From James Madison to Arthur S. Brockenbrough, 23 August 1827
To Arthur S. Brockenbrough
Montpellier Aug. 23. 1827
Dear Sir
I have recd. yours of the 21st.1 and return the paper enclosed in it. As the packages are for the University, your proctorship will I presume, authorize your agency in the case. I have recd. no Invoice yet of the Articles imported. Should it come to my hands, it shall be immediately sent to you; and if arriving at the University under address to the Rector, I request you to break the seal yourself. I return also the letter from Messrs P & F.2 lately recd.3 from you, containing directions as to the Clock & Chronometer.4 Very particular care will be necessary in their portage to the University as well as in unpacking and putting them to use. As Mr. Bonnycastle may be expected in a few days to be on the spot, it may be well to have the benefit of his Counsel on the whole subject. With friendly respects
James Madison
RC (ViU: Special Collections, Madison Papers); draft (DLC). RC docketed by Brockenbrough.
1. Letter not found.
2. Letter not found. JM referred here to William Parkinson (d. ca. 1842) and William James Frodsham (1779–1850), founders of Parkinson & Frodsham, a London-based firm trading in chronometers, clocks, and watches from 1801 to 1947 (Vaudrey Mercer, The Frodshams: The Story of a Family of Chronometer Makers [Church Hill, UK, 1981], 22, 47, 74).
3. The draft has “forwarded” instead of “recd.” here.
4. The clock and chronometer purchased from Parkinson & Frodsham on the order of Thomas Jefferson were for the professor of natural philosophy to use in teaching astronomy (Mercer, The Frodshams, 42; Ormond Stone, “Report of the Director of the Leander McCormick Observatory of the University of Virginia, for the Year Ending June 1st, 1886,” Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory of the University of Virginia 1 [1915]: 343).