Autograph document - Signed | Bauman Rare Books

Autograph document - Signed

#69416

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“FOR WASHINGTON… GEOGRAPHY WAS DESTINY”: EXTREMELY SCARCE AUTOGRAPH DOCUMENT LARGELY WRITTEN BY WASHINGTON IN HIS CAPACITY AS SURVEYOR AND SIGNED IN MARCH 1752

WASHINGTON, George. Autograph document signed (“G. Washington”). Frederick County, Virginia, March 28, 1752. One page, measures 9 by 7-1/2 inches, writing on recto and verso; beautifully window framed with portrait, entire piece measures 22 1/2 by 18 1/2 inches. $55,000.

Scarce early autograph document of a surveying document from Frederick County, Virginia, with the technical portions written and signed by George Washington in his capacity as surveyor, dated the “28th day of March 1752”—barely one year before the 21-year-old Virginian was appointed Major Washington, Adjutant General of the Southern District, and embarked on a soldier’s life.

“As much as he claimed that his happiest times were spent at Mount Vernon, George Washington’s most fantastic adventures had been in the hinterlands… Washington could never suppress the urge to light out for the territory.” As evidenced by this exceptional 1752 deed transfer, “he’d been a surveyor as a young man, lugging his chain and his theodolite into the remote vales of colonial Virginia.” It was an experience that offered a unique and valuable perspective, for Washington saw “more of America than almost any other prominent figure in his generation… Of the men who would someday be known as the Founding Fathers, only Washington had routinely slept under the stars” (Achenbach, 25-6). As such it was in the spring of 1752 that Washington “went to Frederick County in March and undertook new surveys that occupied his time until nearly the first of May” (Freeman, 30). Within months, however, Washington’s beloved half-brother and frequent partner died, and he soon embarked on a soldier’s life—a path that ultimately altered history. Though this document notably foreshadows that turning point, to Washington it would always hold true that “to know the future you had to study maps. You had to look at the land… know not only distances and elevations, but… all the practical data embedded in the environment… For Washington and many others of his generation, geography was destiny” (Achenbach, 30).

This autograph document, prepared by Washington as a surveyor in that spring of 1752, concerns a deed transfer. William Warden, the son of a Frederick County landowner, was willed his father’s land. Upon providing proof of the death, his relation to the deceased and his property rights, he requested a deed transfer to Isaac Hite, which this surveying document provides. Written in Washington’s hand, it reads: “By virtue of a warrant from the Proprietors Office I have survey’d for William Warden a certain tract of waste and ungranted land situate in Frederick County and on the No. river of Cacapehon [Cacapon] at the Fork thereof— Beginning at two white Oaks in an Island corner to John Stackhouse’s Ld. and extended No.20°.W.Two hund’d and ten poles to a spanish Oak and black Oak on the side of a Mountain………thence No.45°.W.160 poles so by river Three hund’d poles thence W.20°E. Two hund’d and ten poles to John Stackhouse’s co. thence with his line No.45°.W. Threehund’d and five poles to the Beginning containing Threehund’d & Eighty acres this 28th day of March 1752. Yrs. G. Washington. John Lonen. William Baker-C.C. James Baker-M[aker].” The remaining portions of the document referring to the deed transfer as well as another related notation are in separate hands.

Two tape and two cloth tape repairs to verso of document. An extraordinary autograph document with significant portions written in Washington’s hand and signed by him. Most scarce and desirable, beautifully framed.