Three-page handwritten letter from George Washington to one of his distant Scottish relatives in 1796 reveals his praise for British farmers and desire to grow wheat on his Virginia estate
- President Washington exchanged letters with Scottish nobleman David Erskine
- The Founding Father discusses the farming undertaken at his estate in Virginia
- The letter has been preserved in the archives of the University of Edinburgh
A handwritten letter from George Washington to a distant relative reveals that he praised British farmers and wanted to grow wheat on his Virginia estate.
The three-page document — which was penned on February 20, 1796 — provides insight into the first US president, his links to Britain and his thoughts on farming.
The letter is one of around 18 that President Washington composed to the Scottish nobleman David Erskine, the 11th Earl of Buchan.
This piece of their correspondence is preserved in the archives of the University of Edinburgh and is available for viewing by members of the public.
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A handwritten letter from George Washington to a distant relative reveals that he praised British farmers and wanted to grow wheat on his Virginia estate
WHO WAS GEORGE WASHINGTON?
George Washington was a Founding Father and the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797.
Formerly he had led Patriot forces to victory in the War for Independence.
He hailed from a wealthy Virginian family that had made their money through land speculation.
His face is immortalised on the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in Black Hills region of South Dakota.
Pictured, Mount Rushmore
President Washington, then aged 63, had been holding office for seven years when he wrote the letter to Lord Eskine.
In the message, he praises British farmers and agriculture, contrasting them with the ‘slovenly farmers’ of his own country.
Unlike in the US, farmers in Scotland were forced to be careful with their use of the limited land available.
In the vast States, however, farmers could afford to be more wasteful and move on to new plots of land when the old was exhausted.
At the time, a year before he left the presidency, he was seeking to diversify his holdings at his Mount Vernon Estate in Virginia.
He wanted to focus on growing wheat — rather than tobacco, which he had abandoned in the 1760s — and move from using enslaved labour to tenant farmers.
In the letter, President Washington shared an advert he placed in a US newspaper encouraging tenant farmers to his estate — and makes it clear that he would welcome such workers from Scotland and elsewhere in Britain.
He was careful to stress, however, that he was not inviting them, which would have been illegal at the time.
The President was well aware of the emerging discipline of agricultural science, which was a product of Scottish Enlightenment thinking.
In the letter, President Washington writes: ‘I accompany the information My Lord, with an unequivocal declaration that, it is not my intention to invite Emigrants — even if there be no prohibitory act of your Government opposed to it.’
‘My sole object is, if there are persons on the move, who may incline to associate and become tenants on such a plan as I offer, that being apprised of the measure, they may decide how far their views would be accommodated by it.’
He adds that, in Britain, ‘husbandry is well understood, and the language similar.’
The letter is one of many that were donated to the university collections by the Scottish antiquarian and polymath Sir David Lang in the 1870s.
Analysis of the texts has been carried out by archivists and historians at the university, as well as by staff at the Washington Estate in the US.
Historians hope that revisiting 18th century transatlantic correspondence will help to build a clearer picture of British–US relations at the time.
The US and Britain would subsequently return to war in 1812, following confrontations over the latter’s blockading of Napoleonic France.
President Washington, then aged 63, had been holding office for seven years when he wrote the letter to Lord Eskine
‘The Enlightenment is often referred to as a “Republic of Letters”,’ said University of Edinburgh American history expert Frank Cogliano.
‘Exchanges such as those between Washington and Buchan were the social networks of their day — not only swapping ideas but advertising opportunities.’
‘How familiar it seems to us today.’
‘There is something quite compelling about the tangible nature of the original, created two days prior to Washington’s 64th birthday before making its way to Scotland,’ said University of Edinburgh’s archives manager, Rachel Hosker.
‘It enables us to imagine him writing it and allows us to consider the private individual in context.’
WHAT DOES GEORGE WASHINGTON’S LETTER SAY?
Philadelphia 20th Feb: 1796
My Lord,
Having seen several persons from the vicinity of your estate of Dryburgh Abbey, with your Lordship’s certificates of their honest and orderly deportment; (one or two of whom I have employed, and found deserving the charecter) I take the liberty of troubling Your Lordship with the perusal of the enclosed annunciation of a design, wch I have had in contemplation two or three years, but lately only have resolved to carry it into execution.
I accompany the information My Lord, with an unequivocal declaration that, it is not my intention to invite Emigrants—even if there be no prohibitary act of your Government opposed to it. My sole object is, if there are persons on the move, who may incline to associate and become tenants on such a plan as I offer, that being apprised of the measure, they may decide how far their views would be accomodated by it.
The staple produce of the part of the country in which my Mount Vernon estate lyes, being Wheat, I mean to fix the Rent in that article, as most convenient and equitable for both Landlord & tenant; and I set it at a bushel and half for every acre contained in the lease; which will be all arable, with the priviledges detailed in the printed notification. In failure of a crop of this article, the Rent may be discharged in cash, at the price it bears in the Market.
I have but little expectation I own, of maturing this plan so as to carry it into full effect next year; nor would I wish to do it with the slovenly farmers of this country, if I had a well founded hope of obtaining this class of Men from any other (particularly from Great Britain) where husbandry is well understood, and the language similar.
Having had occasion lately, to write to Doctr Anderson (of Cotfield) on other matters, I have detailed my plan much more at large than I chose to trouble your Lordship with; and have sent him a sketch of the Farms, with their relative situation to each other, and divisions into fields, Lanes lots &ca; from whence an idea, more accurate than can be formed from the printed notification, might be had;2 but it is not my wish that any man, or set of men, should engage without first, by themselves or Agents, competently qualified & instructed, viewing the premises and judging for themselves.
I pray your Lordship to present me in respectful terms, in which Mrs Washington unites, to Lady Buchan; and that you will be persuaded of the respect and consideration with which I have the honor to be
Your Lordships Most Obedient & Hble Servt
Go: Washington
SOURCE: UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH ARCHIVES
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