THE STORY OF George's half-amusing, half-instructive experiences
beyond the mountains was one, of course, that all his kinsmen wished
to hear. After telling it at Mount Vernon to Lawrence and Nancy, the
young gentleman who had been to the frontier had to repeat his
narrative at Ferry Farm, probably at Pope's Creek and, in June, among
the pleasant families of Chotank whom he was now of an age to
appreciate.

The name Chotank or Jotank was that of a Washington plantation,
of a creek and of a long stretch of quiet country along the south shore
of the Potomac East and West of the creek. So friendly were most of
the residents of this part of King George County that they never drew
a rigid boundary of their neighborhood. Agriculturally it was rolling
tobacco country with a stiff, rich soil; ¹ spiritually, its life centered
around St. Paul's Church. ² Family history was the only history made
or written in Chotank. ³

Chotank plantation had come into Washington hands through the
distaff line. The immigrant Lawrence, brother of George's great-
grandfather, had married as his second wife the widow Joyce Fleming,
by whom he had a son, John. Of this John, a letter survives that sum-
marized his career: "My mother married another man after my father
died, who spent all, so that I had not the value of 20s of my father's
estate, I being the youngest and therefore the weakest, which generally
comes off short." He continued: "But I thank God my fortune has
been pretty good since as I have got a good and kind and loving

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