Thomas Jefferson Papers
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Joseph Jones to Thomas Jefferson, 8 January 1819

From Joseph Jones

Collrs office. Petersburg 8h January 1819.

Sir

I have received a letter pr the Brig Planter of Petersburg Daniel Anderson master from marseilles dated 21t October 1818 from Stephen Cathalan esqr our consul, enclosing two Bills of loading one is for wines &c for you, and the other for Thomas Jefferson Randolph esqr for wines. He writes me that he has sent all the things you wrote for except the Smyrna raisins, & the Sans Pepins, which he sayes he could not get in Town. He writes me he has been very sick from the 24h Septer last until a few days past so that he has not been able to get the bills of cost of the several Articles, so as to make out the Invoice’s, but that he will get them & send the Invoice’s by way of Havre or Bordeaux as quick as possible, He sayes he had not time to write you now but will when he sends the Invoice’s. He has consigned them to me as Collector at Petersburg and requested me to pay the Freight from marseilles1 at 18 Dollars pr Ton. & 10 prct for Primage & average and to write you as soon as the Brig Arrives. the Brig has not got up to City point but is expected in a day or two. I will thank you for directions how to act. Here is the Contents of the bills of loading. Viz.


T.J.  one Cask in a double Cask containing 64 Gallons red wine.

Six boxes containg each 50 bottles red wine in all 300 bottles.

one box containing 12 bottles Anchovies.

four Small boxes containg each 12 bottles Sup fine olive oil in all 36 (he2 says) but ought to be 48.

one basket containing nett ninety pounds American weight Macaroni.

one box containing Immortal Flowers.


R
T.J.
one Cask in a double Cask containing 32 Gallons red wine
two boxes containg each 24 bottles red wine in all 48 bottles.

I am Sir with great respect Your obt Sert

Joseph Jones Collr

RC (DLC); idiosyncratic punctuation editorially omitted; endorsed by TJ as received 14 Jan. 1819 and so recorded in SJL. RC (DLC); address cover only; with PoC of TJ to James Madison, 19 Feb. 1819, on verso; addressed: “Thomas Jefferson esqr Late President of the United States. Monticello”; franked; postmarked.

Joseph Jones (1749–1824), public official, became a vestryman of Bristol Parish in 1773. He served as a captain in the Virginia militia during the Revolutionary War, eventually attaining the rank of major general of militia at the end of 1802. Jones also sat on the Dinwiddie County Committee of Correspondence during the Revolution. He later represented Dinwiddie in the Virginia House of Delegates, 1778–81 and 1784–88, and at the Virginia ratification convention in 1788, where he opposed the new federal constitution. Jones served in the Senate of Virginia, 1788–89, was sheriff of Dinwiddie for about two years beginning late in the latter year, and became a presidential elector for TJ in 1800. He was appointed customs collector at Petersburg in 1811, and his duties were expanded to include those of surveyor of the revenue in 1821. Jones held both positions until his death (NcD: Jones Papers; Vi: Jones Family Papers; 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 , 2:1364; WMQ description begins William and Mary Quarterly, 1892–  description ends , 1st ser., 19 [1911]: 289; 26 [1917]: 101; VMHB description begins Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 1893–  description ends 9 [1902]: 414; 10 [1902]: 82; 17 [1909]: 250–1; Leonard, General Assembly description begins Cynthia Miller Leonard, comp., The General Assembly of Virginia, July 30, 1619–January 11, 1978: A Bicentennial Register of Members, 1978 description ends ; Merrill Jensen, John P. Kaminski, and others, eds., The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution [1976– ], 10:1538–41; CVSP description begins William P. Palmer and others, eds., Calendar of Virginia State Papers … Preserved in the Capitol at Richmond, 1875–93, 11 vols. description ends ; Richmond Virginia Argus, 22 Dec. 1802; JEP description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States description ends , 2:192, 3:227, 232, 235, 367 [25, 26 Nov. 1811, 14 Dec. 1820, 3, 15 Jan. 1821, 29 Mar. 1824]; Richmond Enquirer, 12 Feb. 1824; Petersburg Hustings Court Will Book, 2:211, 216; gravestone inscription in Blandford Cemetery, Petersburg).

The letter of 21t october 1818 from Stephen Cathalan to Jones is printed above as an enclosure to Cathalan to TJ, 30 Nov. 1818. primage & average were customary fees in a bill of lading generally charged as a standard percentage rather than broken down individually. The former covered the loading and unloading of a shipment, while the latter paid for miscellaneous services, such as ship repairs and cleaning (OED description begins James A. H. Murray, J. A. Simpson, E. S. C. Weiner, and others, eds., The Oxford English Dictionary, 2d ed., 1989, 20 vols. description ends ; Joseph Kay, The Law relating to Shipmasters and Seamen [2d ed., 1894], 34).

1Manuscript: “marsiells.”

2Omitted opening parenthesis editorially supplied.

Index Entries

  • anchovies search
  • Anderson, Daniel (ship captain) search
  • Cathalan, Stephen (Étienne) (1757–1819); and wine for TJ search
  • Cathalan, Stephen (Étienne) (1757–1819); health of search
  • Cathalan, Stephen (Étienne) (1757–1819); sends preserved flowers to TJ search
  • fish; anchovies search
  • flowers; preserved, sent to TJ search
  • food; anchovies search
  • food; macaroni search
  • food; raisins search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Business & Financial Affairs; orders wine from S. Cathalan search
  • Jones, Joseph; and goods for TJ search
  • Jones, Joseph; as collector at Petersburg search
  • Jones, Joseph; identified search
  • Jones, Joseph; letters from search
  • lavender; sent by S. Cathalan search
  • macaroni; TJ orders search
  • oil; olive search
  • olives; oil search
  • Planter (brig) search
  • raisins; TJ orders search
  • Randolph, Thomas Jefferson (TJ’s grandson; Jane Hollins Nicholas Randolph’s husband); orders food and wine from Europe search
  • wine; for T. J. Randolph search
  • wine; TJ orders from S. Cathalan search