GEORGE WASHINGTON Washington handwrote and signed this document, showing that he paid 100 for his neighbor’s wheat, only five months after being selected to be a delegate at the Continental Congress. This document has his full name of “George Washington” instead of his more common signature of “G. Washington”, which makes it especially rare. Autograph document signed in text: “George Washington”. 1 page, 7¼x4¼. [Fairfax County, Virginia, 1774 December 23]. In Full: “Then Received from George Washington the Currt Sum of One hundred pounds in part payment for Wheat sold him by” to which the seller has signed: “Thomas Triplett”. Penned at top left (unknown hand, possibly Triplett’s): “Receivd Decr 23d 1774”. THOMAS TRIPLETT was a descendent of French Huguenots who came to America to escape religious persecution. Triplett grew wheat on his plantation in Fairfax County, not far from Washington’s Mount Vernon plantation. After his brother Lawrence’s widow died in 1761, George Washington became the outright owner of Mount Vernon and began to shift his farms over from the traditional tobacco crop to wheat, for which he built his own gristmill. His mill ground grain into flour. Five months before Washington purchased this wheat, on July 14, 1774, he was selected by Fairfax County to be a delegate to the first Virginia Convention, which met in Williamsburg in August. He then served as a member of the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia from September 5 to October 26, 1774, returning to the Second Continental Congress which convened on May 10, 1775. This document was written between the dates of the First and Second Continental Congresses. The Battles of Lexington and Concord were fought on April 19, 1775, beginning the Revolutionary War. On June 15, 1775, Washington was unanimously chosen as Commander in Chief of “all the forces raised or to be raised” and c… More information available.
