Documentary History
of the Construction of the Buildings
at the University of Virginia, 1817-1828

Frank Edgar Grizzard, Jr.

Notes

821. Quoted in Sublette, "`Models Of Taste & Good Architecture': The Preservation of Thomas Jeffersonian Properties," University of Virginia Alumni News, 80 (October 1991), 4-5. Latrobe was the son of architect Benjamin Latrobe.

822. Margeret Bayard Smith to Anna Bayard Boyd and Jane Bayard Kirkpatrick, 2 August 1828, DLC: Papers of Margaret Bayard Smith, quoted in Frank E. Grizzard, Jr. (ed. and intr.), "`Three Grand & Interesting Objects,' An 1828 Visit to Monticello, the University, and Montpelier," Magazine of Albemarle County History, 51 (1993), 116-30; see also Hunt, The First Forty Years of Washington Society in the Family Letters of Margaret Bayard Smith 223-37. Margaret Bayard Smith (1778-1844) was the author of many stories and essays as well as two books, A Winter in Washington; or, Memoirs of the Seymour Family (1824), a two-volume novel containing anecdotes of early 19th-century Washington society, and What is Gentility? (1828). She married Samuel Harrison Smith (1772-1845), who at Jefferson's urging founded the Daily National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser in 1800. Anna Maria was the Smiths' young daughter. John Tayloe Lomax (1781-1862) of Caroline County, Virginia, was a Fredericksburg attorney who served as the university's first professor of law from 1826 to 1830, when he resigned to sit on the bench of the state circuit court at Fredericksburg.

823. TJ to George Ticknor, 24 December 1819, DLC:TJ.

824. TJ to José Francesco Corrêa Da Serra, quoted in Ford, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 10:163; see also Jefferson Cyclopedia, 900.

825. TJ to A. B. Woodward, 1825; quoted in Ford, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 10:342; Jeffersonian Cyclopedia, 900.

826. Smith to Anna Bayard Boyd and Jane Bayard Kirkpatrick, 12 August 1828, DLC:Margaret Bayard Smith Papers, quoted in Grizzard, "Three Grand & Interesting Objects," Magazine of Albemarle County History, 51 (1993), 116-30; see also Hunt, First Forty Years of Washington Society, 223-37.

827. Hamlin, Greek Revival Architecture in America, 6. Peterson says that Jefferson, recognizing the dark side of the ancient world and believing that the world belonged to the living, did not long for for a "golden age" of the past but looked to the good side of the classical world in order to inform the modern predicament (Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation, 50).

828. Patton, Jefferson, Cabell and the University of Virginia, 184.

829. Ibid., 184-85.

830. Kennedy, Rediscovering America, 204, 215-16.

831. Kimball, American Architecture, 83-84.

832. By "upper level" Cocke means the Lawn, as contrasted to the eastern and western ranges. See the Board of Visitors Minutes, 29 November 1821.

833. Cocke's sketches, which have not been identified, is #19-11 in Lasala, "Thomas Jefferson's Designs for the University of Virginia." ASB requested it from TJ on 7 June along with TJ's study of Hotel A, also missing (see #11-01 in Lasala). Nichols suggests that four drawings of dormitories in ViU:TJ by an unidentified draftsman might be the plans mentioned here by Cocke (see Nichols, Thomas Jefferson's Architectural Drawings, nos. 374, 375, 376, and 377). Lasala includes those drawings in his thesis, but does not attribute them to Cocke (see #19-08, #19-09, #19-10, and #19-12 in Lasala).

834. The previous meeting of the Board of Visitors ended on 29 March (see Board of Visitors Minutes, 29 March 1819, ViU:TJ).

835. For a discussion of the effects on TJ's architectural drawings by his adaptation of Cabell's suggestion, see Lasala's descriptions of #00-13, #00-14, #00-15, and #00-16 in "Thomas Jefferson's Designs for the University of Virginia."

836. In the polygraph copy addressed to Madison, this paragraph follows the paragraph that begins with "I had begun to despair of our two Italian sculptors," and is followed by a paragraph and closing that reads: "I hope we shall see you at the october visitation, by which time our buildings will begin to shew, and we shall be enabled to judge what is next to be done. in the mean time, and at all times, be assured of my constant & affectionate friendship and respect."

837. In the polygraph copy addressed to Madison, this paragraph follows the paragraph that begins with "Our works have gone on miserably slow," and precedes the paragraph that begins with "Our principle being to employ the whole of funds on the buildings."

838. In the polygraph copy addressed to Madison, this paragraph follows the paragraph that begins "We have adopted another measure however," and precedes the paragraph that begins with "I had begun to despair of our two Italian sculptors." The remainder of this paragraph in that copy, however, reads: "the undertaker went back, & I recieved a letter of June 17. from him, informing me that their workmen would sail on the 20th. in the packet for Richmond, & that himself the master brickmaker would meet them by the stage at Richmond, and I expect hourly to hear of their arrival there, where mr Brockenbrough will recieve and forward them."

839. The polygraph copy addressed to Taylor, Breckenridge, and Johnson has extra material at this point that reads: "I think you asked me, and I am sure Genl. Cocke did, for a Catalogue of the best editions of the classics, which I now inclose you as I have done to him. I think also you were so kind as to say you would place me in correspondence with the maker of the best crop of Scuppernon wine which will be doing me a great favor." TJ bracketed this material and wrote in the right margin: "to Genl. Taylor only."

840. The draft reads "to pay at the usual reight per thousand."

841. TJ's undated memorandum "Perry bricks--1824," covering the period from 15 June to 29 September of this year, is in DLC:TJ.

842. At this point the words "and sixty" are erased.

843. At its meeting on 3 October 1825, the Board of Visitors "Resolved that the board ratifies and confirms the purchase lately made by the Rector of 132 Acres of Land of John M Perry lying between one adjacent to the two parcels of 107⁸/₁₀ and 153 acres heretofore owned by the University, which purchase was made on the proposition of the Rector with the approbation of the following members, to wit: of James Madison, James Breckenridge, Jno H Cocke, Joseph C Cabell, and George Loyal, previously expressed in letters from them individually to the Rector, and the payment already made towards the same is approved. . . . Resolved that the temporary application of 5000 D. of the Library fund, which was lying unemployed in the bank of Virginia, to take up the note for the like sum, lent by the Farmers Bank of Virginia to the University, thereby saving its interest, and also of so much of the said fund as was necessary to make the first payment to Perry, is approved, and that the same sums be replaced from the general fund, when necessary" (PPAmP:UVA Minutes).

844. Beginning here the ADS differs from TJ's draft in some of its descriptions of the tracts of land, taking into account TJ's changes of the route passing along the north side of the Academical Village, the Three Chopted Road. Permanent stone markers apparently replaced the surveryor's temporary wooden stakes during the interval between the drafting and execution of this deed. The second four-acre parcel was considered by the board of visitors at its 3 October 1825 meeting, when it resolved that "The 4 Acres and ⁵⁵/₁₀₀ of Land purchased of Daniel A Piper and Mary his wife, since the date of the Statute defining the precincts of the University, & adjacent to the public road as now established, are made a part of the Said precincts" (PPAmP:UVA Minutes).

845. See An Act Authorizing the Visitors of the University of Virginia to Borrow Money for Finishing the Buildings Thereof, this date, and the Extract from a Meeting of the President and Directors of the Literary Fund, 28 February 1820.

846. For the $60,000 loan, see Extract from the Minutes of the President and Directors of the Literary Fund, 28 February and 24 March, and TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., 10 March 1820.

847. Governor Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., did appoint the new board on 29 February (see Order Appointing Board of Visitors, that date).

848. The Virginia General Assembly authorized the borrowing of this money on 24 February when it passed An Act Authorizing the Visitors to Borrow Money to Finish the Buildings, a copy of which Cabell sent to TJ on the same day. After the Literary Fund approved the $60,000 loan the Board of Visitors sought a change in its method of dispersment (see TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., 10 March, and Extract from the Minutes of the President and Directors of the Literary Fund, 24 March 1820).

849. See TJ to Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., 10 March 1820.

850. An ink-blot renders uncertain the number "5," but TJ elsewhere says that "if we are to repay the loan from our own funds, the buildings will be shut up for five years" (TJ to Thomas B. Robertson, 26 August 1820).

851. TJ wrote Rembrant Peale's father, Charles Willson Peale on 15 February, reiterating his concerns about the artist bringing the painting to Monticello. "I expressed the cordial welcome with which I should recieve himself," writes TJ about Rembrant. "I besought him not to think of bringing the painting. this would be attended with difficulty, trouble, expence & danger of injury to the thing itself, too great to be risked. . . . but tell him what he might bring on much more acceptably to wit yourself. I shd. be delighted to shew you both our rising University because you have eyes and taste to judge it. greater works may be seen in the US. & in Europe. but you know the difference between magnitude and beauty. in the chastity of it's architecture it's variety, symmetry, lightness & originality you will acknolege it's preeminence. it has some things objectionable, which imperious regards to utility forced us to admit. such a journey in the pleasant days of the spring would reanimate more than fatigue you. come then and bask awhile with us in our genial sun" (DLC:TJ).

852. TJ wrote "accumulation of wealth" before striking out "of wealth."

853. Following this material in the draft TJ struck out phrases that reads: "an Atlas which should give each county or other district on a distinct 4to sheet would be very convent. our state has been at the expence of a general map and I wished much they would have had whole sheet maps of every county on the same scale. but could not prevail. every man wd. have bought the sheet of his own county, and many of the adjacent counties who has no place on his walls large enough for the general one."

854. The Washington, D.C., Daily National Intelligencer has a footnote for this sentence that reads: "This refers to the Bunker-Hill Monument--the obelisk design for which was presented by Mr. Mills."

855. This sentence is omitted in theWashington, D.C., Daily National Intelligencer.

856. Coffee wrote TJ from New York on 15 February enclosing his bill for ornamental plaster work at the university; the letter is in DLC:TJ but the bill is in ViU:TJ (see Coffee's Account for Ornaments, that date). TJ made calculations about the agreement between Coffee and the university indicating that he thought the artist might be due $456.51--the $382.39 granted by Brockenbrough plus $60.48 for lead and $13.64 for packing--leaving a difference of $30.95. Above the calculations TJ wrote: "In the agreemt. signed by mr Brockenbrough and inclosed to me by mr Coffee, and again returned to him, under Pavilion No. 1. the words `lead to be paid for extra' and under Pavilion No. 2. the words `the whips of lead to pd for extra' are expressly inserted in the body of the description" (DLC:TJ). On the back of the undated one-page memorandum is a short list of ornaments, only some of which Coffee had yet supplied.

857. See the Board of Visitors Minutes, this date.

858. See Rice Wood's Certificate, 14 July 1823.

859. This letter has not been identified.

860. Ovid's counsel in the Metamorphoses was to stay the middle course for safety.

861. Lasala indicates that the drawing for Louisa Maxwell Holmes Cocke, the second wife of John Hartwell Cocke of Bremo, might be Neilson's "Rotunda & two pavillions," an ink and watercolor drawing in ViU:JHC that was listed in the inventory of Neilson's estate worth $2.50 (Albemarle County, Virginia Will Book No. 9). See Lasala's discussion in the description of #00-21 in "Thomas Jefferson's Designs for the University of Virginia."

862. For Cabell's earlier concern about Johnson's vacated seat, see Cabell to TJ, 11 February. On 5 March TJ drafted a letter to Governor James Pleasants: "The law concerning the University makes the non-user for a whole year vacate the office of a visitor. mr Chapman Johnson failed to attend both our semi-annual meetings of the last year from sickness, which has determd his comm[issio]n. I should have sooner notified you of this & asked a renewal but that mr Cabell wrote me he would do it yet not hearing from him again, and anxious that it shd not be pretermitted I take the liberty of mentioning the fact, and if a new comm[issio]n be not already issued to request that you will be pleased to do it at your first convenience and forward it as we must meet at the beginning of the next month, and mr Johnson's aid is much valued by us" (DLC:TJ).

863. Cabell's note reads: "Mr. Jefferson's sense of the importance of having Agriculture regularly taught as a branch of education is expressed in a letter to david Williams, in 1803. (Writings IV. 9.) The Rockfish report contemplates a chair for that purpose among those to be established in the University, when its endowments would permit. In the mean time, it was expected that the Theory of Agriculture would be expounded by the Professor of Chemistry. Whether this was incompatible with his other duties, or from whatever cause, it has, we believe, been very inadequately done, or not at all. In 1822, Gen. Cocke offered to the Agricultural Society of Albemarle a series of resolutions, presenting a plan of raising a fund for the endowment of a chair of Agriculture in the University, by joint contribution of other Agricultural Societies in Virginia, and of such farmers in the State in the State as approved the measure. The President of the Society, Mr. Madison, prepared a letter in recommendation of the object, and both letter and resolutions were embodied in a Circular by Mr. Peter Minor, their Secretary, and dispersed through the State in the mode mentioned by Mr. Cabell. For the resolutions and Mr. Madison's letter, see Skinner's American Farmer, IV. 273.

"Some three of four thousand dollars were raised in this way; but the person to whom it was loaned omitting to give security for its return, and his circumstances having changed, the money was lost. Repeated efforts were afterwards made by different individuals to procure a special endowment for such a chair from the Legislature--as by Gov. Barbour, mr. Edmund Ruffin, and others--but hitherto without effect. See Am. Far. VII. 289, Far. Reg. II. 703, III. 274, 625, 687, VI. 707. A proposition is now before the Agricultural Society of Virginia for the maintenance of such a Professorship with a part of their funds, and is favored by many. Its fate will probably be decided at their next annual meeting in the coming autumn" (Cabell, Early History of the University of Virginia, 277-79).

864. On 21 March Madison wrote from Montpelier: "I have recd. your two letters of the 12. & 14. inst: You will have inferred my approbation of the course taken in order to avoid a loss of time in executing the Rotunda. I shall be with you at the Meeting of the Visitors if possible" (ViU:TJ).

865. "I can have no hesitation in placing my name on the roll of subscribers to the print of your Declaration of Independance," wrote TJ to Trumbull on 8 January 1818, "& I desire to do it for two copies. the advance of price from 18.66. to 20. D. cannot be objected to by any one because of the disproportionate decrease in the value of the money" (DLC:TJ).

866. Trumbull replied to TJ on 1 October, saying that he was sending the engravings of the Declaration of Independence by the "Sloop Virginia which sails tomorrow for Richmond . . . framed & Glazed in the Style which you directed--Black with Gold edges. . . . I shall be highly gratified in viewing with you the Buildings of your University, which form another striking Evidence not merely of your Taste in Architecture, but of your untiring Zeal in the advancement of knowledge, and the best Interests of our Country & of posterity" (DLC:TJ). Trumbull enclosed a bill, also located in DLC:TJ, for $65.25, $40 for the two prints plus $25.25 for framing and packing, and on 24 October TJ drafted a letter to James Madison, for whom TJ intended one of the engravings, informing him that the prints had arrived safely at Monticello.

867. The catalog says: "The engraver Asher B. Durand never undertook a print of the university, although he did produce a line engraving of Monticello (Stauffer 680). His engraving of Trumbull's Declaration of Independence (Stauffer 679) made his reputation, but the edition proved financially disastrous for Trumbull."

868. Both copies initially read "the cement lime & pure clean sand," but Brockenbrough corrected the error on his copy.

869. For the university's contract for these bases, see TJ to Brockenbrough, 2 September 1823, and Raggi and Brockenbrough's Agreement, 8 September 1823.

870. Before the next paragraph Brockenbrough counted by slashes and wrote "2 years 7 mo:"

871. TJ initially wrote "40" but struck it out.

872. No reply to this letter has been found.

873. Hanksber apparently is a combination of the nautical terms "hank" and "ber" (birr), signifying the seizing of wind or, in Bonnycastle's example, of air.

874. Two nearly identical copies of the estimate, in TJ's writing, are in ViU:TJ and one is in DLC:JM (see source note). They are not dissimilar to TJ's Statement of University Funds, 15 March, and in fact overlap in many instances.

875. On 6 May Cabell wrote TJ from Norfolk approving of the purchase, and on 9 May Perry and his wife made an indenture to sale the property to the university.

876. The closing of the LS sent to Cabell reads "ever and affectionately yours."

877. The firm of Sellers & Pennock apparently furnished the city of Richmond with fire fighting equipment as well. See Coleman Sellers to Coleman Sellers, Jr., 16 January 1828.

878. The hydraulion did arrive safely in Richmond and was shipped to Milton by water later in the winter. On 7 March Nuckols Johnson received $1.45 from Brockenbrough "For the freight of a box of Hose & pipe for the U.Va.," and on 18 March Jesse B. Garth received $1.75 from the proctor "for the transportation of Fire engine from Milton" (loose receipts for 1828 in ViU:PP).

879. On 22 February Brockenbrough paid John Garber $24.37½ for "a barrel of Oil for the University of Va" and on 29 February Thomas G. Durret received $2.50 "for the waggonage of eight Barrels of Hydraulic cement from Milton to the U.Va" (loose receipts for 1828 in ViU:PP).

880. Brockenbrough's letter to Cocke of 2 September 1831 complaining about the visitor's resolutions concerning him is in ViU:JHC. For Brockenbrough's removal as proctor, see Alexander Garrett to Cocke, 12 September 1831, ViU:JHC.