A few of the negroes occupied positions of some trust and responsibility.  One named Davy was for many years manager of Muddy Hole Farm, and Washington thought that he carried on his work as well as did the white overseers and more quietly than some, though rather negligent of live stock.  Each year at killing time he was allowed two or three hundredweight of pork as well as other privileges not accorded to the ordinary slave.  Still his master did not entirely trust him, for in 1795 we find that Washington suspected Davy of having stolen some lambs that had been reported as “lost.”

The most famous of the Mount Vernon negroes was William Lee, better known as Billy, whose purchase from Mary Lee has already been noticed.  Billy was Washington’s valet and huntsman and served with him throughout the Revolution as a body servant, rode with him at reviews and was painted by Savage in the well-known group of the President and his family.  Naturally Billy put on airs and presumed a good deal upon his position.  On one occasion at Monmouth the General and his staff were reconnoitering the British, and Billy and fellow valets gathered on an adjoining hill beneath a sycamore tree whence Billy, telescope in hand, surveyed the enemy with much importance and interest.  Washington, with a smile, called the attention of his aides to the spectacle.  About the same time the British, noticing the group of horsemen and unable to distinguish the color of the riders, paid their respects to Billy and his followers in the shape of a solid shot, which went crashing through the top of the tree, whereupon there was a rapid recession of coat tails toward the rear.

Billy was a good and faithful servant and his master appreciated the fact.  In 1784 we find Washington writing to his Philadelphia agent:  “The mullatto fellow, William, who has been with me all the war, is attached (married he says) to one of his own color, a free woman, who during the war, was also of my family.  She has been in an infirm condition for some time, and I had conceived that the connexion between them had ceased; but I am mistaken it seems; they are both applying to get her here, and tho’ I never wished to see her more, I can not refuse his request (if it can be complied with on reasonable terms) as he has served me faithfully for many years.  After premising this much, I have to beg the favor of you to procure her a passage to Alexandria.”

Next year while Billy and his master were engaged in surveying a piece of ground he fell and broke his knee pan, with the result that he was crippled ever after.  When Washington started to New York in 1789 to be inaugurated Billy insisted upon accompanying him, but gave out on the way and was left at Philadelphia.  A little later, by the President’s direction, Lear wrote to return Billy to Mount Vernon, “for he cannot be of any service here, and perhaps will require a person to attend upon him constantly ... but if he is still anxious to come on here the President would gratify him, altho’ he will be troublesome—­He has been an old and faithful Servant, this is enough for the President to gratify him in every reasonable wish.”