The above guardian account concerns the daughter, Elizabeth, of Nicholas Smith, former Justice and Burgess of King George County and wealthy merchant who died in 1734. From my research it appears that her mother, also named Elizabeth, was her actual guardian following her husband’s death. However, Thomas Turner, by virtue of being Clerk at the time would have been charged with keeping county records and account balances under scrutiny of the court to maintain fiduciary integrity. As evidenced by his shoddy penmanship it appears that, for some reason, William Longmire was brought into the picture, probably to maintain what was called back then “a clean hand” in those records. By this year William already demonstrates not only beautiful “round hand” penmanship but also advanced double entry accounting practices. This is the earliest recorded writing of Wm Longmire found to date, preceding his work for Lord Fairfax by two and a half years. The fact that so much time elapsed between 1734 and mid 1736 without finding William’s name associated with Thomas Turner privately nor for any court records until Mar 1737/8 indicates that he probably freelanced and/or worked for an as yet unknown person or group of persons for a number of years. This could be the case prior to 1734 as well due to the fact that William was, by at least 1730, a free man. More on William’s handwriting, clerical and double entry accounting skills, and a likely apprenticeship in London prior to arriving in the colonies, will be addressed in another upcoming post.