Copeland’s letter of 23 June 1809, not found but recorded in SJL as received from Springfield on 24 June 1809, probably enclosed a copy of a summons in the case of gilliam v. fleming, the suit that arose over the settlement of Bathurst Skelton’s estate. Martha Wayles married Skelton in 1766 and TJ in 1772, four years after Skelton died. Martha’s dower right to her first husband’s estate transferred to TJ upon the death of her son John Skelton in 1771 and her own death in 1782. In addition to TJ, Bathurst Skelton’s estate was distributed among his siblings and their heirs, including Meriwether Skelton; Reuben Skelton, who married Elizabeth Lomax (her second marriage was to Martha’s father John Wayles); Sally Skelton, who married Thomas Jones and was the mother of Skelton Jones; and Lucy Skelton, who married Robert Gilliam. Gilliam, representing the estate of Bathurst Skelton, initiated this chancery suit against the executors of John Wayles’s estate. William Fleming was named as defendant because his father John Fleming had been executor of the estate of James Skelton, Bathurst’s father, to which the Fleming estate still owed money. As an executor of his father-in-law John Wayles’s estate, TJ was involved on both sides of this suit, which primarily involved land in Goochland and Fluvanna counties named Elk Hill and Elk Island on the James River. The suit was not settled until at least 1813 (Richard D. Gilliam, “Skelton and Shelton: Two Distinct Virginia Families,” WMQ description begins William and Mary Quarterly, 1892– description ends , 2d ser., 9 [1929]: 209–16; “Woodhouse-Meriwether-Bathurst-Skelton-Gilliam,” WMQ description begins William and Mary Quarterly, 1892– description ends , 1st ser., 12 [1903]: 60–4; TJ to Farrell & Jones, 9 July 1773, PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 31 vols. description ends , 15:657–71; 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, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 1:349, 2:1051, 1248).