1Thomas Jefferson to Chapman Johnson, 5 January 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I observe that a petition has been presented to the legislature by the Rivanna company for an enlargement of their powers. as these are to be exercised wholly within my lands & almost solely over my property, and have not hitherto been marked by a very tender forbearance from injury to me, it becomes necessary, while they ask for power, for me to ask for some just protection from it. mr Philip...
2Chapman Johnson to Thomas Jefferson, 9 January 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, dated the 5 th of this month , on the subject of a petition, presented to the Legislature, by the Rivanna Company —If that subject should come before the Senate, I will take pleasure, in investigating the facts, and in presenting them to the other members of our house, in their true character— RC ( MHi ); endorsed by TJ as received 13 Jan. 1813...
3Chapman Johnson to Thomas Jefferson, 10 June 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I have to acknowledge your’s of the 4 th , received this morning, and to promise you my attention, to the case of David Michie against yourself, depending in the Albemarle circuit Court ,— I was apprised of the application for a certiorari, during the sitting of the last court, and on the authority of your former letter, would have contested the propriety of granting it, if the application had...
4Chapman Johnson to Thomas Jefferson, 21 June 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
The last saturdays mail, brought me Your favor of the 16 th covering a statement of the proceedings on the writ of forcible entry and detainer , in the case bew between yourself and David Michie — Yours of the 4. had been previously received and answered;— My answer , which I suppose you have here received, gives you the ground on which I suppose that the supersedeas certiorari was awarded.
5Thomas Jefferson to Chapman Johnson, 7 November 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I was unwell during the last session of our district court , or I should have seen you there and delivered to you the inclosed for your kind assistance in the case of Michie’s Certiorari on the proceedings of forcible entry; and I was not without a hope that your business might have given you leisure to take a dinner or an evening with us which will always give me pleasure. I had a...
6Chapman Johnson to Thomas Jefferson, 16 November 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the pleasure of receiving your letter of the 7. by the last mail enclosing twenty dollars, my fee in the certiorari case of Michie , in the Albemarle Circuit court —. I was very sorry to hear that indisposition had deprived us of the pleasure of seeing you, at Charlotte’sville — I hope when at Charlottesville hereafter, I shall have it in my power, to avail my self of your polite...
7Thomas Jefferson to Chapman Johnson, 26 December 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
You have heretofore known something of jarrings between the Rivanna company and myself. certain claims of right, equal, & even paramount to my own, which they set up to my canal, and whi a work which has cost me 30,000.D. and which would render it’s value almost null to me, oblige me to bring a suit in chancery to quiet my title . I have prepared a bill , but cannot finish it until I can see...
8Chapman Johnson to Thomas Jefferson, 7 January 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the pleasure of receiving this morning, your letter, of the 26 h Dec r addressed to me, at Staunton , and the duplicate thereof, addressed to this place— In your suit in chancery, with the Rivanna company you may count on my Services as counsel, and so, according to your request, you may expect me to appear for You as counsel, in any cause, in which You may be concerned, within the range...
9Thomas Jefferson to Chapman Johnson, 9 February 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I now send you a copy of my bill and of the documents which I have been longer getting ready than I expected. there is still a document N o 6. wanting. this copy of both bill & documents is prepared for your use and that of mr Peyton also engaged in the cause, but when that is done I will ask the return of both, as I ought to preserve them among my papers. the bill is long, and perhaps too...
10Chapman Johnson to Thomas Jefferson, 27 February 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the pleasure of receiving your letter , enclosing your bill in Equity , with the accompanying documents—with which, however, I have not yet had an opportunity to make myself acquainted. I expect to be detained here, until some day next week, and then to set out, with my family, on my return home. I shall pass through Louisa to see my friends there, where it is probable I may be detained...
11Thomas Jefferson to Chapman Johnson, 14 April 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I now inclose my bill in Chancery for the file of the court. it has been read by all the defs . the four of them acknolege the facts, within their own knolege, to be correct. they are glad the suit is brought, that they may know their rightful ground, and will answer without delay, and consent to it’s being brought on by motion as soon as ready. some depositions will be necessary. the suit...
12Chapman Johnson to Thomas Jefferson, 26 April 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter dated the 14 th of this month , was not received by me, until a few days since, on my return from an absence of a fortnight—Since that time, I have been very busily engaged in court every day, and must beg you to accept this fact as some apology for my permitting one or two post days to pass, without sending you the subpoena, you desired me to enclose—I hope the delay will produce...
13Thomas Jefferson to Chapman Johnson, [18] August 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I now inclose you mr Divers ’s answer I given without form or the ceremony of an oath. his health, and hurry to depart for the springs rendered it necessary to dispense with useless formalities. I furnished the def s with a copy of the bill some months ago, but I know nothing of the progress of their answers. as soon as they shall be given in, I will pray you to send me office copies as guides...
14Chapman Johnson to Thomas Jefferson, 30 August 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Yesterday morning I received your letter from “ Poplar forest ,”— enclosing M r Divers’s answer to your bill against The Rivanna company —together with your notes thereon — I have filed the answer; and in pursuance of your request, will send you office copies of the answers, as soon as they are filed—None others have yet been filed—I will endeavour, too, to effectuate your wish, of preventing...
15Chapman Johnson to Thomas Jefferson, [5 August 1818?] (Jefferson Papers)
C. Johnson presents his respects to M r Jefferson , and asks the favor of him to drink tea with him this evening. RC ( DLC: TJ Papers , 213:38059); with Dft of TJ to Thomas Cooper, 7 Aug. 1818 , on verso; partially dated; addressed: “ M r Jefferson . Present.” This note was probably written during TJ’s brief stay at Staunton
16Thomas Jefferson to Chapman Johnson, 3 March [1819] (Jefferson Papers)
I have learnt with sincere pleasure your nomination as a Visitor of the University ; and with the more as it will again give us occasions of seeing you here. I hope you will make Monticello your head quarters on all these occasions; and I particular ly wish you could come a day at least before our meeting of the 29 th instant . the papers being all here, their examination would put you into...
17Chapman Johnson to Thomas Jefferson, 13 March 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the pleasure of receiving your very kind letter of the 3 d of this month ;—and will, if possible, avail myself of your invitation to be at Monticello the day before the first meeting of the visitors , on the 29 th instant. I am very sorry I cannot have the pleasure of spending a night with you, on my way home;—my time and the stages , I must necessarily make, will not allow of it— RC (...
18Thomas Jefferson to Chapman Johnson and John H. Peyton, 9 June 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
On the information of mr Peyton that my suit with the Rivanna co. was set for hearing at your approaching term, I took up the corporate answer of the def s which till then I had read but once, & that slightly, & made observations on it as I went along, which I now inclose. mr Divers ’s individual answer I had sent you before, on which also I now furnish some observations. On the 31 st of May &...
19Thomas Jefferson to Chapman Johnson and John H. Peyton, 11 June 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I now inclose you the documents, original or authentic, to which the references of my bill relate. N os 4. 5. 7. 8. are duly authenticated by mr Minor as a Commissioner in Chancery .
20Chapman Johnson to Thomas Jefferson, 17 June 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I have received your letters of the 9 th and 11 h of this month, addressed to M r Peyton and myself, with the exhibits depositions and notes therein referred to— The cause having been set for hearing during the term before the commencement of the court , I think it is probable, that it will be taken up and argued at least, during the present term—This will pretty certainly be the case, unless...
21Chapman Johnson to Thomas Jefferson, 19 June 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
M r Brooks , who tells me, that he is going to the University , to cover some of the buildings with tin, has asked my opinion as to different modes of putting it on, and desired me, to commun i cate that opinion to You— I do so, not from any confidence at all in my judgment upon the subject, but because I have been able to learn the opinions of others in this place, who have used this covering...
22Thomas Jefferson to Chapman Johnson, 26 June 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I was summoned by the Rivanna company to attend taking the deposition of Alexr Garrett this day which was to prove that the body of the Inquisition of 1805. was in my handwriting, and the interpolation in a different one; a fact which I have stated in the bill . it will be conveyed I presume by tomorrow’s mail. I have given them notice that I shall take the deposition of John Coles on Monday...
23Thomas Jefferson to Chapman Johnson and John H. Peyton, 28 June 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I now inclose you mr Cole ’s deposition taken this morning at Milton , and closing, as I suppose, all further examination on either side. you will find that it solidly supports the statement in the bill as to the interpolated clause in the inquest of 1805. his answer to the question whether he did not think the dam an obstruction to the navigation? is perplexed, but meant to convey this idea,...
24Chapman Johnson to Thomas Jefferson, 1 July 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I have received your favors of the 26. and 28 h instant, the former apprising me of the taking of m r Garrett s and the intention to take m r Coles ’s deposition—The latter enclosing m r Coles ’s deposition taken—
25Thomas Jefferson to Chapman Johnson, 4 July 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 1 st is recieved. the ruinous and compleatly rotten state of the locks at my mill is such that any thing of an extraordinary fresh will infallibly blow them up and sweep away the bank of the canal so as to unite it to the river to an extent which no one can previously determine. an immediate decision therefore is of the first importance and takes place of all other...
26Chapman Johnson to Thomas Jefferson, 7 July 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I am sorry that I shall not be able to communicate the result of your trial with the Rivanna company , before you leave home for Bedford — The court has taken a recess for this week, and will not proceed with the docket till monday next—That will necessarily postpone the argument of your cause, till the middle, perhaps till the latter end, of the week— This delay, however, has the advantage of...
27Thomas Jefferson to James Breckinridge, Chapman Johnson, and Robert Taylor, 8 July 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Proposing within a few days to set out for Bedford , I think it a duty previously to state to you the progress and prospect of things at the University . you may perhaps remember that almost in the moment of our separation at the last meeting one of our colleagues proposed a change of a part of the plan of the grounds, so as to place the gardens of the Professors adjacent to the rear of their...
28Chapman Johnson to Thomas Jefferson, 25 September 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
In my last letter to you, I told you, that after our term of the chancery court was over, I would write to you in Bedford , and inform you what had been done, in your suit with the Rivanna company —On reflection afterwards, I thought it probable, that you were not desirous of receiving letters whilst at the Forest , and I concluded that I would return defer writing until your return to...
29Minutes of University of Virginia Board of Visitors, 4 October 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
At a meeting of the Visitors of the University of Virginia at the sd University on Monday the 4 th of September October 1819. present Thomas Jefferson , Robert Taylor , James Madison , Chapman Johnson
30University of Virginia Board of Visitors Report to Literary Fund President and Directors, 4 October 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
To the President & Directors of the Literary fund . In obedience to the act of the legislature of Virginia , intituled ‘an act establishing an University ’ & enjoining on the Rector & Visitors thereof ‘to make report annually to the President & Directors of the Literary fund (to be laid before the legislature at their next succeeding session) embracing a full account of the disbursements, the...