John Wayles Eppes to Thomas Jefferson, 17 October 1818
From John Wayles Eppes
Mill Brook october 17. 1818.
Dear Sir.
The various rumours which have reached us as to the state of your health have been such as to excite serious apprehension and alarm1 on the part of your friends—All the recent accounts concur in representing you as entirely well or so far recovered as no longer to cause anxiety on the part of your friends—accept my congratulations on an event which I am certain no human being can hale with2 more heartfelt pleasure than myself—
Francis left New London a few days before the vacation in consequence of hearing of your indisposition—He would have gone immediately to Monticello but from the uncertainty as to your return from the springs & our hearing immediately afterwards that you were so far recovered as to be entirely out of danger—on hearing this I determined to keep him until he could get some Winter cloathing of which he was very bare—
Mr Dashiell’s leaving New-London renders it necessary again to seek out some place for Francis—The central University will probably not go into immediate operation—Mr Baker has a very well educated young man living with him at present and I propose sending him there until the spring after which if the central University is not in readiness I will send him to any other which you may prefer—
Present me to all the family and accept for your health & happiness my warmest wishes.
Jno W Eppes
P.S.
The original subscription paper which you forwarded to me has been lost or mislaid—When it passed out of my hands there was no name to it except my own for 200 dollars payable in3 four years 50 dollars on the 1st of april 1818 & 50 dollars annually on the first day of april of the three following years—The term of the first payment being now so far passed & the paper being probably lost I have executed a new one which I enclose for the same sum 200 dollars & divided it into two payments viz april 1819. & apl. 1820—It will make I hope no difference & I have no motive for making the change but to prevent my appearing as a delinquent subscriber the time of the first payment being long since passed—
RC (ViU: TJP-ER); addressed: “Thomas Jefferson Esqr Monticello”; endorsed by TJ as received <18> 19 Oct. 1818 and so recorded (mistakenly dated 17 Sept.) in SJL.
Eppes’s enclosure confirming his subscription to Central College has not been found. The Master List of Subscribers to Central College, [after 7 May 1817], listing his $200 donation as the only sum pledged from Buckingham County, is printed above at 5 May 1817, as is the Central College Subscription List, [ca. 7 May 1817], which TJ had sent him on 6 Aug. 1817.
the springs: Warm Springs.
1. Manuscript: “dlarm.”
2. Manuscript: “with with.”
3. Manuscript: “in in.”
Index Entries
- Baker, Jerman (1776–1828); and F. W. Eppes’s education search
- Central College; opening of search
- Central College; subscription for search
- clothing; winter search
- Dashiell, Alfred Henry; and New London Academy search
- Eppes, Francis Wayles (TJ’s grandson); and Central College search
- Eppes, Francis Wayles (TJ’s grandson); clothing for search
- Eppes, Francis Wayles (TJ’s grandson); education of, at New London Academy search
- Eppes, Francis Wayles (TJ’s grandson); education of, with Baker family search
- Eppes, John Wayles (TJ’s son-in-law); and Central College–University of Virginia subscription search
- Eppes, John Wayles (TJ’s son-in-law); letters from search
- Eppes, John Wayles (TJ’s son-in-law); relationship with son search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Health; staphylococcus infection search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Travels; to Warm Springs search
- New London, Va.; academy at search
- schools and colleges; New London Academy search
- staphylococcus; TJ infected with search
- subscriptions, nonpublication; for Central College–University of Virginia search
- Warm Springs (Bath Co.); TJ visits search