91From Thomas Jefferson to John Page, 25 December 1762 (Jefferson Papers)
This very day, to others the day of greatest mirth and jollity, sees me overwhelmed with more and greater misfortunes than have befallen a descendant of Adam for these thousand years past I am sure; and perhaps, after excepting Job, since the creation of the world. I think his misfortunes were somewhat greater than mine: for although we may be pretty nearly on a level in other respects, yet I...
92From Thomas Jefferson to James Ogilvie, 20 February 1771 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you a line from Wmsburgh last October; but lest that may have miscarried I take this opportunity of repeating what was material in that. On receipt of your letter (and, oh shame! of your only letter) of March 28. 1770. which came not to hand till August we took proper measures for prevailing on the commissary to withdraw his opposition. But lest you should be uneasy in your situation...
93From Thomas Jefferson to John Page, 15 July 1763 (Jefferson Papers)
Your’s of May 30’th came safe to hand. The rival you mentioned I know not whether to think formidable or not as there has been so great an opening for him during my absence. I say ‘has been’ because I expect there is one no longer since you have undertaken to act as my attorney. You advise me to ‘go immediately and lay siege in form.’ You certainly did not think at the time you wrote this of...
94To Thomas Jefferson from Samuel Jordan, with Jefferson’s Notes, 7 August 1770 (Jefferson Papers)
I some time Since received a letter from Colo. Randolph of Tuckahoe requesting I would inform him what I knew of his right to Leatherwood land and as you are or will be his Lawer I trouble you with it which is as follows. There was leive granted by the Council to Colo. Peter Jefferson Charles Lynch and Ambross Smith to take up fifteen Thousand Acres of Land adjoining Randolph & Co. at the Wart...
95From Thomas Jefferson to William Fleming, [ca. October 1763] (Jefferson Papers)
From a croud of disagreeable [companions] among whom I have spent three or four of the most tedious hours of my life, I retire into Gunn’s bedchamber to converse in black and white with an absent friend. I heartily wish you were here that I might converse with a Christian once more before I die: for die I must this night unless I should be releived by the arrival of some sociable fellow. But I...
96From Thomas Jefferson to John Page, 9 April 1764 (Jefferson Papers)
This letter will be conveied to you by the assistance of our friend Warner Lewis. Poor fellow! never did I see one more sincerely captivated in my life. He walked to the Indian camp with her yesterday, by which means he had an opportunity of giving her two or three love squeezes by the hand, and like a true Arcadian swain, has been so enraptured ever since that he is company for no one. Betsy...
97Agreement with John Randolph, 11 [April?] 1771 (Jefferson Papers)
It is agreed between John Randolph, Esq., of the City of Williamsburg, and Thomas Jefferson, of the County of Albemarle, that in case the said John shall survive the said Thomas, that the Executors or Administrators of the said Thomas shall deliver to the said John 100 pounds sterling of the books of the said Thomas, to be chosen by the said John, or if not books sufficient, the deficiency to...
98From Thomas Jefferson to John Page, 23 January 1764 (Jefferson Papers)
I received your letter of Wednesday the 18th instant; in that, of this day, you mention one which you wrote last Friday, and sent by the Secretary ’s boy; but I have neither seen nor heard of such a one. God send, mine of Jan. 19 to you may not have shared the same fate; for, by your letter, I am uncertain whether you have received it or not; you therein say, ‘you hope to have received an...
99Thomas Jefferson and John Walker to the Inhabitants of the Parish of St. Anne, [before 23 July 1774] (Jefferson Papers)
To the Inhabitants of the parish of Saint Anne. The members of the late house of Burgesses having taken into their consideration the dangers impending over British America from the hostile invasion of a sister colony, thought proper that it should be recommended to the several parishes in this colony that they set apart some convenient day for fasting, humiliation and prayer devoutly to...
100From Thomas Jefferson to John Page, 25 May 1766 (Jefferson Papers)
I received your last by T. Nelson whom I luckily met on my road hither. Surely never did small hero experience greater misadventures than I did on the first two or three days of my travelling. Twice did my horse run away with me and greatly endanger the breaking my neck on the first day. On the second I drove two hours through as copious a rain as ever I have seen, without meeting with a...
101To Thomas Jefferson from John Lewis, 4 October 1772 (Jefferson Papers)
Have received yours by Col. Lewis’s Man, and find he has not deliver’d my mesage as I directed, should have wrote to you had I bin accquainted of his going, but happen’d to find him in his journey to you, and deliver’d this mesage—to ask you if you had taken Mr. Carrs, and Mr. Jno. Woodsons, diposisions, as I have formerly requested, being at so great distance from me which made it...
102To Thomas Jefferson from Charles McPherson, 12 August 1773 (Jefferson Papers)
I regret, exceedingly, that I have at this distance of time to answer your very polite letter of the 20th February. I only received it about the end of last month. It came under cover of a letter from Mr. Ninian Minzies, dated the 20th. May. I recollect, with pleasure, the acquaintance which I had with you in Virginia. I enjoy the thoughts of renewing that acquaintance; and I am much indebted...
103James Macpherson to Charles Macpherson, 7 August 1773 (Jefferson Papers)
I received your letter. I should be glad to accommodate any friend of yours; especially one of Mr. Jefferson’s taste and character. But I cannot, having [re]fused them to so many, give a copy of the Gaëlic poems with any decency [o]ut of my hands. The labour, besides, would be great. I know of none, that could copy them. My manner and my spelling differ from others: And I have the vanity [to]...
104To Thomas Jefferson from the Rev. James Madison, [1773?] (Jefferson Papers)
I know not in what Manner sufficiently to thank you for your kind offices . It is happy that Circumstance was mentioned, as it is probable it might otherwise have been of much Prejudice. Mr. Henley proposes going with me this Morning to Most of the Visitors, which with the Assistance of your previous Application and a Recommendatory Line from Mr. G——n I flatter myself, will ensure success. I...
105Petition of George Mason for Warrants for Lands in Fincastle County, [June 1774] (Jefferson Papers)
To his Excellency the Governor and the Council of Virginia. The Memorial & Petition of George Mason of the County of Fairfax. That in the Charter granted by King James the first to the Virginia Company in the year 1609 is Among Others a Clause declaring “That it is his Royal will and Pleasure, and Charging, comanding warranting and authorising the Treasurer and the said Company, and their...
106Plan of Philip Mazzei’s Agricultural Company, 1774 (Jefferson Papers)
Proposals for forming a Company or Partnership, for the Purpose of raising and making Wine, Oil, agruminous Plants and Silk 1. So much money as may be procured, shall be subscribed in shares of fifty Pounds Sterling each, and in all Proceedings of the Company a Vote shall be allowed for every share; the Subscribers of smaller sums than fifty Pounds, being at liberty to associate in shares, and...
107To Thomas Jefferson from Alexander McCaul, 8 July 1772 (Jefferson Papers)
I received yours of the 7th of Septr. last only the 10th of June last, and where it had been wandering all that time I am at a loss to know, but no doubt you would think me negligent not to answer you in course. I have not yet been able to procure for you a Gardiner, but have made application to a friend in the East Country and have little doubt of getting one for you to send you in our own...
108To Thomas Jefferson from Alexander McCaul, 26 August 1770 (Jefferson Papers)
The last time I had the pleasure of writting you accompanied an Account of some Books you ordered which were unfortunately lost, I received the order from London but they are not to come to hand time enough to be sent by this Opportunity. They will be sent you soon and if they come too late for you you’ll be so good as dispose off them to the best advantage. This will be delivered you by the...
109Association of Members of the Late House of Burgesses, 27 May 1774 (Jefferson Papers)
We his Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the late representatives of the good people of this country, having been deprived by the sudden interposition of the executive part of this government from giving our countrymen the advice we wished to convey to them in a legislative capacity, find ourselves under the hard necessity of adopting this, the only method we have left, of pointing...
110Proceedings of a Meeting of Representatives in Williamsburg, 30 May 1774 (Jefferson Papers)
At a Meeting of 25 of the late Representatives legally assembled by the Moderator, it was agreed That Letters be wrote to all our Sister Colonies, acknowledging the Receipt of the Letters and Resolves from Boston &c. informing them, that before the same came to hand, the Virginia Assembly had been unexpectedly dissolved, and most of the Members returned to their respective Counties. That it is...
111To Thomas Jefferson from Thomas Nelson, Jr., 6 March 1770 (Jefferson Papers)
I just received your melancholy account of the Loss you have sustaind, and have only time, (the messenger that brought the Wheat being in a great hurry to return) to assure you that nothing can give me so much pleasure as to render you every service that is in my power. You may depend on your Letter to your Bookseller being sent by the first opportunity; it would be prudent to send a Copy of...
112To Thomas Jefferson from Thomas Nelson, Sr., 6 March 1770 (Jefferson Papers)
I was extremely concerned to hear of your Loss the account of which had reached us some time ago. As I have a pretty good collection of Books, it will give me pleasure to have it in my power to furnish you with any you may want. The bearer carries 4 pr. dovetail-hinges for doors, 2 Mortise locks, 20 Pullies, and 20 pr. of Shutter-hinges. I have none of the sort proper for the Leaves, which may...
113To Thomas Jefferson from James Ogilvie, 28 March 1770 (Jefferson Papers)
I am disappointed hitherto in every attempt to get ordained. The Commissary wrote against me in these words. Colo. Mercer saw the letter. “Mr. Ogilvie applied to me last spring for a recommendation to your Lordship for holy Orders. For reasons which then existed I refused him. He has now applied to me a second time, as these reasons are not removed I have denied him again, but he goes home in...
114To Thomas Jefferson from James Ogilvie, 26 April 1771 (Jefferson Papers)
Though I have wrote you and Mr. Walker twice, yet I am at a loss to know whether any of my letters have come to hand or not as I have never heard from Virginia, but once since I left it which was a letter dated last Novr. from my young freind at Belvidere . I have the pleasure however to inform you that I have got into deacon’s Orders by the Bishop of Durham, independant of Horrocks by means...
115To Thomas Jefferson from John Ogilvie, 19 July 1771 (Jefferson Papers)
Though the distance at which we are removed deprives me of the benefit of personal acquaintance with a Gentleman whose character I so highly esteem, yet I cannot omitt this opportunity of expressing that esteem, and of making my acknowledgments for the generous friendship you have shown to a Brother whom I love as my own heart. From me, any encomium on him would lye open to an imputation so...
116To Thomas Jefferson from John Page, 6 March 1770 (Jefferson Papers)
I have heard of your Loss [and] heartily condole with you, but am much pleased with the Philosop[hy] you manifest in your Letter which I this Moment received. I will very soon convince you that I had not forgot you, for I have a Letter at Home which I wrote some Month[s] since, and will send you in[close]d in another as soon as I [… .] I snatched up my Pen […] these few Lines not...
117To Thomas Jefferson from John Page, Jr., April 1770 (Jefferson Papers)
When you were at Col. Lewis’s my Heart was with you, but something more than a Punctillio, for it was a Coach Load of Hospitality, kept my Body from you. When I reflect on the Restraint I was under during this Seperation of Heart and Body, and as I am still in the same divided state tho’ now from a different Cause; I can hardly refrain from describing it. There is a great and secret...
118To Thomas Jefferson from Perkins, Buchanan & Brown, 2 October 1769 (Jefferson Papers)
Having entered into some engagements with our worthy Friend Mr: Thos. Adams for Mr: Jordan by which we are to have a Ship in James River in March next we take the Liberty through his Recommendation to Solicit the favour of your Assistance in the dispatch of the said ship by the Consignment of some part of your Tobacco and be assured you shall not suffer by putt[ing] it into our hands as we...
119VIII. Sales of Slaves Imported in The Prince of Wales, [September–December 1772] (Jefferson Papers)
Purchasers Names Men Wom. Boys Girls Numr. Thomas Mann Randolph 9 1 10 437 Richard Daves Hines 1 1 43 Richard Baugh 1 1 43 John Harmer Esqr
120From Peyton Randolph and Others to Members of the Late House of Burgesses, 31 May 1774 (Jefferson Papers)
Last Sunday Morning several Letters were received from Boston, Philadelphia , and Maryland , on the most interesting and important Subject of American Grievances. The Inhabitants of Boston seem to be in a most piteous and melancholy Situation, and are doubtful whether they will be able to sustain the impending Blow without the Assistance and Co-operation of the other Colonies. By the...