Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 22 October 1820
To John Wayles Eppes
Monticello Oct. 22. 20.
Dear Sir
Your favor of the 16th was safely recieved with the check on the bank of Virginia for 3500.D. inclosed. the expression in the reciept I sent you of 21 checks on the bank Etc for 4000.D. will I think comprehend with sufficient certainty the deposit of 500 D. as well as the check of 3500. I did not know at the time whether the 500.D. had been paid in cash, or by a check, but thought it indifferent. if you think otherwise however I shall be ready to change it.
The continued illness of all my carriage horses and of my riding horse renders desperate my journey to Bedford till cold weather, possibly December, when none of the family will acompany me. we think therefore it is better to bring the harpsichord here where my daughter with Jon Hemings can put it into order & string it at their leisure, and have it ready to go to Bedford by the waggon at Christmas when she goes there empty to bring down our por[k]. I therefore send her to Millbrook for the instrument express. Doctor Cooper was 3. or 4. days with us, & returned yesterday to Richmond to proceed by the stage to Columbia. he has promised me faithfully to be the Mentor of Francis and I am sure he will faithfully perform it. we all join in saluting mrs Eppes & yourself & family with affection & respect.
Th: Jefferson
PoC (MHi); on verso of reused address cover of John Adams to TJ, 27 May 1819; mutilated at seal, with one word rewritten by TJ; at foot of text: “J. W. Eppes esq.”; endorsed by TJ.
Eppes’s 16 Oct. 1820 favor to TJ, not found, is recorded in SJL as received 18 Oct. 1820.
Elizabeth Trist said of the abortive journey that “most of the family were to have gone to poplar Forest. and Mrs Randolph was only to Stay to put the Harpsicord in tune and Return and then the carriage was to convey Virgina and my self to Bedford” (Trist to Emma Walker Gilmer [Breckinridge], Farmington, 26 Oct. 1820 [RC in ViU: FWG]).
A missing letter from Eppes to TJ of 25 Oct. 1820 is recorded in SJL as received two days later from Mill Brook.
1. Number interlined.
Index Entries
- Bank of Virginia (Richmond); drafts on search
- Cooper, Thomas (1759–1839); professor at South Carolina College search
- Cooper, Thomas (1759–1839); visits Monticello search
- Eppes, Francis Wayles (TJ’s grandson); education of, at South Carolina College search
- Eppes, John Wayles (TJ’s son-in-law); and harpsichord for Poplar Forest search
- Eppes, John Wayles (TJ’s son-in-law); and loan to TJ search
- Eppes, John Wayles (TJ’s son-in-law); letters from accounted for search
- Eppes, John Wayles (TJ’s son-in-law); letters to search
- Eppes, John Wayles (TJ’s son-in-law); relationship with son search
- Eppes, Martha Burke Jones (John Wayles Eppes’s second wife); TJ sends greetings to search
- food; pork search
- harpsichords; for Poplar Forest search
- Hemmings, John (TJ’s slave; b. ca.1776); as woodworker search
- horses; medical conditions of search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Business & Financial Affairs; loan from J. W. Eppes search
- Monticello (TJ’s Albemarle Co. estate); horses at search
- Monticello (TJ’s Albemarle Co. estate); Visitors to; Cooper, Thomas search
- music; harpsichord search
- Poplar Forest (TJ’s Bedford Co. estate); harpsichord for search
- Poplar Forest (TJ’s Bedford Co. estate); pork from search
- Poplar Forest (TJ’s Bedford Co. estate); TJ plans visits to search
- pork; transported to and from Poplar Forest search
- Randolph, Martha Jefferson (Patsy; TJ’s daughter; Thomas Mann Randolph’s wife); and harpsichord for Poplar Forest search
- Randolph, Martha Jefferson (Patsy; TJ’s daughter; Thomas Mann Randolph’s wife); plans visit to Poplar Forest search
- South Carolina College (later University of South Carolina); and F. W. Eppes search
- Trist, Elizabeth House; plans to visit Poplar Forest search
- Trist, Virginia Jefferson Randolph (TJ’s granddaughter); plans visit to Poplar Forest search
- wagons; transport people and goods between Monticello and Poplar Forest search
- weather; cold search