1Enclosure: William Thornton to George Greer, 2 August 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
The late President of the U.S. M r Jefferson being desirous of knowing how & where he could obtain one of the Looms of M r Janes’s Improvem t I wrote to M r J: & received this day his answer , referring me to you or to M r Robert Miller
2William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, 20 July 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I lamented very much when you wrote to me for the Portrait by Stewart , that I had not finished a Copy of it; for I was in hopes that the Gentlemen who were engaged in taking the Heads of our worthies, would have done more justice than I could do: but when I saw, on their return, the Portraits of yourself of M r & M rs Madison , I beheld them with amazement.—I did not admire them, but I...
3William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, 13 July 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
With the Drawings &c I received your Letter of the 3 rd Inst: & am sorry that the Description of the Spinning machine had not been more perfectly executed, by which you would with greater facility have comprehended the several parts. The roving part is described very much in the Stile of the Descriptions in the Cyclopadia; referring to the roving Jack is like referring to a Book out of print....
4William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, 18 June 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the honor of your Letter of the 24 th Ult o inclosing fifty Dollars, which I delayed answering from day to day till I am astonished at the lapse of time. I waited in daily expectation of the arrival of your Servant, and had the machine prepared accordingly. I have heard nothing of him yet, and cannot remain any longer silent, lest some accident may have happened.— I am still unwell, but...
5William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, 9 June 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I have received your very friendly Letter , & I really feel ashamed at putting you to the necessity of writing for the Paintings you were so kind as to lend me to copy;—but still more so to offer any apology for not immediately sending them: however I must do it, for they are yet here. The Head by Stewart I really think one of the finest I ever saw, & having commenced it, I was in hopes of...
6William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, 3 April 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
I should before now have answered your esteemed favor of the 9 th Feb y last , but I wished to communicate something relative to the Looms: I find nothing yet worthy of your attention.— I have made several Enquiries relative to the mode of lining the Cisterns for Water. In the West Indies where Pouzzolane abounds, they plaster them in the inside with this Substance mixed with lime & sand, and...
7William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, 7 May 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
We came here to spend two or three Days, for the first time these six months, so closely have I been confined by my Duties, which have encreased to six fold, and I am yet without any Assistant, except when I hire, one at my own expense.—The Patents amounted last year to 219! Among them are Inventions that do honor to our Country. I think the coming Season will be the most abundant in fruit...
8William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, 4 April 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
W: Thornton ’s respects to the Hon ble Thomas Jefferson, and, according to promise , sends a Copy of the List of Patents for the last Year: he has also the honor of presenting a Copy of the Piece he wrote some years ago, and incloses one for the Hon: Colonel Randolph .— W.T. has this Day seen a model of a machine which prepares Cotton for spinning without Carding. It is a very simple machine,...
9William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, 20 January 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
I have this Day had the honor of your Letter of the 14 th Inst: enquiring into the goodness of the Domestic Spinner by Ebenezer Hearrick . Having been very much confined by sickness I sent to the office for the Drawing of Hearrick’s machine. It may possibly answer, but I think it cannot spin fast the length of the thread every motion being very short. It consists of a Frame, a principal Band...
10William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, 8 May 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the honor of receiving your Letter concerning the Spinning Machine, & am sorry that I did not know sooner your Inclination to have one of them, and that M r Barrett should have hesitated a moment in sending you one.—He purchased some property of me, and not having made sales of his Machine sufficient to pay me, he gave me a power of attorney to sell his rights in Virginia and to pay...
11William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, 4 September 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
I have so long delayed to write a few Lines to acknowledge your last favour , with an intention of making my Ans r more acceptable, by giving you news &c, that I am really ashamed of an appearance of forgetfulness; and, at this time, when exceedingly pressed by Business, I write, lest I may be still more engaged hereafter. I am exceedingly indebted to you for the very kind present you made me...
12Enclosure: William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, [ca. 9 May 1812] (Jefferson Papers)
I have had a measurement made of the Box or Case in which the Machine came packed, and I find it is 7 feet 7 Inches long— 3 feet 3 Inches wide, 2 feet 5 Inches deep.— I thought it necessary to give the dimensions, that you might be better enabled to determine in what way it should be conveyed, provided you conclude to take it. I saw M r Barrett spin a good deal of wool on it, & believe it to...
13William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, 27 June 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
I rec d your Favour a Day or two after I wrote , and by your Servant Davy an order for the machine, which I went to the point to have packed up immediately; but hearing that one of his Horses was galled I advised him to rest them a Day or two, & to manage the Geers so as to prevent any further harm, which was done.—He arrived on the 24 th and after the machine was put up I paid Judge Cranch...
14William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, 16 November 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the honor of your very friendly Letter of the 11 th Ultimo , and am much pleased with your wishes to colonize so many Objects of utility and delight. In this Country we have every climate & soil, and certainly whatever will flourish on Earth will flourish with us. I am glad the pair of Sheep got safe, & I will with great pleasure send some more Fig trees in the way you mention, or by...
15William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, 30 August 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I had last Night the honor of your Letter of the 24 th Inst t and am much gratified by any opportunity of testifying in the smallest degree my high esteem & respect. I am exceedingly obliged by your kind wish to have seen me with the President & his Lady , and M r & M rs Gallatin . To see you, and your amiable & excellent Family would at all times be sufficient Inducement, but if any...
16William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, 8 June 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
I am very glad that the young Fig trees arrived safe, and also that the former ones were still alive. I am much obliged by your kindness in reserving one of the Sheep dogs for me, and if not yet disposed of in consequence of not meeting with a good conveyance hither I must request your further kindness in sending them by the messenger you will despatch for your Merinos to the President’s ,...
17William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, 22 March 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I expected long before now to have returned the fine painting of Stewart & the Drawing of West that you were so obliging as to send to me and for which I am very much obliged, but I have been disappointed in getting the Head modelled, which I wished to have got done by an Italian artist who promised to do it, but has since expressed a wish to do after the original: his name is Valaperta . He...
18William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, 10 May 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
On my arrival in Town on monday Even g last I found the Post had departed that Day, & I therefore buried the Figtrees. I was obliged to take very small ones as you had requested me to send them by the Post as the safest way.— On my return I heard that some merinos had arrived, among which there were a male & Female for you, & a pair also for the President . I went to Alexandria to see them, &...
19William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, 19 February 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been waiting till this Day to obtain a Copy of the List of Patents, and lose not a moment in writing to you.— Colonel Trumbull has been here some time, & has expressed satisfaction on viewing the Copy I made of your Portrait. I have placed it in the Congressional Library , in a very superb gilt Frame, that when the members view the works by w ch the inside of your head was so well...
20William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, 11 December 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
I have long owed you a Letter, relative to Clopper ’s Looms: but I wished to see him or hear from him before I should write again. I wrote but received from him no Answer. I wrote to his Brother to enquire where he was, & the proprietor of the Patent right called on me. I said so much to him on the Subject, that I he acknowledged he had done wrong in hold g his rights in Virg a at such a...
21William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, 2 August 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
I had this Day the honor of your Letter of the 23 d Ult o inclosing Janes’s Papers, which came in safety.— At the same time I received the inclosed Letter from Janes , and wrote immediately to M r George Greer of Baltimore to know his Terms.— I enclose a Copy
22William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, 11 January 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
I am very much obliged by the kind promise you have been so good as to make of me , of the loan of the two paintings; of which I shall take great care.— A few Days ago a M r Crossbie , formerly from England , called at my Office, and asserts that m r Janes , who took out the Patent for the Loom, obtained the same from one that he ( Crossbie ) had invented, & had then in operation. He means to...
23William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, 27 June 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
I only received your favour of the 9 th Inst: a few Days ago, & I have been trying to get a copy made of the Drawing & Specification &c of m r Janes’s Patent, but fearing it might take more time to do it correctly than your call for it would admit, I thought it best to run the risk of sending the Papers, and take the responsibility on myself, for I know that nothing but a miscarriage of the...
24To James Madison from William Thornton, 27 July 1810 (Madison Papers)
I had the honor of your Note acknowledging the receipt of the Medallion, and shall take the earliest opportunity of forwarding your Letter to England. I am very unwilling to trouble you, but I have received two Letters from Mr. Joseph Cerneau a French Citizen of the U. States, resident in New York, who wishes to send a Vessel to France but is afraid of the Rambouillet Decree; and solicits any...
25To James Madison from William Thornton, 12 August 1811 (Madison Papers)
The boy that Mr. White meant to have sent down has met with a dreadful accident, been severely bit by a Horse that he was training, I must endeavour therefore to look out for an other if I can meet with one in time. I still remain sick in bed, of what the Doctors call a Rheumatick favour [ sic ] which must wear itself out, but I think is wearing me out very fast, we have had very severe rains...
26To James Madison from William Thornton, 20 December 1810 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
20 December 1810, Washington. Encloses a letter from Mr. Eccleston that arrived in the U.S. some time ago. Has heard rumors of a change “in the Situation of the Post Master General” and mentions that his friend Mr. Fairfax, a gentleman of integrity and “firmly attached to the Government,” would be gratified to receive the appointment. RC ( DNA : RG 59, LAR , 1809–17, filed under “Fairfax”). 1...
27To James Madison from William Thornton, 28 January 1814 (Madison Papers)
I lately received from Mr. Floy, nursery & Seeds-man, New York, the inclosed, on the Subject of a Botanic Garden, & I think it my duty to submit it to your perusal. It is certainly a Subject of the highest Importance to this Country, for by clearing lands, whole Families of plants are likely to be lost to the world, but a Garden would preserve, what the Almighty has given as a blessing to...
28To James Madison from William Thornton, 3 August 1811 (Madison Papers)
I lie still so very sick in bed I am obliged to get Mr. Lyon to write a few lines for me, we were exceedingly obliged by the kind attention of your amiable Lady and self, at the time of your departure, and if your good wishes could have reinstated me I should not be now lieing in the low situation I am in. Since I had the pleasure of seeing you Major White was here, who has trained some of my...
29To James Madison from William Thornton, [3 March 1817] (Madison Papers)
To prevent any Suspicion of a deficiency in respect to you and your Lady—whom we have never ceased to more than respect & esteem—I am unwilling to permit you to depart without expressing our sincere regret that when your Departure was made known to all our Friends by her farewell visit to them, and they were thereby enabled to pay their parting respects, we remained ignorant thereof, and were...
30William Thornton to John Tayloe, 8 June 1813 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
8 June 1813, Washington. Observes that “the President is entitled to four Aids in the Army; & two in the militia as Commander in Chief of this District, in the same manner as the Governors of States. He has not reviewed the Army; otherwise he could not well dispense with Aids: but the militia of this District he has reviewed & would certainly not lessen the dignity of the military System by...
31Account with William Thornton, [5 December] 1809 (Madison Papers)
Account between the Honble. James Madison—and Mr. Thornton. William Thornton Dr: 1806 Augst. 4. To a Loan of one hundred and fifty Dollars $150.— 1807— To Interest one year on the above 9.— To Interest on fifty Dollars till 1809 from Augst. 4th: 1807 till Decr. 1809. 2 yrs: 3 months 7.50 1805 Octr. To 120 Bushels of Coals at 28 Cts. ⅌r: Bushell 33.60 March 18. To 196 Bushs: of Coal at 28 Cts....
32Enclosure: William Thornton’s Drawing and Description of a Water and Cider Filter, [ca. 3 April 1815] (Jefferson Papers)
Filtering Machine;—which filters per assensum .— A . Under Vessel B . Upper vessel C . Netting or Hair-Cloth when Cyder is to be filtered.— D . Tube of Wood or metal leading from B to A .— E