Ellen Wayles Randolph to Thomas Jefferson, [before 18 July 1805]
From Ellen Wayles Randolph
[before 18 July 1805]
How was I disappointed at not recieving a letter from my Dear Grand Papa, this Post in answer to one I wrote him: you said in your letter to Sister Ann, that you expected but a short one from me, however I am determined to keep up a regular correspondence, if possible. you said also, that you would catch me in bed the morning of the 18 19 or 20 of this month; I hope you will not, for I shall rise betimes all three mornings I expect you. Aunt has had the mumps, and is not quite recoverd. I am very much obliged to you for the, Poetry. you sent me and think it all very Pretty, particularly Little John and the Ode to Modesty. Sister Ann’s fowls are increasd greatly. my hen has laid a great many eggs, not fit for hatching. adieu my Dear Grand Papa believe me to be your affectionate Grand dauhter
E W Randolph
RC (MHi); undated, but before 18 July due to contents; endorsed by TJ as received 20 July and so recorded in SJL.
your letter: TJ to Anne Cary Randolph, 6 July.
Aunt: Virginia Randolph (TJ to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 24 June).
Included in the scrapbooks of TJ’s granddaughters is a copy of the Ode to Modesty by an anonymous poet, clipped from the April 1805 issue of The Monthly Anthology, and Boston Review and most likely enclosed in TJ to Ellen Wayles Randolph, 28 June (Jonathan Gross, ed., Thomas Jefferson’s Scrapbooks: Poems of Nation, Family, & Romantic Love Collected by America’s Third President [Hanover, N.H., 2006], 242-3; Monthly Anthology, and Boston Review, 2 [1805], 196-7).