Thomas Jefferson Papers
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Enclosure: Richard Stith’s Receipt for John Wayles’s Land Purchase, 11 January 1771

Enclosure

Richard Stith’s Receipt for John Wayles’s Land Purchase

11 January 1771 Received of Mr John Wayles by James Donald six pounds currency, the price of Ninety nine acres of land near to Ivey Creek.—

Richard Stith

Tr (ViU: TJP); entirely in Archibald Thweatt’s hand; with notations beneath signature: “a copy from the original” and, signed by Thweatt and dated 23 June 1812: “The Receipt, I presume, is in the hand writing of James Donald or of some other person—it is in a good hand.—Stith’s signature, with a hand, apparently not much accustomed to writing”; on verso of address cover of RC of covering letter. Tr (ViU: TJP); in Thweatt’s hand; with copy of same 23 June 1812 notation by Thweatt; on verso of an undated portion of an address cover from Thweatt to TJ. Tr (ViU: TJP; entirely in TJ’s hand and attested by him; forming part of a set of exhibits submitted by TJ with his 11 July 1812 answer to Samuel Scott’s bill of complaint in Scott v. Jefferson and Harrison). Enclosed in Thweatt to TJ, 2 Aug. 1812; TJ to William P. Martin, 4 Sept. 1812; TJ to James Steptoe, 10 Sept. 1812; and TJ to George Hay, 30 Sept. 1812.

Richard Stith (ca. 1728–1802) was surveyor of Campbell County from about 1781 until his death. He served as a justice of the peace beginning in 1782. At his death Stith had amassed substantial property including a plantation house, twenty-eight slaves, and over thirteen thousand acres of land in Campbell and Bedford counties (Campbell Co. Record of Surveys [1781–1827], 1–88; Campbell Co. Order Book, 1:1; Campbell Co. Will Book, 2:103–11, 121–7, 131–2).

John Wayles (1715–73), TJ’s father-in-law, was an attorney, merchant, and planter who immigrated to Virginia from his native England. By the 1740s he had acquired “The Forest,” a plantation in Charles City County. TJ described Wayles as “a most agreeable companion” and “a lawyer of much practice, to which he was introduced more by his great industry, punctuality & practical readiness, than to eminence in the science of his profession.” Wayles wed three times, with a total of four daughters reaching adulthood from the first two marriages. With his slave Betty Hemings he was reputedly also the father of six children, including Sally Hemings. On 1 Jan. 1772 TJ married Wayles’s widowed daughter Martha, and through her he inherited property in Wayles’s estate that was “about equal to my own patrimony, and consequently doubled the ease of our circumstances.” Wayles died in Charles City County (Tyler’s Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine 6 [1925]: 266–70; TJ’s Autobiography, 6 Jan.–29 July 1821 [DLC]; PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 34 vols. description ends , esp. 1:46, 95–6, 100, 103, 15:642–77; 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 , esp. 1:209, 213, 329–32; Williamsburg Virginia Gazette [Purdie & Dixon], 3 June 1773; Charles City Co. Deeds and Wills [1766–74], 461–3).

james donald was a Bedford County merchant (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 , 1:218).

Index Entries

  • Donald, James (of Bedford Co.); and J. Wayles’s land purchase search
  • Donald, James (of Bedford Co.); merchant search
  • Hemings, Elizabeth (Betty) (TJ’s slave); family of search
  • Hemings, Sally (TJ’s slave; b.1773); family of search
  • Stith, Richard; as Campbell Co. surveyor search
  • Stith, Richard; identified search
  • Stith, Richard; Receipt for John Wayles’s Land Purchase search
  • Thweatt, Archibald; and TJ’s land dispute with S. Scott search
  • Wayles, John (TJ’s father-in-law); and Campbell Co. land search
  • Wayles, John (TJ’s father-in-law); identified search