To Thomas Jefferson from Joel Yancey, 6 February 1804
From Joel Yancey
Albemarle February. 6. 1804
Dear Sir
I have it in contemplation to remove to the Louisiana country, and provided I thought myself qualified for the execution of any public business in that country that wou’d be adequate to the support of a genteel family, I believe I shou’d so far rely on my acquantaince with you as to request the favour of you to mention me that department in whose gift offices of that nature are, provided none shou’d offer that you may prefer, and you shou’d conceive me adequate to the functions of an office of the above description, I wou’d very gratefully acknowledge your assistance1 so far as wou’d exclude Sacrifice of Sentiment. I am very respectfully your
Most Obdt. Servt
Joel Yancey
RC (DNA: RG 59, LAR); endorsed by TJ as received 10 Feb. and “for emploiment in Louisiana” and so recorded in SJL.
Joel Yancey (1773-1838), a native of Albemarle County, served as one of the sheriffs who collected taxes on lands in the county. In that capacity he received payments from TJ for taxes on property in Fredericksville Parish, including Shadwell. TJ also drew on Yancey as a source of cash, to be repaid through Gibson & Jefferson in Richmond, where the sheriffs deposited their collections. Yancey represented Albemarle County in the Virginia General Assembly in 1805-6. He moved to Kentucky, served in that state’s legislature, and won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Congresses (; , 239; , 357-8, 384; , 2:1024, 1025, 1026, 1027, 1038-9, 1079, 1105, 1106, 1107; Vol. 32:127-8; Vol. 35:349-50; Vol. 38:449; Vol. 41:405; Craven Peyton to TJ, 8 Dec. 1803). Another Joel Yancey supervised TJ’s Poplar Forest and Bedford County lands (, 4:318n).
1. MS: “assitance.”