James Madison Papers
Documents filtered by: Author="Finch, John" AND Correspondent="Finch, John"
sorted by: date (ascending)
Permanent link for this document:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/04-03-02-0323

To James Madison from John Finch, 20 May 1824

From John Finch

At Mr J Vaughan’s Phila. May 20. 1824.

Dear Sir

I enclose a few pages which may serve to amuse a leisure moment. They were printed last year in the American Journal of Science.1

At Richmond I had the honor of dining with Chief Justice Marshall, and then proceeded to examine the country below the Falls. At Coll. Allen’s plantation2 there is a very extensive deposition of fossil shells, more than I have ever seen in any other situation, and many of them are of new genera and species. On the banks of James and York rivers are the fossil remains of sharks, crocodiles and cetaceous animals. My collections are not yet all of them arrived, but in the course of two or three months I may probably receive them, and have them properly arranged.

Allow me to express my thanks for your kind attention whilst staying at Montpelier, and to present to yourself and Mrs. Madison the assurance of my highest respect. I have the honor to be, Sir, Your most obedient, faithful Servant,

John Finch

RC (DLC). Docketed by JM.

1. John Finch, Geological Essay on the Tertiary Formations in America. Read before the Academy of Natural Sciences, at Philadelphia, July 15, 1823 (Philadelphia, 1823; Shoemaker description begins Richard H. Shoemaker, comp., A Checklist of American Imprints for 1820–1829 (11 vols.; New York, 1964–72). description ends 12546). JM’s copy is in the Madison Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress. Finch also enclosed his paper entitled “On the Celtic Antiquities in America,” which was published in the American Journal of Science, and Arts 7 (1824): 149–61.

2. William Allen (1768–1831) was the owner of Claremont, a plantation on the James River a short distance from Jamestown on the opposite shore. He served as a delegate from Surry County in the Virginia Assembly, 1802–10 (“Allen Family of Surry County,” WMQ description begins William and Mary Quarterly. description ends , 1st ser., 8 [1900]: 112; Swem and Williams, Register description begins Earl G. Swem and John W. Williams, eds., A Register of the General Assembly of Virginia, 1776-1918, and of the Constitutional Conventions (Richmond, 1918). description ends , 342).

Index Entries

    You Are Looking At

    Source Project
    Madison Papers
    Title
    To James Madison from John Finch, 20 May 1824
    Author
    Finch, John
    Recipient
    Madison, James
    Date
    20 May 1824

    Reference

    Cite as
    “To James Madison from John Finch, 20 May 1824,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/04-03-02-0323. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, Retirement Series, vol. 3, 1 March 1823 – 24 February 1826, ed. David B. Mattern, J. C. A. Stagg, Mary Parke Johnson, and Katherine E. Harbury. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2016, pp. 332–333.]

    More between these correspondents