank of Richmond (13 599–607).
1. The warrants dated 4 Jan. 1788 were for £43.4.10 on loan certificate no. 252, dated 26 Mar. 1779, and £6.9 on certificate no. 237, dated 24 June 1780 (see source note).
2. One of these five warrants, dated 18 April 1786, was for £17.16.4 on loan certificate 237 (see note 1). The other four, all dated 29 Nov. 1786 and totaling £87.16.6, were “for sundry articles furnished for the use of the Mil[iti]a in the year 1774 allowed by the Court of claims in Fairfax County” (see source note).
3. On 12 Jan. 1786 GW received £171.6.10 from the state treasurer in payment “on Certificates whc. had been Recd for Loans, to this State.” See GW to David Stuart, 18 Dec. 1785, n.2.