the which the Indians had granted to Croghan at the Forks of the Ohio, they requested that the Crown grant Croghan as much land elsewhere. Sir William Johnson was censured by the Crown for aiding Croghan's private land dealings, and the government refused to ratify these private requests. Facing bankruptcy, Croghan "drew bills payable on Samuel Wharton in London" for thousands of pounds in order to patent his New York land. Crippled with gout and hounded by creditors, Croghan sought refuge in Croghan Forest, which totaled more than . Its remote setting did not protect him when the Wharton bills were returned for nonpayment in February 1770. Croghan Hall gave the ailing Croghan a refuge from lawsuits and debtors' prison, but he could do little more than watch as settlers poured into the Ohio Country on land he considered to be his. Pennsylvania appointed officials for newly established Bedford County in 1771. Among those buying land from Croghan's 1749 Indian grant was George Washington through his agent William Crawford.[13] "I am likely to sell another tract to Coll. Washington and his friends," Croghan wrote to Joseph Wharton, Jr. and to Michael Gratz, "I have sold a parcel of lands to Coll Washington,"[14], but there were no further sales to him beyond in today's Perryopolis, Pennsylvania. Crawford surveyed land near Chartiers Creek for Washington that Croghan claimed when his survey of an Indian deed fell far short of the called for and he had it redone. More than twenty years later, in 1784, Washington won a court case against Chartiers Creek families who had bought their land from Croghan. Washington's document was dated July 5, 1775, two years after his land dispute with Croghan began.[15] It was made out by Lord Dunmore aboard a British warship on the James River, signed a few days after Washington had assumed command of the Continental army besieging Boston.[16] Croghan's luck appeared to change when the Crown agreed to a new inland colony, Vandalia, appointing him as Indian agent and its largest land owner. Crown agents were restricted from forming such ventures, however, so Croghan resigned from the Indian Department on November 2, 1771. Alexander McKee took his place as deputy agent, with Croghan "on call when Indian affairs were critical." He took his cousin Thomas Smallman into a fur trading partnership and Croghan "made a major effort to liquidate his debts." Although failing to