To Thomas Jefferson from Everard Meade, 13 June 1801
From Everard Meade
Amelia June 13th 1801
Sir
Mr Burk concerning whom I once wrote to you has been President of a College in this County, in which Station he discovered the greatest attention & ability—Owing to a Suspicion, which was entertained of a connexion between him and a married Lady of this County he was exposed to danger & his tranquillity destroyed—This Suspicion appears to be without foundation, the husband having agreed to take back his wife & declared her innocent—I entertain the Same Opinion as formerly of his rare merit & genius, I am firmly assured of his honor & integrity, & as Chairman of the board of Trustees of the College, regret in common with a large majority of the Trustees the loss of Such a man to our Seminary & County.
E. Meade.
RC (DLC); in David Meade’s hand, with signature and inside address in Everard Meade’s hand; below signature in E. Meade’s hand: “copyd by David Meade”; addressed: “The President”; endorsed by TJ as received 19 June and so recorded in SJL.
Concerning whom i once wrote to you: the only other surviving correspondence between TJ and Meade is that of 8 Apr. 1800, but Meade wrote TJ on 25 Aug. and 19 Dec. 1800 and 20 Apr. 1801, which, according to SJL, TJ received on 5 Sep., 30 Dec. 1800, and 24 Apr. 1801, respectively. On 10 Sep. 1800, TJ replied to Meade’s letter of 25 Aug. This may have been the “flattering letter,” to which John Daly Burk refers in his correspondence with TJ printed at 19 June.
College in this county: Everard and David Meade and Burk were among the 20 trustees named in “An Act to incorporate the trustees of Jefferson college, in the county of Amelia,” passed by the Virginia General Assembly on 26 Dec. 1800 (Samuel Shepherd, ed., The Statutes at Large of Virginia, from October Session 1792, to December Session 1806, 3 vols. [Richmond, 1835–36], 2:259–60).