1. Thomas Whiting (ca. 1712–1781), a wealthy merchant of Gloucester County, was a member of the Board of Trade of Virginia. Jacquelin Ambler was its chairman and Duncan Rose, a Petersburg merchant, was its other member. Why Jefferson addressed his note to Whiting rather than to Ambler or Rose is not clear. Perhaps Whiting was either the only one of the three conveniently at hand or, as a merchant, had been awarded the contract for supplying the articles mentioned in the memorandum. The Board of Trade had been created by the Assembly in May 1779. Serving as the executive agency of the Governor in Council, the board directed a wide range of activities, including the importation and allocation of military goods of all kinds, the manufacture of them within Virginia insofar as possible, and the providing of civilian necessities such as salt, cottons, and woolens at reasonable prices (Journal of the House of Delegates description begins Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia; Begun and Held At the Capitol, in the City of Williamsburg. Beginning in 1780, the portion after the semicolon reads, Begun and Held in the Town of Richmond. In the County of Henrico. The Journal for each session has its own title page and is individually paginated. The edition used, unless otherwise noted, is the one in which the journals for 1777–1781 are brought together in one volume, with each journal published in Richmond in 1827 or 1828, and often called the “Thomas W. White reprint.” description ends , May 1779, pp. 13, 17, 53, 54; Hening, Statutes description begins William Waller Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large; being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature, in the Year 1619 (13 vols.; Richmond and Philadelphia, 1819–23). description ends , X, 15–16).

2. On 18 June 1779 the Assembly decided to move the “seat of government” from Williamsburg to Richmond. This action was designed to keep the capital upon a navigable stream but in a more central location, less exposed to “insults and injuries of the publick enemy” (ibid., X, 85–86). On 24 June, by joint ballot of the two houses of the Assembly, Turner Southall of Richmond was elected the chairman; and Archibald Cary and Robert Goode of Chesterfield County, James Buchanan of Richmond, and Robert Carter Nicholas of Hanover County were chosen to be the other members of the board of directors of the public buildings of the state at Richmond (Journal of the House of Delegates description begins Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia; Begun and Held At the Capitol, in the City of Williamsburg. Beginning in 1780, the portion after the semicolon reads, Begun and Held in the Town of Richmond. In the County of Henrico. The Journal for each session has its own title page and is individually paginated. The edition used, unless otherwise noted, is the one in which the journals for 1777–1781 are brought together in one volume, with each journal published in Richmond in 1827 or 1828, and often called the “Thomas W. White reprint.” description ends , May 1779, pp. 64–65).

3. Because of the exigencies of the war, the scarcity of materials, and the high price of labor, the directors were ordered to provide only “temporary buildings for the sitting of the general assembly, the courts of justice, and the several boards” (Hening, Statutes description begins William Waller Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large; being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature, in the Year 1619 (13 vols.; Richmond and Philadelphia, 1819–23). description ends , X, 88).

4. On 1 June 1779 the legislature elected Jefferson to succeed Patrick Henry as governor.

5. At the end of the memorandum, Archibald Cary, presiding officer of the state Senate as well as one of the directors of public buildings, wrote: “These the board of Trade is to send for, on Acct. of the Directors for removeing seat of Goverment Archd Cary June 26th. 1779.”