Thomas Jefferson Papers

Thomas Jefferson to William Fleming, 24 July 1809

To William Fleming

Monticello July 24. 09

Dear Sir

The settlement of the accounts in Gilliam’s suit, to which we were summoned on the 1st of Aug. has, on my request, been postponed to the 20th of Oct. I was induced to ask it by the improbability of getting an effectual meeting at Richmond during the sickly season, & my extreme anxiety to have an effectual meeting & final settlement of those accounts. it is on this ground I earnestly pray you to be so good as to attend then. your intimacy with the transactions preceding B. Skelton’s death, & mine with the subsequent part of them, makes our presence indispensably necessary to a fair settlement, to which our families would be entirely incompetent, & might thereby be extremely injured, were the case to lie over till we are dead. you too1 were present also at the preceding meeting where Jerman Baker acting for M. Skelton & in his presence, went over the vouchers, & passed most of the articles by marking them thus with his pen; which account with these marks I have to produce. I hope therefore you will meet us, & I think a single day will suffice to go through the accounts. I propose to be at Eppington some days before the meeting, & if I can, with any convenience, I will have the pleasure of seeing you at your own house on my way. this however must depend on my being able to get from home in time. Accept the assurances of my great esteem & respect.

Th: Jefferson

PoC (MHi); at foot of text: “The honble Wm Fleming”; endorsed by TJ.

William Fleming (ca. 1735–1824), attorney and judge, was a classmate of TJ’s at the College of William and Mary. He represented Cumberland County in the House of Burgesses, 1772–76, in all five Virginia Revolutionary Conventions, 1775–76, and in the House of Delegates, 1776–78. Fleming served briefly in the Continental Congress in 1779, and he sat on the Virginia Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, from its creation in 1789 until his death, presiding as senior member from 1809 (Biog. Dir. Cong. description begins Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–1989, 1989 description ends ; Richmond Enquirer, 19, 20 Feb. 1824; Fredericksburg Virginia Herald, 25 Feb. 1824).

1Word interlined.

Index Entries

  • Baker, Jerman (ca.1734–1792) search
  • Eppington (Eppes’s Chesterfield Co. estate); TJ plans to visit search
  • Fleming, William; identified search
  • Fleming, William; letters to search
  • Gilliam v. Fleming; and settlement of accounts search
  • Skelton, Bathurst; and Gilliam v. Fleming search