1. The previous Saturday was 24 September.

2. In a letter to GW of 19 Sept., James Wood, the president of the Virginia council of state and acting lieutenant governor, declined accepting the office of U.S. surveyor general. The letter was sent to Pickering, who opened and read it at GW’s request (see GW to Wood, 12 Sept., n.3).

3. William Alexander, resident of Carlisle, Pa., had sought the office of surveyor general and had been recommended to GW for that post (see Thomas Smith to GW, 22 Aug. 1796).

Belmont was the country estate on the west bank of the Schuylkill River owned by Richard Peters, judge of the U.S. district court of Pennsylvania. The estate began as a 220-acre tract in Blockley township, Philadelphia County, Pa., which Peters’s father William purchased in 1742 and on which he built a house. William named the house and land “Belmont.” Richard inherited the estate in 1786, and it was there that he conducted numerous agricultural experiments and entertained his prominent circle of friends. Belmont consisted of 282 acres by 1801 and is now located within Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park (see Thompson Westcott, The Historic Mansions and Buildings of Philadelphia, with Some Notice of Their Owners and Occupants [revised ed.; Philadelphia, 1895], 381–84).

4. Thomas Robinson (1751–1819), a brother of Richard Peters’s wife Sarah Robinson Peters, served as an officer in the Pennsylvania line during the Revolutionary War and held the rank of colonel at the war’s end. He served for a time as a judge of the Delaware Court of Common Pleas and was major general of the Delaware militia in the early nineteenth century. In 1804 Robinson advertised for lease a 200-acre farm “at Naaman’s creek … twenty miles from Philadelphia and seven from Wilmington” (Gazette of the United States [Philadelphia], 21 Jan. 1804).

Naaman (Naamans) Creek, a stream, enters the Delaware River in New Castle County, about six miles northeast of Wilmington, near the Delaware-Pennsylvania border.

5. In a letter of 30 Sept. to Rufus Putnam, a judge of the General Court of the Northwest Territory since 1790, Pickering wrote: “Accompanying this you will receive a letter covering a commission constituting you Surveyor General of the United States: I hope the appointment will be acceptable to you. … Contemplating a vacancy by this appointment on the judicial bench of the north western territory, I take the liberty of asking from you the names and places of residence, in the territory, of the gentlemen who may be considered as candidates for the office of judge, with your opinion of those who for their character, talents and integrity are entitled to a preference: but particularly I request your opinion of Mr Gilman, your neighbour. … I beg you to write me freely & fully, as you may in confidence, only for the President’s information. I consider Sobriety in a judge as an essential quality to ensure respect to the law and the government” (MHi: Pickering Papers). Pickering again wrote Putnam on 1 Oct. to enclose his commission (DNA: RG 59, Domestic Letters).

Putnam postponed taking office as surveyor general until the end of the session of the General Court of the Northwest Territory. Putnam’s appointment was made permanent when GW nominated him as U.S. surveyor general on 21 Dec. (see Arthur St. Clair to GW, 2 Dec.; GW to the U.S. Senate, 21 Dec.; and Buell, Putnam Memoirs description begins Rowena Buell, ed. The Memoirs of Rufus Putnam and Certain Official Papers and Correspondence. Boston and New York, 1903. description ends , 411–13).

6. Joseph Gilman (1738–1806) of Exeter, N.H., was a partner in a mercantile and shipping firm in the early 1760s. After his marriage in 1763 to his second wife, Rebecca Ives (1746–1823) of Beverly, Mass., Gilman held several public offices. He served as selectman of Exeter (1769–71), treasurer of Rockingham County, N.H. (1776), justice of the peace, and member of the New Hampshire legislature. Around late 1788, Gilman and his family moved to Marietta in the Northwest Territory (now Ohio). He continued to hold judicial appointments, including as judge of the court of common pleas. Gilman served as territorial judge until the termination of the territorial government in 1803. He died in Marietta.

7. In a letter to Pickering of 15 Oct., written from Marietta and marked “(private),” Putnam offered recommendations for potential territorial judges: “As you have ben pleased to call upon me in a confidential maner respecting mens Carrectors (for the information of the President) I think it my duty to Speek without reserve, althoe under any other circumstance I certainly should be Silent when I cannot Speek in their favor.

“Joseph Gillman … is Judge of Probate: First Judge the Court of Comonpleas & President of the Court of General quarter sessions, which offices he fills with reputation to himself & Satisfaction to the people. he is certainly a very respectable Carracter and from his knowledge of Law as well as every moral and mental quality has the best claim of any man in the Teritory to the office of Judge over the Same.” Putnam qualified the above statements with claims of Gilman’s poor health. Putnam listed lawyer Peregrine Foster as a qualified candidate, though he admitted having “Little knowledge of [his] abilities.” Putnam also recommended Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., whom he styled as “the most popular Lawyer” in Washington County, Ohio, and as “a gentleman of Shineing Tallants & unblemished Character.” Putnam gave a less-glowing report of Dudley Woodbridge, Jr., purportedly devoid of any “public spirit.” Putnam ended the letter by listing a few other possible qualified candidates as territorial judge, including William Judd of Farmington, Conn. (MHi: Pickering Papers). Pickering received Putnam’s letter on 28 October.

8. GW gave Gilman a recess appointment as territorial judge, and Pickering sent him his commission on 7 Nov. (see Pickering to Gilman, 7 Nov. 1796, in DNA: RG 59, Domestic Letters). Gilman’s appointment was made official when GW nominated him to the office on 21 Dec. (see GW to the U.S. Senate, 21 Dec.; see also Carter, Territorial Papers description begins Clarence Edwin Carter et al., eds. The Territorial Papers of the United States. 27 vols. Washington, D.C., 1934–69. description ends , 2:584–85).