12
��THE GRANITE MONTHLY.
��est, and afford valuable material for publication. A very interesting letter of March 30, 1789, from Col. Lear to his brother-in-law, appeared in the Portsmouth Journal of March 8, 1873, giving a very graphic account of the farming operations of " my General," whom he considers "a great and good character," and one of the greatest farmers in America, if not in the world, possessing in one body, nearly ten thousand acres of land, about the " seat," which from its situation and improvements, may in this country be called " a palace." This large farm gave constant employment to upward of two hundred and fifty persons, ex- clusive of carpenters, joiners, brick- layers, blacksmiths, a tailor, and a shoe- maker, so that " the seat and its offices resembled a little village." The farm, contrary to the custom in the Southern States, was not under the direction of overseers, but Washington himself superintended and gave personal atten- tion to all the minutiae of its manage- ment. Twenty-four plows were kept in constant use, when the weather permitted, and in the spring of 17S9, when the letter was written, six hun- dred bushels of oats had been sown, upward of seven hundred acres with wheat, as much more prepared for corn, barley, potatoes, pease, beans, &c, five hundred acres assigned to grass, and during the summer one hundred and fifty acres were to be utilized in the raising of turnips. It appears that "none of that pernicious weed, called tobacco." was raised, but only such food as was good for man and beast. The live stock is given as one hundred and forty horses, one hundred and twelve cows, two hundred and thirty- five working oxen, steers, and heifers, and five hundred sheep. Yet notwith- standing all the appearances of income, Col. Lear believed no real profit was derived, as almost all the product of the farm was consumed on the prem- ises. Before the war, tobacco and wheat were the principal products, and the quantity not consumed on the es- tate was shipped to American and
��foreign ports. A flouring mill was operated, a brick yard worked, and a carpenter establishment sustained. There were also valuable fishing land- ings on the shores bordering on the Mount Vernon lands. The cultivation of tobacco was abandoned because Washington believed it exhausted the soil, and its free use injured the health of the laborers. I have seen, in the possession of Joseph M. Toner, M. D., of this city, a piece of plank, cut from the bolting chest at the time the flouring mill was taken down, in 1852, on which was burnt, " G. Wash- ington," in antique English letters. All barrels and packages bearing Wash- ington's brand passed unchallenged, free of inspection every where.
Some facts in reference to the ances- try of the subject of this sketch may not be uninteresting. Henry Sher- burne, of noble ancestry, whose de- scendants became notable citizens,' came to Portsmouth from England, with the early settlers in 1631, and died about 1680. He married, Nov. 13, 1637, Rebecca Gibbins, who died July 3, 1667. She was the only daughter of Ambros Gibbins and Eli- zabeth Gibbins. Her father was of ancient lineage, one of the company of early settlers, a companion of Sher- burne, trader for the company of La- conia, factor and attorney for Mason, commissioner, &c. He was elected assistant governor of the Portsmouth settlement, in 1640, and died July 1, 1656. His wife died May 14, 1655. Tobias Lear married, April n, 1667, Elizabeth, born Aug. 4, 1638, the eldest daughter of Henry and Rebecca Sherburne, just named. She was the widow of Tobias Langdon, whom she married June 10, 1656, and who died July 27, 1664. Tobias and Elizabeth Lear had a daughter Eliza- beth, born Feb. 1, 1669, who died in 1 68 1. The father died about the same time, leaving one son, Tobias Lear, who may, according to Savage, have been of Newcastle of 1727.
Col. Tobias Lear, the subject of this sketch, was the son of Captain Tobias
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