Debit Side Annotation

Line 6 - In his letter to GW of 5 March 1788, Clement Biddle wrote: "Yesterday I recd from Thomas Smith Eq. one hundred ninety two pounds thirteen shillings & 4d. specie for your Account. He sent £200 but some of the Gold being Bad I returned it to the Gentleman by whom he sent it & only receipted for the above Sum, & I have now inclosed you our Bank Notes for four Hundred Dollars, [. . .]". Thomas Smith, who had acted in 1785 and 1786 as GW's attorney in ejectment proceedings against squatters on GW's lands in Washington County, Pa., informed GW in February 1788 that the £200 mentioned above in Biddle's letter was money that Smith had received "in part of the bonds . . . payable to" GW, which were related to the ejectment proceedings on GW's Pennsylvania lands.   See Clement Biddle to GW, 5 March 1788 [Rotunda | Founders Online | Print (Confederation Series, Volume 6, page145)]; see also Thomas Smith to GW, 5 Feb. 1788 [Rotunda | Founders Online | Print (Confederation Series, Volume 6, pages 91-92)].

Credit Side Annotation

Line 26 - In 1787, GW decided to have Philadelphia merchant Charles Pettit supply him with firebacks and jambs for the fireplaces and chimney-pieces in the New Room and other rooms at Mount Vernon. On 6 Nov. of that year, Pettit sent GW an invoice and bill of lading for "Chimney Backs" and eight jambs, which were shipped aboard the sloop Charming Polly. GW asked Clement Biddle, to whom money was to be forwarded, to pay Pettit's bill in the amount of £18.5.1. If Biddle wrote a letter on this subject in February 1788, or around that time, as the ledger entry here suggests, that letter has not been found. Biddle did write GW on 3 Feb. 1788, though the letter has not been found. See GW to Charles Pettit, 7 Sept. 1787 [Rotunda | Founders Online | Print (Confederation Series, Volume 5, pages 316-17)]; Charles Pettit to GW, 6 Nov. 1787, and n.1 to that document [Rotunda | Founders Online | Print (Confederation Series, Volume 5, pages 414-15)]; and GW to Clement Biddle, 3 Dec. 1787 [Rotunda | Founders Online | (Print (Confederation Series, Volume 5, pages 468-69)].

Line 34 - Clement Biddle's letter to GW of 4 May 1788 has not been found, but GW acknowledged it on 12 May.  Biddle made notes on the contents of that letter in his letterbook, which indicate that the letter concerned goods sent by John Ellwood (Elwood), Jr., the captain of the Charming Polly, by whom Biddle had shipped several items to GW in March and April 1788. These goods included grass seed, newspapers, livery lace, and a whip-saw.   Biddle's notes on the 4 May letter, which also listed prices of certain commodities such as shad and herring, contained the following phrase: "sending bills loading & Certificate &c. &c." See Biddle to GW, 21 April 1788, and n.1 to that document [Rotunda | Founders Online | Print (Confederation Series, Volume 6, pages 219-20)];  See also GW to Biddle, 12 May 1788 [Rotunda | Founders Online | Print (Confederation Series, Volume 6, pages 269-70)]; and Bidlde to GW, 16 March 1788 [Rotunda | Founders Online | Print (Confederation Series, Volume 6, pages 156-57)].