To Thomas Jefferson from Mary Coles Payne, 14 December 1803
From Mary Coles Payne
Jefferson County 14th. Decr.
It is with great diffidence I address the President of the United States—but the feelings of a Mother will I hope plead an excuse for the freedom, thy kind attention to my children in general emboldens me to solicit still further thy kindness to my Son, who is now my only surviving one; his health is very much impair’d by the inactive life his present business imposes on him, I shall feel myself forever indebted to thy generosity, and goodness of heart, if among the many establishments in thy gift, thee would favor me, by promoting my poor Son to some more active employment—Collo. Madisons extreme delicasy in regard to his own relations has discouraged me from attempting to get him to intercede for me; It is my particular wish that this letter may not be seen by any eye except thy own and should it be thy pleasure to oblige me let it appear as a free and unsolicited1 act of thy own in so doing the will add greatly to the obligations I already owe thee
With much respect I subscribe myself thy friend
Mary Payne
PS—
My Daughter Washington, who is my only confidant in this request, begs leave to present her respectful Compliments—
MP—
RC (DNA: RG 59, LAR); endorsed by TJ as received 19 Dec. and “Payne for emploimt” and so recorded in SJL.
Mary Coles Payne (ca. 1745-1808) was a Quaker relation of Patrick Henry and the wife of John Payne, with whom she had eight children, including Dolley Madison. Her family moved repeatedly in Virginia and North Carolina, and after her husband’s failed business attempts and the manumission of slaves who worked their farm, they settled in Philadelphia in 1783. Faced with ongoing financial difficulties, she had converted her home by 1791 into a boardinghouse for members of the federal government, including Aaron Burr. After her husband’s death, Payne moved with her two youngest children to Harewood, near Berkeley Springs, Virginia, to live with her daughter Lucy (Conover Hunt-Jones, Dolley and the “Great Little Madison” [Washington, D.C., 1977], 1; David B. Mattern and Holly C. Shulman, eds., The Selected Letters of Dolley Payne Madison [Charlottesville, 2003], 10-14, 16-17, 409).
my son: John Coles Payne was the profligate youngest son of Mary Coles Payne. Unable to find steady employment, he was sent to Tripoli as an aide to the American consul there in 1806, but returned to the United States in 1811 in worse physical and financial shape than when he left. He later supervised arranging and copying the papers of his brother-in-law James Madison at Montpelier (Mattern and Shulman, Dolley Madison, 221; , 1:xviii).
my daughter washington: Lucy Payne Washington, who eloped at the age of 15 in 1793 with George Steptoe Washington, George Washington’s nephew (Mattern and Shulman, Dolley Madison, 409, 414).
1. MS: “usolicited.”