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Format: 2024-03
Format: 2024-03

Ellen W. Randolph Coolidge to Virginia J. Randolph Trist, 9–10 May 1826

I will begin a letter to you, my dear Virginia, but whether my jewel will allow me to finish it or not, is more than I can tell. the nurse is gone out and I must supply her place until she returns. in the mean time the baby is lying in a sort of precarious sleep which threatens every moment to...

Ellen W. Randolph Coolidge to Virginia J. Randolph Trist, 29 May 1826

I should fear, my beloved Virginia, that my failing to congratulate you at an earlier period on the birth of your daughter, might pass as a proof of indifference, if I were not too well persuaded of your confidence in my affection, to suppose that you could doubt it for an instant. believe me,...

Ellen W. Randolph Coolidge to Thomas Jefferson Randolph, 7 Sept. 1826

Joseph intended to have written to you himself, my dear brother, but as he is too unwell he commissions me to do it in his place, and to give you both our thanks for the use of your carriage and the comfort it procured us. Titus drove, as he always does, admirably, & the horses performed the...

Ellen W. Randolph Coolidge to Virginia J. Randolph Trist, 14 Sept. 1826

I intended dear Virginia to write to you from Richmond, but had not one moment to do it in. I committed your gingham &c to Martha W. praying her to send them immediately. the packet contained besides the gingham (which you will be surprised to hear was the best I could get,) some cambric &...

Ellen W. Randolph Coolidge to Virginia J. Randolph Trist, 20 Mar. 1827

Four weeks have nearly elapsed since I received my dear Virginia’s letter which I meant to have answered sooner, but have had not a moment’s leisure. (as usual.) for my life is a very troublesome one & my time so frittered away in little occupations & interruptions that I have scarce a...

Ellen W. Randolph Coolidge to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 6 May 1828

Your letter of the 2nd my dearest mother, was joyfully received and relieved me from a portion of those vague apprehensions which always attend me for some time after parting with those I love. I always feel as if there were some ill-defined danger hovering over my absent friends, & am ready...

Ellen W. Randolph Coolidge to Virginia J. Randolph Trist, 13 May 1828

It is long, dearest Virginia, since I have written to you, because I thought you heard regularly from Mama & Cornelia, & would therefore know all that was interesting to you to know concerning your friends here; but now I shall again make a regular correspondent, for, not for worlds,...

Ellen W. Randolph Coolidge to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 28 May 1828

Your letter dearest mother, relieved me from some anxious thoughts which were beginning to take possession of my mind at not hearing of your arrival at Monticello. Col. Peyton mentioned in his letter to Joseph that you were not very well when you left Richmond, & my fears for your health were...

Ellen W. Randolph Coolidge to Virginia J. Randolph Trist, 24 June 1828

A letter which I received yesterday from Mary, dearest Virginia, gave me the first feeling of anxiety on the subject of Papa’s health. my impression has hitherto been that it was probably a case of dyspepsia (a complaint inherent in the Randolph constitution) & the idea of it’s being at all...

Ellen W. Randolph Coolidge: Personal Note, 13 July 1828

July 13. 1828 Looking at the date of my last “outpourings” I find them as far back as June 15. I have had abundant thoughts which it would have relieved me to communicate to these papers, at present my most confidential friends, but I have too little leisure for such communion. to day an ...

Ellen W. Randolph Coolidge to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 19 Aug. 1828

It is late in the morning of Tuesday, dearest mother, and I should not attempt to write, as I dislike so much to be hurried in writing to you, but having in my last mentioned Ellen’s illness I thought you might be anxious to hear again. she is very much better, but still pale & thin; I...

Ellen W. Randolph Coolidge to Virginia J. Randolph Trist, 3–4 Sept. 1828

I wrote to Mary only yesterday my dearest Virginia, but as I have half an hour this morning, & Cornelia comes next in the regular turn, I shall put you to the expense of an extra eighteen-pence, in order to reply to yours of the 27th Aug. which I have just received. I feel the more inclined...

Ellen W. Randolph Coolidge to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 28 Oct. 1828

I have been most anxiously expecting a letter for some time past, my dear mother, that I might hear something more of this appointment of Nicholas’s. Burwell wrote me that Mr Clay had named him to a place worth $ 1600. a year, but from you I have heard not one word, and know not how to account...

Ellen W. Randolph Coolidge to Virginia J. Randolph Trist, 13 Mar. 1829

I sometimes fear, dearest Virginia, that you will all imagine, that I have become perfectly stupid, such miserable trash do I send you once in two weeks, to let you see that I am alive, & well in bodily health at least, my letters are written under such disadvantages that nothing but a...

Ellen W. Randolph Coolidge to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 21–24 June 1829

I take so little note of time, my dearest mother, even by it’s loss, that I do not know exactly when I last wrote to any of you, but it seems to me more than a fortnight, and perhaps you are beginning to be surprised at my silence. I have been very busy getting the little girls ready to go into...