About
William Grayson (c.1740-1790) was a politician and soldier in the American Revolution. He served as a colonel in the Virginia State Militia and then as an aide-de-camp to George Washington. He would later serve in the Continental Congress, in the Virginia House of Delegates, and in the Virginia convention for the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, to which he was opposed. He was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1789 until his death. Grayson was a friend of Short.
Citation(s):
“Charles Lee to George Washington, 29 October 1788,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-01-02-0062. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 1, 24 September 1788 – 31 March 1789, ed. Dorothy Twohig. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987, pp. 82–84.]
"Grayson, William," History, Art & Archives, United States House of Representatives, https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/G/GRAYSON,-William-(G000403)/, accessed 20 May 2026.
George G. Shackleford, Jefferson’s Adoptive Son: The Life of William Short, 1759-1848 (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky Press, 1993), passim.
Recipient
- Letter not found; listed by William Short in an inventory of his correspondence.Written by: