Thomas Jefferson Papers

From Thomas Jefferson to Richard Fitzhugh, 26 March 1805

To Richard Fitzhugh

Monticello Mar. 26. 05.

Dear Sir

Immediately on my arrival at home I sent to three different persons to whom I had given the large oat the last year. every one of them had already sown the whole of what they had. after the next harvest however I shall be able to secure you some & will attend to it.   I have taken the earliest moment in my power to copy Triplett’s survey for you which I now send; and I sincerely wish you success in the road proposed. Accept my friendly salutations & respects to mrs Fitzhugh

Th: Jefferson

PoC (MHi); at foot of text: “R. Fitzhugh esq.”; endorsed by TJ. Enclosure: copy, not found, of survey of road by John Triplett (see below).

Richard Fitzhugh (1766-1821) lived at the Oak Hill estate on a portion of the Ravensworth tract, a 22,000-acre grant in Fairfax County given to his great-grandfather, William Fitzhugh, in 1694. TJ sometimes stayed at Oak Hill during his trips between Monticello and Washington. Fitzhugh was a farmer and, according to the 1820 federal census, owned 50 slaves (Stella Pickett Hardy, Colonial Families of the Southern States of America [New York, 1911], 227; Daily National Intelligencer, 31 May 1821; 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 , 2:1071n, 1123n).

Triplett’s survey of the road between Stevensburg and Georgetown circulated among interested parties beginning in the early 1790s as plans for the federal city took shape. TJ received a copy from Ferdinando Fairfax in September 1792 and used it and related materials to advocate for a straight and level route that would improve connections between the area around Washington and central Virginia (Vol. 24:269, 368; Vol. 29:431-32, 529, 530; “The road from the ferry landing opposite Georgetown to Stevensburg from actual survey by Capt John Triplett” and “Distances from the ferry landing opposite Georgetown,” in DLC: TJ Papers, 233:41695, 41696, in TJ’s hand).

mrs Fitzhugh: Susannah Meade Fitzhugh (Alexandria Gazette, 2 July 1856; Hardy, Colonial Families, 227).

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