Lund Washington (1737–1796), a distant cousin of GW, was the son of Townshend and Elizabeth Lund Washington, of the Chotank area, where GW spent part of his youth. Lund had managed the Ravensworth estates of Henry Fitzhugh (1723–1783) during the early 1760s, and around October 1764 GW hired him as business manager for his Mount Vernon plantations. Lund served in that capacity until 1785.

In 1779 Lund married his cousin Elizabeth Foote, daughter of Richard Foote of Prince William County, Virginia. The couple lived at Mount Vernon until 1784 when they moved into their newly built home, Hayfield, located on the Alexandria Road five miles south of Alexandria. Lund’s property consisted of about 450 acres, comprising most of the three parcels of land GW had acquired from Simon Pearson and George and John Ashford in 1761–63 and a small piece of wasteland obtained in 1771. This land was not formally deeded to Lund by GW until 25 Feb. 1785. However, there seems to have been an earlier lease on at least a part of the land, probably with GW’s promise to deed the land to Lund at a later date. GW specified in the deed that the land was in repayment of £5,304 Lund had earlier paid to Thomas Hanson Marshall for land on GW’s behalf.

Many of the accounts with Lund Washington reveal the transactions for goods and services that took place at the Mount Vernon estate, particularly during the period in which Lund was serving as the estate manager.