Martin Dawson (ca. 1772–1835) was a prosperous merchant in Milton who succeeded David Higginbotham as factor for Brown, Rives & Company in 1802. He dealt extensively with TJ during the last two decades of the ex-president’s life. Dawson was appointed a county magistrate in 1806, and in July 1817 he bought 256 acres near Milton from TJ for $2,300. Having served as one of the three appraisers of TJ’s estate in October 1826, he purchased a further 579 acres near Milton from the estate for $2,992.25 early in 1829. In his will Dawson left a sizable but complicated bequest to promote public education in Albemarle and Nelson counties, donated land to the University of Virginia, and ordered that his slaves be freed and sent to Liberia (Bruce, University description begins Philip Alexander Bruce, History of the University of Virginia 1819–1919: The Lengthened Shadow of One Man, 1920–22, 5 vols. description ends , 2:389–95; Woods, Albemarle description begins Edgar Woods, Albemarle County in Virginia, 1901 description ends , 177–8; MB description begins James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , esp. 2:1081, 1336; Appraisal and Inventory of TJ’s Albemarle County Estate, 4 Oct. 1826 [ViU: TJP]; Conveyance of Land near Milton from TJ’s Estate to Dawson, 1 Jan. 1829, Albemarle Co. Deed Book, 28:118–9).