White House Historical Association

James Wilkes

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"James Wilkes," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/67.
Position
Unclear from Context Unclear from Context
Years in President's House
circa 1796 – 1797
Legal Status
Free Person
Gender
Male
Race/Ethnicity
Unclear from Context
Presidency
George Washington
Biography
Information about James Wilkes’ life outside of the President’s House remains unknown. Wilkes worked for George Washington at the President’s House in Philadelphia. His role in the household remains unknown, but he did occasionally travel between the President’s House and Washington’s plantation Mount Vernon and therefore may have been a coachman.1 He began to appear in Washington’s household records in late 1796 and earned between $12.00 and $13.50 per month. According to one record in December 1796, he was paid $7.00 to compensate him “for so much stolen from him at Mt. V.” At another point in January 1797, Washington paid $22.67 for “James Wilkes expenses at the Pennsylva. Hospital.”2 He continued working for Washington until the conclusion of his presidency in March 1797.
  1. “George Washington to William Pearce, 14 November 1796,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-21-02-0091. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 21, 22 September 1796–3 March 1797, ed. Adrina Garbooshian-Huggins. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2020, pp. 217–220.]; “George Washington to William Pearce, 26 October 1796,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-21-02-0055. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 21, 22 September 1796–3 March 1797, ed. Adrina Garbooshian-Huggins. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2020, pp. 131–133.].
  2. “Washington’s Household Account Book, 1793-1797 (continued),” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 1907, Vol. 31, No. 3, 324, 337, 347, https://www-jstor-org.mutex.gmu.edu/stable/pdf/20085390.pdf?refreqid=fastly-default:3538ab8a1197726aa250c965b5bf39cd&ab_segments=&initiator=recommender&acceptTC=1. 
Birthplace
Unclear from Context
Unclear from Context