Notes on Jefferson’s Memorandum for Barbé-Marbois, [ca. 1 August] 1782
Notes on Jefferson’s Memorandum for Barbé-Marbois
MS (LC: Madison Papers). In JM’s hand. Docketed by him, “Virginia Charters & Boundary.” Above this title, “Copd” appears in an unknown hand. A transcript made by this anonymous copyist, who occasionally altered JM’s spelling, abbreviations, and punctuation, is also in LC: Madison Papers. In the McGregor Library, University of Virginia, is another transcript of JM’s notes, except that it lacks his fifth, or last, page. Judging from several errors in this copy, the transcriber was unfamiliar with JM’s handwriting.
Editorial Note
These notes on Thomas Jefferson’s answers to queries of François, Marquis de Barbé-Marbois, secretary of the French legation in Philadelphia, can be only approximately dated. Having been asked by Marbois in the autumn of 1780 “to give some details” on twenty-two listed subjects relating to Virginia, Joseph Jones referred them to Governor Jefferson for reply (, IV, 166–67; V, 58; , II, 116, n. 1; III, 331, n. 1). The pressure of official duties and the emergencies caused by the British invasions delayed Jefferson’s response until 20 December 1781.
Jefferson asked Jacquelin Ambler to forward this letter and emphasized that, in doing so, “more attention should be paid to safety than dispatch.” Bearing this caution in mind, Ambler held the letter for “Several weeks” before he was enabled by David Jameson to have it delivered to the Comte de Rochambeau in Williamsburg for dispatch by a “trusty Messenger” to Marbois in Philadelphia (, VI, 165, 171–72). Before conveying his thanks to Jefferson in a letter of 22 April 1782, Marbois had retained the notes long enough to make a copy of them, to feel warranted in believing that the merchant ship on which the original was being taken to France had escaped capture by “corsaires anglois” hovering in Delaware Bay or off the Delaware capes, and to show either the copy or the original to Charles Thomson, who as early as 29 January had manifested an interest in the notes (ibid., VI, 142 n., 149, 177–78; , IV, 119–20; 121, n. 6). About mid-April 1782 was therefore the earliest time that JM could have seen them.
Probably JM did not see the notes or make the present condensation until several months later. In a letter to Jefferson on 16 April and in letters to Randolph on 1 May and 11 June 1782, stressing the need to prepare a detailed defense of Virginia’s claim to the trans-Appalachian West, JM almost certainly would have referred to the relevant information in Jefferson’s memorandum if he had read it by those dates (, IV, 154–55; 195–97; 333). In a letter of 5 July, Randolph remarked to JM that the number of Virginia militia in 1780 was about 50,000 or approximately one-fifth of the white population. Eleven days later JM replied: “Your computation of the numbers in Virga. tallies very exactly with one transmitted by Mr. Jefferson in an answer to several queries from Mr. M——s. It is as accurate as the official returns to the Executive of the militia would admit. His proportion of the fencibles to the white souls is stated precisly as your computation states it” (ibid., IV, 394–96; 417–19; 419, n. 5).
To have read Jefferson’s “answer” on this topic does not necessarily mean, of course, that JM had also taken his notes by 16 July. Granting that the notes reproduced here are all that he took, he did not include in them the data upon which he based the above observation to Randolph. In writing to him on 13 August (q.v.), JM followed a comment about having “lately seen a fact stated by” Jefferson, with a paraphrase of a passage either in Jefferson’s answers to Marbois or in his own notes on those answers. This evidence, although obviously inconclusive, suggests that JM made his notes about 1 August 1782. At that time he was eager to amass additional facts to strengthen his defense of Virginia’s title to the West. Thus it is not surprising that he confined his note-taking to the portions of Jefferson’s memorandum which dealt with the charters of Virginia, and “its limits and boundaries” (, IV, 166).
In 1782 this memorandum was already “voluminous,” but it would be “swelled nearly to treble bulk” by Jefferson before becoming three years later his memorable Notes on the State of Virginia (JM to Randolph, 26 November 1782; , VI, 467; VIII, 147). By November 1782 Jefferson was reported to have “lost” his retained copy of the answers which he had sent to Marbois (Randolph to JM, 16 November 1782). These documents, the copy made by Marbois, and the copy possibly made by Charles Thomson, have all disappeared. For this reason JM’s notes, although mostly confined to a single subject, seem to be the only extant evidence of even a brief portion of what Jefferson wrote in his original memorandum.
[ca. 1 August 1782]
The Charters of the State of Virginia1
1. 1584. March 25. 26.2 El: The letters patents granted by the Queen’s majestie to M. Walter Raleigh, now Knight for the discovering and planting of new lands and countries to continue the Space of six years & no more 3.Hakluyt. 2433
1589.4 Mar. 7. 31 El: an assignment by Sr. Walter Raleigh for continuing the action of inhabiting and planting his people in Virginia. Hakluyt’s voiages 1st. Ed: (1580) p. 815.5
1607. Mar. 9. 4 Jac. I.6 Letters patents to Sr. Thos. Gates Sr. George Somers & others for two several colonies to be made in Virginia and other parts of America. Stith’s Hist: ap. No. 1.7
1609. May 23. 7 Jac. I. The second charter to the Treasurer and company for Virginia erecting them into a body politic. Stith. append. No. 28
1611/12 Mar. 12. 9 Jac: I. An Ordinance & Constitution of the Treasurer, council & company in England for a Council of State and General Assembly in Virginia. Stith do. No. 4.9
1649. Sep. 18. 1. Car. 2. A grant of the Northern neck of Virginia10 to Ld. Hopton, Ld. Jermyn, Ld. Culpeper, Sr. John Berkeley, Sr. Wm. Morton, Sr Dudley Wyatt & Thomas Culpeper.11
1651. Mar. 12. temp. Reipubl:12 Articles at the Surrender of the Country agreed to at James City in Virginia by the Commissioners of the Council of State by the authority of the Parliament of England, and by the Grand Assembly of the Governor, Council and Burgesses of that Country [the following are material articles of this Convention]13
I. It is agreed and cons’ted14 that the Plantation of Virginia and all the Inhabitants thereof shall be and remain in due obedience and subjection to the Commonwealth of England according to the laws there established, and that this submission and subscription be acknowledged a voluntary act, not forced or constrained by a conquest upon the Country, and that they shall have and enjoy such freedoms and privileges as belong to the freeborn people of England.15
IV. That Virginia shall have and enjoy the antient bounds and limits granted by the Charters of the former kings, and that we shall seek a new Charter from the parliament16 against any that have intrenched upon the rights thereof.
VI. That the privilege of having fifty acres of land for every person transported in this colony shall continue as formerly granted.
VII. That the people of Virginia have free trade as the people of England do enjoy to all places and with all nations, according to the laws of that commonwealth, and that Virginia shall enjoy all privileges equal with any English plantation in America.
VIII. That Virginia shall be free from all taxes, customs and impositions whatsoever, and none to be imposed on them without consent of the Grand Assembly, and that neither forts nor castles be erected, nor garrisons maintained without their consent.17
1669.18 May 8. 21. Car: 2 A confirmation of the grant of the Northern Neck of Virginia to the E. of St. Albans, Ld. Berkeley, Sr. Wm. Morton and John Tretheway.19
1676. Oct. 10. 28. Car: 2: The charter of King Charles the 2d. to his subjects of Virginia.20
1688. Sep: 27. 4. Jac: 2. A confirmation of the grant of the Northern neck of Virginia to Lord Culpeper.21
The following Charters also, tho’ objected to at the time of their passing,22 yet having been acquiesced under during the royal government, and ultimately confirmed by the present commonwealth at the time of establishing its constitution23 are interesting to Virginia so far as they change the limits fixed by former charters:24
1632. June 20. 8. Car. 1. A grant of Maryland to Cecilius Calvert baron of Baltimore in Ireland.25
1662/3. Mar. 24. 15. Car. 2. The first charter granted by Car. 2. April 4.26 to the proprietaries of Carolina, to wit, to the E. of Clarendon. D. of Albemarle. Ld. Craven, Ld Berkeley Ld. Ashley, Sr Geo: Carteret, Sr Wm. Berkeley, Sr Jo. Colleton.27 Mem: del’Amerique. 55428 Virginia is bounded East by the Atlantic Ocean &c &c
By admeasurements through nearly the whole of the line dividing Virga. from N. Carolina, and supplying the unmeasured parts from good data the Atlantic & Mississippi are found in this latitude to be 758 miles distant equal to 13°38′ of long: reckoning 55 M. 3144 f to the degree. This being our comprehension of long: that of our lat: taken between this & Masons & Dixon’s line which is in lat. 39°.43′.42″.4 is 3°.13′.42″.4 equal 223.3 Miles, supposing a degree of a great circle to be 69. M. 854 f.29 as computed by Cassini.30
The area of Virga. is nearly 100,000, or more exactly 98,886 square miles whereof 60,000, more exactly 58,861 lie westward of the Alleghany Mountains. This is somewhat larger than the islands of G.B. & Ireland which are reckoned at about 90,000, more exactly 88,357 square miles.31
1. In these footnotes, the citations of Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia are to the first authorized edition published in England (London: Printed by John Stockdale, 1787), as reprinted and annotated in William Peden, ed., Notes on the State of Virginia by Thomas Jefferson (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1955), hereafter referred to as . JM lists only twelve “Charters.” How many more were included in the memorandum to Marbois is not known. In his , pp. 179–96, Jefferson gave the titles of 242 under the rubric “Histories, Memorials, and State-Papers.”
2. This numeral and the numerals below, which immediately follow the dates at the beginning of paragraphs, signify the regnal year of the English sovereign whose Latinized name follows in abbreviated form.
3. As early as 1777 Jefferson possessed the copy of “Queen Elizabeth’s Patent to Sir. W. Ralegh for making Discoveries,” as printed in Richard Hakluyt, The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation … (London, 1589), which he had purchased from the estate of Richard Bland (d. 1776) (E[mily] Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson [5 vols.; Washington, 1952–59], II, 192–93; William and Mary Quarterly, 1st ser., IV [1895–96], 269). Jefferson’s library seems never to have included the second and enlarged edition of Hakluyt, which is here correctly cited. See Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voiages, Traffiques and Discoueries of the English Nation … (3 vols.; London, 1598–1600), III, 243–45. If Jefferson did not borrow the volume in Virginia so as to enter the reference on the original manuscript, the citation was either inserted in Philadelphia on the copy of the memorandum used by JM in making his notes, or JM added to them later by appending the citation to the paragraph. Charles Thomson or another member of the Library Company of Philadelphia, which owned a copy of this edition of Hakluyt, may have furnished JM with the citation. See Austin K. Gray, Benjamin Franklin’s Library (Printed, 1936, as “The First American Library”): A Short Account of the Library Company of Philadelphia 1731–1931 (New York, 1937), pp. 26, 28.
4. Instead of this year, two unfilled brackets appear in , p. 179. See n. 5, below.
5. The first edition of Richard Hakluyt’s work was published in 1589 rather than in 1580. See n. 3, above. In , p. 179, the date is given correctly. The inclusive pages in Hakluyt’s Principall Navigations are 815–17.
6. The paragraph to this point should have read, “1606. April 10. 4 Jac. I.” The date which JM, or possibly someone before him, including Jefferson, miscopied, appears correctly in Jefferson, , pp. 179–80.
7. On 10 April 1606 King James I issued an “ordinance and constitution” increasing the size and authority of “the council” of the Virginia Company of London. Specifically named in this “Letters Patent,” besides Sir Thomas Gates (d. ca. 1621) and Sir George Somers (1554–1610), were Richard Hakluyt (ca. 1552–1616) and Edward Maria Wingfield (d. 1613) (The Three Charters of the Virginia Company of London, with Seven Related Documents; 1606–1621, with an introduction by Samuel M. Bemiss [Williamsburg, 1957], pp. 23–26). The citation recorded by JM is to William Stith (1689–1775), The History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia: Being an Essay towards a General History of this Colony (Williamsburg: Printed by William Parks, 1747), Appendix No. I, pp. 1–8.
8. Ibid., Appendix No. II, pp. 8–22. Following “erecting them into,” Stith’s title continues, “a Corporation and Body politick, and for the further Enlargement and Explanation of the Privileges of the said Company and first Colony of Virginia. Dated May 23, 1609.” See also Three Charters of the Virginia Company of London, pp. 27–54.
9. In this paragraph Jefferson, or the copyist of Jefferson’s memorandum, or JM, began with the date of the document in Stith’s Appendix No. III to his History of Virginia and followed it with the document comprising his Appendix No. IV (ibid., pp. 23–34). If Jefferson made the error, he corrected it later (, p. 180). Stith’s Appendix No. III reproduces “A third Charter of K. James I. to the Treasurer and Company for Virginia. Dated March 12, 1611–2.”
10. Prince Charles, later King Charles II, made this grant while in exile. The original charter for the Northern Neck is now in the British Museum, which lists it as Additional Charter 13585 ([Fairfax Harrison], The Proprietors of the Northern Neck, Chapters of Culpeper Genealogy [Richmond, 1926], p. 159, n. 10). For the location of the Northern Neck, see , IV, 144, n. 3.
11. Ralph Hopton (1598–1652), Baron Hopton of Stratton; Henry Jermyn (d. 1684), first Earl of St. Albans; John Culpeper (1600–1660), Baron Culpeper of Thoresway; Sir John Berkeley (ca. 1607–1678), in 1658 created first Baron Berkeley of Stratton; Sir William Morton (d. 1672); Sir Dudley Wyatt (1609–1651); and Thomas Culpeper (ca. 1602–ca. 1652), a first cousin of Baron Culpeper. Without citing his source, Jefferson lists “Berkely,” “Moreton,” and “Dudly” for “Berkeley,” “Morton,” and “Dudley” in his , p. 184.
12. That is, during the time of the Commonwealth and the Protectorate, 1649–1660. The dating becomes “1651–2, Mar. 12. 4 Car. 2” in Jefferson, , p. 185.
13. Ibid., p. 114. JM may have bracketed the passage to signify that it was his own insert. For “the Grand Assembly,” see JM to Randolph, 13 August 1782, and n. 17.
14. Probably an abbreviation of “constituted.” Jefferson may have used the contraction in his memorandum to Marbois, because Hening, who copied from the manuscript which Jefferson had purchased from the estate of Peyton Randolph (d. 1775), repeated the same abbreviation (Statutes, I, 358, 363).
15. The concluding clause of this quotation, “and that the former government by the Comissions and Instructions be void and null,” is included in Jefferson, , p. 114. The clause may have been omitted by Jefferson in his memorandum, or by the copyist, or by JM.
16. The expression “to that purpose” immediately follows “parliament” in the , p. 114. See last sentence of n. 15, above.
17. The sixteen articles of this agreement appear in the , pp. 114–16. Jefferson may not have included articles 9–16 in his memorandum to Marbois, but almost surely he included 2 and 3. Whether the lost copy from which JM took his notes omitted them obviously cannot be determined.
18. In Jefferson, , p. 188, this date appears as “16——.”
19. See n. 11, above. John Trethewy (ca. 1625–1699) of St. Stephens in Brannel, Cornwall (J[ohn] L. Vivian and Henry H. Drake, eds., The Visitation of the County of Cornwall, in the Year 1620 [London, 1874], p. 238 n.; R[eginald] M. Glencross, ed., Calendar of Wills, Administrations and Accounts Relating to the Counties of Cornwall and Devon in the Connotorial Archidiaconal Court of Cornwall [London, 1929], Part I, p. 334).
20. In , p. 188, Jefferson cites his source simply as “M.S.” This reference is to pp. 297 and 373 of a manuscript volume purchased from the estate of Richard Bland (E. Millicent Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Jefferson, II, 239; , II, 531). See n. 3, above.
21. Using a source unidentified by the editors, Jefferson dated this item, “1687, qu. Sept. 27. 4 Jac. 2” (, p. 191). “Lord Culpeper” was Thomas (1635–1689), second Baron Culpeper. See n. 11, above.
22. In view of this statement and JM’s listing of the Maryland charter in his next paragraph, Jefferson’s original memorandum, like his , p. 182, almost surely included the following consecutive entries:
“1632, June 20. 8. Car. 1. A grant of Maryland to Caecilius Calvert, Baron of Baltimore in Ireland.
“1633, July 3. 9. Car. 1. A petition of the planters of Virginia against the grant to Lord Baltimore.”
On the other hand, JM’s probably erroneous statement about Virginia also protesting against the grant of the Carolina charter “at the time” of its “passing” in 1662/3 may signify that Jefferson’s original memorandum, unlike his , p. 188, or the copy from which JM made his condensation, did not contain the “Remonstrances against the two grants of Charles II. of Northern and Southern Virginia. Mentd. Beverley. 65.” If JM had turned to this page of [Robert Beverley], The History of Virginia, in Four Parts (2d ed.; London, 1722), he would have read that the Carolina grant, having been “kept dormant some Years,” was not “begun to be put in Execution” until 1674. The Virginia legislature then complained about the grant, in “an humble Address to his Majesty,” as “derogatory to the previous Charters and Privileges” of the colony.
23. Article XXI of the Form of Government of Virginia declared that the “territories contained within the charters erecting the colonies Maryland, Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, are hereby ceded, released, and for ever confirmed to the people of those colonies respectively, with all the rights of property, jurisdiction, and government, and all other rights whatsoever which might at any time heretofore have been claimed by Virginia, except the free navigation and use of the rivers Potowmack and Pohomoke” (, IX, 118).
24. This paragraph, not to be found in Jefferson’s , appears to endorse JM’s later comment that his “expectation” of eventually procuring from Jefferson a “full copy” of the memorandum “reduced my extract to parts of immediate use to me, or such as consisting of reflections, not of facts might not be obtained otherwise” (JM to Randolph, 18 February 1783 [LC: Madison Papers]).
25. Cecilius Calvert (1605–1675), second Baron Baltimore.
26. In , p. 186, this date immediately follows “Mar. 24” at the outset of the entry.
27. Edward Hyde (1609–1674), first Earl of Clarendon; George Monck (1608–1670), first Duke of Albemarle; William Craven (1606–1697), Earl of Craven; John, Baron Berkeley of Stratton (n. 11, above); Anthony Ashley Cooper (1621–1683), first Earl of Shaftesbury; Sir George Carteret (ca. 1615–1680), baronet; Sir William Berkeley (1606–1677); and Sir John Colleton (1608–1666) (William Stevens Powell, The Carolina Charter of 1663, How It Came to North Carolina and Its Place in History, with Biographical Sketches of the Proprietors [Raleigh, N.C., 1954], pp. 41–75).
28. The volume number “4” begins this citation in the , p. 186. Jefferson’s source was Étienne de Silhouette et al., Mémoires des Commissaires du Roi et de ceux de sa Majesté Britannique, sur les Possessions & les Droits respectifs des deux Couronnes en Amérique; avec les actes publics et pièces justificatives … (4 vols.; Paris, 1755–57), IV, 554–85 (E. Millicent Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Jefferson, II, 87). The editors are indebted to Thomas R. Adams, librarian of the John Carter Brown Library, Brown University, for verifying the contents and pagination of the very rare fourth volume.
29. Jefferson probably wrote “864f.,” as in his , p. 4.
30. César François Cassini de Thury (1714–1784), La Meridienne de l’Observatoire Royal de Paris, Verifiée dans toute l’étendue du Royaume par de nouvelles Observations. Pour en déduire la vraye grandeur des degres de la Terre, tant en longitude qu’en latitude … (Paris, 1744), pp. 5, 96, 106–7, 113. In this volume Cassini demonstrated how, by using many astronomical observations, he had determined the exact distance from Paris to Dunkirk. Although Jefferson relied upon Cassini’s basic data, he had to adjust them to conform with the differences of latitude and longitude between northern France and Virginia and the differences between French and English units of linear measurements. Jefferson’s estimates of the east-west extent of Virginia along her southern border and of her north-south width from that border to Mason and Dixon’s line are approximate.
31. Before publishing his Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson apparently altered these data. In the Peden edition, p. 4, the two sentences read: “These boundaries include an area somewhat triangular, of 121525 square miles, whereof 79650 lie westward of the Allegany mountains, and 57034 westward of the meridian of the mouth of the Great Kanhaway. This state is therefore one third larger than the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, which are reckoned at 88357 square miles.” Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky total 105,391 square miles; hence Jefferson in this regard was more nearly accurate in his memorandum to Marbois than in the Notes on the State of Virginia. Great Britain and Ireland are about 121,255 square miles in area.
Although, in view of Congress’ acceptance on 1 March 1784 of Virginia’s cession of her claim to the Northwest Territory, Jefferson naturally omitted that area when describing the extent of his state in a manuscript completed the next year, he seems also to have excluded the region when he treated the same topic in his memorandum of 1781 to Marbois. Perhaps Jefferson particularly mentioned the Great Kanawha River in his Notes on the State of Virginia because he anticipated the admission of Kentucky to statehood with that stream as a part of her eastern boundary. If that was his assumption, he considerably overestimated what her area would be.