Statement of Account with Thomas Carpenter, 31 March 1801
Statement of Account with Thomas Carpenter
| Thomas Jefferson Esq. | ||
| 1801 | To Thomas Carpenter Dr. | |
| January 1st. | ||
| Repairing a Surtout Coat | Drs.0.25 | |
| To Making a pr Breeches and materials, with pocketts | 2.62 | |
| 1⅞ yds Superfine Black Cassimeer @ 22/6 | 5.62 | |
| To Making a Coat, trimings, stays, pocketts &c | 4.25 | |
| Silk Sleeve Lynings and velvet Collar | 3.25 | |
| 20 Steele Buttons | 1.75 | |
| 2¼ yds Superfine Blue Cloth @ 48/9 | 14.62 | |
| Febry. 14 | Facing a Waistcoat and Silk | 1.25 |
| 28. | Making a Coat & materials | 4.25 |
| Silk Sleeve Lynings & velvet Collar | 3.25 | |
| Making a Waistcoat and materials | 3.25 | |
| 6½ yds Superfine black Cassimeer @ 22/6 | 19.50 | |
| Facing an under Waistcoat and Silk | 1.25 | |
| Repairing Breeches | 25 | |
| March 30 | Making a Coat and Materials | 4.25 |
| Silk Sleeve Lynings Velvet Collar and Steele Buttons | 5.— | |
| 5 Yards Superfine blue Cassimeer @ 22/6 | 15.— | |
| Making a Great Coat and materials | 4.25 | |
| Silk Sleeve Lynings and Velvet Collar | 3.25 | |
| 3¾ yards Milled blue Cloth @ 45/ | 22.50 | |
| Making the Servant’s Coat and materials | 4.— | |
| Making his Waistcoat and materials | 2.50 | |
| Making his Pantaloons and materials | 2.25 | |
| 2 Yards blue Cloth @ 30/ | 8.— | |
| 1 Doz Coat and 1 Doz small Gilt Buttons | 90 | |
| Scarlet Cloth for Collar and Cuffs | 1.— | |
| A Corded Waistcoat Pattern | 1.50 | |
| 3 yards Velvet for Pantaloons @ 11/3 | 4.50 | |
| $ 144.26 | ||
| Mar. 31. 1801 servants. | 24.65 | |
| Mr. Barnes will be pleased to pay this Th: Jefferson |
119.61 |
MS (ViU); in Carpenter’s hand, words and figures in italics added by TJ, who also endorsed the statement on verso with Carpenter’s name and addressed it “Mr. Barnes”; notation in a clerk’s hand alongside Carpenter’s total, “Exd. JB,” refers to an examination of the account in John Barnes’s office, and checkmarks next to all of Carpenter’s figures, not shown here, were probably added during that review; at foot, Barnes wrote and Carpenter signed an acknowledgment of payment in full on 2 Apr. 1801; endorsed by Barnes and a clerk.
Thomas Carpenter, who had moved to the capital city from Philadelphia, was the proprietor of a Washington tailoring business that employed several workmen. In the early months of 1801 he was in partnership with Charles Varden. They had shops on Capitol Hill and Pennsylvania Avenue. Later in the year the two businesses separated, Varden opened a shop on New Jersey Avenue, and Carpenter’s operation occupied the Capitol Hill and Pennsylvania Avenue locations (National Intelligencer, 26 Jan., 11 Mch., 20 July 1801, 4 Jan. 1802; Washington Federalist, 11 Dec. 1801; 2:1063n).
The final eight entries of Carpenter’s statement, beginning with the cost of making the servant’s coat, comprised the total of $24.65 that TJ noted as charges for servants’ clothing. In his financial memoranda for March, TJ noted that Edward Maher was to have two suits of clothes in addition to his monthly pay as porter. Some months later the expenses for the presidential household included clothing for seven servants, five of whom wore livery made in Carpenter’s shop ( 2:1035, 1058, 1063; Josph Rapin to TJ, 3 Apr. 1801).