Thomas Jefferson Papers

Wilson J. Cary to Thomas Jefferson, 26 July 1811

From Wilson J. Cary

Carysbrook. July 26. 1811.

Dear Sir

I ask the favor of you to deliver to the bearer (who is directed to receive and take charge of him) the Merino Ram lamb we are entitled to, out of the produce of our ewes. An apology is due to you for having given you the trouble of keeping him so long; but the distance from hence to Monticello and the variety of pressing business always on hand upon a large and complicated farm must plead our excuse for having delayed removing him untill now.

I am with great respect and regard &c

Wilson J. Cary—

RC (ViU: TJP-CC); endorsed by TJ as received 27 July 1811 and so recorded in SJL.

Wilson Jefferson Cary (1784–1823), the son of Wilson Cary and TJ’s niece Jane Barbara Carr Cary, attended the College of William and Mary in about 1803, studied law in Richmond under Edmund Randolph, and was admitted to the Virginia bar. He married Thomas Mann Randolph’s sister Virginia at Monticello in 1805, moved to Carysbrook in Fluvanna County by 1809, and represented that county in the Virginia House of Delegates, 1821–23, where he supported the establishment of the University of Virginia. Cary was also active in the Agricultural Society of Albemarle. He was buried in the Monticello graveyard (PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 31 vols. description ends , 7:302; 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 , 2:1248n, 1399; Fairfax Harrison, The Virginia Carys: An Essay in Genealogy [1919], 112–3; William and Mary Provisional List description begins A Provisional List of Alumni, Grammar School Students, Members of the Faculty, and Members of the Board of Visitors of the College of William and Mary in Virginia. From 1693 to 1888 [1941] description ends , 12; Leonard, General Assembly description begins Cynthia Miller Leonard, comp., The General Assembly of Virginia, July 30, 1619–January 11, 1978: A Bicentennial Register of Members, 1978 description ends , 308, 313; Joseph C. Cabell to TJ, 30 Dec. 1822; Shackelford, Descendants description begins George Green Shackelford, ed., Collected Papers to Commemorate Fifty Years of the Monticello Association of the Descendants of Thomas Jefferson, 1965 description ends , 1:253; Richmond Enquirer, 3 Oct. 1823; Fluvanna Co. Will Book, 3:6–7, 9–12).

Index Entries

  • Agricultural Society of Albemarle; members of search
  • Albemarle County, Va.; Agricultural Society of search
  • Cary, Jane Barbara Carr (Wilson Cary’s wife); family of search
  • Cary, Wilson; family of search
  • Cary, Wilson Jefferson; and merino sheep search
  • Cary, Wilson Jefferson; identified search
  • Cary, Wilson Jefferson; letters from search
  • merino sheep; and W. J. Cary search
  • Monticello (TJ’s estate); burials at search
  • Monticello (TJ’s estate); wedding at search