The writings of George Washington; being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. By Jared Sparks.

APPENDIX.] WASHINGTON'S WILL. 573
Item.-The hundred shares, which I hold in the James River
Company, I have given, and now confirm in perpetuity, to and for
the use and benefit of Liberty Hall Academy, in the County of
Rockbridge, in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Item. -I release, exonerate, and discharge the estate of my
deceased brother, Samuel Washington, from the payment of the
money which is due to me for the land I sold to Philip Pendleton,
(lying in the county of Berkeley,) who assigned the same to him, the
said Samuel, who. by agreement was to pay me therefor. And
whereas, by some contract (the purport of which was never communicated to me) between the said Samuel and his son, Thornton
Washington, the latter became possessed of the aforesaid land,
without any conveyance having passed from me, either to the said
Pendleton, the said Samuel, or the said Thornton, and without any
consideration having been made, by which neglect neither the legal
nor equitable title has been alienated; it rests therefore with me to
declare my intentions concerning the premises; and these are, to
give and bequeath the said land to whomsoever the said Thornton
Washington (who is also dead) devised the same, or to his heirs
for ever, if he died intestate; exonerating the estate of the said
Thornton, equally with that of the said Samuel, from payment of
the purchase money, which, with interest, agreeably to the original
contract with the said Pendleton, would amount to more than a
thousand pounds. And whereas two other sons of my said deceased
brother Samuel, namely, George Steptoe TWashington and Lawrence
Augustine Washington, were, by the decease of those to whose care
they were committed, brought under my protection, and, in consequence, have occasioned advances on my part, for their education at
college and other schools, for their board, clothing, and other
incidental expenses, to the amount of near five thousand dollars,
over and above the sums furnished by their estate, which sum it may
be inconvenient for them or their father's estate to refund; I do for
these reasons acquit them and the said estate from the payment
thereof, my intention being, that all accounts between them and
me, and their father's estate and me, shall stand balanced.
Item. - The balance due to me from the estate of Bartholomew
Dandridge, deceased, (my wife's brother,) and which amounted on
the first day of October, 1795, to four hundred and twenty-five
pounds, (as will appear by an account rendered by his deceased son,
John Dandridge, who was the acting executor of his father's will,)
I release and acquit from the payment thereof. And the negroes,
then thirty-three in number, formerly belonging to the said estate,