Thomas Jefferson Papers

Hutchins G. Burton to Thomas Jefferson, 4 February 1817

From Hutchins G. Burton

Halifax, 4th Feby. 1817.—

Dear Sir,

I was informed by Mrs. Eppes, that you wished an annual supply of Scoupernong Wine,—I am in the habit of purchasing for the use of my own family, and will with much pleasure undertake the Commission, as it will be no additional trouble.—Be good enough to inform me, whether it would be more convenient for you that the wine be sent to Petersburg, Richmond, or to Mr John W. Eppes’s, as I can at any time forward it to either of those places.—

I am apprehensive that I shall not be able to purchase a barrel of the best quality untill next fall, as it is now late in the season,—and it is likely the Malthers have sold the greater part of the present crop.—I shall, however have an opportunity of knowing in a few weeks, and should I meet with success will follow your directions.

I am, with the highest consideration Yours.

Hutchins G. Burton

RC (MHi); addressed: “Thomas Jefferson Esquire Monticello Virginia” and “post office Cartersvill”; franked; postmarked Halifax, N.C., “<Jan> Febry–5th”; endorsed by TJ as received 27 Feb. 1817 and so recorded in SJL.

Hutchins Gordon Burton (d. 1836), attorney and public official, was probably a native of Virginia. He moved to North Carolina at an early age, attended the University of North Carolina in 1795, later read law, and was admitted to the bar in 1806. Burton represented Mecklenburg County in the North Carolina House of Commons for one full session and part of a second, 1809–10. He resigned his seat after being elected state attorney general, a position he retained until 1816. The following year Burton returned to the lower house of the state legislature, representing the borough of Halifax. He served in the United States House of Representatives, 1819–24, and as governor of North Carolina, 1824–27. Burton allied himself politically with strict constructionists and those who opposed the extension of federal power. A proponent of education and state-funded internal improvements, during his governorship free public education in North Carolina advanced with the passage of the Literary Fund Bill. President John Quincy Adams nominated Burton as territorial governor of Arkansas in 1829, but the Senate did not confirm him. He was also a high-ranking Masonic officer (ANB description begins John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biography, 1999, 24 vols. description ends ; DAB description begins Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, 1928–36, 20 vols. description ends ; DNCB description begins William S. Powell, ed., Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 1979–96, 6 vols. description ends , 1:285–6; Daniel Lindsey Grant, Alumni History of the University of North Carolina [2d ed., 1924], 88; Charles L. Coon, The Beginnings of Public Education in North Carolina [1908], 1:xiii, xix, xxx–xxxvii; JEP description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States description ends , 3:630, 634 [6, 15 Jan. 1829]; Raleigh Register and North-Carolina Gazette, 26 Apr. 1836).

Index Entries

  • Burton, Hutchins Gordon; and wine for TJ search
  • Burton, Hutchins Gordon; identified search
  • Burton, Hutchins Gordon; letters from search
  • Eppes, John Wayles (TJ’s son-in-law); and wine for TJ search
  • Eppes, Martha Burke Jones (John Wayles Eppes’s second wife); and wine for TJ search
  • scuppernong (wine) search
  • wine; scuppernong search
  • wine; TJ orders from H. G. Burton search