James Powell Cocke (1748–1829) grew up at Malvern Hills, his family home in Henrico County, which he inherited from his father. Cocke sold the property shortly after the American Revolution, and by 1791 he had moved to Springhill in Augusta County. Two years later he purchased land in Albemarle County near the Hardware River and there constructed a house and a gristmill. TJ is said to have planned Cocke’s residence, Edgemont, basing it on a design by Andrea Palladio (James P. C. Southall, “Malvern Hills, Henrico County, and Edgemont, Albemarle County,” VMHB description begins Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 1893– description ends 43 [1935]: 74–91; Lay, Architecture description begins K. Edward Lay, The Architecture of Jefferson Country: Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Virginia, 2000 description ends ; 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. 1:276–7; TJ to Cocke, 10 Sept. 1806 [MHi]; Albemarle Co. Will Book, 9:355–6).

roanoke chub is a regional name for a fish of the genus Micropterus, commonly known as Black Bass. TJ was most likely referring to Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu) (James A. Henshall, Book of the Black Bass [1900], 142).