Thomas Jefferson Papers

To Thomas Jefferson from James Lyle, 18 August 1800

From James Lyle

Manchester Augt. 18. 1800

Dear Sir

I was favord with a letter before you left Philadelphia; since that, I have not had the pleasure of hearing from you.

In order that you may see how matters stand between you and our Company I have made out a statement, which I now enclose, & hope on examining, you will find right. if any error, you will of course notice it. You will observe the first second & third bonds are paid, & part of the fourth, of this last there remained £99.3.8¾ principal with Interest from Novr. 12. 1798 due, also the fifth and sixth bond, besides that for your Mothers debt. I have never been able to get payment from Coll. John Bolling (now decd) for the bond you put into my hands for R Harvie. Colo. Bollings sons assured me they are proposing to pay off all the Debts the Estate owed.

I was sorry to see by your last letter that you lost so much by not selling your Tobo. before the price fell. Yet on the whole I think you made the most of it; by selling at Phila.

I have Just now recd. an order from Christr. Clark for £29.12—which will be brot. to your Credit

I am with great Regard Dear Sir Your Mo hml st

James Lyle

RC (MHi); at head of text: “The Honl. Thomas Jefferson Esqr.”; endorsed by TJ as received 28 Aug. and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure not found.

A letter before you left Philadelphia: TJ to Lyle, 17 Mch. 1800.

For TJ’s payments on his debt to Henderson, McCaul & Co., the firm Lyle represented, see Vol. 29:202–4. TJ questioned the accuracy of the 1775 bond of Richard Harvie, which included an amount from TJ’s mother to him that was later assigned to Henderson, McCaul & Co. Although the amount was reduced in 1803 to £132.12.0 principal and TJ made payments toward it, the debt was never paid in full during TJ’s lifetime (MB description begins James A. Bear, Jr., and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, Princeton, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 1:393, 751).

Index Entries