To Thomas Jefferson from William Drayton, 23 November 1785
From William Drayton
Charleston, South Carolina Novr. 23d. 1785.
Sir
As Chairman of the Committee of the South Carolina Society for promoting and improving agriculture and other rural Concerns, I am directed to inform your Excellency, that you are unanimously elected an honorary Member of that Society; and I herewith transmit to your Excellency a Copy of an Address and their Rules, publish’d at their Institution.
I have the Honour to be with great Respect Your Excellency’s most obedient & most humble Servant,
WM. Drayton
RC (DLC). Recorded in SJL as received 26 Feb. 1786. Enclosure: A copy of Address and Rules of the South-Carolina Society for Promoting and Improving Agriculture and other Rural Concerns, Charleston, 1785 (Sabin No. 80039); see Chalmers S. Murray, This Our Land: The Story of the Agricultural Society of South Carolina, Charleston, 1949, p. 79–84.
TJ evidently was under the mistaken impression that he was corresponding with William Henry Drayton, who had died in 1779. In writing to William Drayton on 6 Feb. 1787 TJ noted on the PrC of his letter: “William Henry Drayton,” and the entire correspondence is so entered in the Index to SJL. In SJL itself, however, the present letter and TJ’s reply of 6 May 1786 are under “Wm. Drayton.”