On this day 250 years ago from Mount Vernon, George Washington wrote to William Preston, County Surveyor for Fincastle County, which was the western county in Virginia constituting the frontier with Native American territory, regarding the survey of 13,000 acres in what is now West Virginia. Washington claimed this property from a land grant that was awarded to him and three additional grants that he had purchased from other Virginia militia officers who fought in the French and Indian War. Washington mentions in the letter the involvement of Andrew Lewis, William Crawford, Thomas Bullitt, and Charles Myn Thruston in conducting the survey; all of these men and Preston later became officers in the Continental Army. Washington also complained about British Secretary

Lord Hilsborough’s Instruction’s . . . that this Bounty was intended to the Regulars only—this, though I consider it in no other light than as one, among many proofs, of that Nobleman’s Malignant disposition to American’s . . . as I can see no cause why Americans (who have serv’d his Majesty in the late War with as much fidelity, & without presumption, with as much Success, as his British Troops) should be stigmatiz’d

To my knowledge, Washington never cited this issue among the causes that drove him to support Independence from Britain, but one has to wonder if the British ministry had been supportive of land grants to Virginia militia veterans if Washington would have been slower to embrace Independence.

Source: https://founders.archives.gov/?q=Recipient%3A%22Preston%2C%20William%22&s=1111311111&r=2