In a letter to his brother Nicholas P. Trist, dated Charlottesville, 3 Aug. 1820, Hore Browse Trist reported that Gerard E. Stack had written to Patterson at the university of Pennsylvania on his behalf, “requesting to know whether I could enter the Junior class (the Second) at the same time giving him an account of the progress I had made in the usual studies. Mr P. replied in the affirmative, stating that the session began in September. the certainty of being able to enter the junior class is another inducement to my going to Philadelphia, as I could certainly get a degree of B.A in two years.” Trist went on to say that he planned to devote some time to “reading Bezouts Algebra & reviewing the six books of E. [i.e., Euclid] although Mr Jefferson thinks them of no use” (RC in DLC: NPT).

Having determined to attend the University of Pennsylvania, based in part on the advice of William A. Burwell, Trist wrote to his brother again from Monticello on 11 Nov. 1820, stating that Burwell was to give him letters of introduction to friends in Philadelphia and that while TJ “gave me one to Mr Patterson he could recollect no other person.” He added that TJ “left us to day for Poplar Forest accompanied by Miss E. & miss V. [Ellen W. Randolph (Coolidge) and Virginia J. Randolph (Trist)] they expect to remain until Christmas” (RC in DLC: NPT).

After receiving a letter dated 20 Jan. 1821 from her grandson Hore Browse Trist in Philadelphia, Elizabeth Trist passed on the news that “he was invited by Mr Patterson to spend the evening with him where he met with a Party of 30 Gentlemen the literati of Phild.” She also remarked that “we have experienced very severe weather have had nine snows which kept possession of the ground till within a day or two and we are threatend with more Virginia wrote me that the Thermometer was as low as five at the Mountain, some days the weather has been very cold than become moderate the Severest cold we have had commenced on the evening of the 24th Jany and Continued till the 26th,” and she reported that “a son of Wilson Nicholas is going to establish him self on the Red River and I understand that Jefferson Randolph intends embark on that scheme but I am certain that neither his Grand Father or Mother will ever consent to his going to reside there” (Elizabeth Trist to Nicholas P. Trist, Farmington, 9 Feb. 1820 [1821] [RC in NcU: NPT]).