To Thomas Jefferson from William Hollis, 28 April 1804
From William Hollis
28th Apl 1804
Sir
having the pleasure of being in your Company last year a fiew Minuts—& in conversation about fishing, I mentioned the manner of curing Herring by what we call gobing of them—& you told me if I if I wou’d put you up 20 bbls in that way you wou:d take them—I have them now ready & will deliver them Shortly if you:l please to favour me with a line to be left in the post office Alexa.
May Him who has given us the blessing (above all other earthly powers) grant these may find you in perfect Health —
Yr Obt Sincerely
Wm. Hollis
RC (MHi); at foot of text: “Thomas Jefferson President of the united States.” Recorded in SJL as received 4 May.
William Hollis (ca. 1749-1819) resided in Abingdon, Harford County, Maryland. According to a court petition filed in 1802, he owned two fishing vessels from which his crews worked the Patapsco River and Chesapeake Bay waters. During the spring fish runs, he also worked the Potomac at Alexandria. Hollis employed slave labor on his farm and on his boats, and advertised large rewards for two runaways in 1817, one a “good waterman and a great seine knitter” and the other “a good waterman” and “an excellent plantation man.” At the time of his death, Hollis owned a farm outside of Abingdon, “Houses & lotts” in town, and land along the Bush River and in two other counties (Gaius Marcus Brumbaugh, Maryland Records Colonial, Revolutionary, County and Church from Original Sources, 2 vols. [Baltimore, Md., and Lancaster, Pa., 1915-28], 2:174; petition of Job Garretson, 3 Jan. 1802, in Garretson v. Hollis [MdAA: Chancery Papers]; will of William Hollis, 22 July 1819, in Harford County Will Book [1811-31], 294-6; Alexandria Herald, 11 Apr. 1814, 5 Apr. 1816; Baltimore American Commercial Daily Advertiser, 14 Apr. 1817).
For the gobbing (gobing) method, see TJ’s Notes on Curing Herring, 22 May.