John Augustine Washington Iii Samuel E Nevitt (1 results)

No binding. Condition: Good. Autograph Letter Signed, to John Augustine Washington III, Accontink, Virginia, July 12, 1859; Endorsement by JOHN AUGUSTINE WASHINGTON III, July 12, 1859. 2 pp., 8 x 10 in. "He had her services for four months, gave her no clothes & refused to pay any thing. A suit will cost more that the debt. Have nothing more to do with him" Complete Transcript Accotink July 12th/59Jno. A. Washington Esqr Dear Sir Yours of 6th inst Came duly to hand, win which you say that you did not exactly understand the ground I take in refusing to pay you what you claim as hire for servant girl. I was a little surprised at this, as I tried to make the case a plain one & flattered myself that I had succeeded in doing so. If you understood me as refusing to pay the claim, I either misstated my own meaning or you greatly misunderstood me. I did not refuse to pay the debt, but claimed to have paid it nine months ago, & now I refuse to pay it the second time. This claim you recollect you placed in P. H. Troth' hands for settlement, he either having bought the claim or you made him your agent to collect it. Soon afterwards Mr T. presented it & I then gave him an order on Danl Williamson for $44 which embraced what I then owed him & the $20 due you. I afterwards settled with D. Williamson which I had to do by warrant for $23 which was due me after deducting out the above mentioned order of $44 for which I gave W. credit and did not know that he had not paid it until a short time since. Mr T as your agent is responsible to you and you are responsible for his act as your agent, and as such having settled this Claim with him, I must leave all further settlement of the mater between you & him & between him and Williamson In haste very respectfully yr obt servt &c Saml E. Nevitt[Address:]Jno A. Washington Esqr / Mount Vernon / Va[Endorsement by John Augustine Washington III:]1859, July 12th / S .C. NevittThe amount of the matter is that Mr Nevitt hired a negro from me in 1857 for the year at $60. About the 1st of May to accommodate him I took her back.He had her services for four months, gave her no clothes & refused to pay any thing.A suit will cost more that the debtHave nothing more to do with himHistorical BackgroundOn December 25, 1857, Samuel E. Nevitt and William Nevitt hired the slave Jenny for a year for $60 from John Augustine Washington III, who was the last private owner of the Mount Vernon estate of George Washington. Samuel E. Nevitt was unsatisfied with her performance and returned her after four months. Nevitt initially refused to pay anything but then agreed to pay $20 for the proportional time.Augustine Washington had sold 200 acres of his great uncle's estate to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association in 1858, but did not turn it over to the organization until 1860. Throughout his ownership of Mount Vernon, one source of income for Augustine Washington was renting out slave labor to surrounding farms and plantations.It was common for antebellum Americans to transfer debts in a society scarce of cash. When debtors and creditors transferred and combined debts, the result was a complicated web of credit that the courts often had to sort out. In this case, Washington determined that the costs of a lawsuit would be more than the debt.Samuel E. Nevitt (1825-1897) was born in Maryland. He married Mary Jane Marders in May 1855, in Fairfax County, Virginia. In 1860, he was a farmer along the South Orange and Alexandria Railroad in Fairfax County and owned $2,000 in real estate and $2,000 in personal property, including 3 slaves.John Augustine Washington III (1821-1861) was born in Blakeley, (West) Virginia, the son of John Augustine Washington II and Jane Charlotte Blackburn Washington, and graduated from the University of Virginia in 1840. His father inherited George Washington's estate Mount Vernon in 1829, but it passed to his wife at his death in 1832. In 1841, Augustine Washington proposed to manage Mount Vern. (See website for full description). Autograph Letter Signed.…