Thomas Jefferson to Edwin Stark, 10 October 1816
To Edwin Stark
Monticello Oct. 10. 16.
Sir
Mr Timothy Banger of Philadelphia informs me that a box found in the military stores addressed to me, & so long there as that neither it’s contents, or when it came there is known, has been sent to you to be forwarded. I am equally ignorant of the box & it’s contents; but if you will have the goodness to send it to Richmond to Messrs Gibson & Jefferson, my correspondents there, they will receive it and pay all expences which have attended it. Accept my apology & thanks for the trouble it costs you & the assurance of my respect.
Th: Jefferson
PoC (MHi); on verso of portion of reused address cover to TJ; at foot of text: “Mr Edwin Starke”; endorsed by TJ.
Edwin Stark (ca. 1769–1830), public official, was a longtime resident of Norfolk who was appointed a collector of the federal direct tax and internal duties in 1813. He served as a military storekeeper, 1813–21, and as a customs measurer from about 1823 until his death. Stark owned fifteen slaves in 1810, ten a decade later, and seven in 1830. He left a personal estate valued at almost $900, including three slaves (A Register of Officers and Agents, civil, military, and naval, in the Service of the United States [Washington City, 1824], 51; [1830], 58; Norfolk Hustings and Corporation Court Will Book, 5:190–1, 192–5; American Beacon and Norfolk and Portsmouth Daily Advertiser, 3 July 1830; gravestone inscription in Saint Paul’s Episcopal churchyard, Norfolk).
, 1st ser., 4 [1896]: 271; DNA: RG 29, CS, Norfolk, 1810–30; , 2:438, 442 [13, 23 Dec. 1813]; , 1:916;