Thomas Carstairs (1759–1830), carpenter and architect, was born in Largo, county of Fife, Scotland. He immigrated to the United States from London, became an American citizen in 1784, and established himself in Philadelphia as an architect and house carpenter. In that city between 1790 and 1793, TJ rented a house that Carstairs had built for Thomas Leiper, and he commissioned Carstairs to make bookshelves and perform other carpentry work. In 1793 TJ consulted with him on the plan for the construction of the United States Capitol in Washington. Carstairs joined the Saint Andrew’s Society of Philadelphia in 1786, was elected to the Carpenters’ Company in 1804, and practiced his trade until at least 1822. He died in Philadelphia (Robert B. Beath, comp., Historical Catalogue of the St. Andrew’s Society of Philadelphia [1913], 2:64–5; Sandra L. Tatman and Roger W. Moss, Biographical Dictionary of Philadelphia Architects: 1700–1930 [1985], 131–2; Thompson Westcott, Names of Persons who took the Oath of Allegiance to the State of Pennsylvania, between the years 1777 and 1789 [1865], 99; Philadelphia Pennsylvania Packet, and General Advertiser, 5 Feb. 1784; PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 41 vols. description ends , esp. 17:309, 26:500, 517–9, 671–2; 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, 2 vols., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , esp. 2:814, 840; Betts, Farm Book description begins Edwin M. Betts, ed., Thomas Jefferson’s Farm Book, 1953 (in two separately paginated sections; unless otherwise specified, references are to the second section) description ends , pt. 1, p. 104; The Carpenters’ Company of the City and County of Philadelphia [1887], 88; The Philadelphia Directory and Register, for 1822 [Philadelphia, 1822]; TJ to Carstairs, 13 Jan. 1824; Philadelphia Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, 28 July 1830).

Philadelphia’s Carpenters’ Company occasionally issued a price book, of which the most recent surviving example was Articles of the Carpenters Company of the City and County of Philadelphia: and their Rules for measuring and valuing House Carpenters Work (Philadelphia, 1805). For the spurious version, see note to TJ to Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 1 Nov. 1817. The book actually sent is described at note to Mathew Carey & Son to TJ, 18 Dec. 1817.