To Thomas Jefferson from Bentinck Hastings, 7 June 1804
From Bentinck Hastings
Johnston County N.C. June 7th. 1804
Sire
The Petitioner sendeth greeting, having Studied Mechanism for many years and hath made several usefull discoveries and Improvements on different kinds of Machinery, being well acquainted with the principles of Mill work, Steem-Engines, Arkwright’s Carding and Spinning Machines, and most of the manufactures carried on in England &c. (and is Erecting a Cotton Factory in Johnston County N.C.) flattereth himself through the Lenity and goodness of Mr. Jefferson, that he cannot fail to Obtain Patents for Six new Inventions and one Improvement; Viz, first a Bed conductor Iron bedplates with Sacking bottom on a new plan, for destroying of Bedbugs, Second a new construction for packing Cotton far superior to the Mississippi plan, Third a new method for makeing of Cyder, Fourth a Washing Machine, Fifth a Machine for Grinding of Cotton Seed for makeing Oil, Sixth a new Invented Tub-Mill, Seventh an Improvement on the Hydraulical Blast that’s so serviceable for forges foundries and smiths.
Models shall be Exhibited when required. My Fellow Citizens are Anxious for my Success. Mr. Jefferson may rely on my exertions in his Interest.
I am Sire, your Obedt. Humble. Sert.
Bentinck Hastings.
RC (DLC); at foot of text: “Thos. Jefferson Presidt of the United States”; endorsed by TJ as received 16 July and so recorded in SJL.
Originally from England, Bentinck Hastings was in the United States by 1803, when he advertised his services as an expert in British industrial machinery in order to raise capital for a proposed cotton mill. Although Hastings received no patents from the United States, he competed in 1810 for a one-million-franc reward for the best flax spinning machine from the French government (Richmond Virginia Argus, 2 July 1803; Boston Patriot, 24 Oct. 1810).
mississippi plan: Hastings likely referred to a lever press, first developed around 1779, that packed cotton into square bales. In 1801, William Dunbar introduced a screw press that was not widely adopted at the time (Benjamin L. C. Wailes, Report on the Agriculture and Geology of Mississippi [Jackson, Miss., 1854], 173-7).