To George Washington from Charles Morgan, 6 December 1796
From Charles Morgan
Pittsburgh 6th December 1796
I have Receiv’d all the Rents for you, that Colo. Cannon put into my hand Except Nine pounds Sixteen Shillings, Which he had Receivd previous to delivering me the accts.1 I have forwarded the Money to you by Mr Ross—and have Inclos’d the acct.2 Colo. Cannon will not come to any Settlement with me Respecting what he owes you—he Says he Chuses to Settle with your self.
on my Way from Kentuckey last Spring in passing through your land at the Round Bottom I observd the people from Grave Creek have been making vast quantities of Shugar on it, for about three years past, and Destroyd Timber &c.3 I am your Humbe Servt
Charles Morgan
P.S. I shall Collect the Rents due from the Millers Run Estate which I contracted for as quick as possible and forward it to you &ca.4
ALS, DLC:GW. No reply to Morgan from GW has been found.
1. In June 1795, GW had asked his former rental agent John Canon to settle his account and to transmit to Morgan, GW’s rent collector in Fayette and Washington counties, Pa., a statement of the rents owed GW. In September of that year, Canon submitted to Morgan “Judgment Notes” due from Israel Shreve, who was indebted to GW for his 1795 purchase of GW’s Washington’s Bottom tract (see GW to James Ross, 5 Sept. 1795, and n.1; see also GW to Morgan, 28 June 1795, and n.2 to that document). For GW’s more recent request that Canon, Morgan, and Shreve pay their balances through James Ross, his land agent, see GW to Ross, 12 November.
2. Morgan enclosed an account, filed with this letter at DLC:GW, that reflects both payments made to GW for leases and purchases of his Pennsylvania lands, and transactions relating to Matthew Ritchie’s recent purchase of GW’s Miller’s Run tract in Washington County (see Ross to GW, 20 Aug. 1795). The account, docketed “Acct Washington & Fyatte Rents &c.,” reflects a payment of £228.3.9 in October 1796 “To Cash Sent” GW “by Mr [James] Ross on Acct of S[h]reves Notes, Including debt & Interest.” An entry for December shows a payment of £22.17.3 “To Cash Sent by Mr Ross on Acct of the Millers Run Lands, Which Accts Was put into my hands by Colo. Cannon Including Interest &c.” For the month of December, Morgan also recorded £9.16.0 “To an Acct deliverd to me by Cannon which he had Recd himself,” and £13.4.3 “To Collecting £264.5.9—at five prCt.” The total amount received came to £274.1.3. GW was owed £274.1.3 for interest on “Notes” on Shreve’s Washington’s Bottom tract and for “Notes … on acct of Rents for the Millers Run land,” which were “put into” Morgan’s “hands by Colo. Cannon.” GW’s cash accounts show that on 2 Jan. 1797, he received $670 “from Mr Charles Morgan, by the hands of … James Ross” for “Rents collected for me in the Counties of Washington & Fayette Pennsa pr Acct Rendered” (; see also , 26).
3. Morgan refers to GW’s 587-acre Round Bottom tract on the Ohio River near Captina and Grave creeks in present-day Marshall County, West Virginia. Grave Creek enters the Ohio River just below Moundsville, West Virginia.
4. Prior to the conveyance of GW’s Millers Run tract to Ritchie in June 1796, Morgan had been charged with collecting rent from GW’s tenants residing on that land (see also Ross to GW, 20 Aug. 1795, and Indenture with Matthew Ritchie, 1 June 1796).