Thomas Jefferson Papers
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-28-02-0376

To Thomas Jefferson from John Carr, 22 September 1795

From John Carr

Sepr. 22d. 1795

Sir

When I informed you there were several orders for rebuilding your mill, I was under a mistake. Having occasion to examine the Books in other cases, the order now sent must frequently have presented itself, and not attending to the date or Language of the order, I was inducd to think thier were more; the Copy of the writ and inquest are under Cover also. I am Sir yours. &C

John Carr

RC (MHi); addressed: “Mr. Thomas Jefferson. Albemarle”; endorsed by TJ as received 22 Sep. 1795. Enclosures were probably: (1) Order of Albemarle County Court, 8 Oct. 1778, granting TJ permission to construct a mill on the Rivanna River near the site of his former mill (Tr in ViU: Carr Papers, 19th-century transcript, being part of record of TJ v. Michie in the hand of George Carr). (2) Writ of Albemarle County Court, 12 Sep. 1795, ordering the county sheriff to summon 12 men to appear on 18 Sep. at the place where TJ seeks permission to erect a water grist mill, in order to examine the lands above and below it that might suffer damage to buildings or gardens, or an obstruction to ordinary navigation or the passage of fish, or a threat to the health of the neighbors from the stagnation of waters, the inquest to be returned on the first Monday in October (MS in Albemarle County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office, Charlottesville, in hand of and signed by county clerk John Nicholas, attached to Inquest on Shadwell Mill, 18 Sep. 1795; Tr in Albemarle County Deed Book No. 11, same, in a clerk’s hand; Tr in Albemarle County Order Book, 1793–95, same, consisting of abstract; Tr in ViU: Carr Papers, 19th-century transcript being part of record of TJ v. Michie in the hand of George Carr). (3) Certificate of John Carr, 14 Sep. 1795, attesting that he has searched the records of the Albemarle County Court from September 1773 to December 1782, finding no evidence that Bennett Henderson or John Harvie, Jr., had petitioned to build a mill at Mountain Falls on the Rivanna River, nor any order from the court granting permission for a mill on the Henderson site (Tr in ViU: Carr Papers, 19th-century transcript, being part of record of TJ v. Michie in the hand of George Carr). (4) Inquest on Shadwell Mill, 18 Sep. 1795.

John Carr (b. 1753), a younger brother of TJ’s brother-in-law Dabney Carr, was a deputy clerk for Albemarle County. He later served as clerk of the county’s first circuit court, 1809–19, and also clerk of the district court of Charlottesville (Edson I. Carr, The Carr Family Records [Rockton, Ill., 1894], 73, 111; Woods, Albemarle description begins Edgar Woods, Albemarle County in Virginia, Charlottesville, 1901 description ends , 159; Johnston, Memorials description begins Frederick Johnston, comp., Memorials of Old Virginia Clerks, Lynchburg, 1888 description ends , 26, 32).

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