write. As to
your family I need only to say that they are well as my Sister &c
wrote to you by the same ship whilst I was up the Country. You have a
very fine prospect for a Crop of Corn & I am in hopes you have made a
worse Crop of Tob^o than you'll make this year if the fall is
Seasonable, but that depends very much upon the fall. As to Belhaven
or Alexandria I understand my Brother George has left much to say
upon that head. I purchased you two lots near the water upon the
Main street, as every one along the rode will be trough that street.
I thought they would be as agreeable to you as any, as M^r Chapman
was determined upon having the Lot on the point. I had a Plan & a
Copy of the Sale of the Lots to send you, but as my Broth^r has
sent both & I am [torn] very exact, I need not trouble you with any
more; you will see by the amount of the Sale that your part cleared
three hundred & eighty three pistoles [torn] sensible if Alexander
had Stood to the sale of them he would not have made half the Sum by
th [torn] every one seem'd to encourage the thing, upon y^r and
M^r Chapman's account, as they were sensible what you did was
through a Publick Spirit & n [torn] of interest; the reason the lots
sold so high was River side ones being sett up first which were
purchased at a very extravagant price by the prop [illegible] Your
two, M^r Carlyles M^r Dortons M^r Ramseys [illegible] M^r
Chapmans sold at different prices, as you may se by the Sale, but we
agreed before the Sale to give any Price for them & to strike them
upon an average so that by adding them up & dividing them by five you
will se what your two lots Cost. M^r Chapman was obliged to pay
Phil Alexander the money for your & his bond last Stafford Court
(before the Sale) or other wise was to have George the Second upon
his back. M^r Chapman took into Partnership M^r Ramsey Carlyle &
Dorton, Ramsey has a fourth, Dorton & Carlyle the other fourth....

The price is L10 12_s._ 10_d._

Here assuredly are the circumstances surrounding the plan of the town in
the youthful George Washington's hand, still preserved among the
Washington papers in the Library of Congress, as indeed is the relevant
letter. If this was not the actual map sent by George to Lawrence, it
most certainly was the copy which he retained for his personal files of
the eighty-four lots divided by seven streets runn