Invoice from Benjamin King, [ca. 8 July 1805]
Invoice from Benjamin King
[ca. 8 July 1805]
| Account of Work & materials for Making 1. | |||
| Fire Engine for the President | |||
| Laurence Hays 14 Days work at $1.81— | $25.34 | ||
| Jas. King 15¾ Do — 106— | 16.69 | ½ | |
| Willm Smith 5¼ Do 181— | 9.50 | ||
| Willm Sanderson 1½ Do 106— | 1.53 | ||
| P. Prevot ½ Do — 181— | 90 | ½ | |
| " | 150 ℔ of Bar Iron. at 6 Cents— | 9.00 | |
| " | Wood work of Box— | 18.00 | |
| " | Brass for Cylinders 58 ℔ @15— | 8.70 | |
| " | 20 ℔ of Copper for Air Vessel @ 50— | 10.00 | |
| " | Brass Cotten for Do 10 ℔ @ 15— | 1.50 | |
| " | 15 Bushels of Coal @ 25— | 3.75 | |
| " | Painting Do— | 5.00 | |
| " | Leather for Do— | 1.50 | |
| " | Plank for Do— | 4.00 | |
| $115.42 | |||
MS (MHi); undated, but see below; endorsed by TJ with notation “Benjamin King.”
Benjamin King (ca. 1754-1840) was master blacksmith at the Washington navy yard. Born in the British Isles, King worked in Scottish ironworks before joining the French republican army and eventually finding his way to the United States. Benjamin Henry Latrobe relied on him for a number of projects at the President’s House and the Capitol. Latrobe wrote of King that, although he had a “strange wildness” to his temper, he was the most talented man at the navy yard, the last resort “of all the Officers and artizans in every difficult undertaking, and is seldom found at a loss.” King was also an inventor. He held a patent for an improved method of working with iron plates and corresponded with TJ in 1822 about two farming machines he had designed (Philadelphia North American and Daily Advertiser, 16 Sep. 1840; Edward C. Carter and others, eds., The Journals of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 3 vols. [1977-80], 3:67-9; City of Washington Gazette, 22 Aug. 1818; King to Madison, 22 June 1836, in DLC: Madison Papers; King to TJ, 2 Dec. 1822, in DLC).
According to TJ’s financial records, he paid King for the Fire Engine on 8 July (, 2:1158).