1To Thomas Jefferson from John Taylor, 5 December 1780 (Jefferson Papers)
It gives me great uneasyness that the Militia of this County By their riotous behavour have prevented my making a proper return to you. On the day appointed for the Draft they assembled in a Mob, and disarm’d the Officers as they came to the field, and took from me the papers relative to the draft which prevented my carrying it on. I had a Court Martial held according to Law, and many were...
2To Thomas Jefferson from John Taylor, 15 April 1781 (Jefferson Papers)
Lancaster County, 15 Apr. 1781 . Encloses “a list of the number of Men raised in this County for recruiting this States quota of Troops to serve in the Continental Army, likewise a particular number of each Division, and a return of the Militia but not so full as your last instructions required, as I have not recieved any returns from the Different Captains since.” The return of ammunition...
3To Thomas Jefferson from John Taylor, with Jefferson’s Opinion on Mary Wayland, [16 August 1782] (Jefferson Papers)
Your most Curious Council is required on the following Cases. Case the 1st. Adam Wayland of Culpeper County in the Virga. State, after 1st. Lawful Marriage had 6 Children by his wife and She pregnant with the 7th.—Made a Will by which will he bequeath’d his wife one full Third part of his Estate, his wife in time of her pregnancy was Taken with the Small pox and Died—after remaining a widower...
4From Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1 May 1794 (Jefferson Papers)
In my new occupation of a farmer I find a good drilling machine indispensably necessary. I remember your recommendation of one invented by one of your neighbors; and your recommendation suffices to satisfy me with it. I must therefore beg of you to desire one to be made for me, and if you will give me some idea of it’s bulk, and whether it could travel here on it’s own legs, I will decide...
5To Thomas Jefferson from John Taylor, 1 June 1794 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter dated one month past, was delivered to me, as I was about to leave philadelphia, and this circumstance defered my answer hitherto. It was my purpose previously to have seen Mr: Martin, who is the inventor of the drilling machine , the simplicity of which is its best recommendation; but a succession of heavy rains have swept off our mills and bridges, and left a gulf between Mr:...
6To Thomas Jefferson from John Taylor, 15 August 1794 (Jefferson Papers)
Some time past, I inclosed you the pamphlet you wrote for—accepted of your commission to procure the drill plow—and requested to know to whom at Richmond I should forward it. The plow has been ready for some time and delayed for want of an answer. Concluding at length, that my letter, or your reply has failed, I have forwarded it herewith to the care of Mr: John Harvie at Richmond, and...
7From Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 29 December 1794 (Jefferson Papers)
I have long owed you a letter, for which my conscience would not have let me rest in quiet but on the consideration that the paiment would not be worth your acceptance. The debt is not merely for a letter the common traffic of a day, but for valuable ideas, which instructed me, which I have adopted, and am acting on them. I am sensible of the truth of your observations that the atmosphere is...
8To Thomas Jefferson from John Taylor, 5 March 1795 (Jefferson Papers)
There is a spice of fanaticism in my nature upon two subjects—agriculture and republicanism, which all who set it in motion, are sure to suffer by. Tho’ there is no comfort, there is a warning in the confession, enabling you at this moment to escape from its effect. For I am about to go farther into the means which I have practised for the recovery of worn out lands, the experiments I have...
9From Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 13 April 1795 (Jefferson Papers)
This is not the long letter I intend to write in answer to yours of the 5th. Ult. That must await a rainy day, perhaps a rainy season. But as the sowing the succory will not await, I write a line for the present, merely to cover a little seed which I have procured from a neighbor for you. It must be sown immediately, in drills which will admit the plough, and very thin in the drill as the...
10From Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 15 April 1795 (Jefferson Papers)
We have tried the drill with Lucerne seed, and found it shed a great deal too much, so that we were obliged to lay it aside. I presume therefore I was mistaken in saying the band and buckets which came were for turnep seed. We rather guess they were for peas or corn. I must correct therefore my petition for the two larger sizes, and in the uncertainty in which I am, I must rather pray for a...