Thomas Jefferson Papers

Thomas Jefferson to Joel Yancey, 11 January 1818

To Joel Yancey

Monticello Jan. 11. 18.

Dear Sir

Dick arrived here on Friday night with every thing safe. yesterday he rested of course with his relations and to-day being Sunday he will start tomorrow. Phill will go immediately into the smith’s shop. Hanah’s Billy is in the Cooper’s shop, and as soon as he can make a good barrel he shall return to Poplar Forest. he is too ungovernable. if what flour you have is not gone to Richmond, it should be sent off. as fast as you get the tobo to Lynchburg be so good as to sell it hogshead by hogshead as well as you can, without consulting me. give 60 days, or even 90. if necessary and take orders on Richmond payable to Gibson & Jefferson, to whom send the orders, dropping me a line of information only for my government. they write me still that there is not a pound of cotton to be had there. I believe the merchants are in league not to keep it, and that we must encorage the cotton waggons as our only chance. you thought at one time you could have it made by the spinner.1 mr Pate writes me he will attend to survey my land warrant in March. I cannot possibly be there, but you know the ground better than I do, and can superintend it. if he will pursue the course pointed out in the paper I left with you, the business will be easy, that is to say, first ascertain the lines in the way I proposed, and then to state them in their proper order in his certificate so that when inserted in the patent they may be intelligible. I salute you with great friendship and respect.

Th: Jefferson

P.S. I am anxious to know you have got a contract for bringing up plaister. as soon as known I will have it purchased.

PoC (MHi); on verso of reused address cover of William Short to TJ, 23 Oct. 1817; mutilated at seal, with one word rewritten by TJ; adjacent to signature: “Mr Yancey”; postscript added in different ink at foot of text; endorsed by TJ.

1Sentence interlined, with caret mistakenly placed in front of the period.

Index Entries

  • agriculture; gypsum used in search
  • barrels search
  • Billy (TJ’s slave; b.1799); return of, to Poplar Forest search
  • cotton; scarcity of search
  • Dick (Yellow Dick) (TJ’s slave; b.1767); as wagoner search
  • flour; from Poplar Forest search
  • Gibson & Jefferson (Richmond firm); as TJ’s agent in Richmond search
  • gypsum (plaster of paris); at Poplar Forest search
  • Hannah (Hanah) (TJ’s slave; b.1770); family of search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Writings; Memorandum on Poplar Forest Boundaries search
  • Lynchburg, Va.; tobacco shipped to search
  • Monticello (TJ’s Albemarle Co. estate); coopers at search
  • Monticello (TJ’s Albemarle Co. estate); slaves at search
  • Pate, Matthew; as Bedford Co. surveyor search
  • Phill (Phil) (TJ’s slave); as blacksmith search
  • Poplar Forest (TJ’s Bedford Co. estate); flour from search
  • Poplar Forest (TJ’s Bedford Co. estate); gypsum used as fertilizer at search
  • Poplar Forest (TJ’s Bedford Co. estate); slaves at search
  • Poplar Forest (TJ’s Bedford Co. estate); surveys of search
  • Poplar Forest (TJ’s Bedford Co. estate); tobacco grown at search
  • Richmond, Va.; flour shipped to search
  • slaves; at Monticello search
  • slaves; behavior of search
  • slaves; travels of search
  • surveying; and Poplar Forest boundaries search
  • tobacco; grown at Poplar Forest search
  • tobacco; in Lynchburg market search
  • wagons; and transportation of cotton search
  • Yancey, Joel (d.1833); as superintendent of Poplar Forest search
  • Yancey, Joel (d.1833); letters to search