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Robert Adam (1731–1789) was born in Kilbride, Scotland, migrated to America in the early 1750s, and settled in Alexandria, Va., where he initiated a number of industries, including a tannery and ... Read More

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 ... Read More

John Randolph (c.1728-1784) practiced law in Williamsburg. He also served as attorney general of the colony of Virginia from 1766 to 1774 and was an outspoken Loyalist during the Revolutionary War ... Read More

Daniel Jenifer Adams (1751–1796), of Port Tobacco, Charles County, Md., entered, in 1772, into a trading partnership with GW, Samuel Brodie, and John Carlyle, whereby flour refined at GW's and ... Read More

William Fitzhugh (1721–1798), a native of Stafford County, Va., served with Lawrence Washington during the Cartagena campaign and represented Stafford County in the House of Burgesses 1748–58. In ... Read More

Matthew Ritchie (d. 1798) of Washington County, Pa., served in the Pennsylvania legislature from 1782 to 1784. Ritchie purchased GW's Millers Run land in Washington County in 1796.

Abraham Barnes (died c.1778) resided for many years in St. Mary's County, Maryland. He was a merchant, who held several public offices. Barnes was also engaged for a time in military service, ... Read More

William Fitzhugh (1741–1809), of Chatham in Stafford County, Va., was a planter and longtime friend of GW. Fitzhugh was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, 1772–75, the Virginia ... Read More

Michael Robinson (d. 1784), of Spotsylvania County, Va., was for many years an inspector of tobacco at Fredericksburg. GW bought from Robinson for £275 a house on a double lot (lots 107 and 108) ... Read More

William Blackwell, a sheriff in Fauquier County, Va., made distresses for rent on several of GW's tenants in that county, but received no money (see Ledger B, 132).

John Hopkins (c.1757–1827) was a businessman of Richmond, Va., and served for a time as a clerk in the Virginia treasurer’s office. He was appointed commissioner of Continental loans for Virginia ... Read More

Jedediah Sanger was one of the earliest settlers of Montgomery County, New York. He was a judge, newspaper owner, state representative, and state senator. Sanger leased from GW and George Clinton ... Read More

Robert Boggess (died c.1773) lived at La Grange, in Fairfax County, at the head of Pohick Creek. He served for several years as a vestryman and church warden of Truro Parish (see Slaughter, ... Read More

John Hunter served for a time as justice of the Elizabeth City County, Va., court and as colonel of the county’s militia. He lived near Hampton, where he was also a merchant. During the French and ... Read More

Nathaniel Littleton Savage (1723–1786) was a merchant, planter, and speculator of Northampton County, Virginia. Before the Revolutionary War he served as both a county sheriff and a justice of the ... Read More

Gerrard (Garrard) Bowling (Bolling), a merchant and planter in Fairfax County, Va., was an inspector of tobacco at one of the public warehouses in Fairfax County.

GW's account with ... Read More

Tobias Lear was a Harvard graduate and native of New Hampshire. In 1786 he became GW’s secretary upon the recommendation of Benjamin Lincoln. He accompanied the president to New York in 1789 and ... Read More

William Shaw (died c.1774), a cooper in Alexandria, was appointed an inspector of flour for Fairfax County in December 1769. He inspected numerous barrels of flour for GW in the early 1770s (see ... Read More

Samuel Buckner (died c.1764) of Gloucester County, Va., was a justice from 1748-59. His first wife was probably Ann Alexander. After her death, Samuel married Mary Timson (see Crozier, ... Read More

Born in England, George Lee (1714-1761) later removed to Virginia, and resided at Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland County, Virginia. In 1738 he married Judith Wormeley of Middlesex County, Va., though ... Read More

In early Virginia, one of the duties of the sheriff was to collect public, county, and often parish levies. This was also the case in Fairfax County, where GW's estate at Mount Vernon was located ... Read More

Lewis Burwell (1716-1784) of James City County, lived at Kingsmill plantation on the James River about four miles from Williamsburg, Virginia. He represented James City County in the House of ... Read More

Fielding Lewis, Sr. (1725-1781), was the son of John and Frances Fielding Lewis, of Warner Hall in Gloucester County. A prominent merchant and burgess, Lewis married GW's sister, Betty ... Read More

John Thornton (d. 1777) resided near Fredericksburg and represented Spotsylvania County in the House of Burgesses. He was a close associate of the Washington family, and during the French and ... Read More

William Byrd III (1728–1777) was appointed, in the mid-1750s, a member of the Virginia Council. He lived at his family’s James River plantation called Westover, located in Charles City County, ... Read More

Robert Lewis (1769-1829) was the tenth child of Betty Washington Lewis and Fielding Lewis, and nephew to GW. He served as GW's presidential secretary from 1789 until 1791 when he resigned to ... Read More

Peter Wagener (1717–1774) migrated to Virginia c.1738 from England and settled in Prince William County, where he practiced law and became county clerk (1742–1752). In 1752 he moved to the ... Read More

Wilson Miles Cary (1734-1817), a brother of GW's friend Sarah Cary Fairfax, owned several estates, including Ceelys and Carysbrook in Elizabeth City County, Va., and Richneck in Warwick County, ... Read More

Daniel McCarty (d. 1792), son of Daniel McCarty (d.1724), was a wealthy planter living at Mount Air on Accotink Creek in Fairfax County. He was married to Sinah Bell McCarty (d. 1798) with whom he ... Read More

Charles Washington (1738–1799) was GW's younger brother and a leading citizen of Fredericksburg, being both a vestryman of St. George's Parish and a Spotsylvania County justice. In 1757 ... Read More

George Clinton (1739–1812), a native of Ulster County, N.Y., and a lawyer by profession, was elected to the Second Continental Congress, where he took his seat with the New York delegation in May ... Read More

James Mercer (ca.1735–1793) was the son of John Mercer (1704-1768) of Marlborough in Stafford County, Virginia, a brother of George and John Fenton Mercer, and the half brother of John Francis ... Read More

Lawrence Washington (c.1718-1752) was GW's eldest living half brother, the son of Augustine Washington (1694-1743) and his first wife, Jane Butler Washington. He attended Appleby School in England ... Read More

Martin Cockburn was the son of Dr. Thomas and Rachel Moore Cockburn, of Jamaica. He settled in Virginia and owned an estate called Springfield, near Colchester. Cockburn served on the Truro Parish ... Read More

John Francis Mercer (1759-1821) was the son of John Mercer (1704-1768) of Marlborough in Stafford County, Virginia, and the half brother to George and James Mercer. He was commissioned a ... Read More

Josiah Watson was an Englishman who settled in Alexandria, Virginia, about 1773 and established Josiah Watson & Company, tobacco agents. He was also a Fairfax County justice of the peace from ... Read More

John Parke Custis (1754–1781), called Jack or Jacky by his relatives and friends, was Martha Washington’s son by her first marriage and the principal heir to the large Custis estate. GW became ... Read More

A native of Falmouth, England, Eleazer Oswald (d. 1795) had immigrated to America in 1770, and was apprenticed to John Holt, the printer of the New-York Journal. During the Revolutionary ... Read More

GW employed West as a recording clerk under the direction of Tobias Lear. West remained in GW’s official household until 1792, when GW certified on 15 Aug. his sobriety, diligence, prudence, and ... Read More

Sampson Darrell (d. 1777) was from Fairfax County, Va., where he served for a time as sheriff. He had also served with the rank of captain in the Fairfax County militia during the French and ... Read More

In the 1760s William Parker, a planter and justice of the peace, ran an ordinary in his house in Caroline County, Virginia.

James Wren (c.1728–1815), a justice of the Fairfax County Court and a member of vestry of Fairfax Parish, took his oath as tax commissioner for the Truro district of Fairfax County on 19 May 1788 ... Read More

Dudley Digges (1718–1790) of York County and Williamsburg, Va., was a member of the committee appointed in 1756 to supervise the expenditure of funds for the Virginia Regiment. The Virginia ... Read More

Dr. William Pasteur (d. 1791), a son of Swiss immigrant Dr. Jean Pasteur, opened an apothecary shop on the Duke of Gloucester Street in Williamsburg, Va., in 1759. In 1775 he entered into a ... Read More

GW hired George Young in January 1774 for a year at an annual salary of £25 to make the improvements on his western landholdings required by law ( ... Read More

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