John Hoomes Freeman (ca. 1780-1873) of Culpeper County was hired by TJ as overseer of Monticello, apparently on the recommendation of John Strode. He began work on 22 Aug. 1805 and was discharged in the fall of 1806 because, according to TJ, the state of Freeman’s health made him “unable to attend to my business.” In 1808, Freeman asked the president to recommend him for the job of clerk of the circuit court in Culpeper County. He had been forced to sell his farm and was at odds with the local Federalists because of his past employment with TJ. Freeman served in the War of 1812 and died a farmer in Culpeper. Freeman’s middle name was Hoomes, not Homes or Holmes as interchangeably written by TJ. The two extant letters from Freeman to TJ, 20 June 1807 and 1 May 1808, were signed “John H. Freeman” (Virgil D. White, Index to War of 1812 Pension Files, 2 vols. [Waynesboro, Tenn., 1992], 1:764; United States Census Schedules, DNA: RG 29; Robert Spector, Generations: Kemper Freeman Jr. and the Freeman Family [Seattle, 2007], 9, 21; John Frederick Dorman, The Robertson Family of Culpeper County, Virginia [Richmond, 1964], 37, 137n; 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, 2 vols. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 2:1162, 1196, 1198; TJ to Strode, 5 June, 26 Aug.; TJ to Freeman, 6 July 1807; Freeman to TJ, 1 May 1808).

On this day TJ also wrote to Joseph Brand, but the letter has not been found.