RC (Mrs. L. Carstairs Pierce, Wayne, Pennsylvania, 1946). Not recorded in SJL.

Thomas Carstairs (1759–1830) was a Scottish carpenter, draftsman, and architect who immigrated before February 1784 to Philadelphia, where he built the house TJ had earlier rented from Thomas Leiper. TJ subsequently employed him in small carpentry jobs, consulted him in the summer of 1793 in connection with the construction of the United States Capitol, and later sought his advice on the appropriate wages for craftsmen building the University of Virginia (Sandra L. Tatman and Roger W. Moss, Biographical Dictionary of Philadelphia Architects: 1700–1930 [Boston, 1985], 131–2; Charles E. Peterson to the Editors, 13 Oct. 1988, TJ Editorial Files; TJ to Leiper, 4 Aug. 1790, 19 May 1791; MB description begins James A. Bear, Jr., and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, Princeton, forthcoming as part of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 6 Apr., 19 Dec. 1791, 7 Jan.,3 July, 17 Dec. 1793, 1 Jan. 1794; TJ to George Washington, 17 July 1793; TJ to Carstairs, 1 Nov. 1817, 16 Jan. 1818, 13 Jan. 1824; Carstairs to TJ, 26 Jan. 1818).