h instances of ingratitude to be much
pleased with the outcome of this affair. He replied in the kindest
terms, but declined to receive the interest, saying that he had not made
the loan as an investment and that he did not desire a profit from it.

Another recipient of Washington's bounty was his old neighbor, Captain
John Posey. Posey sold Washington not only his Ferry Farm but also his
claim to western lands. He became financially embarrassed, in fact,
ruined; his family was scattered, and he made frequent applications to
Washington for advice and assistance. Washington helped to educate a
son, St. Lawrence, who had been reduced to the hard expedient of tending
bar in a tavern, and he also kept a daughter, Milly, at Mount Vernon,
perhaps as a sort of companion to Mrs. Washington. The Captain
once wrote:

"I could [have] been able to [have] Satisfied all my old Arrears, some
months AGoe, by marrying [an] old widow woman in this County. She has
large soms [of] cash by her, and Prittey good Est.--She is as thick as
she is high---And gits drunk at Least three or foure [times] a
weak---which is Disagreable to me--has Viliant Sperrit when Drunk--its
been [a] great Dispute in my mind what to Doe,--I beleave I shu'd Run
all Resks--if my Last wife, had been [an] Even temper'd woman, but her
Sperrit, has Given me such [a] Shock--that I am afraid to Run the
Resk again."

Evidently the Captain did not find a way out of his troubles by the
matrimonial route, for somewhat later he was in jail at Queenstown,
presumably for debt, and we find in one of Washington's cash memorandum
books under date of October 15, 1773: "By Charity--given Captn. Posey,"
four pounds. One of the sons later settled in Indiana, and the "Pocket"
county is named after him.

Another boy toward whose education Washington contributed was the son of
Doctor James Craik--the boy being a namesake. Doctor Craik was one of
Washington's oldest and dearest friends. He was born in Scotland two
years before Washington saw the light at Wakefield, graduated from
Edinburgh University, practised medicine in the West Indies for a short
time and then came to Virginia. He was Washington's comrade in arms in
the Fort Necessity campaign, was subsequently surgeon general in the
Continental Army, and accompanied Washington to the Ohio both in 1770
and 1784. He married Mariane Ewell, a relative of Washington's mother,
and resided many years in Alexandria. He was a frequent visit