Robert Dinwiddie (1693–1770) was born in Glasgow, Scotland. After a brief career as a merchant in Glasgow, he went to Bermuda where he opened a mercantile and shipping business. In 1721 he was appointed admiralty agent for Bermuda and in 1727 collector of the customs; in 1738 he became surveyor general for the southern part of America. During that time, he established a residence in Virginia and for several years sat on the governor’s council. In late 1745 he returned to England where he remained for the next 5 years. On 4 July 1751 Dinwiddie succeeded Sir William Gooch as lieutenant governor of Virginia, and served as the colony's governor until January 1758. In the fall of 1753, Dinwiddie commissioned GW to deliver a letter petitioning the French commandant in the Ohio country for the removal of French troops from lands claimed by Virginia. In 1754, Dinwiddie issued a Royal Proclamation, setting aside 200,000 acres of land on the Ohio River to which GW and other veterans of the Virginia Regiment of 1754 were entitled. Years after Dinwiddie was already out of office, GW petitioned the colonial government for this land, but it was not until November 1772 that GW and the other veterans received their first allotments of land under Dinwiddie’s proclamation.