To George Washington from Edward Thurston, 1 June 1790
From Edward Thurston
Newport [R.I.] June 1st 1790.
May it please Your Excellency,
Having been appointed by the General Assembly of this State at the two last Elections to the Office of Surveyor for the Port of Newport, and as such having discharged my duty to the Public to their intire Satisfaction, I do therefore humbly solicit your Excellency that I may be continued in that Office, and do assure You Sir that if it shall please You to continue me therein, my most earnest Endeavours shall be exerted with all Fidelity in the executing that trust reposed in me to the utmost of my skill and ability, and I humbly hope to the Satisfaction of your Excellency and advancement of the public Revenue. I am, with the utmost respect, sr Your Excellency’s most obedient humble Servt
Edward Thurston
ALS, DLC:GW.
Edward Thurston, Jr., a Newport merchant, was the son of merchant Edward Thurston, who joined the British in New York and was proscribed as a Tory ( 9:139, 504). The younger Thurston was surveyor at Newport under the state government. His continuation in the post under the federal government was recommended by a group of Antifederalist state leaders including Arthur Fenner, Daniel Owen, Samuel J. Potter, Job Watson, Thomas Hoxsie, and Thomas G. Hazard (Arthur Fenner et al. to GW, 12 June 1790, DLC:GW). Thurston received no appointment from GW.