ind the G[eneral] very
well--we came within the month from home to the Camp.

I see your Brother at princeton he was very well but did not talk of
comeing home soon.

Plese to give my love and good wishes to your mamma & grand mamma,
Mr. Ramsay and Family, my compliments to all enquiring Freinds, the
good gentlemen that came with me up to Baltimore, and Mrs.
Herbert--in which the general and Mr. and Mrs. Custis join, please to
remember us to Mr. and Mrs. McCarty and Family.

I am Dear miss your most affectionate Friend and Well &C

MARTHA WASHINGTON.[66]

Ramsay did not wait for death to close his eyes ere he provided for his
children. As early as 1777, and probably before, he divided his original
purchase of lots Nos. 46 and 47 among his eight children. There is a
much-worn old plat still in the hands of his descendants showing this
division; on file at Fairfax Court House there is a deed to his youngest
son, Dennis, for that part of his lot No. 47 fronting on Fairfax and
King Streets, "Beginning at the S.W. corner of said lot extending north
up Fairfax 90 feet more or less to Ramsay's Alley, then east down said
alley 75 feet more or less, then South 90 feet to King Street, and then
West with King 75 feet to the beginning with all houses warehouses
Buildings, etc."

To his eldest son and namesake he gave his dwelling house and lot lying
to the north of the alley. As the custom of primogeniture prevailed it
was but natural that William Jr. fell heir to the dwelling house of his
father. At the time of this gift in December 1784, William reserved to
himself an "absolute right and title to take away as much earth or dirt
from said ground even up to my Dwelling House, if necessary without
prejudice to the said House to be applied towards filling up my wharf
and Peers until they are finished ..."[67] After the death of his
father, William Jr., bachelor, "farm let" to his brother, the married
Dennis, for the full term of ten years from the 10th day of May last
[1785], "the rent to be fixed by Robert McCrea, John Allison, or any
other person whom they shall choose--the lot lying and being on the
north side of King Street and the east side of Fairfax, beginning upon
Fairfax Street ten feet south of the south end of the Kitchen, which
stands upon the said street belonging to William Ramsay, then running
east sixty-six feet parallel to King, then north parallel with Fairfax
twenty-five fe