From Thomas Jefferson to Jones & Howell, 15 December 1802
To Jones & Howell
Washington Dec. 15. 1802.
Gentlemen
Having occasion for a supply of rod & hoop-iron, according to the invitation of your mr Jones, I address myself to you for two tons of rods of the sizes hitherto furnished me, that is to say from 6 d. to 20 d. and of a quarter of a ton of 4 d. hoops, which be pleased to ship immediately before the closing of your river, to the address of messrs. Gibson & Jefferson in Richmond, notifying me at the time. Accept my respects & best wishes.
Th: Jefferson
PrC (MHi); at foot of text: “Messr. Jones & Howell”; endorsed by TJ in ink on verso. Recorded in SJL with the notation “2 tons rod. ¼ ton hoop.”
Jones & Howell was the partnership formed by Benjamin Jones and Samuel E. Howell upon the death of Joseph Roberts, Jones’s previous partner. The firm sold mostly iron goods from its store on the South Wharves of Philadelphia and remained TJ’s regular supplier of iron for about 10 years. Howell’s father had supplied iron to TJ in 1796 (James Robinson, The Philadelphia Directory for 1805. Containing the Names, Trades and Residence of the Inhabitants of the City, Southwark, Northern Liberties, and Kensington [Philadelphia, 1804]; Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, 18 June 1802, 10 Dec. 1811; Josiah Granville Leach, Genealogical and Biographical Memorials of the Reading, Howell, Yerkes, Watts, Latham, and Elkins Families [Philadelphia, 1898], 171–2, 179; , 1:423n; Vol. 29:89n).