Thomas Jefferson’s List of Facts to be Questioned in the Answer of the President and Directors of the Rivanna Company, [ca. 31 May 1819]

List of Facts to be Questioned in the Answer of the President and Directors of the Rivanna Company

[ca. 31 May 1819]

Answer.		Facts to be questioned or p[rov]en.
pa. 1.	1.	they say that under the act of 1764 nothing appears to have been done till 1794.
	2.	prove	it effected to Milton under that act and not contemplated further,1 & nothing more done till Magruder’s dam erected 1800.
	3.		that the def. Meriwether & Fr. Walker, as trustees gave Magruder 700. out of 900. D to erect his lock.
	4.		that	Henderson’s dam was not erected till 1779.80. yet no navign2 before.
	5.			it was not abated till 1806. but their proofs3 of navign are 1793. & 1804. both while H’s dam was up.
	6.	1810. Sep. 12. their meeting at Shadwell mills. see Docum. No 4. their extravagant resolns.
	7.	1811. May. meeting at Shadwell mills. agreement recorded, which see.
	8.	prove	the extent of the bason they agreed to make.
	9.		the extent of that they made. if equivalent to the spring valley.
	10.		the time when they were to make it—if Shoemaker stopped it? and why.
	11.		what I did, & why, which they call filling it up.
pa. 6.	12.	they deny that they claimed the surplus water only. conseqly they now4 claim a preference.
	13.	they deny agreeing to elevate the bottom of openg in upper lock gate above bottom of forebay. see their record5 and my lre of Aug. 25. 16
	14.	the shoal below, double filling of upper chambers, leakage of lock gates.
	15.	irregularities of boatmen.
	16.	bulging of upper as well as lower chamber.
	17.	present state of locks, & injury to canal if they are blown up.

pa. 5.	18.	they say ‘they offered to assist in widening the canal’ & that they ‘afterwards6 did widen it.’
	19.	the bason & passing place above (of no advantage to the mill) was all they did.
pa. 8.	20.	they assert that the obstructions above the Sec’s ford, & below the Sandy falls are as great as between these berms.
pa. 7.	21.	what is the amount of their work between the Sec’s ford and Moore’s ford.
pa. 8.	22.	the comparative merits of their & our works at the Milton falls.
pa. 7.	23.	they say ‘the products of my farms on the river above could be taken by water to my mill in consequence of their improvements.’
pa. 11.	24.	they say ‘they exempted me from tolls which would amount to 400.D. per annum during the existence of ye corporn’
pa. 7.	25.	they say that ‘their improvements above enhanced the emoluments of my mills by facilitating transportn to it’
pa. 7.	26.	they say ‘that more than thousand barrels of flour & a large qty of tobo came down in boats in ye season 17–18.’
pa. 9.	27.	what was the state of the river & of the facts in the experiments in 93.04. & mr P. Minor’s? & was not Hend’s dam then up.

MS (DLC: TJ Papers, 211:37597); in TJ’s hand; undated, with supplied date based on the conjectural date of the corresponding numbered responses in the first section of the following document; top edge torn. Possibly enclosed in TJ to Chapman Johnson and John H. Peyton, 9 June 1819.

The page numbers in the left-hand column correspond to TJ’s numbering of the pages of the Tr in DLC of the answer of the President and Directors of the Rivanna Company to TJ’s Bill of Complaint, 7 Apr. 1818. docum. no 4: Extract from Minutes of the Directors of the Rivanna Company, 12 Sept. 1810, document 2 in a group of documents on Jefferson’s Lawsuit against the Rivanna Company, printed above at 9 Feb. 1817. For the 1811. may. meeting, see Extracts from Minutes of the Directors of the Rivanna Company, 4 Dec. 1810–4 Nov. 1816, enclosed in TJ to Nicholas H. Lewis, 30 May 1819.

1. Preceding four words interlined.

2. Manuscript: “yet no navign. yet no navign.”

3. Above this word TJ wrote “instances.”

4. Word interlined.

5. Remainder of sentence interlined.

6. Omitted opening quotation mark editorially supplied.

Index Entries

An Act for clearing the great Falls of James River, the River Chickahominy, and the north Branch of James River (1764) search
canals; at Shadwell mills search
dams; on Rivanna River search
flour; shipment of search
Henderson, Bennett; dam of search
Jefferson, Thomas; Writings; List of Facts to be Questioned in the Answer of the President and Directors of the Rivanna Company search
Jefferson v. Rivanna Company; Answer of the President and Directors of the Rivanna Company to Thomas Jefferson’s Bill of Complaint search
locks (canal) search
Magruder, John Bowie (d.1815); milldam of search
Magruder, John Bowie (d.1815); riverine locks of search
Meriwether, William Douglas; and Rivanna Company search
Milton, Va.; and Rivanna Company search
Minor, Peter; and Rivanna Company search
Rivanna Company; directors of search
Rivanna Company; Extracts from Minutes of the Directors of search
Rivanna River; boatmen on search
Rivanna River; canals on search
Rivanna River; dams on search
Rivanna River; locks on search
Rivanna River; navigation of search
Shadwell mills; and Rivanna Company search
Shadwell mills; canal at search
Shoemaker, Jonathan; as Shadwell mill tenant search
tobacco; shipment of search
Walker, Francis; and James River Company search

You Are Looking At

Source Project: Jefferson Papers
Title: Thomas Jefferson’s List of Facts to be Questioned in the Answer of the President and Directors of the Rivanna Company, [ca. 31 May 1819]
Author: Jefferson, Thomas
Date: 31 May 1819

Reference

Cite as: “Thomas Jefferson’s List of Facts to be Questioned in the Answer of the President and Directors of the Rivanna Company, [ca. 31 May 1819],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-14-02-0339. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, vol. 14, 1 February to 31 August 1819, ed. J. Jefferson Looney. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017, pp. 357–358.]