From Lawrence Lewis
2d Feby 1820
My Dr Sir,
I en[c]lose two letters for your perusal and advice[.] the one from Diggs, the matter referd to, I have not the smallest recollection of, and am fully persuaded it is only a trick, upon a supposition that rather than such a matter should be brought into court the Executors will relinquish the claim, the Wheat charged to him & which he says was an exchange of seed and, delivered to Hyland Crow an overseer of the Genls must be false, Hyland Crow lived with the Genl in the year 1796 and left him in the fall of the same, at this time Mr Pearson was Manager at Mount Vernon, the Wheat is charge to him by Mr Anderson in the year 1799 three years after, when I first applyd to him for his acct he said he had paid it to Mrs Washington when I observed I suppose Sir you have her receipt for it, "no Sir I could not think of asking so respectable a Lady for a receipt" I then told him some evidence of its having paid was essentialy necessary before the Executors could credit him with the Amt— some time after I enclosed him his account, and urged payment, he writes me, he has no recollection of any such Acct that he had purchased at the Sale of Mount Vernon & had given Mr Peter his Bond for the Amt I then wrote to him explaining the differance of the two accounts & press'd upon him the necessity of immediate payment— The thing stood thus untill 1818 (in the interim I often wrote reminding him of the claim without recg an answer,) when I put the acct in the hands of an attorney to bring suit on, the letter from him is in answer to one I lately rote to him for information as to the suit— I shall send him the Money he request so soon as I hear from Mr Custis to whom I have written inclosing a copy of Diggs letter— I have to ask the favour of you if your leisure will permit, to look at the Letters to Genl Washingn of the year 1799 and, tis probable one will be found from Diggs requesting this forward Wheat, at that time in much demand among the Farme[r]s in Virginia.
I have but little to add to the acct rendered to Mr Moore unless I send a Statement of the Rock Hall business, you were of opinion last year it had better rema[i]n untill our next settlement, when it could be more fully stated, Ranson second payment is nearly compleated, perhaps it may be as well to give Mr Moore a statement of it but in this I will be governed by you[r] opinion, I shall have to charge myse[l]f with part of this money, I was in hopes that other recourses of mine would have been coming in & that I should have been able to have apply the whole of this money to the use of the creditor legatees, but I have been disappointed— I have just imployed a Ma[n] well calculated to attend to the business with Hamontree, he will go up tomorrow morning business in Alexa. which could not be dispenced with prevented his going to day— truly & affecly yours
Lawe. Lewis
ALS, PHi: Simon Gratz Autograph Collection. Lewis addressed the cover to "Judge Washington" at Mount Vernon. BW docketed the letter in part, "The General's estate" and endorsed it, "Attend to this when I return from Washington."