Tobias Lear wrote:
Clearly he read about the Virginia Assembly, but what newspapers would have been readily available at Mount Vernon in December 1799, and what "interesting or entertaining" things could Washington have been reading aloud?
A separate, but related follow-up question. Since Lear obviously stayed into the evening, did he currently reside inside the Mount Vernon mansion when Washington died? If so, is it known which bedroom was his?
The Library of Congress has a collection of digitized newspapers that go back to the colonial and founding period. Virginia doesn't have as many as states like New York and I don't know all the big papers in Virginia. I know GW died in December of 1799. The LoC has this issue of the Virginia Argus for Dec 6, 1799. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024710/1799-12-06/ed-1/seq-1/
The about page says it was printed every 2 weeks and there's another issue for late December of 1799. The collection is kind of spotty for all the reasons you'd guess having a 200 year old record of newspapers would be spotty. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024710/
The other thing I'd recommend is the great people over at the University of Wisconsin have a wonderful collection of resources at Center for the Study of the American Constitution. John Kaminski has done a bunch of research on founding era documents. He's written up essays that summarize what was newspapers were available in each state and some basic info on them. Here's his essay for Virginia, but bear in mind this is about a decade before Washington's death and the newpaper names changed or went out of business. The Virginia Argus at this time was the Virginia Gazette and Weekly Advertiser I believe, but if you look at the site you'll notice there's 4 different Virginia Gazettes.
https://csac.history.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/281/2017/07/virginia_newspapers.pdf
That site has a bunch of useful stuff though, from document collections to explanatory essays to videos. It's a fun place to poke around if you're interested in the period. https://csac.history.wisc.edu/
The Richmond Virginia Argus of Dec. 6 has news of Napoleon's campaign in the Netherlands ( "translated from papers received by the Cabot, Captain Compton, arrived from Emden"), speeches from the recent session of Parliament in London. Also notice of a Republican Beef Roast at Miller's Tavern, "for the purpose of celebrating the probable preponderance of democratic principles in the United Sates" and specifically the election of a Republican governor in Pennsylvania. There's an announcement that the King of Spain has declared war on Russia. Also various advertisements. Among the many, A. Blair, executive of Virginia, posts notice of the state being willing to buy 4,000 stands of arms ( i.e. muskets with accessories) and lists their specifications for all willing to supply them. John Mayo has a front page ad offering "150 dollars reward for stopping the villain!" : an escaped slave named George, who Mayo warns is possibly intent on rejoining his family in Kentucky, after "possessing the means of travelling by forcing my desk". He offers the $150 if George is caught out of state and returned, $50 if taken in state, and $30 if secured at a jail where he can be retrieved ( as a free workman, George might earn 50 cents a day). Mayo warns he will prosecute anyone giving George assistance. Perhaps a relative, William Mayo, is selling a fine plantation, "Powhatan", of 3,000 acres near Richmond.
You can browse it yourself here
As mentioned above, the papers are available in which you're likely to find the aforementioned political proceedings and commentary, runaway adds, advertisements for local goods in Alexandria, and legal notices.
As for Colonel Lear after the passing of his second wife, a niece to lady Washington, whom with he shared a nearby house on 360 acres of the estate, he was brought back into the Washington household. Reading further into the death account that you're quoting you'll find, "Christopher desiri[n]g me to take care of the General’s keys and other things which were taken out of his pockets; and which Mrs Washington directed him to give to me. I wrapped them in the General’s handkerchief & took them with me to my room."
Im not sure it's known which room he occupied after 1797, but I can find out on Thursday the once I arrive there, but until then you have several likely options. The rooms on the second floor today known as the yellow, blue, and Lafayette bed chambers are possibilities, the fourth chintz room having belonged to newlyweds Nelly and Lawrence. Then there are the Garret chambers on the third floor, which are not accessible to the public today. These didn't originally have fireplaces so were usually used for storage and unlikely the room, but a small fireplace was added to the northeast chamber in 1776. In 1797, Washington drew a plan indicating that he intended to install a stove in the southeast chamber, but this stove was instead added to its neighbor to the west, which Mrs. Washington occupied after her husband's death in 1799. This leaves these two rooms as possibilities as well.
My personal opinion is that immediate family was closer to the Washington's bed chamber on the west side. The grandchildren probably slept in the yellow room next to the chintz room or upstairs with Lear in either the blue or Lafayette room, the latter of which is my gut choice. Again, I'll most likely have a solid answer tomorrow or Thursday.