1From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 11 February 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
The hour of post is come and a throng of business allows me only to inform you we are well, and to acknolege the receipt of Mr. Randolph’s letter of Jan. 24. With hopes that you are all so accept assurances of constant love to you all from your’s my dear most affectionately RC ( NNP ); at foot of text: “Mrs. Randolph”; endorsed by Mrs. Randolph. PrC ( CSmH ). Tr ( ViU : Edgehill-Randolph...
2From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 6 March 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
Our neighborhood my dear daughter furnishes us with not one word of news to you, and I am so fatigued with writing for this post that I can only inform you we are all well, Jefferson robust as a beef, and all our desires alive to see you. My kisses to dear Anne, and best affection’s to Mr. Randolph and yourself. Adieu my dear and love me as I do you. RC ( NNPM ); addressed: “Mrs. Martha...
3From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson, 6 July [1787] (Jefferson Papers)
I shall with the greatest pleasure, my dear Patsy, participate with you of the honour of Miss Annesley’s company in our ride this afternoon. Assure her of my thankfulness for it as well as your own. The day being warm, I shall not be with you till between five and six o’clock. Adieu my Dear Your’s affectionately, RC (John R. Burke, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, 1956); addressed: “A Mademoiselle...
4From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 31 December 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
I received three days ago Mr. Randolph’s letter of the 14th. from Richmond, and received it with great joy as it informed me of the reestablishment of dear Anne’s health. I apprehend from an expression in his letter that some of mine may have miscarried. I have never failed to write every Thursday or Friday. Percieving by the Richmond paper that the Western post now leaves that place on...
5From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 20 January 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Short in a late letter says that your acquaintances in Panthemont complain excessively of your inattention to them and desired him to mention it. Matters there are going on well. The sales of the church lands are succesful beyond all calculation. There has been a riot in Paris in which M. de Castrie’s houshould furniture was destroyed. I am opening my things from Paris as fast as the...
6From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 27 December 1797 (Jefferson Papers)
I am at length got well of a terrible cold, which I think must have proceeded from the intense cold of the day I left Belmont. It became very bad by the time I got to Baltimore, and has been worse here. However it is now entirely passed off. We are here lounging our time away, doing nothing, and having nothing to do. It gives me great regret to be passing my time so uselessly when it could...
7From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 25 January 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
After the departure of my last letter to Mr. Randolph I found the details I had given him respecting the waggon were erroneous. The rise of the river had cut off our communications for several days. I presume it arrived at Varina as soon as my letter. We are all well here. Jefferson particularly so. He is become the finest boy possible. Always in good humor, always amusing himself, and very...
8From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 24 March 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
I have nothing interesting to tell you from hence but that we are well, and how much we love you. From Monticello you have every thing to write about which I have any care. How do my young chesnut trees? How comes on your garden? How fare the fruit blossoms &c. I sent to Mr. Randolph, I think, some seed of the Bent-grass which is much extolled. I now inclose you some seed which Mr. Hawkins...
9From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 18 August 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
Maria and I are scoring off the weeks which separate us from you. They wear off slowly, but time is sure tho’ slow. Mr. D. Randolph left us three days ago. He went by the way of Presquisle and consequently will not enrapture Mrs. Randolph till the latter end of the month. I wrote to Mr. Randolph sometime ago to desire he would send off Tom Shackleford or Jupiter or any body else on the 1st. of...
10From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 31 May 1798 (Jefferson Papers)
My letter by the last post was to mr Randolph, dated May 24. yours of the 12th. inst. did not get to hand till the 29th. so it must have laid by a post somewhere. the receipt of it, by kindling up all my recollections increases my impatience to leave this place & every thing which can be disgusting, for Monticello and my dear family, comprising every thing which is pleasurable to me in this...
11From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 24 July 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
Your last letter come to hand was of May 23. Consequently it is now two months old. Petit arrived here three or four days ago, and accosted me with an assurance that he was come pour rester toujours avec moi. The principal small news he brings is that Panthemont is one of the convents to be kept up for education, that the old Abbess is living, but Madame de Taubenheim dead, that some of the...
12From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 27 June 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
My last news from you were conveyed in your letter of May 28. I ascribe this to your present ambulatory life. I hope when you are more in the way of the post, I shall receive letters regularly once a week from one or other of you, as I write regularly once a week myself. In my letter of the last week to Mr. Randolph I mentioned the appearances of a war between England and Spain. We have...
13From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 27 December 1798 (Jefferson Papers)
I reached Fredericksburg the day after I left you, and this place on Christmas-day, having (thanks to my pelisse) felt no more sensation of cold on the road than if I had been in a warm bed. nevertheless I got a small cold which brought on an inflammation in the eyes, head ach &c so that I kept within doors yesterday & only took my seat in Senate to-day. I have as yet had little opportunity of...
14From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 7 July 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
My head has been so full of farming since I have found it necessary to prepare a plan for my manager, that I could not resist the addressing my last weekly letters to Mr. Randolph and boring him with my plans.—Maria writes to you to-day. She is getting into tolerable health, tho’ not good. She passes two or three days in the week with me, under the trees, for I never go into the house but at...
15From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 24 February 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
We have no letter from Monticello since Mr. Randolph’s of Jan. 30. to Maria. However we hope you are all well and that there are letters on the road which will tell us so. Maria writes to-day. Congress will rise on Saturday next, a term which is joyous to all as it affords some relaxation of business to all. We have had the mildest winter ever known, having had only two snows to cover the...
16From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 16 January 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote to mr Randolph on the 9th. & 10th. inst. and yesterday recieved his letter of the 10th. it gave me real joy to learn that Lilly had got a recruit of hands from mr Allen; tho’ still I would not have that prevent the taking all from the nailery who are able to cut, as I desired in mine of the 9th. as I wish Craven’s ground to be got ready for him without any delay. mr Randolph writes me...
17Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 6 June 1814 (Jefferson Papers)
I have for some time been sensible I should be detained here longer than I had expected, but could not till now judge how long. Chisolm will finish his work in about 10. days, and it is very essential that I should see the walls covered with their plates, that they may be in a state of preservation. this will keep me 3. or 4. days longer, so that I expect to be here still about a fortnight...
18From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 13 July 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 2d came yesterday. I wrote to Mr. Randolph two days ago, but by a bungle of the servant it did not get to the post office in time, so I suppose that and this will get to hand together, and both probably only the evening before I shall reach Monticello. Still should my former one desiring horses, have missed, this will be in time for them to meet me on the road, and relieve mine in...
19From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 14 August 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
Maria’s letter of July 16. informs me you were all well then. However great my confidence is in the healthy air of Monticello, I am always happy to have my hopes confirmed by letter. The day of my departure is not yet fixed. I hope it will be earlier or later in the first week of September. I know not as yet how I am to get along, as one of my horses is in such a condition as to leave little...
20From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 23 June 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote to each of you once during my journey, from which I returned four days ago, having enjoyed thro’ the whole of it very perfect health. I am in hopes the relaxation it gave me from business has freed me from the almost constant headach with which I had been persecuted thro the whole winter and spring. Having been entirely clear of it while travelling proves it to have been occasioned by...
21From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 8 February 1798 (Jefferson Papers)
I ought oftener, my dear Martha, to recieve your letters, for the very great pleasure they give me, & especially when they express your affections for me. for though I cannot doubt them, yet they are among those truths which tho’ not doubted we love to hear repeated. here too they serve like gleams of light, to chear a dreary scene, where envy, hatred, malice, revenge, & all the worst passions...
22From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 14 January 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Randolph’s letter of Dec. 20. from Richmond is the only one come to hand from him or you since your’s from Bizarre of two months ago. Tho’ his letter informed me of the re-establishment of Anne, yet I wish to learn that time confirms our hopes. We were entertained here lately with the ascent of Mr. Blanchard in a baloon . The security of the thing appeared so great that every body is...
23From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 22 August 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
The last letter I recieved from you was of the 2d July. In mine of the 14th. inst. to Mr. Randolph I informed him I should set out the next day to Rhode island with the President. I did so, and returned yesterday, after a very pleasant sail of two days going and two days returning thro the Sound. We visited Newport and Providence, where the President was received with great cordiality. He...
24From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 3 June 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
I arrived here on Sunday morning (May 30.) to breakfast without having experienced any accident on the road, other than being twice taken in soaking rains: but my water proof coat was a perfect protection. mr and mrs Madison arrived the day after. I find they have not yet got clear of the measles here, so that either at home or here your family will hardly escape it. it is now time for you to...
25From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 23 December 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
This is a scolding letter for you all. I have not recieved a scrip of a pen from home since I left it which is now eleven weeks. I think it so easy for you to write me one letter every week, which will be but once in three weeks for each of you, when I write one every week who have not one moment’s repose from business from the first to the last moment of the week. Perhaps you think you have...
26From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 14 February 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
We are all well here, my dear daughter, and Jefferson particularly so. He often repeats that you told a story, ‘that you did,’ when you got into the carriage and said you would come back for him. His cheeks swell with emphasis as he asseverates this. We are just beginning our demolitions, and find they will be very troublesome. It was high time to do it, from the rotten state in which we found...
27From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 9 April 1797 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved yours my dear Martha, of Mar. 31. four days ago. The inoculation at Richmond having stopped that post I send this by the way of Fredsbg. I entirely approve of your resolution to have the children inoculated. I had before been so much convinced of the expediency of the measure that I had taken it for granted before your letter informed me of it. I am called to Philadelphia to a...
28From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 5 April 1798 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Randolph’s letter of Mar. 26. informs me you are all well at Belmont. my last news from Eppington was of Mar. 20. when all were well there. I have myself had remarkeably good health through the winter, since the cold which I took on my way here. the advance of the season makes me long to get home. the first shad we had here was Mar. 16. and Mar. 28. was the first day we could observe a...
29From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 9 February 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
Your two last letters are those which have given me the greatest pleasure of any I ever recieved from you. The one announced that you were become a notable housewife, the other a mother. This last is undoubtedly the key-stone of the arch of matrimonial happiness, as the first is it’s daily aliment. Accept my sincere congratulations for yourself and Mr. Randolph. I hope you are getting well,...
30From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 6 December 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
I have this day received yours of the 18th. November and sincerely sympathize with you on the state of dear Anne, if that can be called sympathy which proceeds from affection at first hand, for my affections had fastened on her for her own sake and not merely for yours. Still however experience (and that in your own case) has taught me that an infant is never desperate, let me beseech you not...