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| Coffeepot by Bancroft Woodcock |
For fun I googled my ancestor Bancroft Woodcock (1732-1817) and found quite the assortment of information. I had already known he was a well known silversmith in Wilmington, Delaware. As expected then many of the entries have to do with his silverware. The first entry in my search was from the State Department. This coffee pot which is on display in the John Quincy Adams Drawing Room was one of the many made by Bancroft.
That however wasn't the find of the day. Quakers Robert and Rachel Bancroft came with their young family to America in 1727. My ancestor Bancroft was born in Wilmington Delaware where the family settled. The Woodcock family was a prosperous one. They owned shipyards, the Silversmith shop and various other properties in the heart of Wilmington. Bancroft owned additional property in the Pennsylvania wilderness too. Well acquainted with the problems arising from property disputes, it makes sense he would reach out to a another planning on expanding his town. In this case, Bancroft was extending an offer to help to the future President.
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| George Washington |
Respected Friend
George Washington
As I understand thou art a Lover of Regularity & Order, I take
the Freedom to sugjest to thee, (hopeing it will not offend) that from
what a person from Allexandra told me, (on seeing his & another
Street-Commissioner, laying out the Fronts of Lots, to prevent the
Masons from Incroaching on the Streets or on their neighbours) I
understand that they are not Building that Town with that Accuracy that
we are, & which we have found by Experience to be Absolutely
Necessary to prevent Contention & even Lawsuits.
Our Mode is approved & admited by Rittenhous & Lukins, in Preferrence to theirs of Philadelphia. In the year 84 we were Appointed to Run our Streets over again, which
with an Instrument I Constructed & an Accromattic glass, we adjusted & Corrected the Irregularities into which the former
Commissioners had Inevitablity run, for want of such Machine, we have
now placed Stones from one to Four Hundred weight with a Hole in them in
the Center of the Intersections of the Streets, from which all Frunts
of Houses, Party Walls & Partition Fences within the Corporation are
to be Adjusted & Govern’d according to an Act of Assembly. This
Mode I would have Allexandra Addopt, & the sooner the better to
prevent Irregularities & Disputes.
If my Assistance will be acceptable, I will bring my Instrument &
assist the Street Commissioners of Allexandra, for Tenn Shillings pr
Day & my Accomodations.
And my Esteem’d Friend, suffer me to Request of thee, What I have
often Pourd out my Tears & put up my Supplycations to the God of my
Life for thee as for my self, when I have had to Remember thee, that as
the curtain of our Evening Closes, & (metaphorically) our shadows
Lengthens, thou & I may Dayly Experience more or less
a Well grounded Hope, that when the auful Period arrives, wh
we must forever be Seperated from all Mundine enjoyments, we may be
Admited to Join the Heavenly Hoste, in the full Fruition of that Joy,
the foretaste of which was so Delightful to the Soul, whilst in these
Houses of Clay.
That this may be Favourably received is the Desire of
thy Friend
Bancroft Woodcock *
This letter totally rates as the find of the day!
* Source: “To George Washington from Bancroft Woodcock, 11 March 1786,” Founders
Online, National Archives
(http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/04-03-02-0518, ver.
2013-08-02). Source: The Papers of George Washington, Confederation Series, vol. 3, 19 May 1785 – 31 March 1786, ed. W. W. Abbot. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1994, pp. 596–597.
