MDDM Washington, Gershom, Great Dismal Swamp

[jbor]

Possible source for the name of Washington's manservant, Gershom:

"Leaving Mount Vernon on May 16, 1763, Washington set out for Williamsburg
to attend an extra session of the House of Burgesses. On Wednesday, May 25,
1763, according to his carefully kept expense accounts, he set out on
horseback down the Virginia Peninsula for Hampton, where he paid one
shilling, five pence to be ferried over to Norfolk. Arriving there,
Washington took another ferry to Portsmouth, paying one shilling, six pence
for his fare, and proceeded to Colonel Edward Riddick's plantation in
Nansemond County, from which he set out to explore the Great Dismal, which
he described as 'a glorious paradise'.

[...]

Washington is known to have made at least five other visits to his lands in
the Dismal Swamp, but there is no record that he ever passed through Norfolk
again. Records indicate that he used Suffolk as a base from then on because
of its closer proximity to the swamp. But when Washington wanted his Dismal
Swamp holdings charted, he entrusted the survey to Gershom Nimmo (? -1764),
the surveyor of Norfolk County, whose map, dated 'Norfolk, 20 November
1763', has been preserved. This chart includes the earliest known map of
Lake Drummond."

http://www.norfolkhistorical.org/highlights/14.html

Historical documents and data pertaining to the development of the Great
Dismal Swamp, with a reprint of Colonel Byrd's 1728 Journal detailing plans
for the propagation of hemp after the draining of the swamp:

http://www.webroots.org/library/usahist/dotds000.html

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