Thomas Jefferson to Dolley Payne Todd Madison, 6 July 1805
To Dolley Payne Todd Madison
July 6. 05
Th: Jefferson presents his affectionate salutations to mrs Madison & thinks the case she shewed him the other day (with ear-rings & a pin) will answer mrs Randolph’s views. he begs leave to remind her of the request for such a comb exactly as she sent before. he sollicits her on his own account, whenever she shall happen to be shopping, to get a garment for him to present to Virginia, another to Anne, and one for Ellen & Cornelia. the two last may be of one piece. mrs Madison knows better how to please the respective parties than Th:J. does. what she got for Anne on a former occasion was particularly gratifying to her. mrs Madison will be so good as to direct the shopkeepers to send their bills to Th:J. for paiment
RC (Jacques de Bon, Geneva, Switzerland, 1952). Not recorded in SJL.
sollicits her: Madison honored TJ’s request despite an ulcerated knee. “I shall ride to the stores,” she wrote to her sister, Anna Payne Cutts, on 8 July, “but cannot get out to shop for them—very little variety in G. Town but I must do my best” (ViU). On 12 July, TJ paid John Cox of Georgetown $12.50 for five yards of lace muslin (receipt in MHi, dated 9 July, in an unidentified hand, signed by John Cox, endorsed by TJ with notation “12.50”; , 2:1159). On that same date he paid $36 to Edward L. Smith, also for muslin, and $7 to Marie Ann Pic for a “comb &c.” (same).