Beschreibung:

WASHINGTON, GEORGE, President . Autograph letter signed ("G. Washington") to his nephew, Colonel William Augustine Washington, Mount Vernon, 3 October 1798. 3 pages, 4to, blank page 4 neatly laid down on a larger protective sheet, otherwise in very fine condition. WASHINGTON AND "OLD DOCUMENTS" RELATING TO HIS FAMILY GENEALOGY One of several interesting letters between Washington and William Augustine concerning the latter's attempt to reconstruct the family's hazy genealogy: "Your letter of the 27th. of July has remained unacknowledged 'till now, that I embrace the opportunity afforded by General Lee's return, to do it [to forward it by Lee]. To a person not in the habit of sending regularly to the Post Office, nearest to them, it is almost useless to write by the Mail; and with very few exceptions, addressing letters by private hands, is almost as bad, very few people paying much attention to them; which, with the shifting of hands, rubbing in the Pocket, and sometimes idle curiousity to know the contents, are great lets to a safe conveyance, in that way. "With respect to the proposed contract for Corn...I will agree to divide the freight from your landing to mine.... although it would make the Corn come all the higher to me; as neither land, or water transportation, would be more to my Mill (where it will be chiefly wanted) than it would be to the Warehouses, or Wharves in Alexandria. March being a windy month, often cold and disagreeable, about the middle of April would be better.... If with these alterations...you incline to enter into a contract...for five hundred Barrels of Corn, annually, I am ready to close the contract, to be binding for, and during our lives. "Your answer to this point would be agreeable, as Genl. Lee is desirous of entering into a contract with me for the same quantity of Corn...and... it would be very convenient for me to make it; but from the uncertainty of its fulfilment on his part, I feel no disposition to enter into one with him. "I thank you for the old documents you sent me, respecting the family of our Ancestors, but I am possessed of Papers which prove beyond a doubt, that of the two brothers who Emigrated to this Country in the year 1657, during the troubles of that day, that John Washington, from whom we are descended, was the eldest. The Pedigree from him, I have, and I believe very correct; but the descendants of Lawrence, in a regular course, I have not been able to to trace. All those of our name, in and about Chotanck, are from the latter. John, was the Grandfather of my father and Uncle, and Great grand father to Warner and me. He left two Sons, Lawrence and John; the former, who was the eldest, was the father of my father, Uncle and Aunt Willis. Mrs. Hayward must have been a daughter of the first Lawrence, and thence became the Cousen of the second Lawrence, and John. We all unite in best wishes for you and family, and I am your sincere friend and Affectionate Uncle...." Whole books have been written on the subject of Washington 's ancestry, including Washington C. Ford, The Washington Family and Charles Arther Hoppin, The Washington Ancestr, (Privately printed, 1932). The main points of this genealogy are summarized by D.S. Freeman, Gorge Washington , vol.1, appendix I-4. "Concerning his ancestors," Freeman writes that "George Washington knew scarcely anything," of the family's ancestry. "All he remembered at sixty was that in youth he had been told the family had come from one of the Northern Counties of England. He was not sure whether it was Lancashire or Yorkshire or a region still farther North." For an early English geneaology of Washington's forbears, see lot ). The present letter is published in Fitzpatrick, 36:481-482.