Description:

Wartime Receipt for Payment on William A. Washington's Account

William Augustine Washington, George Washington's nephew, owed a debt to Fredericksburg furniture maker James Allan, and this receipt reflects a payment of '27..12..0 by local schoolteacher John Lowe on Washington's account.

[WILLIAM A. WASHINGTON.] James Allan, Manuscript Document Signed, Receipt for payment by John Lowe on account of William Washington, March 16, 1778, Fredericksburg, Virginia. Written by Washington, so effectively signed three times by him in text. 1 p., 7.125" x 12" Browning and tape repairs to tears; one repaired hole minimally affecting text.

Complete Transcript
Fredericksburg March 16th 1778
Recd of John Lowe '27 12Sh on accot of Willm Augt Washington
James Allan

Historical Background
Scottish immigrant James Allan became a successful furniture maker in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Among his customers was planter George Washington, who purchased a bedstead and military chest in 1756 and a pair of mahogany candle stands in 1759. The military chest may have been for Washington's use during the French and Indian War. Washington may also have purchased a pair of butter molds from Allan in 1773.

William Augustine Washington (1757-1810) was born in Virginia to Augustine Washington Jr. (1720-1762; half-brother of George Washington) and Anne Aylett Washington. At his father's death when he was five years old, William Augustine Washington inherited the Wakefield plantation. During the Revolutionary War, he served as a captain in the Westmoreland County militia but saw little military action. A firearms accident in 1778 may also have limited his service, but a decade later he was promoted to colonel of the county militia. When his house burned in 1779, Washington moved his family inland from the Potomac River to another house on the estate. As a planter, he owned 69 slaves in 1782. From 1784 to 1786, Washington served as sheriff of Westmoreland County. In 1788, county voters elected him to the Virginia House of Delegates, where he served alongside Richard Lee from June 1788 to October 1789. He was listed as one of the seven executors of George Washington's will. In 1804, he moved to the Georgetown neighborhood of the District of Columbia. He married three times, first to his cousin Jane Washington (1759-1791) in 1777, with whom he had six children; then after she died, to Mary Lee (1764-1795), the daughter of Richard Henry Lee; and after her death to Sarah Tayloe (1765-1834) in 1799, with whom he had at least one child.

James Allan (1716-1799) was born in Scotland and emigrated to Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1739, following his brother John, who had arrived in Fredericksburg five years earlier. James Allan quickly began his career as a furniture maker; a year after he arrived, the county court paid him three hundred pounds of tobacco to make a square table out of black walnut. He also employed indentured servants and at least one slave as apprentices in his shop.

John Lowe (1750-1798) was born in Scotland and educated at the University of Edinburgh. He achieved some fame as a poet with the ballad "Mary's Dream" before coming in 1773 to Virginia, where he became a tutor in the family of a brother of George Washington. Some accounts place Lowe as a tutor in the family of John Augustine Washington (1736-1787, a younger full brother), while others place Lowe in the family of an "elder brother" of Washington'which would have been the family of half-brother Augustine Washington Jr. (1720-1762), as no children survived from his other two half-brothers. Lowe later operated an academy in Fredericksburg that succeeded for a time before failing. He was ordained in 1785 and became an Episcopal minister at Hanover Parish in King George County, Virginia. He died in Culpepper County, Virginia, perhaps by suicide through an overdose of laudanum.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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