From Thomas Jefferson to James Brown, 7 May 1795
To James Brown
Monticello May 7. 95.
Dear Sir
Your favor by post came duly to hand: and I accept the offer of 30/. tho it is but what I had been offered a week before I wrote to you, and was the first offer made by the person, who I dare say would have bid higher if I had given him an opening. But having recieved satisfactory prices heretofore from yourself and the house you were connected with, I prefer continuing in the same line, and the rather as I have been really concerned that a previous express agreement to pay my store account with the produce of the year, and the total loss of my wheat which was the produce I had destined for it, threw the obligation on my tobacco1 which I had meant for the paiment of my balance to you. Nor was it in my power to obtain any indu[lgence] in time. Mr. Fleming, to whom I had to pay the money, […]2 3 days till I could get my answer from you, his […]3 Philadelphia, where he will employ the money. I gave him therefore yesterday an order on you at 4. days sight for £196–14–3. I now inclose you the manifests the whole weight being 15,758 ℔. My overseer when he inclosed them to me, omitted to tell me where the tobacco laid in Richmond. Tho’ I presume you will have no difficulty in finding it. I give Mr. Washington an order of this date on you for £5. a fee in a case he has for me. I shall in the course of the month make up your balance and am with great esteem Dr. Sir Your friend & servt
Th: Jefferson
RC (ViHi); parts of three lines torn away; addressed: “Mr. James Brown Mercht. Richmond”; stamped; endorsed by Brown. Enclosures not found, but see TJ to Brown, 18 Apr. 1795.
Brown’s missing favor by post is recorded in SJL as written and received on 5 May, but his endorsement on TJ’s letter to him of 18 Apr. 1795 suggests that it was probably dated 3 May 1795. See also , 5 May 1795.
With his payment to Mr. Fleming, TJ began the settlement of his account with John Fleming & James McClenahan, merchants who operated a business in Milton from 1794 to 1798. In 1796 the firm became the sole distributor of Monticello nails in that place (, 1 Nov. 1794, and note, 6, 27, 29 May 1795, and 5 May 1796, and note). According to SJL, TJ exchanged nine letters with Fleming & McClenahan between 18 July 1794 and 9 Feb. 1798, none of which has been found.
The fee in a case was for Bushrod Washington’s work in Baylor v. Lewis (, 7 May 1795).
1. Remainder of sentence interlined.
2. Two or three words torn away.
3. Two or three words torn away.