Jefferson Quotes & Family Letters

you will be surprised to hear that we are still in Albemarle and very probabl[y] the bad weather may detain us some time longer altho Peachey has come to escort us, I begin to think it wou’d have been for our advantage if he had not come till the spring for my poor sister seems to despair of ever getting to Henry alive her health is very indifferent and she dreads the exposure in an open carriage at this season, I have had a very bad cold indeed a succession of them, but thank God my spirits are good and I have no alarms for my own safty we have been here four weeks Mr Jefferson went 12 days a go to Bedford is expected back in a few days I did not get to see Mrs Hackley for she went to Fredricksburg the 2d day after I saw her but I desired Mrs Randolph to tell her what you desired me to say, poor thing she has been in a dreadful State of health but she writes that she gains strength and is much better tho not very comfortably situated Docter Carmical having a large family of his own and hers is eight beside the Infant in number, and the House has only four rooms so you may judge of the comforts to a person as nervous as she is. but she was desireous of being under the care of Dr Carmical as he seem’d to understand the nature of her complaints better than any of the Physicians that attended her Mrs Bankhead escorted her down her intention is to pass part of the winter in Cumberland and part with her sister in Richmond and returns here in the Spring It was Mr Hacklys wish that she wou’d take a House and furnish’d her with Money for that purpose she has left a great quantity of baggage here beside what they have with them, I wonder with such a family that she does not prefer an establishment of her own She was to have staid at Edge Hill but Mr Jefferson gave her a pressing invitation to make her home at Monticello as Mrs Randolph wou’d have had to stay with her Mr Randolph is surmounting his difficulties and appears much more happy than when I saw him last he has made excellent crops the last two years and with the Money he got for some Bedford land he sold 9000 $ his debts obligations are pretty nearly all discharged, Mrs R— told me that he had come to a detirmination to take his Negroes to the Mississippi to sell, her Father heard of it and told her that it wou’d never do to destroy the goose for that nothing cou’d be done without hands that he had better dispose of the land he had given to Ann and that he wou’d provide for her they move there in the Spring and are to live in Mr Jeffersons House Mr Bankheads Father has given him a good many Negroes who are just gone up I forgot to tell you that Ann has a fine little Boy it was rather a surprise as she did not expect till the last of January and the little fellow came the 1st of December they are both very hearty. Polly had a son in Sept and Lucy Minor a daughter about the same time Ann was confined and George Gilmers wife expects every day and several others, they continue to increase and multiply in this neighbourhood poor Mrs Divers was attackd about three weeks since with a violent inflamatory Rhumatism attended with fever she is in a deplorable state as helpless as an Infant and from the blood flying to the head in her pletharic habit from what I can learn both from Mr Divers and Dr Everitt they seem an attack of appoplexy her husband is most dreadfully alarm’d for her safty I have not been to see her the Docter advised me not as company who calld once or twice perfectly deranged her mind and Mr Divers in answer to a note of mine wrote a very affectionate letter in which he says “we had promised our selves much pleasure from the Company of your self and Mrs House at Farmington but alas how are our hopes disappointed,”¹ so that I presume we shall not see them unless she gets better before we go, they have had a great deal of sickness among their people this fall I have a great regard for Mrs Divers and am Truly grieved at her Illness, I hope she may recover, my friends are all the treasure I possess and I feel too parsimonious to part with any of them How is your health my beloved friend I fear the fatigue and anxiety you have had to go thro has been of no advantage to it, God knows I shou’d Sincere[. . .] sympathise with you in every event that woud make you unhappy for you have not a friend on earth that loves and [. . .]pects you more than I do or is more sensible of your worth Mrs Randolph and my self had a dispute the other day she was expressing her feelings of friendship for you I told her that I did not believe she had half the feelings of affection towards you that I had, or she wou’d not have neglected for so long a period writing to you. She roused up I declare to God Mrs Trist that there is not a woman that I respect and venerate more than I do Mrs Bache I have been negligent I allow but never have ceased to remember her with the sincerest affection than I do insist My Dr Patsy that my heart is warmer than yours for I can not resist the delight it affords me to write to her and to tell her I think of her but consider how much I have to occupy me and how much leisure you have true it wou’d be less pardonable in me but I know it woud give Mrs Bache pleasure to hear from you occasionally if it was only six lines, but it wou’d take a volume to excuse my self and that deters me for I shou’d have to enter into details on various subjects, well leave out all, but what immediately concerns you, I mean to write so ended our squabble Have you heard any thing from our dear Mary since I feel so anxious about them that it is a great draw back on my happiness I hear nothing from that quarter but the taking the Floridas I wish most ardently to hear what reception that misguided depraved man met from his family poor Charles has the Doctor obtain’d any information about him write to me as often as you can and direct to me care of Peachey R. Gilmer Henry Court House Virginia Mrs House unites with me in wishing you all a happy new year, for the old one it is almost past, it will be memorable one to me God grant we may never feel as much Sorrow again I hope your Brother enjoys good health please to present my best respects to him and Mrs Buchanan in whoes welfare I shall always feel interested love to the Docter and children and believe me ever your² truly affectionate and obliged friend