ORGE WASHINGTON.[134]

In September, Lawrence Lewis, who, with his wife, was still residing at
Mount Vernon, applied to Washington for a portion of his estate. Lewis
was then on a visit with his friends at Fredericksburg, and Washington
wrote to him as follows:--

"MOUNT VERNON, _20th September, 1799._

"DEAR SIR: From the moment Mrs. Washington and myself adopted the
two youngest children of the late Mr. Custis, it became my
intention (if they survived me, and conducted themselves to my
satisfaction) to consider them in my will when I was about to make
a distribution of my property. This determination has undergone no
diminution, but is strengthened by the connection one of them has
formed with my family.

"The expense at which I live, and the unproductiveness of my
estate, will not allow me to lessen my income while I remain in my
present situation. On the contrary, were it not for occasional
supplies of money in payment for lands sold within the last four or
five years, to the amount of upward of fifty thousand dollars, I
should not be able to support the former without involving myself
in debt and difficulties.

"But as it has been understood, from expressions occasionally
dropped from Nelly Custis, now your wife, that it is the wish of
you both to settle in this neighborhood, contiguous to her
friends, and as it would be inexpedient as well as expensive for
you to make a purchase of land, when a measure which is in
contemplation would place you on more eligible ground, I shall
inform you that, in the will which I have made, which I have by me,
and have no disposition to alter, that the part of my Mount Vernon
tract which lies north of the public road leading from the Gum
spring to Colchester, containing about two thousand acres, with the
Dogue-river farm, mill, and distillery, I have left you. Gray's
heights is bequeathed to you and her jointly, if you incline to
build on it; and few better sites for a house than Gray's hill and
that range, are to be found in this country or elsewhere.

"You may also have what is properly Dogue-run farm, the mill, and
distillery, on a just and equitable rent; as also the lands
belonging thereto, on a reasonable hire, either next year, or the
year following--it being necessary, in my opinion, that a young man