Manuscript DS, signed “Go: Washington,” one page, 7.75 x 1.25, January 21, 1799. Partial document concerning a land survey and the complicated sale of that land, in part: "I do acknowledge that this is the Platt referred to in the Deeds made for the Lands of George Mercer." Signed at the conclusion in ink by George Washington, and countersigned by three witnesses. Beautifully cloth-matted and framed with a portrait to an overall size of 16 x 19.25. In fine condition, with old tape stains to two corners.
Accompanied by a 1996 letter from Dorothy Twohig, editor-in-chief of the The Papers of George Washington, enclosing some excerpts pertaining to the matter: "The note on Mercer explains Washington's involvement in the whole affair which started before the Revolution. After the was Washington tried to extricate himself from the problems resulting from the power of attorney given him by George Mercer, who had died in 1784, and indeed a decree of the Virginia Court of Chancery had removed Mercer's affairs from his control, but ramifications from land sales followed him even into his years of retirement after his presidency."
George Mercer served as a captain under George Washington during the French and Indian War, moving to Europe in 1765. Washington became entangled in his American business affairs in the early 1770s, after Mercer had inherited properties in Virginia from his father. The present document seems to pertain to the sale of Mercer's lands to Raleigh Colston, with Washington offering reassurances of a clean title. It is a particularly noteworthy document in that Washington began his adult life as a surveyor—in July 1749, at the age of 17, Washington was appointed official surveyor for the newly created Culpeper County in northern Virginia. Here, a mere eleven months before his death on December 14, 1799, he is still attending to matters of plats and surveys.
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