Thomas Jefferson Papers

From Thomas Jefferson to Richard Dobson, 26 December 1792

To Richard Dobson

Philadelphia. Dec. 26. 1792.

Sir

I this moment recieve your favor of the 18th. covering my bond No. 1. to Farrell & Jones. The paiments which have been made on that and the bill of exchange have been by different persons, at different times, in money and I believe tobacco. I am not certain that I possess an exact list of them. However, if I do, it is in Virginia where I left most of my private papers when last there, under the intention of being there again in March, and the certainty that the winding up the affairs of my office here would put it out of my power to attend to any thing private till then. In the last letter your father wrote me before his departure he says ‘on my return we can readily settle the small balance that remains due on the bill of exchange and bond.’ I question indeed if a personal interview may not be necessary for the settlement either with himself or somebody for him. However be this as it may I must beg this matter may lie till my return which will be within little more than two months, sooner than which I could not take time for it, nor do I know that I can sooner pay the balance, my resources for it being in Virginia. In the mean time, the matter being unsettled, I return you the bond inclosed, and am Sir your most obedt humble servt

Th: Jefferson

PrC (MHi); at foot of text: “Mr. Richard Dobson.” Enclosure not found.

John Dobson, a surviving partner of the Liverpool house of Dobson, Daltera & Walker, had spent several years in Virginia endeavoring to recover debts owed him by TJ and other planters and trading concerns (Marshall, Papers description begins Herbert A. Johnson, Charles T. Cullen, Charles F. Hobson, and others, eds., The Papers of John Marshall, Chapel Hill, 1974–2006, 12 vols. description ends , v, 352–5). His last letter to TJ, dated 24 June 1792 and recorded in SJL as received 30 June 1792, but not found, apparently announced his return to England and the agency of his son, Richard, in the remaining business of his firm. There is no record of any further correspondence between TJ and John Dobson (see also TJ to Richard Dobson, 15 Apr. 1793). Richard Dobson’s letter of 18 Dec. 1792, recorded in SJL as received 26 Dec., and another letter probably written in response to the above on 14 Jan. 1793, recorded in SJL as received 23 Jan. 1793, have not been found.

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