Thomas Jefferson to James P. Patterson, 18 May 1821
To James P. Patterson
Monticello May 18. 21.
Sir
The morning that I left your house, my servants left within your bar, where the other baggage had been deposited, a Latin book, Cornelius Nepos, which I trust you found there, and request you to keep until I call for it.
When I told you the distances of the road, as indicated [by?] my odometer, it escaped me that it needed a small correction from the circumstance that my wheel is not so large by about an Inch as that for which the Odometer is calculated. I subjoin the correct distances of your road as far as I have travelled them, the result of several admeasurement, & salute you with respect.
Th: Jefferson
PoC (MHi); on verso of reused address cover of Frederick A. Mayo to TJ, 5 May 1821; one word faint; at foot of text: “Mr Patterson”; endorsed by TJ. Recorded in SJL as a letter to “Patterson tavern.” Enclosure not found.
James P. Patterson kept an ordinary in Buckingham County (
, 2:1375, 1381, 1396; Vi: RG 48, Personal Property Tax Returns, Buckingham Co., 1822).Index Entries
- Buckingham County, Va.; Patterson’s Ordinary search
- inventions; odometer search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Travels; to Buckingham Court House search
- Nepos, Cornelius; works of search
- odometers search
- Patterson, James P.; Buckingham Co. tavern keeper search
- Patterson, James P.; identified search
- Patterson, James P.; letter to search