Thomas Jefferson to Patrick Gibson, 10 September 1819
To Patrick Gibson
Pop. Forest Sep. 10. 19.
Dear Sir
Your favor of Aug. 27. finds me still here, but on th[e] eve of my departure for Monticello. I have recieved from mr Nicholas the most solemn assurances that he has taken such measures as to prevent my suffering the least inconvenience from my engagements for him; and my grandson who knows what his estates are, has gone into particular explanation[s] with him as to the means proposed, and he assures me they are such as that I shall not lose a dollar, nor even have to advance one. I shall call on mr Nicholas on my road, and learn from himself directly. with respect to my note [in] the farmer’s bank I did not mean to trouble you about it, [. . .]d to trespass further on your name on any account. I know that such responsibilities cannot but increase inconveniencie[s] in such times as these and had not the intercourse of buying & selling been stopped so suddenly you should have been relieve[d] before now from the endorsements with which you have so long indulged me. but this part of the country is so compleatly broke up by the banks and bankruptcies that I am assure[d] that lands sold here under the hammer go off for less than a year’s rent. and such has been the drought that they will no[t] make bread. tobacco may yet be good if there should be rai[n.] being on my departure and having some small housekeeping deb[ts,] I have drawn on you this day for 80.D. in favor of mr Roberts[on.] our new crop of flour in Albemarle is now prepared & prepar[ing] for market. the moment our river will float a load, I will see to provision being furnished you before my taxes become due[.] I salute you with affectionate respect.
Th: Jefferson
PoC (MHi); on verso of reused address cover to TJ; mutilated at seal and edge trimmed; at foot of text: “Mr Gibson”; endorsed by TJ.
my grandson: Thomas Jefferson Randolph. On this day TJ noted in his financial records that he had drawn on Gibson for 80.d. to reimburse Archibald Robertson for payment of $13.50 on 18 Aug. to John Gorman, $19.91 on 4 Sept. to Joseph Antrim “for plaistering cieling of Dining room,” $10 on 8 Sept. to Edmund Meeks “for his expences coming & going” to Poplar Forest, and $36.59 in cash on 10 Sept. 1819 (, 2:1357).
Writing from Poplar Forest on 8 Sept. 1819, Cornelia J. Randolph informed her sister Virginia J. Randolph (Trist) that “We shall set off sunday certainly if some unforeseen event does not happen to prevent us, & be with you to dinner on the 14th. In spite of every thing Grandpapa insists upon the lady dinners, & we are to have three families of several persons each to day to dine with us, and such bread for dinner as we utterly disdain’d this morning, no one even tried to eat it. & what makes matters worse one of the ladies comes intirely against her will & I have no doubt is wishing us at this time all the bad wishes that we have wish’d on similar occasions, but poor thing she has reciev’d three invitations & the party been put off on her account & now she must from the fear of offending us trot 3 or four miles (for she has just parted with the horses to her carriage, which she took care to tell us) thro’ the hottest sun that ever shone, far hotter than any we feel in our temperate zone all the delights of which you are now enjoying while sister Ellen and myself are scorching or rather stewing for nothing can scorch in such dampness as this, in a climate that you have had some experience of. If to day was to be the end of these parties we should have no right to complain but having once broken thro’ the rule of never inviting ladies to dine & which was never expected, by them, we shall be obliged to continue the practice, & this neighbourhood is so thickly settled, & we have made so many new acquaintances in it besides those in Lynchburg, that we shall hereafter have more trouble & vexation on account of company than we ever had at Monticello” (RC in NcU: NPT).
Index Entries
- Antrim, Joseph; TJ pays search
- banks; TJ on search
- bread; at Poplar Forest search
- carriages; mentioned search
- Farmers’ Bank of Virginia (Richmond); TJ’s loan from search
- flour; sale of search
- food; bread search
- Gibson, Patrick; and payments made for TJ search
- Gibson, Patrick; and TJ’s loan from Farmers’ Bank of Virginia search
- Gibson, Patrick; and W. C. Nicholas’s debts search
- Gibson, Patrick; letters to search
- Gorman, John; TJ pays search
- horses; as draft animals search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Business & Financial Affairs; endorses notes for W. C. Nicholas search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Business & Financial Affairs; loan from Farmers’ Bank of Virginia search
- Meeks, Edmund; TJ pays search
- Monticello (TJ’s Albemarle Co. estate); flour from search
- Nicholas, Wilson Cary (1761–1820); TJ endorses notes for search
- Poplar Forest (TJ’s Bedford Co. estate); plastering at search
- Poplar Forest (TJ’s Bedford Co. estate); TJ visits search
- Poplar Forest (TJ’s Bedford Co. estate); TJ’s grandchildren visit search
- Poplar Forest (TJ’s Bedford Co. estate); visitors to search
- Randolph, Cornelia Jefferson (TJ’s granddaughter); visits Poplar Forest search
- Randolph, Thomas Jefferson (TJ’s grandson; Jane Hollins Nicholas Randolph’s husband); and W. C. Nicholas’s debts search
- Rivanna River; water level of search
- Robertson, Archibald; TJ pays search
- tobacco; as cash crop search
- Trist, Virginia Jefferson Randolph (TJ’s granddaughter); correspondence with siblings search
- Virginia; economy of search
- Virginia; land prices in search
- weather; damp search
- weather; drought search
- weather; effect on crops search
- weather; heat search
- women; as guests at Poplar Forest search