Thomas Jefferson Papers

Thomas Jefferson to William Huntington, 2[4?] July 1818

To William Huntington

July 2[4?] 18

Th: Jeffe[r]son asks the favor of mr H[u]ntington to dine with hi[m] on Sunday ensuing.

RC (DNDAR); dateline at foot of text; damaged at crease. Not recorded in SJL.

William Huntington (b. ca. 1794), merchant, educator, and Episcopal lay preacher, was a native of Connecticut who moved to Albemarle County by December 1817 and operated a dry-goods store in Charlottesville until at least 1824. Although financial difficulties obliged him to sell some property in 1820, he managed to save his business, and TJ began purchasing books and other goods from him in 1821. By 1825 Huntington had moved to Charlotte Court House, where he continued his mercantile pursuits, worked as a schoolteacher, and served as an Episcopal lay minister especially active among the enslaved population of Charlotte County. In 1860 his combined personal and real estate in that county was valued at $4,600 (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 ; ViHi: Huntington Papers; Vi: RG 48, Personal Property Tax Returns, Albemarle Co., 1818; Albemarle Co. Deed Book, 22:115–6, 183–4, 224, 267, 23:218–9, 254–5; Elizabeth Trist to Nicholas P. Trist, 15 June 1820 [DLC: NPT]; Charlottesville Central Gazette, 24 Nov. 1820, 31 May 1822; Journals of the Conventions of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocess of Virginia. from 1785 to 1835, inclusive [1835], 151; DNA: RG 29, CS, Charlotte Co., 1850, 1860).

An undated invitation reads “Th: Jefferson asks the favor of mr Huntington to dine at Monticello tomorrow” (RC in NN: Lee Kohns Memorial Collection).

Index Entries

  • Huntington, William; identified search
  • Huntington, William; letter to search
  • Huntington, William; TJ invites to Monticello search
  • Monticello (TJ’s Albemarle Co. estate); Visitors to; Huntington, William search