On this 250 years ago in Philadelphia, Virginia Congressman Richard Henry Lee wrote to Thomas Jefferson who had returned to Virginia about his appointment as one of the Commissioners to France:

The plan of foreign treaty is just finished, and yourself, with Doctor Franklin, and Mr. Deane now in France, are the Trustees to execute this all important business. The great abilities and unshaken virtue, necessary for the execution of what the safety of America does so capitally rest upon, has directed the Congress in their choice; and tho ambition may have no influence in this case, yet that distinguished love for your country that has marked your life, will determine you here. In my judgement, the most emminent services that the greatest of her sons can do America will not more essentially serve her and honor themselves, than a successful negotiation with France. With this country, every thing depends upon it, and if we may form a judgement of what is at a distance, the dispositions of that Court are friendly in a high degree, and want only to be properly acted upon, to be wrought into fixt attachment and essential good.

Jefferson would decline the appointment because of his wife Martha’s poor health, and would end up going to France in 1784 only after his wife had passed away.

Source: “Richard Henry Lee to Thomas Jefferson, 27 September 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-01-02-0219. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 1, 1760–1776, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950, pp. 522–523.]

On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, Virginia, Purdie’s Virginia Gazette reported the death of Ensign Benjamin Winslow while in service:

Mr. Benjamin Winslow, ensign in the 5th regiment, and eldest son of mr. Beverley Winslow, a youth who nobly stepped forth, at the early age of 18, determined to risk his life in his country’s defence. Fate, however, has deprived him of that honour, and brought him to the grave by a malignant fever, to the inexpressible sorrow of his fond parents, the grief of his fellow soldiers in the army, and of his acquaintances in general.

I could not determine the exact date or location of Ensign Winslow’s death but the 5th Virginia was in the Williamsburg area in September and the troops in that area were “extremely sickly” with smallpox and other illnesses at that time.

Source: https://research.colonialwilliamsburg.org/todayIn1770s/index.cfm?SelectedMonth=09&SelectedDay=27