From Thomas Jefferson to William Fleming, 19 May 1773
To William Fleming
May 19. 1773. Mrs. Carr’s
Dear Fleming
You have before this heard and lamented the death of our good friend Carr. Some steps are necessary to be immediately taken on behalf of his clients. You practised in all his courts except Chesterfeild and Albemarle. I shall think I cannot better serve them than by putting their papers into your hands if you will be so good as to take them. I once mentioned to you the court of Albemarle as worthy your attention. If you chuse now to go there I would get you to take his papers for that court also. They would put you in possession of a valuable business. The king’s attorney’s place is vacant there, and might be worth your solliciting. If you think so you should dispatch an express for the commission. Otherwise you may be prevented. Write me a line in answer to this and lodge it here within a week, as I shall about that time call here to take the law papers and put them into some channel. Your assistance in these matters will much oblige Dear Fleming Your friend and humble servt.,
Th: Jefferson
RC (The Rosenbach Co., Philadelphia, 1946). Addressed: “To Mr. William Fleming at Mount-pleasant.” Endorsed: “Thos. Jefferson.”
The death of … Carr: Dabney Carr, TJ’s brother-in-law, had died on 16 May; TJ wrote an epitaph for his tombstone at Monticello and subscribed it as from “Thomas Jefferson, who of all men living, loved him most”; Carr’s widow and children later came to live with TJ (Garden Book, 22 May 1773, and p. 41–2, 44; , i, 83–4; , p. 47; Malone, Jefferson, i, 161–2, 431, note). Mrs. Carr’s: The home of Carr’s widow, i.e., TJ’s sister Martha, has not been precisely located, though it is believed to have been a place named Spring Forest in Goochland co. (Communication from Mr. Francis L. Berkeley, Jr., University of Virginia Library.)