Daniel Call (1765–1840), attorney and law reporter, studied law under George Wythe in the 1780s and began practicing law in Petersburg in 1786. In 1791 he qualified to practice in the Court of Appeals, Virginia’s highest tribunal. For several years Call maintained a residence in Petersburg while practicing in Richmond, but he relocated to the state capital about 1797. There he took over Bushrod Washington’s practice when the latter became an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1798. One of the cases that Call inherited from Washington was acting for TJ in his suit in chancery against the heirs of Bennett Henderson. When Call’s relative-by-marriage John Marshall was named chief justice three years later, Call also assumed responsibility for his practice. He published extensively on Virginia case law, producing six volumes of the Virginia Reports between 1801 and 1833. Call also served as a director and general counsel of the Mutual Assurance Society. A decade prior to his death in Richmond, he owned ten slaves (DVB description begins John T. Kneebone, Sara B. Bearss, and others, eds., Dictionary of Virginia Biography, 1998– , 3 vols. description ends ; PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, James P. McClure, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 43 vols. description ends , vol. 31; MB description begins James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 2:1005; Marshall, Papers description begins Herbert A. Johnson, Charles T. Cullen, Charles F. Hobson, and others, eds., The Papers of John Marshall, 1974–2006, 12 vols. description ends , 2:111; Petersburg Virginia Intelligencer, 21 Oct. 1808; DNA: RG 29, CS, Richmond, 1810–30, Henrico Co., 1820; Richmond Enquirer, 22 May 1840; Washington Daily National Intelligencer, 23 May 1840; gravestone inscription in Shockoe Hill Cemetery, Richmond).

Call was executor of the estate of Joseph darmsdatt (Richmond Enquirer, 3 Feb. 1820). His favor of the 5th inst., not found, is recorded in SJL as received 10 May 1820 from Richmond. In describing the letters he enclosed here, TJ incorrectly identified the letter of july 4. 18 as having been written by him to Darmsdatt, when in fact it was Darmsdatt’s response of that date to TJ’s letter of 19 June 1818.