Earl of Buchan to Thomas Jefferson, 18 January 1816
From the Earl of Buchan
Edinburgh January 18h 1816.
Highly regarded Jefferson!
Your esteemed Letter to me on the subject of our mutual misfortunes hangs under glass in my Washington room in this house & has been copiously perused by my visitors & by all highly valued as a picture of yr own excellent & well-informed Mind.
I transmit this letter to you by the hand of Dr Francis of New York together with my commercium Epistolicum Trans atlanticum for the historical Society of the Massachussetts State, & with my Portrait for yr Closet.
Buchan
RC (CU-BANC); addressed: “To Thomas Jefferson Esqr &c—&c—&c— by favr of Dr Francis wth my Portrait.” Not recorded in SJL and probably never received by TJ. This document, located after the pertinent chronological volume was published, will appear in the concluding supplement to the print edition.
David Steuart Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan (1742–1829), Scottish author and antiquarian, was born in Edinburgh. After receiving an informal education during his youth, he attended classes at Saint Andrews, Edinburgh, and Glasgow universities, but never received a degree. In 1762 he was commissioned in the British army, rising to the rank of lieutenant before his appointment as secretary to the British legation in Madrid four years later, a post he never assumed. Erskine became the Earl of Buchan in 1767 after the death of his father and immediately began a series of land reforms on his ancestral properties that both helped his tenants and improved his own financial situation. Buchan corresponded frequently with Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, supported the American cause during the Revolutionary War, and also wrote numerous works advocating political reform in Great Britain. He patronized poets and artists, founded the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1780, and was later elected a member of both the American Philosophical and American Antiquarian societies. Buchan died at his family estate of Dryburgh Abbey (The Papers of Benjamin Franklin [1959– ], 21:203, 39:186–7, 346–7; , Pres. Series, esp. 5:284–5; Harrison Ross Steeves, Learned Societies and English Literary Scholarship [1913], 78–9; , Minutes, 18 Apr. 1794 [MS in PPAmP]; American Antiquarian Society, Transactions and Collections 9 [1909]: 330; London Standard, 24 Apr. 1829; gravestone inscription at Dryburgh Abbey).
; James Gordon Lamb, “David Steuart Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan: A Study of his Life and Correspondence” [Ph.D. diss., University of Saint Andrews, 1963]; Leonard W. Labaree and others, eds.,The esteemed letter was TJ to Buchan, 10 July 1803 ( , 40:708–10). The commercium epistolicum trans atlanticum was probably Buchan’s personal copy of John Mitchell, The Present State of Great Britain and North America, with regard to Agriculture, Population, Trade, and Manufactures, impartially considered (London, 1767), which is in MHi.
Nicholas P. Trist purchased a portrait of Buchan on behalf of Joseph Coolidge for $8.50 at the January 1827 Monticello estate sale (Bill for Coolidge from Monticello Estate Sale, [after 19 Jan. 1827] [MS in ViU: TJP-JK]). Shortly thereafter, Coolidge wrote from Boston to Trist: “the Earl of Buchan wh. comes next in yr. list, I am indifferent about him, let him go to New York” (Coolidge to Trist, 8 Mar. 1827 [RC in DLC: NPT]).
Index Entries
- American Philosophical Society; members of search
- Buchan, David Steuart Erskine, 11th Earl of; and G. Washington search
- Buchan, David Steuart Erskine, 11th Earl of; displays correspondence with TJ search
- Buchan, David Steuart Erskine, 11th Earl of; donates work to Massachusetts Historical Society search
- Buchan, David Steuart Erskine, 11th Earl of; identified search
- Buchan, David Steuart Erskine, 11th Earl of; letter from search
- Buchan, David Steuart Erskine, 11th Earl of; portrait of search
- Coolidge, Joseph; and Buchan’s portrait search
- Francis, John Wakefield; delivers letter to TJ search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Correspondence; exhibition of search
- Massachusetts Historical Society; works donated to search
- Mitchell, John (ca.1690–1768); The Present State of Great Britain and North America, with regard to Agriculture, Population, Trade, and Manufactures, impartially considered search
- Monticello (TJ’s Albemarle Co. estate); portraits and paintings at search
- paintings; at Monticello search
- paintings; sale of search
- The Present State of Great Britain and North America, with regard to Agriculture, Population, Trade, and Manufactures, impartially considered (J. Mitchell [ca. 1690–1768]) search
- Trist, Nicholas Philip; and Buchan’s portrait search
- Washington, George; room named for search