Thomas Jefferson to Dudley Burwell, 11 October 1811
To Dudley Burwell
Monticello Oct. 11. 11.
Sir
Mr Burwell of Franklin, your relation, has requested me to send you a letter of introduction to Doctr Wistar whose lectures you are attending. I comply with pleasure with this request, and shall be happy if I can serve you in your useful pursuits, or gratify you by obtaining the more particular attentions of so estimable a character as Doctr Wistar. with this view I ask the favor of you to call on Doctr Wistar yourself with the inclosed letter, and to accept the assurance of my best wishes & respect.
Th: Jefferson
PoC (MHi); at foot of text: “Mr Dudley Burwell”; endorsed by TJ. Enclosure: TJ to Caspar Wistar, 11 Oct. 1811.
Dudley Burwell (d. 1832), a medical student at the University of Pennsylvania, later practiced medicine at Middletown in Frederick County. His personal estate at his death was appraised at $1,227.70, including surgical instruments and two slaves so elderly that they were assigned no monetary value (Archibald Alexander, A Discourse occasioned By the Burning of the Theatre in the City of Richmond, Virginia, on the twenty-sixth of December, 1811 [Philadelphia, 1812], iv; DNA: RG 29, CS, Md., Frederick Co., Middletown, 1820 [giving his age as between twenty and thirty]; Frederick Co. Will Book, 17:241–2).