Thomas Jefferson Papers

Isaac A. Coles to Thomas Jefferson, 13 March 1811

From Isaac A. Coles

Enniscorthy Mar: 13th 1811.

Dr Sir,

I take the liberty of sending my servant for a few more Aspin trees, & for some cuttings of the Detroit Apple, and of the Spitsenburg— The season is I fear, almost too much advanced, but as I did not get back from the lower country until the day before yesterday, the evil has been unavoidable— I send a few of the Tuckahoe cherry which may possibly succeed— next spring I will send others, with the Pears which I promised— but that I am so much occupied with planting, & sowing clover seed, I had promised my self the pleasure of a visit to Monticello on tomorrow, & I still hope that it will be in my power to do so, in the course of a week. I am Dr Sir with the most respectful Attachment

Yrs

I. A Coles.

Thursday night—A Barrel of Pippins have been packed for Colo Randolph, which he may get whenever it is convenient to him to send for them—

RC (DLC); below signature: “Thomas Jefferson”; endorsed by TJ as received 15 Mar. 1811 and so recorded in SJL.

TJ planted the detroit apple beginning in 1805 and the Esopus Spitzenburg (spitsenburg) apple in the south orchard between 1810 and 1812. The tuckahoe cherry, or gray cherry, was named after the Randolph family home in Goochland County on the James River. TJ planted Coles’s gift the day after he received it. In 1769 TJ began planting Newtown, or Albemarle pippins, an apple widely favored in Virginia since the middle of the eighteenth century (Hatch, Fruit Trees description begins Peter Hatch, The Fruits and Fruit Trees of Monticello, 1998 description ends , 70–4, 76, 98; Betts, Garden Book description begins Edwin M. Betts, ed., Thomas Jefferson’s Garden Book, 1766–1824, 1944 description ends , 15, 445, 468).

Index Entries

  • apples; Detroit search
  • apples; Newtown (Albemarle) pippin search
  • apples; Spitzenburg search
  • aspen trees search
  • cherries; Tuckahoe (gray) search
  • clover; seed search
  • Coles, Isaac A.; letters from search
  • Coles, Isaac A.; sends plants to TJ search
  • Detroit red apple search
  • food; apples search
  • food; cherries search
  • food; pears search
  • Newtown pippin (Albemarle pippin) search
  • pears search
  • plants; sent to TJ search
  • Randolph, Thomas Mann (1768–1828) (TJ’s son-in-law; Martha Jefferson Randolph’s husband); and Albemarle pippin search
  • seeds; clover search
  • Spitzenburg apple search
  • trees; aspen search
  • Tuckahoe cherry (gray cherry) search