“Henry Tompkinson” (Samuel Kercheval) to Thomas Jefferson, 13 June 1816
From “Henry Tompkinson” (Samuel Kercheval)
Altho I have not the honor of being personally known to you, and it is more than probable I never shall, You will have the goodness to pardon the liberty I have taken, of enclosing to you a pamphlet I have lately publishd; shewing the necesity of calling a convention for the revision and amendment of our State constitution.
This subject excites considerable interest in this section of the State, and I trust will draw the attention of our eminent men, in every quarter of the Commonwealth—Will you pardon me Sir for requesting that you will favor me with your opinion of the merits and demerits of the work enclosed for your inspection.
H. Tompkinson
RC (DLC); addressed: “The Honble Thomas Jefferson Monticello”; endorsed by TJ as a letter from “Tompkinson H.” received 19 June 1816 from “Newtown Stephensbg. Frederick” and so recorded in SJL, which adds that Tompkinson was a pseudonym for Samuel Kercheval. Enclosure: [Kercheval], Letters addressed to the people of Virginia showing the necessity of Immediately calling a convention for the revision and amendment of our state constitution. By Henry Tompkinson, a citizen of Virginia (Winchester, 1816), not found (Virginia State Library, A Record of Virginia Copyright Entries [1790–1844] [1911], 18).
Newtown (n. t.) and Stephensburg (stephensg) either separately or together are variant names for present-day Stephens City in Frederick County (Garland R. Quarles and Lewis N. Barton, eds., What I Know About Winchester: Recollections of William Greenway Russell 1800–1891 [1953], 179; Linden A. Fravel and Byron C. Smith, Stephens City [2008], 7–8, 30).
Index Entries
- Kercheval, Samuel; and reform of Va. constitution search
- Kercheval, Samuel; Letters addressed to the people of Virginia search
- Kercheval, Samuel; letters from search
- Letters addressed to the people of Virginia (S. Kercheval writing as “H. Tompkinson”) search
- Stephens City, Va.; variant names of search
- Virginia; constitutional convention for proposed search