William Mewburn to Thomas Jefferson, 8 February 1824
From William Mewburn
South East 8 Feby 1824.
William Mewburn has the honour of presenting to Mr Jefferson his highest respects—& hopes for his excuse in the liberty taken by sending the inclosed to his care—
The inclosure contains a few seeds of the cowslip & Primose, recd by WM in a letter from England—it is believed there are none other in the United States—& hoped they will be acceptable to Mrs Randolph.
They are inclosed to Mr Jefferson, because it is expected—the letter to him will receive more care & attention than by any other mode WM has been able to devise.
WM has been lately in correspondance with Mr Willis of Maryland for fruit trees, in raising of which, the Editor, states that Gentleman to have been emminently successful
Mr Willis in his letter, mentions his high obligation to Mr Jefferson—for which he expresses great gratitude.
RC (MoSHi: TJC-BC); dateline above postscript; endorsement by TJ torn. Recorded in SJL as received 17 Feb. 1824.
William Mewburn (ca. 1764–1829), merchant and planter, was born in Eston, Yorkshire, England. By 1793 he was in Richmond selling an assortment of English textiles and household goods under the firm of Mewburn & Company. Mewburn was in the mercantile business until about 1799 and was subsequently manager of the Oxford Iron Works in Campbell County. After 1814 he was a planter in Powhatan County. At his death Mewburn owned more than eight hundred acres of land in Campbell and Powhatan counties and $1,080 in personal property, in addition to twenty-one slaves (The Parish Register of Eston [1924], 74; PTJ, 27:376; Richmond Virginia Gazette, and General Advertiser, 20 Nov. 1793, 16 Apr. 1794; Vi: William Bolling Papers; Mewburn Letterbook, 1798 [CSmH: RAB; microfilm in Vi]; ViU: Letters to Mewburn, 1799; Powhatan Co. Will Book, 8:199–201, 343–4, 352; Washington Daily National Intelligencer, 4 Mar. 1839).
south east was Mewburn’s Powhatan County estate. As editor, John S. Skinner lauded the excellence of fruit trees from the nursery of John Willis in the American Farmer 3 (1821): 303.
Index Entries
- American Farmer; and fruit trees search
- cowslip search
- Mewburn, William; identified search
- Mewburn, William; letter from search
- Mewburn, William; sends seeds to M. J. Randolph search
- primrose search
- Randolph, Martha Jefferson (Patsy; TJ’s daughter; Thomas Mann Randolph’s wife); seeds sent to search
- seeds; cowslip search
- seeds; primrose search
- seeds; sent to M. J. Randolph search
- Skinner, John Stuart; andAmerican Farmer search
- trees; fruit search
- Willis, John (of Maryland); and fruit trees search