1. This document contains a list of names and is entitled “Extract of the Book. Names of the Gentlemen has subscribed in 1794.” It was enclosed in a letter which Peter Legaux, a Frenchman who had emigrated to the United States before the French Revolution and who kept meteorological records for the American Philosophical Society, wrote to Thomas Jefferson on March 25, 1801 (ALS, Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress). In this letter he described his organization and asked Jefferson to subscribe to it. In addition, Legaux enclosed a document dated March 16, 1801, from the commissioners appointed by Pennsylvania law “for receiving subscriptions for promoting the Cultivation of the vine.” This document authorized Legaux “to sollicit subscriptions for the above purpose and to receive one Dollar in part payment of Each share subscribed, at the time of enacting such subscription—the remainder, making in the whole Twenty Dollars for Each share, to be paid in such maner and proportion as the Managers of the Compagny, when the same shall be incorporated shall determine” (copy, Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress).

For the Pennsylvania law which appointed the commissioners, see “An Act to enable the Governor of this commonwealth to incorporate a company, for the purpose of promoting the cultivation of vines, and for other purposes therein mentioned” (Pennsylvania Laws, 1792–1793 Sess., Ch. CXLIV [March 22, 1793]). For amendments to the act, see Pennsylvania Laws, 1793–1794 Sess., Ch. CLXXV (January 13, 1794); 1800–1801 Sess., Ch. CCLV (March 7, 1800), Ch. CCV (January 31, 1801).