Berriman B. Breedin to Thomas Jefferson, 19 August 1822
From Berriman B. Breedin
Mobile 19h August 1822
Sir
The interest, for the new College in Virga; which has been ascribed to you, induces me to take this liberty; and my anxiety for the education of a Son, who I have every desire to see at school in my native state, must be my appology
So little is said in the news papers on the subject of that establishment, that we, in this Country, are in total ignorance as to the period at which a commencement will be made, and, as to the rules which will be adopted in relation to the age, advancement in learning or other qualifications of the applicants for admission
If there had been a prospect of obtaining this information at other hands, it would have spared me the pain of taking a liberty with you, but deprived me of the pleasure of having it from yours.— Respectfully,
B. B. Breedin
RC (DLC); endorsed by TJ as received 20 Sept. 1822 and so recorded in SJL. RC (DLC); address cover only; with Dft of TJ to Thomas W. White, 8 Dec. 1824, on verso; addressed: “Thomas Jefferson Monticello”; franked; postmarked Mobile, 20 Aug.
Berriman (Beriman) B. Breedin (1794–1854), merchant and attorney, was a native of Jefferson County (later West Virginia). He sold goods near Harpers Ferry in 1814 and was operating an auction and commission business in Philadelphia five years later. Breedin then relocated permanently to Mobile, Alabama, where in 1822 he was appointed a notary, justice of the peace, and low-ranking militia officer. A political supporter of Andrew Jackson, he made his living as a lawyer in Mobile, where he owned two slaves at the time of his death (Charles Town Farmer’s Repository, 16 Feb. 1815, 13 Nov. 1816; Philadelphia Franklin Gazette, 21 July 1819; Philadelphia Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, 10 July 1819; Alabama Historical Quarterly 6 [1944]: 207–8, 324; Mobile Commercial Register for the Country, 18 July 1832; Washington Daily National Intelligencer, 22 May 1835; DNA: RG 29, CS, Ala., Mobile, 1850; Ala. Census, Mobile Co., 1855 [A-Ar]; gravestone inscription in Church Street Cemetery, Mobile).
Index Entries
- Breedin, Berriman (Beriman) B.; family of search
- Breedin, Berriman (Beriman) B.; identified search
- Breedin, Berriman (Beriman) B.; letter from search
- Breedin, Berriman (Beriman) B.; seeks information on University of Virginia search
- Virginia, University of; Establishment; opening of search
- Virginia, University of; Students; prospective students search