Thomas Jefferson Papers

Bond of University of Virginia Board of Visitors to Literary Fund President and Directors, [ca. 12 May 1823]

Bond of University of Virginia Board of Visitors to Literary Fund President and Directors

Know all men by these presents that we Thomas Jefferson rector and James Breckenridge, James Madison, Joseph C. Cabell, John H. Cocke Chapman Johnson and George Loyall, Visitors of the University of Virginia are held and firmly bound to the President and Directors of1 the Literary fund in the sum of sixty2 thousand Dollars, to the payment whereof, well and truly to be made, we bind ourselves and our successors to the sd President and Directors and their successors firmly by these presents, sealed with the common seal of the sd Rector and Visitors, and dated this twelfth3 day of May in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty three.

The condition of this obligation is such that Whereas the President and Directors of the Literary fund, under authority of the act of the General assembly of the 5th day of February 1823. intituled ‘An act concerning the University of Virginia, and for other purposes,’ have this day loaned to the Rector and Visitors of the said University the sum of thirty4 thousand Dollars for the purposes of complet[ing] the buildings, and making the necessary preparations, for putting the sd University into operation, on the conditions that an interest of six per centum per annum be paid out of the annual appropriation, heretofore made by law for the endowment of the sd University and that the surplus of the sd annual appropriation, over and above what may be necessary for the payment of loans already made to them and the loan or loans which may be negociated under this act, shall be pledged for the redemption of the principal sums loaned, and to be loaned as aforesaid in such manner as the legislature may hereafter prescribe: Now therefore if the said Rector and Visitors and their successors shall faithfully pay to the sd President and Directors of the Literary fund and their successors annually on the   day of   an interest of six per centum per annum on the sd sum of thirty thousand Dollars, or on so much of the said sums as shall be bearing interest until the whole of the principal shall have been paid, and shall also faithfully pay the sd principal sum of thirty thousand dollars according to the provisions of the sd act of assembly, applying for that purpose the sums of money appropriated annually by law for the use, or for the benefit of the sd University, or so much thereof as may be requisite, which sums of money, so appropriated in each year, so far as requisite for the purpose, are hereby pledged and set apart by the sd Rector and Visitors to be applied by the President and Directors of the Literary fund to the payment of the said interest and principal sum of thirty thousand dollars, borrowed as aforesaid, and to no other uses or objects until the sd payment shall have been made, then the above obligation shall be void, otherwise shall remain in full force and virtue.

signed, sealed
and delivered
in presence of5
} <L H Marsteller> <Th: Jef[fe]rson>
<Geo. P. Welsh> <Rector>

[Note by TJ at foot of FC:]

Nov. 21. 23. executed a bond for 5000.D. copied verbatim from this except as to sum.

Dft (Albert H. Small, Bethesda, Md., 2003; photocopy in ViU: ECUVa); in TJ’s hand, signed by TJ, Lewis H. Marsteller, and George P. Welsh; sealed; mutilated to cancel TJ’s signature and all signatures crossed out; endorsed by TJ: “Bond of May.   1823.” FC (ViU: TJP); in Virginia J. Randolph (Trist)’s hand, with emendations by TJ that apparently reflect a subsequent text of this document, not found; endorsed by TJ: “Literary board. bond of May <10.> 11. 23.” The Dft probably began as the finalized original bond but then was canceled after TJ decided to request a higher sum. The final version of this bond, not found, was likely enclosed in TJ to Jerman Baker, [ca. 12 May 1823].

Lewis H. Marsteller (1804–60), public official, was a native of Virginia who lived in Albemarle County by 1830. After moving to North Carolina, he represented New Hanover County in the House of Commons, 1833–34, and in the state senate, 1835–36. Marsteller attended a state constitutional convention in 1835, and two years later President Andrew Jackson appointed him collector of the port of Wilmington, a position he held until John Tyler removed him in 1841. Marsteller served as clerk of the North Carolina General Assembly, 1842–43, and clerk of the New Hanover County Court, 1844–52. He was active in Democratic politics and in Freemasonry, and he rose to the rank of major general in the state militia. When Marsteller died at his home in Wilmington, he owned eleven slaves (DNA: RG 29, CS, Albemarle Co., 1830, N.C., New Hanover Co., Wilmington, 1850; Robert D. W. Connor, comp., A Manual of North Carolina [1913], 471, 723, 891; JEP description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States description ends , 4:619, 627, 5:336, 340, 384 [2, 3 Mar. 1837, 3, 17 Feb., 16 June 1841]; Raleigh North Carolina Standard, 10 Nov. 1841, 30 Mar. 1842; Wilmington Journal, 21 Sept. 1844, 21 Apr. 1848, 24 Sept. 1852; Marshall DeLancey Haywood, The Beginnings of Freemasonry in North Carolina and Tennessee [1906], 76; Wilmington Daily Herald and Wilmington Daily Journal, both 5 Mar. 1860; gravestone inscription in Oakdale Cemetery, Wilmington; inventory in New Hanover Co. estate records).

1Manuscript: “of of.”

2In FC TJ here interlined “eighty” in place of this word.

3Space left blank for day in FC, filled in by TJ with “10th,” and subsequently canceled.

4In FC TJ interlined “forty” in place of this word and in three instances below.

5In FC TJ here added his own initials and the names of Thomas Jefferson Randolph and Valentine W. Southall as witnesses.

Index Entries

  • An act concerning the University of Virginia, and for other purposes (1823) search
  • Breckinridge (Breckenridge), James; as member of University of Virginia Board of Visitors search
  • Cabell, Joseph Carrington; as member of University of Virginia Board of Visitors search
  • Cocke, John Hartwell (1780–1866); as member of University of Virginia Board of Visitors search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Correspondence; amanuenses for search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Writings; Bond of University of Virginia Board of Visitors to Literary Fund President and Directors search
  • Johnson, Chapman; as member of University of Virginia Board of Visitors search
  • Literary Fund; and loans for University of Virginia search
  • Loyall, George; as member of University of Virginia Board of Visitors search
  • Madison, James (1751–1836); as member of University of Virginia Board of Visitors search
  • Marsteller, Lewis H.; identified search
  • Marsteller, Lewis H.; witnesses document search
  • Randolph, Thomas Jefferson (TJ’s grandson; Jane Hollins Nicholas Randolph’s husband); witnesses documents search
  • Southall, Valentine Wood; witnesses documents search
  • Trist, Virginia Jefferson Randolph (TJ’s granddaughter); as TJ’s amanuensis search
  • Virginia, University of; Administration and Financial Affairs; Bond of University of Virginia Board of Visitors to Literary Fund President and Directors search
  • Virginia, University of; Board of Visitors; and loans for University of Virginia search
  • Virginia, University of; Establishment; and General Assembly search
  • Virginia; General Assembly search
  • Welsh, George P.; witnesses document search