J. Philippe Reibelt to Thomas Jefferson, 6 September 1809
From J. Philippe Reibelt
Havanna, Sept. 6–1809.
Most Highly & Sincerely respected Sir!
You have—I hope—received the Letters, I wrote to You in the Month of febr, when Sailing from N. Orleans, & in the Month of May, when arriving here.
Also Mr Randolph.
I will come—for Some bussiness of a friend—back to the so happy U.S.—as Soon as my eldest Son, who is very Sick, will have recov ered his health; & I will give me the Consolation, to go to see You once more in my fatefull Life.
In the mean Time, I take the Liberty, to inform You, that I will send by the first Vessel bound to Norfolk a box with Havanna Confitures under the direction of Mr Ford at Norfolk & then Mr Jefferson at Richmond—for Monticello.
By an other Vessel which sailed Yesterday I wrote a Letter to Mr Randolph.
Please to accept as favourably as You did formerly, the expression of the Sentiment of my deepest Veneration,
P. Reibelt
P.S. Permit me to beg You, to present my respectfull Salutatios to the houses of Mr Randolph & Carr.
RC (MHi); endorsed by TJ as received 10 Sept. 1810 and so recorded in SJL. Enclosed in Madam Reibelt to TJ, 16 May 1810.
J. Philippe Reibelt (d. 1809), a native of France who had been an archivist in Switzerland, immigrated to Baltimore in 1804 and began supplying TJ with imported books. He visited TJ at Monticello in 1805, and the following year TJ secured him an appointment as United States factor at Natchitoches in Orleans Territory. Instead of taking up his duties there, Reibelt lingered at New Orleans until Governor William C. C. Claiborne appointed him judge of Avoyelles Parish in 1807. In the spring of 1809 Reibelt moved with his family to Havana, where he died that October (Reibelt to TJ, 31 Jan. 1805 and enclosures, 2 Jan., 15 Feb. 1809, TJ to Reibelt, 11 Oct. 1805, 10 Jan. 1806, Claiborne to TJ, 4 June 1806, 3 May 1807, and TJ to Claiborne, 10 July 1806 [DLC]; , 9:563n; Widow Reibelt to TJ, 16 May 1810).
Reibelt’s letter of the month of may 1809 is not recorded in SJL and has not been found. Peter ford was a merchant in Norfolk (The Norfolk Directory [Norfolk, 1806], 15).
Index Entries
- Carr, Peter (TJ’s nephew); mentioned search
- confitures; Havana search
- food; confitures search
- Ford, Peter search
- Havana; confitures search
- Havana; goods lost at search
- Jefferson, George (TJ’s cousin); and goods for TJ search
- Randolph, Thomas Mann (1768–1828) (TJ’s son-in-law; Martha Jefferson Randolph’s husband); correspondence with J. P. Reibelt search
- Reibelt, J. Philippe; identified search
- Reibelt, J. Philippe; letters from search
- Reibelt, J. Philippe; letters from accounted for search
- Reibelt, J. Philippe; proposed visit to U.S. search
- Reibelt, J. Philippe; sends package to TJ search
- Reibelt, Mr. (J. Philippe Reibelt’s son) search