Extract from Virginia J. Randolph (Trist) to Nicholas P. Trist, 12 November 1822
Extract from Virginia J. Randolph (Trist) to Nicholas P. Trist
Monticello November 12th 1822
I have been disappointed in hearing from you as I expected certainly to have done this evening, My Dear Nicholas, and have a great mind not to write to you atall, until I do get a letter, but as you have constituted your self the “repository” of all that passes in my thoughts, the terror and uneasiness that I have felt to day on my Grand-Fathers account, shall be faithfully detailed. this morning he got a fall down one of the flights of steps leading from the terrace, and broke his arm very near the wrist, besides cutting it badly, and getting a slight wound on his head. you may easily imagine what a shock it was to us all, but after the setting of the bone, by Dr. Watkins, and dressing the wound, the pain abated almost entirely, and to night every symptom is so favourable that our minds are greatly relieved from the uneasiness which oppressed them. Considering his advanced age, and consequent bodily weakness, I fear he does not take sufficient care of him self, for besides his spending every day from breakfast until dinner, since the month of August, in superintending the work going on at his Mill dam, he actually contemplates a journey to Bedford late in December. of the inutility, and even risk of this last undertaking, I hope Dr. Watkins and my brother will convince him, and especially since the broken bone will not unite in less than six or eight weeks. Mama’s health has been tolerably good lately, and will continue so, I believe, as long as we can persuade her to be less regular in her attendance upon the poultry, for in my opinion many of her sick head-aches may be laid to the score of Master Bolton the king of the hen yard,1 and the turkies. I hope her alarm to day will not make her sick, although she has appear’d drooping ever since, and will probably be kept up late listening to the vie privèe of our renowned doctor.
RC (DLC: NPT); extract, consisting of salutation, dateline, and first paragraph of letter; signed “V.J.R.,” with dateline below that; addressed: “To Nicholas P. Trist Esqr Donaldsonville La-fourche Louisiana”; stamped; postmarked Charlottesville, 14 Nov.; endorsed by Trist. In the unextracted portion of this letter, Randolph recounts a morning visit to Monticello by Alexander Smyth and his daughter, expressing sympathy for the girl’s long journey on horseback and “for being the child of a man who had disgraced him self, and become a mark for the finger of scorn to point at” (an allusion to Smyth’s failings as a soldier during the War of 1812); notes that she will shortly go to stay with Jane H. Nicholas Randolph to help this sister-in-law “keep off the ‘blues’” after her family’s departure; comments that she also plans to visit Ashton (the home of Thomas Eston Randolph and Jane Cary Randolph) if TJ’s health continues to improve; reminds Trist that her temper is naturally “suspicious” and demands a letter in return; and closes with a postscript apologizing for “blunders I have committed, and which may be attributed to the stupifying influence of a bad cold.”
Ten days after his fall, TJ’s daughter Martha reported that he was “doing well, except the day of the accident he has as usual occupied his seat at table” (Martha Jefferson Randolph to Nicholas P. Trist, 22 Nov. 1822 [RC in NcU: NPT]). Writing from Liberty (later Bedford) to Nicholas P. Trist on 28 Nov. 1822, Elizabeth Trist described the mishap: “Mr Jefferson has been finnishing his back Porticco was careless took a wrong step fell and broke his arm at the wrist but no dangerous consiquences it is thought will ensue” (RC in DLC: NPT).
my brother: Thomas Jefferson Randolph. vie privèe: “private life.”
1. Preceding six words interlined.
Index Entries
- Ashton (T. E. Randolph’s Albemarle Co. estate); visitors to search
- chickens search
- health; colds search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Health; broken arm search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Health; injured in fall search
- Monticello (TJ’s Albemarle Co. estate); hen yard at search
- Monticello (TJ’s Albemarle Co. estate); terraces at search
- Monticello (TJ’s Albemarle Co. estate); Visitors to; Smyth, Alexander search
- Monticello (TJ’s Albemarle Co. estate); West Portico search
- Poplar Forest (TJ’s Bedford Co. estate); TJ plans visits to search
- Randolph, Jane Cary (Thomas Eston Randolph’s wife); V. J. R. Trist proposes visit to search
- Randolph, Jane Hollins Nicholas (Thomas Jefferson Randolph’s wife; Wilson Cary Nicholas’s daughter); V. J. R. Trist proposes visit to search
- Randolph, Martha Jefferson (Patsy; TJ’s daughter; Thomas Mann Randolph’s wife); and TJ’s health search
- Randolph, Martha Jefferson (Patsy; TJ’s daughter; Thomas Mann Randolph’s wife); health of search
- Randolph, Thomas Eston (TJ’s cousin); V. J. R. Trist proposes visit to search
- Randolph, Thomas Jefferson (TJ’s grandson; Jane Hollins Nicholas Randolph’s husband); and TJ’s health search
- Shadwell mills; dam at search
- Smyth, Alexander; as soldier search
- Smyth, Alexander; family of search
- Smyth, Alexander; visits Monticello search
- Trist, Elizabeth House; and TJ’s health search
- Trist, Elizabeth House; visits Liberty, Va. search
- Trist, Nicholas Philip; correspondence with V. J. R. Trist search
- Trist, Nicholas Philip; letter to, from V. J. R. Trist search
- Trist, Virginia Jefferson Randolph (TJ’s granddaughter); correspondence with N. P. Trist search
- Trist, Virginia Jefferson Randolph (TJ’s granddaughter); illness of search
- Trist, Virginia Jefferson Randolph (TJ’s granddaughter); letter from, to N. P. Trist search
- Trist, Virginia Jefferson Randolph (TJ’s granddaughter); on TJ’s health search
- Trist, Virginia Jefferson Randolph (TJ’s granddaughter); temperament of search
- Trist, Virginia Jefferson Randolph (TJ’s granddaughter); visits Ashton search
- turkeys; at Monticello search
- Watkins, Thomas G.; and TJ’s health search
- Watkins, Thomas G.; V. J. R. Trist on search
- women; letters from; V. J. R. Trist to N. P. Trist search