It was 1747, and Francis Jett needed a survey of two parcels of land he owned or intended to buy in the Northern Neck of Virginia. He hired a local teen-ager to do the job. It was some of the first paid work for the 15-year-old surveyor, who later went on to greater fame in other fields of employment. His name was George Washington. The details can be found with a Google Book search for “Journal of my Journey Over the Mountains,” subtitled “by George Washington, While Surveying for Lord Thomas Fairfax, Baron of Cameron, in the Northern Neck of Virginia, Beyond the Blue Ridge, in 1747-8.” The book edited by collector and Smithsonian benefactor J. M. Toner, M.D., was published in Albany, New York, in 1892. The book also includes earlier surveys in Culpeper County, Virginia – east of the Blue Ridge – that were done for individuals other than Lord Fairfax. The first parcel is described on page 75 of the book. My estimate of its size is about 320 acres, a half section. (I could be wrong.) The second parcel is described on Page 76, and its outline, as copied from the original Washington drawing, is on a facing page. It has an area of just over 45 acres, and there was a house located on it. The surveys done by George Washington immediately before and after the Francis Jett surveys were ordered by John Monroe; John Watts; Richard Roe; and Elizabeth Washington (apparently designating the third to which she was entitled as a widow). I believe all of these names can be traced to early settlers of Westmoreland County, where the Jett family ahd settled nearly 100 years earlier. Which Francis Jett was this? And where exactly was the land located? (There are no references to landmarks other than such boundary markers as hickory, oak, walnut, gum, dogwood, and mulberry trees.) Further detective work (want to help?) may answer these questions, or at least turn up more clues.