James Maury to Thomas Jefferson, 24 February 1819
From James Maury
Liverpool 24 Feby 1819
My dear Sir,
Last year I took the liberty of introducing to you my son Matthew, but it was & is rather uncertain whether he may have the opportunity of delivering my letter.
This is intended for another son of mine, who contemplates remaining a considerable time in the United States, during which I hope he will have the honor of presenting this: I shall consider myself much obliged by any civilities to him. Accept the best wishes of
James Maury
RC (DLC); at foot of text: “Thomas Jefferson &C &C Monticello”; endorsed by TJ as received 25 Aug. 1819 and so recorded (with additional bracketed notation: “by his son”) in SJL.
another son of mine: William Maury (1799–1849), merchant, was born in Liverpool, England, the second son of James Maury, TJ’s childhood friend and the longtime United States consul at that city. Maury spent much of the period between 1819 and 1824 traveling throughout America soliciting business for his father’s firm, Maury & Latham. During his travels he met Henry Clay, James Madison, and other notables. Although Maury went back to Liverpool thereafter, his father’s 1821 prediction that he would “return at some future period” to the United States “to live and die in it” proved prescient. Having gone bankrupt in 1848, Maury moved with his family to Virginia. He died of a “violent bilious fever” on his farm near Fredericksburg (Anne Fontaine Maury, ed., Intimate Virginiana: A Century of Maury Travels by Land and Sea [1941], 71–88, 131, 252, 326; Madison, Papers, Retirement Ser., 1:362n, 565, 2:70, 272–3, 409; James Maury to TJ, 24 Sept. 1821; London Gazette, 29 Nov., 24 Dec. 1850; Alexandria Gazette, 24 Oct. 1849; gravestone inscription in Fredericksburg City Cemetery).
William Maury missed seeing TJ when presenting this letter at Poplar Forest, to their mutual regret, but they did meet in 1821 (James Maury to TJ, 30 Mar. 1820; TJ to William Maury, 3 Nov. 1820; William Maury to TJ, 18 July 1821).
Index Entries
- Jefferson, Thomas; Correspondence; letters of introduction to search
- Maury, James (1746–1840); introduces sons to TJ search
- Maury, James (1746–1840); letters from search
- Maury, Matthew (1800–77); introduced to TJ search
- Maury, Matthew (1800–77); visits Monticello search
- Maury, William; identified search
- Maury, William; introduced to TJ search
- Maury, William; visits Poplar Forest search
- Monticello (TJ’s Albemarle Co. estate); Visitors to; Maury, Matthew search
- Poplar Forest (TJ’s Bedford Co. estate); visitors to search