John J. Chapman to Thomas Jefferson, 14 May [1823]
From John J. Chapman
Philadelphia May 14
Sir
I have much pleasure in sending you a Copy of Peter’s Letters, which I trust will be found to contain some interesting information, not only relative to the University of Edinburg, but to those of Oxford Cambridge and Glasgow; as well as many anecdotes of literary characters, which I hope may amuse you.
That part of the Letters which relates principally to Edinburg, is written by Mr Lockhart, the Editor of Blackwood’s Magazine, and the Son in law of Sir Walter Scott: that which has reference to Glasgow by Wilson, the Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburg.
In the hope that it may prove of some utility in the completion of your interesting and laudable views at Charlottesville
I: J. Chapman
RC (DLC: TJ Papers, 224:40036); partially dated; endorsed by TJ as a letter of 16 May 1823 received 27 May and so recorded in SJL. RC (DLC); address cover only; with FC of TJ to Frederick Beasley, [25 Nov. 1823], on verso; addressed: “Thomas Jefferson Esqr &c &c. &c.” Enclosure: probably a one-volume American edition of [John Gibson Lockhart], Peter’s Letters to His Kinsfolk (New York, 1820; , 7 [no. 332]), originally published in three volumes in Edinburgh in 1819.
John James Chapman (ca. 1790–1867), British army officer, consistently used “I” as his first initial. Born in Hungerford, Berkshire, England, he joined the Royal Regiment of Artillery as a gentleman cadet in 1804, rising to second lieutenant the next year, first lieutenant in 1806, and second captain in 1820. Chapman visited the United States and Monticello in 1823. He served in the British military in Sri Lanka from at least 1828 until 1829, when he retired from his regiment on half pay. Chapman afterward published Some Remarks upon the Ancient City of Anarájapura or Anarádhepura, and the Hill Temple of Mehentélé, in the Island of Ceylon (London, 1833). In 1835–37 he was a secretary of the Great Western Railway in Bristol, and the Royal Society elected him a fellow in 1836. Chapman died at his home in Bedford, England (Elizabeth Holland, “This Famous City: The Story of the Chapmans of Bath. Captain John James Chapman and his Family Circle,” Survey of Bath and District 6 [Nov. 1996]: 1, 23–9; List of Officers of the Royal Regiment of Artillery from the year 1716 to the year 1899 [4th ed., 1900], 35, 35a; Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 13 [1852]: 164–78; Jack Simmons, ed., The Birth of the Great Western Railway [1971], 85n; Gentleman’s Magazine, new ser., 5 [1836]: 643; Bath Chronicle, 20 Apr. 1837; Northampton Mercury, 26 Jan. 1867).
Index Entries
- Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine search
- Cambridge University search
- Chapman, John James; identified search
- Chapman, John James; letter from search
- Chapman, John James; sends work to TJ search
- Edinburgh, University of search
- Glasgow, University of search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Books & Library; works sent to search
- Lockhart, John Gibson; Peter’s Letters to His Kinsfolk search
- Oxford, University of search
- Peter’s Letters to His Kinsfolk (J. G. Lockhart) search
- schools and colleges; Cambridge University search
- schools and colleges; Oxford University search
- schools and colleges; University of Edinburgh search
- schools and colleges; University of Glasgow search
- Scott, Sir Walter; family of search
- Wilson, John (of Edinburgh); andPeter’s Letters to His Kinsfolk (J. G. Lockhart) search