John Coles to Thomas Jefferson, 25 May 1819
From John Coles
Albemarle May 25th 1819.
Dear Sir
I am extreemly sorry it will not be in my power to be at Milton on Monday. Tuesday the 1st of June I must be in Richd, and will have to leave home on Saturday for that purpose, I can not Say how long I may be detaind. I hope and flatter myself some arrangement can be made by which you will not lose any testimony of mine that you may think of importance to you
John Coles.
RC (DLC); at foot of text: “Thos Jefferson Esqr”; endorsed by TJ as received 27 May 1819 and so recorded in SJL.
John Coles (1774–1848), planter, was a lifelong resident of Albemarle County and the brother of Isaac A. Coles and Edward Coles. During the War of 1812 he served as an officer in the Virginia militia. He subscribed $500 to Central College in 1817 and was a founder in the same year and treasurer, 1819–20, of the Agricultural Society of Albemarle. Coles was appointed a trustee of the newly established town of Scottsville in 1818. Two years later he was named a county school commissioner. Coles owned 111 slaves in 1840. Between 1827 and 1830 James Dinsmore built Coles’s residence called Estouteville, and Coles died there (William B. Coles, The Coles Family of Virginia [1931], 52, 56, 88–92; , 172–3; , 44; Master List of Subscribers to Central College, [after 7 May 1817], document 5 in a group of documents on The Founding of the University of Virginia: Central College, 1816–1819, 5 May 1817; 263, 284, 288; [1817–18 sess.], 157 [22 Jan. 1818]; List of School Commissioners Appointed by the Albemarle County Court, 7 Feb. 1820 [ViU: TJP]; , 179, 318; DNA: RG 29, CS, Albemarle Co., 1810–40; Albemarle Co. Will Book, 18:425; Richmond Enquirer, 16 June 1848; gravestone inscription in Enniscorthy Cemetery, Albemarle Co.).