1From Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 9 September 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been truly uneasy at the delay which has attended the remittances of the sum of interest due to you, but I had calls so pressing in the spring, and at the same time such disappointments in the reciept of monies due me & which would have enabled me to meet all my engagements, as put the remittance out of my power. We a- wait nothing now but a tide in our river to carry down my crop of...
2Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 28 July 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I learn with sincere regret the continuance of your ill health, placing at the same time much reliance on the vis vitae at your time of life, which is quite sufficient to promise a restoration of order to the system. the benefit you recieved from the springs the last year encourages confidence in a repetition of the experiment. I think with you that it has been unlucky that Francis so early...
3Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 10 June 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been so late in getting my tob o to market that I have not been able sooner to remit you the 1 st year’s interest. so dilatory are the means of the farmer & planter. Francis wrote me that you were willing I should import for him (with some books I am importing for myself from London ) Thomas ’s Coke Littleton & Bacon ’s abridgment. these are dear books and with the loss by exchange,
4Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, [by 17] January 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I send a small cart and box for the books, state papers E t c you are so kind as to lend me. I possess the Journals of the old Congress ; and I have no need of the public accounts mentioned in your list. the information I need is generally from 1789. to 1809. and nothing at all after 1809. I will state specify at the end of my letter the particular titles of what I wish to recieve as they are...
5Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 23 October 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
I receive here your favor of the 15 th and am gl ad you approve of the course proposed for Francis to confine his pur s uits to the important sciences exclusively. he may in the present year make such progress in them as to be able to pursue them to ad v antage th ereafter by himself. and if he can, for 2. or 3. years avoid the common error of premature marriage, he has s t ill time to make...
6Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper and John Wayles Eppes, 16 September 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
The shortness of the time now left to Francis for the pursuit of Academical studies, calls for extreme parcimony in the employment of the portion of it which still remains to him: and I am rendered more anxious for the economy of this remnant by information recieved from him, of which I was not before apprised. it seems there is a distinction in the College of Columbia between what are called...
7Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 19 January 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 7 th has been recieved & I sincere ly congratulate you on the resolution of all your complaints into a regular & fixed gout. a severe fit now and then with clear intervals of health is certainly preferable to a perpetual half sickness. it will relieve you too from medecine, as we all know there is none for the gout but patience and flannel. I really think your allowance to...
8Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 22 October 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 16 th was safely recieved with the check on the bank of Virginia for 3500.D. inclosed. the expression in the reciept I sent you of 2 checks on the bank E t c for 4000.D. will I think comprehend with sufficient certainty the deposit of 500 D. as well as the check of 3500. I did not know at the time whether the 500.D. had been paid in cash, or by a check, but thought it...
9Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 13 October 1820, with Eppes’s Note (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 7 th came to hand yesterday. my journey to Bedford is pos of necessity postponed indefinitely by the circumstance of 3. of my carriage horses being recently taken with the disease called the sore tongue, which I am told will require 10. days for cure and leave them so emaciated as not to be able to take the road for some time. this will bring on cold weather which will oblige...
10Enclosure: Receipt and Bond from Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 13 October 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
I Thomas Jefferson of Albemarle acknolege that I have recieved of John W. Eppes of Buckingham checks on the bank of for the sum of four thousand Dollars in consideration whereof I oblige myself to deliver to him, on or before the twenty fifth day of December eighteen hundred & twenty two such and so many of my slaves now residing on my lands in Bedford as shall be equal in value to the sd...
11Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 27 August 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 19 th was received on the 25 th . what it proposes on the subject of the stock is perfectly agreeable to me; but I shall be glad to recieve the proceeds as soon as they can be had, that I may the sooner relieve myself from the applications of those to whom it is destined, and them from the want of it. Our court is Monday sennight (Sep. 4.) and I see nothing to prevent my setting...
12Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 29 July 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
In my letter of June 30. I informed you I would write to D r Cooper for information as to the state and expences of education at Columbia S.C. I will quote his answer in his own words. ‘I am not fully prepared to answer your queries as to the expence of education at the C S. Carolina college . but I have always understood it was very cheap, not exceeding 250.D. for the session of nine months....
13Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 30 June 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
I am become quite delinquent in epistolary correspondence; my right wrist, from an antient dislocation, grows now so stiff, as to render writing a slow and painful operation, and has produced an aversion to the pen almost insuperable. I go therefore to the writing table under the spur of necessity alone. The delay in the opening of our seminary in this neighborhood has proceeded entirely...
14Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 9 July 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of June 28 . came duly to hand, as did also the coat-pattern for Francis . he is now closely engaged with mr Stack , whose style of instruction he finds very superior to any he ever met with before. I do not believe so solid & critical a one has ever been before in this state, if in the US. his fatherly demeanor too towards his pupils engages their affections and their obedience....
15Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 3 May 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I set out from this place for Monticello tomorrow morning and shall leave this letter at Flood ’s. I have engaged Francis ’s board with mr Dashiell himself, who takes only three others. Francis will be much pleased with the family, which is a very genteel one, and they live well as I saw by going in upon them at their dinner unexpectedly. he is an excellent teacher as I judged, at his...
16Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 10 April 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 6 th is rec e ived. I set out the day after tomorrow for Poplar Forest , and shall be there till the 1 st of May . you say you will be at home the 25 th . I really think Francis had better come on diret direct
17Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 13 March 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Your’s & Francis’s of Feb. 14. were recieved in due time. you have seen by the newspapers what our legislature has done on the subject of an University. the centrality & salubrity of Charlottesville excite strong expectations that the site of the Central College will be adopted for that. but this cannot be known until the next session of the legislature. in the mean while we shall go on with...
18Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 6 February 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved a letter of Dec. 28. from Francis to which I had deferred an answer until I could speak with more certainty of the prospects of our central college . he describes his situation as neither agreeable nor advantageous. Doct r Cooper had engaged with us as professor of the Physiological sciences, and had moreover offered to take charge of our classical school, until we can get for that...
19Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 26 October 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I have procured from Leschot for mrs Eppes a very elegant watc h and of the very best construction being of the kind called à cylindre horizontal ; the only inconvenience of which is that they require being touched with oil a little oftener than the others. he had no watch of the common construction which was proper for a lady. he required 40.D. boot, allowing only 30.D. for the gold of the...
20Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 6 August 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I set out for Bedford tomorrow, and shall leave this at Flood ’s. you will know therefore by it’s receipt that we are passed on, to wit Ellen , Cornelia and myself. very soon after our arrival at Poplar Forest , perhaps a week, we shall go to the Nat l bridge and be a b sent 4. or 5. days: and shall hope to see you & Francis soon after as given us to hope in yours of
21Thomas Jefferson’s Circular to Prospective Donors to Central College, 4 August 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
You have probably seen mentioned in the public papers that it is in contemplation to establish near Charlottesville a seminary of learning which shall embrace all the sciences deemed materially useful in the present age. towards this object the legislature has passed an act giving us a constitution nearly of our own choice, under the name of the Central College , making the Governor patron of...
22Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 6 June 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
By a letter from mr Wood recieved a few days ago, I learned with great regret that he was obliged to suspend his school for four months (till the last of September) in order to compleat the public survey he had undertaken. regret being unavailing, the question is how Francis may best employ those 4. months. I observe he has made no progress in Arithmetic, and think therefore he could not do...
23Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 1 May 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I have recieved a letter from mr Burton , informing me he had purchased for me a barrel of Scuppernon wine. I had before informed him that I would desire mr Gibson of Richmond to pay his draught for it, and I had accordingly so done, but mr Burton prefers settling it with you. I therefore now inclose you a draught on Gibson , the most convenient channel of remittance to myself, and I am in...
24Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 7 April [1819] (Jefferson Papers)
The adoption of our College as an University much delays the opening our schools here, as needing much greater preparation & the Visitors having concluded that accomodations must be provided before Professors, they have fixed on April next for recieving professors. in the of our D r Cooper was to have brought on a mr Slack , as Usher to our Grammar school & whom he had pressed as our...
25Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 31 March 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Francis will set out tomorrow for Mill-brook . he has his constant health, and has applied himself assiduously & solely to Spanish. he now possesses this so well that reading a little in it every day, he will be in no danger of losing it. in the French he is well established; and the possession of these two languages is well worth the little check he has recieved in his Latin, I think he...
26Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 6 March 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I have detained Martin a little longer than you intended because my waggons were to set off this day for Bedford and I concluded to send him with the work he had done by one of them. it was but one day’s journey of their way, and saves your waggon a trip of 5. days to come for them. by Martin ’s count there are 129. knobs. their tops will require to be kept well painted, as they present the...
27Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 24 January 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Francis arrived here in good health the day before Yesterday. I think he cannot do better than to take this occasion of learning Spanish, because it is a language rarely taught in this country, and will be of great importance within his day. it is that too in which all the early history of America is written. I suppose he may acquire so much of it in 2. or 3. months as to pursue it easily...
28Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 24 June 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I am this moment arrived here with Ellen & Cornelia , and find Francis who arrived last night. I will take care and attend him to the Academy & see to every thing necessary for him. we will keep him with us as long as we stay (a week or 10. days) and rub him up in his French. I learn with great concern the state of your health, but can prescribe nothing by but patience & the springs with good...
29Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 30 April with 7 May 1816 postscript (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 8 th was recieved here on the 19 th inst. the information you have had as to the schools at Staunton and Lexington is correct. the latter has been at all times under the direction of an infuriated Presbyterian bigot and tory, better fitted to fanaticise than to instruct youth in useful knolege. when I was last here, I heard of their expelling two or three youths for the heinous...
30Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 30 [March] 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
Francis returns as much improved, I am in hopes, as you will have expected. he reads French with so much ease as to read it for amusement, has not much occasion for his dictionary, pronounces generally well, the few defects remaining being such as will be easily corrected hereafter. being kept almost entirely at French, he could afford only the time before breakfast for keeping up his Latin....