Thomas Jefferson Papers
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-02-02-0131

Thomas Jefferson to Jesse Perry, 20 January 1810

To Jesse Perry

Monticello Jan. 20. 1810.

Sir

Mr Watkins, who superintended & worked with my out-carpenters, has left me this year. he was employed in such carpenter’s work as the plantations required, and I gave him 150. Dollars a year, his provisions & a house to live in. I do not know on what footing you are at present employed with your brother, & certainly do not mean to break in on any arrangement of his with you. but if it should be agreeable to you both that you should come & take mr Watkins’s place, I shall be glad to employ you on the same terms, and to recieve you here with as little delay as possible. I should expect a first engagement for one year, to be continued as long as agreeable to both parties. I shall be glad to recieve an answer by mr Randolph on his return, & am Sir

Your humble servt

Th: Jefferson

PoC (MHi); at foot of text: “Mr Jesse Perry”; endorsed by TJ.

Jesse Perry, a brother of John M. and Reuben Perry, evidently declined TJ’s offer (K. Edward Lay, “Charlottesville’s Architectural Legacy,” MACH description begins Magazine of Albemarle County History, 1940– description ends 46 [1988]: 40; MB description begins James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 2:1027).

TJ hired Elisha watkins in the summer of 1808 to supervise carpentry work on his Albemarle County plantations (TJ to Watkins, 22 Aug. 1808, and Directions for Watkins, 27 Sept. 1808 [MHi]; MB description begins James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 2:1249).

Index Entries

  • Monticello (TJ’s estate); carpentry supervisors at search
  • Perry, Jesse; identified search
  • Perry, Jesse; letters to search
  • Perry, Jesse; TJ seeks to hire search
  • Perry, John M.; family of search
  • Perry, Reuben; family of search
  • Randolph, Thomas Mann (1768–1828) (TJ’s son-in-law; Martha Jefferson Randolph’s husband); mentioned search
  • Watkins, Elisha search

You Are Looking At

Source Project
Jefferson Papers
Title
Thomas Jefferson to Jesse Perry, 20 January 1810
Author
Jefferson, Thomas
Recipient
Perry, Jesse
Date
20 January 1810

Reference

Cite as
“Thomas Jefferson to Jesse Perry, 20 January 1810,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-02-02-0131. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, vol. 2, 16 November 1809 to 11 August 1810, ed. J. Jefferson Looney. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005, pp. 167–168.]