1From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 21 May 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
Miss Eleanor W. Randolph to Th: Jefferson D. 1805. May 21. To a letter which ought to be written once in every 3. weeks, while I am here, to wit from Jan. 1. 1805. to this day, 15. weeks 5. Cr. Feb. 23. By one single letter of this day’s date 1 Balance due from E. W. Randolph to Th:J. Letters 4 5 So stands the account for this year, my dear Ellen, between you and me. unless...
2From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 28 June 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved your letter (without date) with great pleasure, for it always gives me pleasure to hear from Edgehill. in return for your news from thence, I have none to give you from this place which would interest you, except that mrs Harrison Smith is well, dined with me the other day, & desired me to present her love in the first letter to you. she is now in the country at a neat little box...
3From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 10 July 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
To answer the question in your letter of the 4th. I must observe that neither the number of the fine arts, nor the particular arts entitled to that appellation have been fixed by general consent. many reckon but five Painting, sculpture, architecture, music & poetry. to these some have added Oratory, including, within that, Rhetoric which is the art of style & composition. others again, add...
4From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 24 November 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 10th. did not get here till the 19th. and this is the first post-day since that for answering it. I am afraid that sending your letters a few minutes too late, only arrive at Milton after the departure of the post & lie there a week. I am very doubtful that something like this must have happened with the letters of the 16th. if any were then written, as they ought to have...
5From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 24 June 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
I learn with deep concern, my dearest Ellen, that the family has been unwell generally, that you have been ill, and your Mama indisposed. Anne informs me you are getting better but does not say whether your Mama is so also. yet, in the absence of your Papa, her health is doubly important because her care is necessary for you all. I hope this will find you all recovered. your friends here are...
6From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 30 November 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
I have recieved two letters from you since I left Monticello. by Davy I sent you a pair of Bantam fowls; quite young: so that I am in hopes you will now be enabled to raise some. I propose on their subject a question of natural history for your enquiry: that is whether this is the Gallina Adrianica, or Adria, the Adriatick cock of Aristotle? for this you must examine Buffon &c. mr Burwell...
7From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 15 December 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
This is our postday, and I have been so engaged that the hour of dinner & company are arriving before I could begin a letter to you. I shall therefore merely say we are all well, & I hope we shall hear to-night that all are well at Edgehill. tell your Mama, while you kiss her for me, that Rigden has returned & delivered me her watch neatly done, which will be sent by your papa. I send you...
8From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 8 February 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
I believe it is true that you have written me 2. letters to my one to you. whether this proceeds from your having more industry or less to do than myself I will not say. one thing however I will say that I most sincerely wish to be with you all, and settle the point vivâ voce (if you do not understand these two Latin words, you must lay Jefferson’s Latin under contribution that you may know...
9From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 1 March 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
I am afraid I shall be bankrupt in my epistolary account with Anne & yourself. however the tide of business, like that of the ocean, will wait for nobody. I send for Cornelia a little poem, the grasshopper’s ball, to begin her collection. the yankee story is for yourself. thank Mary for her letters, but tell her it is written in a cypher of which I have not the key. she must therefore tell it...
10From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 29 June 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
I believe I have recieved no letter from you since I came from Monticello, but perhaps there is one on the road for me. hope is so much pleasanter than despair, that I always prefer looking into futurity through her glass. I send you some poetical gleanings. our newspapers have been rather barren in that ware for some time past. whether the muses have been taking a nap, or our news writers...
11From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 19 October 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
I have nothing better to send you than an old song, but indeed I could send you nothing better. it was much in vogue when I was of your age, & has lost nothing of it’s pathos by time. it shews the wonderful sources of comfort which open themselves to every condition of man. I have not heard from the family since I left them at Monticello, but I always hope the next post will bring me a letter....
12From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 8 December 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
I owe you a letter, and very fortunately have one to inclose from an acquaintance which you must consider as a paiment in full of my debt. for having nothing to write about I should otherwise have been puzzled to make paiment, had it not been for this god-send. I could tell you we are all well. but that is a thing of course. I could tell you it is now very cold, but the air of the morning has...
13From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 12 January 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I send you some poetry, but am not sure whether I may not have sent you the same pieces before. my letters to your Mama will have informed you of my having been indisposed with a swelled face. it rose, suppurated, and has left me with a hard swelling still on the jawbone, which however I am in hopes will go down. it still confines me to the house for fear cold should affect it. otherwise I am...
14From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 23 February 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I am several letters in your debt, but I am in hopes that age and occupation will privilege me against your counting letter for letter rigorously with me. the loss of your geraniums shall be replaced. I have this day planted a sprig in a small & very portable pot of earth. you give a bad account of the patriotism of the ladies of Williamsburg who are not disposed to submit to the small...
15From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 14 March 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 11th. is recieved, and is the best letter you have ever written me because it is the longest and fullest of that small news which I have most pleasure in recieving. with great news I am more than surfieted from other quarters, and in order that your letters may not be shortened by a bad pen of which you complain, I have got a pen for you which will be always good, never...
16From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 29 March 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved yesterday yours of the 25th. and have also to acknolege that of the 18th. you ask whether the pen which is not to wear out is made of glass? No.—guess again. I am glad to hear you expect a family of Bantams. take good care of them. is it not best to put the hen into a tobacco stick coop, in & round which the chickens will always stay. the properest way to make an et-caetera is thus...
17From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 12 April 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of Apr. 1. came to hand only yesterday. I presume you sent it a little too late for the post and that it has lain a week at Milton. you have guessed rightly both as to the pen and the Etc. I am entirely recovered from my head-ach. Congress have come to a resolution to adjourn on the 25th. of this month. I suppose I shall get away some time in the first week in May. what particular...
18From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 3 May 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
As you insist I shall write you one more letter before my departure this is to inform you that altho’ I have not entirely abandoned the hope of setting out on the 5th. yet I think it more probable I shall be detained to the 6th. so that if I do not catch you in bed on Sunday, expect it on Monday. Your’s affectionately MHi : Coolidge Collection.
19From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 5 July 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter was safely delivered to miss Forrest who was here yesterday well. I thank heaven that the 4th. of July is over. it is always a day of great fatigue to me, and of some embarrasments from improper intrusions and some from unintended exclusions. we have had such a week of hot weather as has never probably been known before in this country. my thermometer has been as follows Monday...
20From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 25 October 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
Your’s & your Mama’s letters of the 20th. are recieved. tell her I will take care of her accounts with mrs Madison. I thank you for your care of my wines. I will endeavor to send bottles for the two doubtful casks into which you have drawn a part. I put a letter from Jefferson to your Mama into your Papa’s newspaper packet which went by the stage yesterday. yours to him shall be immediately...
21From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 15 November 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved yesterday yours of the 11th. & rejoice to hear that all are well with you. I inclose a letter from Dr. Wistar the perusal of which will be agreeable to your Papa & Mama as it respects Jefferson; & to your Papa what relates to the Mammoth, return it to me. I am glad to hear that the sweet scented grass got safe, altho’ the pot did not. the sooner you put it into a larger box the...
22From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 20 December 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved yesterday yours of the 15th. and I shall take care to have your book bound. the letter to Jefferson went on direct. I have not heard from him for some time, but Doctr. Rush in a letter just recieved says ‘your grandson has not called upon me as often as I expected, but I hear with great pleasure that he is absorbed & delighted with his Anatomical & other studies.’ I have been...
23From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 6 February 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I have recieved your letter on the subject of my plants and will now explain to you what they were, tho’ I cannot say what was in each box or pot particularly. Savory. a dead plant, it’s leaves very aromatic: a little resembling thyme my dependance is that it’s seeds are shed on the earth in the box & will come up. Arbor vitae. a small evergreen tree, in a small pot. Ice-plant. not entirely...
24From Thomas Jefferson to Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, 20 February 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
My last letter to you stated the plants which had been sent, & I was in hopes, after you had been enabled to distinguish them, you would have informed me of their respective conditions. but no post has arrived for this week from Milton & consequently no letter from you. in about three weeks I hope to be with you, and then we shall properly be devoted to the garden. what has become of mrs...