Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 10 June 1822
To John Wayles Eppes
Monticello June 10. 22.
Dear Sir
I have been so late in getting my tobo to market that I have not been able sooner to remit you the 1st year’s interest. so dilatory are the means of the farmer & planter. Francis wrote me that you were willing I should import for him (with some books I am importing for myself from London) Thomas’s Coke Littleton & Bacon’s abridgment. these are dear books and with the loss by exchange, duties, freight & other charges will cost as follows,
| £ sterl. | ||||
| Bacon’s abridgment 7. vols bound | 7– 7 | |||
| Thomas’s Coke Lit. 3 vols unbound £4–4, binding 15/ | 4–19 | D | ||
| 12– 6 | = 54. | 67 | ||
| Exchange is I believe @ about 12½ p.c. | 6. | 83 | ||
| duties & custom house charges about 18. p.c. | 9. | 84 | ||
| freight, port duties Etc about 10. p.c. | 5. | 46 | ||
| 76. | 80 | |||
| order inclosed on B. Peyton | 163. | 20 | ||
| 240. | ||||
| according to this | the Bac’s abridgment costs 45.89 D it’s American price is 50.D. |
| the Coke Lit. costs 30.91 it cannot be bought in this country. |
according to the above statement I inclose you an order for 163.20 D on Colo Peyton which with the 76.80 cost of the books makes a year’s interest. I hope the return of genial weather will reestablish your health.1 present me respectfully to mrs Eppes and accept for yourself assurances of my affectionate friendship & respect.
Th: Jefferson
PoC (MHi); on verso of a reused address cover to TJ franked by Alexander Smyth; at foot of text: “John W. Eppes esq.”; endorsed by TJ as a letter of 12 June 1822 and so recorded in SJL.
the coke lit. costs 30.91: on a small, undated scrap, TJ calculated the cost of purchasing, binding, and importing John H. Thomas, A Systematic Arrangement of Lord Coke’s First Institute of the Laws of England (London, 1818), as or before he composed the above letter to Eppes (MS in CSmH: JF; see also Richard Rush to TJ, 9 Oct. 1821). TJ’s financial records indicate that he drew the enclosed order for 163.20 d, not found, on 12 June 1822 (, 2:1387).
1. Omitted period at right margin editorially supplied.
Index Entries
- A New Abridgment of the Law (M. Bacon) search
- A Systematic Arrangement of Lord Coke’s First Institute of the Laws of England (J. H. Thomas) search
- Bacon, Matthew; A New Abridgment of the Law search
- Coke, Sir Edward; A Systematic Arrangement of Lord Coke’s First Institute of the Laws of England (J. H. Thomas) search
- Eppes, Francis Wayles (TJ’s grandson); and legal education search
- Eppes, Francis Wayles (TJ’s grandson); relationship with father search
- Eppes, John Wayles (TJ’s son-in-law); and loan to TJ search
- Eppes, John Wayles (TJ’s son-in-law); health of 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
- Jefferson, Thomas; Business & Financial Affairs; loan from J. W. Eppes search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Business & Financial Affairs; sells tobacco search
- law; books on search
- Peyton, Bernard; payments made for TJ search
- taxes; customs search
- Thomas, John Henry; A Systematic Arrangement of Lord Coke’s First Institute of the Laws of England search
- tobacco; sale of search