Lebbeus Chapman to Thomas Jefferson, 30 November 1820
From Lebbeus Chapman
New York 30 Novr 1820
Sir
Enclosed you will receive my Work on interest which I have taken the liberty to send for your perusal when at leisure. I am now preparing a work on interest which will consist of nearly 400 Quarto pages, with the calculations all made at 6 pr ct pr Annum on all sums from $1– to $400. then by 50s to $2000.. then by 100s to $3000.. & then by 1000s to1 $10.000.. from 1 to 365 days. Every day to Correspond with the page & on the same sums from 1 to 12 Months. in addition a Table Commencing at $10.000 progressing by 1000 to $100.000.. & then by 10.000 to $1.000.000.. with the interest together with the Fractions calculated thereon for one day at 5 & at 6 pr ct pr Annum. If on Examination you find my principle of calculation Correct & should deem such a Work Worthy of Public patronage, will you have the goodness to Signify the same in a Letter to my address and allow me the honour of adding your name to the List of my Subscribers.
Lebbeus Chapman
RC (DLC); at foot of text: “Hon Thos Jefferson”; endorsed by TJ as received 12 Dec. 1820 and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: Chapman, Tables of Interest and Discount, calculated on the only true principle of 365 Days to the Year; and compared with the erroneous method now in use (New York, 1820).
Lebbeus Chapman (1785–1864), merchant and accountant, was born in Middlesex County, Connecticut. By 1808 he was partner in a New York City mercantile firm, and he was listed in that city’s directories successively as grocer, 1809–10, merchant, 1811–16, auctioneer, 1817–18, accountant, 1822, and secretary of insurance companies, 1825–34 and 1842–47. Chapman lived in Jersey City, New Jersey, in the mid-1840s before moving in about 1848 to Brooklyn. He died in Westchester County, New York (Frederick W. Chapman, The Chapman Family: or the Descendants of Robert Chapman [1854], 220–2; New York Mercantile Advertiser, 14 Sept. 1808; New York National Advocate, 25 Feb. 1817; [1809]: 130; [1810]: 136; [1811]: 52; [(1816)]: 154; [(1817)]: 145; [1818]: 79; [1822]: 118; [1825]: 36, 115; [1834]: 52, 186; [1842]: 145; The New-York City and Co-Partnership Directory, for 1843 & 1844 [(1843)], 67; Doggett’s New-York City Directory, for 1847 & 1848 [(1847)], 84; Doggett’s New York City Directory … 1848–1849 [(1848)], 85; New York Herald, 9 Jan. 1864; gravestone inscription in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn).
On this day Chapman sent the enclosed work to John Adams with a nearly identical letter (MHi: Adams Papers).
Chapman soon published Chapman’s Tables of Interest, calculated according to equitable and legal principles, at the rate of six per cent. per annum; showing the interest of any sum, from one cent to ten thousand dollars, from one day to three hundred and sixty-five days, from one to twelve months, and from two to thirteen years. With several other useful tables, explanations, &c. The whole comprising nearly one hundred and eighty thousand calculations (New York, 1821).
1. Manuscript: “to to.”
Index Entries
- Adams, John; works sent to search
- Chapman, Lebbeus; Chapman’s Tables of Interest, calculated according to equitable and legal principles, at the rate of six per cent. per annum search
- Chapman, Lebbeus; identified search
- Chapman, Lebbeus; letter from search
- Chapman, Lebbeus; Tables of Interest and Discount, calculated on the only true principle of 365 Days to the Year search
- Chapman’s Tables of Interest, calculated according to equitable and legal principles, at the rate of six per cent. per annum (L. Chapman) search
- interest; works on search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Books & Library; subscriptions search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Books & Library; works sent to search
- subscriptions, for publications; on interest search
- Tables of Interest and Discount, calculated on the only true principle of 365 Days to the Year (L. Chapman) search