To Thomas Jefferson from Samuel Jordan, with Jefferson’s Notes, 7 August 1770
From Samuel Jordan, with Jefferson’s Notes
Augst. 7. 1770
Sir
I some time Since received a letter from Colo. Randolph of Tuckahoe requesting I would inform him what I knew of his right to Leatherwood land and as you are or will be his Lawer I trouble you with it which is as follows. There was leive granted by the Council to Colo. Peter Jefferson Charles Lynch and Ambross Smith to take up fifteen Thousand Acres of Land adjoining Randolph & Co. at the Wart mountain extending toward the Branches of James’s River. One third of said order was purchas’d by Colo. William Randolph of Tuckahoe of Colo. Jefferson the other two thirds Colo. Lomax purchased. By virtue of said order I directed the Survey on Leatherwood I think in 1747. Soon after it was cavited by Reid, Jones & Co. and on hearing, the Council gave it against Lomax and Randolph, and I think Lomax pray’d an Appeal. After that the Contending Parties agreed that If the Council would grant them leive to take up twenty Thousand Acres of Land on Beaver, and Reedy Creeks and some creeks below leatherwood to take place before any other order or entry where Right was not1 that the appeal should be drop’t and they the contending parties become one company [on which?] the council did grant such order, and I directed the Survey […] them. Since that I know nothing but by information which is [that] Reid, Jones &c took the last Survey’d Lands for their parts and Sold them to Ennis, Rose, and Copeland and they have them in possession and that the Survey on leatherwood remains between Lomax and Randolph as if never disputed which was the reason I never mentioned the circumstance of the Cavit to Colo. Randolph. If you’ll be kind enough to let me know by Mr. Nicholas or otherwise how my causes stands it will greatly oblige Sr. Yr Very Hble Servt
Saml Jordan
[Notes by TJ:]
Lomax | S. Jordan’s letter. | |
v. | ||
Lomax et al |
- That was joint ord. conc. to Lom, Rand, Reid, Jones & al.
- That was division
- That those on Leatherwood (15,000 as.) left to Lom & Rand.
- the rest to Reid, Jones et al.
- who conveied to Innis, Rose, Copeld.
- Aug. 14. I wrote to Jordan
- that I expected T. M. Randolph was not conce[rned?] if there was ever actual division
- that if was no division he must a[…]
- inclosed subpoena ad test.
- that expected would prove effects on the land.
RC (ViHi); with notes on verso by TJ; torn at seal; addressed: “To Mr. Thomas Jefferson attorney at Law Albemarle ⅌ favour Mr Nicholas.”
Samuel Jordan (ca. 1710–89), a planter of the Seven Islands, Buckingham County, Virginia, served as sheriff of Albemarle County, 1753–55, was presiding justice of the peace and county lieutenant of Buckingham County at its creation in 1761, represented Buckingham in the House of Burgesses, 1765–68, and served as a militia colonel in the Revolution and as an Anglican vestryman (Alexander Brown, The Cabells and Their Kin … [Boston and New York, 1895], 127–9; Edythe R. Whitley, Genealogical Records of Buckingham County, Virginia [Baltimore, 1984], 1, 98; William G. Stanard and Mary N. Stanard, The Colonial Virginia Register [Albany, 1902], 171, 174, 176, 178).
Thomas Mann Randolph, Sr., engaged TJ as legal counsel because of his fear that the supposedly friendly action of Lomax v. Innes’s heirs would hurt his one-third interest in the leatherwood tract ( , legal section, 12, 25 June, 14 Aug. 1770; TJ’s Case Book, No. 423, 12 June 1770). Jordan’s causes, a suit brought against him by Nathaniel Terry of Halifax County, remained unsettled when TJ turned over his law practice to Edmund Randolph in 1774 ( , legal section, 10 Aug. 1769; TJ’s Case Book, No. 369, 10 Aug. 1769).
TJ’s letter to Jordan of 14 AUG. 1770 has not been found.
1. Preceding four words interlined.