John Vaughan to Thomas Jefferson, 22 February 1819
From John Vaughan
Philad 22 Feby 1819
Dr sir
In hopes that my friend the Revd Mr Bigelow of Boston may be gratified in his wish of being able to extend his tour South to pay his respects to you, I have desired him to take Charge of this Letter to procure him this advantage.1 He [is]2 a friend of Mr Tickenor’s & saw him in Europe—He was also well acquainted with Earl Buchan & has in his hands seen many of Your Letters— With continued wishes for your health & happiness I remain D sir
Jn Vaughan
RC (MHi); at head of text: “Thomas Jefferson Monticello”; endorsed by TJ as received 1 May 1819 and so recorded in SJL.
Andrew Bigelow (1795–1877), Unitarian minister, was born in Groton, Massachusetts, and received undergraduate and divinity degrees from Harvard University in 1814 and 1817, respectively. In the latter year he traveled to Scotland to continue his theological studies, where he befriended David Steuart Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan, and took notes that he later published as Leaves from a Journal; or Sketches of Rambles in some parts of North Britain and Ireland. chiefly in the year 1817 (Boston, 1821; Edinburgh, 1824). Bigelow later issued a second such work, Travels in Malta and Sicily, with sketches of Gibraltar, in MDCCCXXVII (1831). A student of various oriental languages, he joined the American Antiquarian Society in 1820 and was ordained the same year. During the next quarter century Bigelow preached in Eastport, Maine; Washington, D.C.; and Medford, Taunton, South Danvers, and Boston, Massachusetts. After giving up the pulpit in 1846 he served for thirty years as a minister at large in Boston, working as a missionary among the poor. Leaving an estate valued at more than $50,000, Bigelow died in that city (Gilman Bigelow Howe, Genealogy of the Bigelow Family of America [1890], 267; Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, at the semi-annual meeting, held in Boston, April 25, 1877 [1877], 11–4; MH-AH: Bigelow Papers; , 190, 924; General Catalogue of the Divinity School of Harvard University 1901 [1901], 3; Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, 1812–1849 [1912], 153–4; DNA: RG 29, CS, Mass., Boston, 1870; Boston Daily Advertiser, 2 Apr. 1877).
1. Omitted period at right margin editorially supplied.
2. Omitted word editorially supplied.
Index Entries
- Bigelow, Andrew; identified search
- Bigelow, Andrew; introduced to TJ search
- Buchan, David Steuart Erskine, 11th Earl of; friendship with A. Bigelow search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Correspondence; letters of introduction to search
- Ticknor, George; friendship with A. Bigelow search
- Vaughan, John (1756–1841); introduces A. Bigelow search
- Vaughan, John (1756–1841); letters from search