Details
WASHINGTON, George. Letter signed ("Go:Washington") to Samuel Athawes (a London attorney), Mount Vernon, 8 January 1788. 2 pages, 4to, integral blank, fine.
WASHINGTON DECLINES TO BE EXECUTOR OF GEORGE WILLIAM FAIRFAX, THE HUSBAND OF SALLY FAIRFAX, PLEADING "THE DERANGED SITUATION OF MY OWN PRIVATE AFFAIRS, OCCASIONED BY MY LONG ABSENCE FROM HOME DURING THE LATE WAR"
Four months after serving as President of the Constitutional Convention, Washington responds to a request to serve as executor of George William Fairfax's American estate. Fairfax (1725-1787), son of Washington's early patron Col. William Fairfax, owned lands which bordered Mount Vernon; on his return from service in the French and Indian War in 1757, Washington, many believe, had become enamored with Fairfax's comely wife, Sally, two years his senior. Although the nature of their relationship is uncertain, they carried on a flirtatious correspondence and one biographer has called Sally "the great love of his youth" (Flexner, Washington: The Indispensable Man, p. 19). Washington remained close friends with George Fairfax even after the couple moved back to England.
"I sincerely condole with you and his other friends in England upon the occasion. Altho' the precarious state of his health for several years past must have prepared his friends, in some measure, for his death, yet the event could not take place without being sincerely lamented by all who knew him." Washington acknowledges the difficulties that Fairfax's extensive holdings in two countries present to the estate: "The appointment of Executors & Trustees in each Country for his estates & affairs in each, seperately and without any dependence upon each other, was...a very judicious & necessary step; for the delays and inconveniences which the distance must unavoidably produce, would have been an insuperable objection to their being joined, not to mention the difficulties which must have arisen from the difference of the laws...in the two Countries."
Washington adds that he has already handled some affairs of the estate: "The small case which you directed to the care of Colo. Burwell was forwarded by him and came safe to hand. I have sent the watch to Mrs. Fairfax and the letters to their respective addresses." He reluctantly explains that "Notwithstanding the long & uninterrupted friendship which subsisted between Colo. Fairfax and myself, and however desirous I may be to give every proof of my affection for him & his amiable relict [widow], yet I must decline acting as an executor for his estate here." Washington explains: "the deranged situation of my own private affairs, occasioned by my long absence from home during the late war, and the continual applications which are made to me for information, advise or assistance, in consequence of the publick office which I sustained, require my constant & unremitting attention, and would prevent a faithful discharge of the trust...if I should accept of it."
Just over a year later, Washington became the first President of the United States.
Published in Writings, ed. J.C. Fitzpatrick 29:360-361.
WASHINGTON DECLINES TO BE EXECUTOR OF GEORGE WILLIAM FAIRFAX, THE HUSBAND OF SALLY FAIRFAX, PLEADING "THE DERANGED SITUATION OF MY OWN PRIVATE AFFAIRS, OCCASIONED BY MY LONG ABSENCE FROM HOME DURING THE LATE WAR"
Four months after serving as President of the Constitutional Convention, Washington responds to a request to serve as executor of George William Fairfax's American estate. Fairfax (1725-1787), son of Washington's early patron Col. William Fairfax, owned lands which bordered Mount Vernon; on his return from service in the French and Indian War in 1757, Washington, many believe, had become enamored with Fairfax's comely wife, Sally, two years his senior. Although the nature of their relationship is uncertain, they carried on a flirtatious correspondence and one biographer has called Sally "the great love of his youth" (Flexner, Washington: The Indispensable Man, p. 19). Washington remained close friends with George Fairfax even after the couple moved back to England.
"I sincerely condole with you and his other friends in England upon the occasion. Altho' the precarious state of his health for several years past must have prepared his friends, in some measure, for his death, yet the event could not take place without being sincerely lamented by all who knew him." Washington acknowledges the difficulties that Fairfax's extensive holdings in two countries present to the estate: "The appointment of Executors & Trustees in each Country for his estates & affairs in each, seperately and without any dependence upon each other, was...a very judicious & necessary step; for the delays and inconveniences which the distance must unavoidably produce, would have been an insuperable objection to their being joined, not to mention the difficulties which must have arisen from the difference of the laws...in the two Countries."
Washington adds that he has already handled some affairs of the estate: "The small case which you directed to the care of Col
Just over a year later, Washington became the first President of the United States.
Published in Writings, ed. J.C. Fitzpatrick 29:360-361.