To Thomas Jefferson from Maria Cosway, 13 November 1794
From Maria Cosway
London 13 Novr. 1794
My Dear Sir
I am come home to England, and have the great pleasure to find I am not forgoten by Mr: Jefferson, t’is impossible to express my happiness, the less I say the better, and am Sure what I dont say will be added by a Heart who can conceive and interpatrate Sentiments of a feeling and greatfull heart. My Angelica has been the greatest joy on my return. She has flatterd me much by telling me my name was mentiond in most of the letters which come from America. Mr: Trumbull tells me the Same and offers to send a letter; Now I have Not time to make One, till now I did Not know how to send one, but hope that I shall in another find more to convince You how much I am your Most Affte.
Maria Cosway
RC (MHi); addressed: “Mr. Jefferson”; endorsed by TJ as received 17 Mch. 1795 and so recorded in SJL. Enclosed in John Trumbull to TJ, 20 Nov. 1794.
Maria Cosway, who last corresponded with TJ in 1790, had recently come home to England from a four-year trip to Italy that she had undertaken to recover from a difficult pregnancy (Helen D. Bullock, My Head and My Heart: A Little History of Thomas Jefferson and Maria Cosway [New York, 1945], 134–8; Cosway to TJ, 6 Apr. 1790; TJ to Cosway, 23 June 1790, and note). Not forgoten by Mr: Jefferson: an allusion to TJ’s references to Mrs. Cosway in his letters to their mutual friend, Angelica Schuyler Church (TJ to Church, 7 June, 27 Nov. 1793).