Thomas Jefferson Papers
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From Thomas Jefferson to James and Dolley Madison and Anna Payne, 27 May 1801

To James and Dolley Madison
and Anna Payne

May 27. 1801.

Th: Jefferson was much disappointed at breakfast this morning not having till then known of the departure of mr & mrs Madison & miss Payne. he hopes they will come and dine to-day with the miss Butlers who were assured they would meet them here, and tomorrow with mrs Gallatin & mrs Mason. affectionate salutations.

RC (ICHi).

Departure of Mr & Mrs Madison & Miss Payne: the Madisons, along with Dolley’s younger sister and ward, Anna Payne, stayed as TJ’s guests at the President’s House for almost a month upon their arrival in Washington. They probably moved to one of the Six Buildings, where they resided until they left for Montpelier in late July. When the Madisons returned to Washington in October 1801, they resided next door to William and Anna Maria Thornton at 1333 F Street, two blocks east of the President’s House, in a house that they continued to occupy throughout Madison’s terms as secretary of state (Madison, Papers, Sec. of State Ser. description begins J. C. A. Stagg, ed., The Papers of James Madison, Secretary of State Series, Charlottesville, 1986–, 8 vols. description ends , 1:113n, 2:xli; Brant, Madison description begins Irving Brant, James Madison, Indianapolis, 1941–61, 6 vols. description ends , 4:41–3, 490n; Vol. 33:595).

Miss Butlers: the daughters of Pierce Butler, Anne Elizabeth, Frances, Harriot Percy, and Sarah Butler Mease. They frequently accompanied their widowed father to social functions after their mother’s death in 1790 (Malcolm Bell, Jr., Major Butler’s Legacy: Five Generations of a Slaveholding Family [Athens, Ga., 1987], xvi, 52–4; S.C. Biographical Directory, House of Representatives description begins J. S. R Faunt, Walter B. Edgar, N. Louise Bailey, and others, eds., Biographical Directory of the South Carolina House of Representatives, Columbia, S.C., 1974–92 , 5 vols. description ends , 3:112–13).

Mrs Mason: Anna Maria Murray Mason, the wife of General John Mason.

TJ wrote again to Dolley Madison and Anna Payne on 4 June asking either of them to dine with him that day “to take care of his female friends expected” (RC in ICHi).

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