To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Douglas and Susan Douglas, 22 December 1801
From Charles Douglas and Susan Douglas
St. Asaph Street Alexandria
22 December 1801.
Sir
Permit us, with our most respectful Compliments, to invite you to favor us with your company to dinner on Christmas Day—a bed attending your convenience.
We are Sir Your most Affectionte. Servants
Ch: & Sus: Douglas
RC (DLC); in Charles Douglas’s hand; endorsed by TJ as received 23 Dec. and so recorded in SJL.
Susan Douglas (b. ca. 1759), daughter of Brett Randolph and Mary Scott, married Charles Douglas in England in 1783, and the couple had five children. Susan’s father and TJ’s mother, Jane Randolph Jefferson, were cousins (Jonathan Daniels, The Randolphs of Virginia [Garden City, N.Y., 1972], x, xiv–xvii; , 19 [1911], 398–400].
The other guests expected were probably John Randolph of Roanoke, a first cousin of Susan’s, and William Branch Giles, both U.S. representatives for Virginia.