11 . TJ refers here to the English guinea coin which was worth thirty-five shillings in Maryland. TJ paid Mary Wilkins Ghiselin for five weeks lodging, dating evidently from his arrival in Annapolis. Mrs. Ghiselin’s boarding house was at present 28-30 West Street ( Dumbauld, Jefferson Tourist , p. 57; Papenfuse, Maryland , p. 333 description begins Edward Dumbauld, Thomas Jefferson, American Tourist , Norman, Okla., 1946 description ends ).
12 . A “little house” was a privy ( OED description begins A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles , ed. Sir James Murray and others, Oxford, 1888-1933 description ends ). TJ ’s accounts with James Monroe for joint expenses while in Annapolis are in ViU .
13 . Monroe’s servant Adam was no doubt the “express” dispatched by the Virginia delegates to Congress to carry home news of their pressing need for remittances from the treasury (TJ to James Madison, 20 Feb. 1784; Joseph Jones to TJ, 28 Feb. 1784).
14 . Jean Holker (1745-1822), who had been French consul general in the middle states during the Revolution, was a financier and land speculator in Philadelphia. TJ ’s financial distress was eased somewhat by this remittance. With the exception of the coins of 30 Sep. 1783 it was the first he received as a delegate to Congress. His salary was eight dollars per day (see his account of expenses, Papers , vii , 243 description begins Julian P. Boyd and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson , Princeton, N.J., 1950- description ends ).
15 . The house which TJ shared with James Monroe for eleven weeks has not been identified with certainty. His landlord was probably Daniel Dulany (1722-1797) and the most likely house site, according to Jean B. Russo of Historic Annapolis, Inc., is one of the Dulany family holdings on Bloomsbury Square behind the State House (TJ to Dulany, 22 Feb. 1784; Hogendorp to TJ, c. 6 Apr. 1784; MB 11 May 1784; Russo to Editors, 14 Dec. 1983).
16 . John Chalmers was a silversmith, common councilman, and member of the committee to find housing for the delegates to the Congress (Bevan, “ TJ in Annapolis,” p. 120).
17 . Charles François d’Anmours, “a man of science, good sense, and truth,” was the French consul in Baltimore (TJ to John Vaughan, 5 May 1805; Papers , iii , 84, xiv , 64 description begins Julian P. Boyd and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson , Princeton, N.J., 1950- description ends ).
19 . Here and at 30 Mch. TJ was assembling papers required in a law suit for his friend, the jurist, political satirist, and musician Francis Hopkinson (Hopkinson to TJ, 14 and 31 Mch. 1784).
21 . This individual, posing as the son of TJ ’s friend, John Banister (1734-1788) of Battersea near Petersburg, cost TJ more than £60; in addition to the money from TJ at Annapolis, the imposter received, on TJ ’s authorization, a considerable sum from the Baltimore merchant Richard Curson (MB 11 May 1784; TJ to Curson, 3 Apr. 1784; John Banister to TJ, 15 Apr. 1784).
22 . Partout was TJ ’s and James Monroe’s maître d’hôtel.
23 . These spectacles made by Benjamin Dudley were for James Madison’s mother (Madison to TJ, 16 Mch., 15 May 1784; Madison to James Madison, Sr., 13 May 1784, Madison, Papers , viii , 33).
24 . Philadelphia Price Current , a biweekly folio sheet, was published by John Macpherson from 1783 to 1785 ( Brigham, History , ii , 948 description begins Clarence S. Brigham, A History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820 , Worcester, Mass., 1920, 2 vols. description ends ).
25 . Cabinetmaker John Shaw (1745-1829) made the furnishings in the Maryland Senate chamber ( Bjerkoe, Cabinetmakers , p. 197-8 description begins Ethel Hall Bjerkoe, The Cabinetmakers of America , New York, 1957 description ends ).
26 . William McMurray’s map, The United States according to the Definitive Treaty of Peace signed at Paris, Septr. 3d. 1783 , was published in Dec. 1784 (James C. Wheat and Christian F. Brun, Maps and Charts Published in America before 1800 [New Haven, 1960], p. 22).
27 . The intendant of Maryland revenues was Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer (1723-1790).
28 . The payment, to Dr. James Murray (1739-1819), was probably for attendance during TJ ’s entire residence at Annapolis. Soon after his arrival he entered a period of “very ill health,” which was attended by fever and was aggravated in February by an attack of his “periodical” headache. In mid-March he reported that he was mending, but his continued purchases of Peruvian bark indicate that symptoms persisted until his arrival in Paris, when the unknown Annapolis ailment returned with increased severity (TJ to James Madison, 1 Jan., 16 Mch. 1784; TJ to Francis Hopkinson, 18 Feb. 1784; TJ to William Short, 1 Mch. 1784).
29 . TJ ’s itemized account with the state of Virginia for his service as a delegate to Congress is printed in Papers , vii , 243-4 description begins Julian P. Boyd and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson , Princeton, N.J., 1950- description ends . TJ ’s legislative career was over; on 7 May he had been named a minister plenipotentiary for negotiating treaties of amity and commerce with European nations. Without returning to Virginia, he headed north, stopping in Philadelphia and New York, to take passage to France from Boston.
30 . TJ ’s account with James Monroe for this date and a list of the books sold, most of them French titles recently purchased from Boinod & Gaillard, are printed in Papers , vii , 240-1 description begins Julian P. Boyd and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson , Princeton, N.J., 1950- description ends . See also TJ ’s memoranda of household accounts, 24 Feb. to 10 May 1784, in ViU .
31 . TJ gave to Charles Thomson, secretary of Congress, a set of silver coins received on 7 May from Robert Morris. They were struck by Benjamin Dudley as specimens of Morris’ proposed coinage (Morris to TJ, 1 May 1784, and note; some of the coins are illustrated in Papers , vii , facing p. 165 description begins Julian P. Boyd and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson , Princeton, N.J., 1950- description ends ). For TJ ’s influential role in the effort to create a national coinage, see Papers , vii , 150-203 description begins Julian P. Boyd and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson , Princeton, N.J., 1950- description ends .
32 . The Buck tavern was about eleven miles south of Newark in New Castle County, Del. ( Diaries of George Washington , iii , 274 description begins The Diaries of George Washington , ed. Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, Charlottesville, Va., 1976-1979, 6 vols. description ends ).
33 . American experiments with balloons multiplied after word arrived of the manned ascents made in France in late 1783 in the hot air and hydrogen balloons of the brothers Montgolfier and J. A. C. Charles. TJ probably heard the lecture on pneumatics by Dr. John Foulke in the Hall of the University at four o’clock on this date. Foulke exhibited a number of balloons and suggested their application ( Pennsylvania Journal , 15 May 1784). Soon after, TJ reported that he had had “the pleasure of seeing three balons here. The largest was 8.f. diameter, and ascended about 300 feet” (TJ to James Monroe, 21 May 1784). The first successful manned ascent in America did not occur until 1793, when the flight of the Frenchman J. P. Blanchard was witnessed by TJ and other citizens of Philadelphia ( Jackson, Encyclopedia of Philadelphia , i , 216-20 description begins Joseph Jackson, Encyclopedia of Philadelphia , Harrisburg, Pa., 1930-1933, 4 vols. description ends ; MB 9 Jan. 1793). His imagination captured by the prospect and implications of manned flight, TJ closely followed the careers of the pioneer aeronauts and witnessed balloon ascents whenever possible (TJ to Francis Hopkinson, 18 Feb. 1784; TJ to Philip Turpin, 28 Apr. 1784).
34 . Seeing this “uncommonly large panther skin” in front of a hatter’s shop, TJ immediately bought it to take to Paris for the Comte de Buffon, who in TJ ’s opinion had “confounded” the panther with the cougar; he presented the skin to Buffon at the end of 1785. The North and South American cat variously called panther, cougar, mountain lion, and puma, is now recognized as a single species, Felis concolor ( Webster, Papers , i , 376 description begins Charles M. Wiltse and Harold D. Moser, eds., The Papers of Daniel Webster: Correspondence , Hanover, N.H., 1974-1976, 4 vols. description ends ; Buffon to TJ, 31 Dec. 1785; TJ to Francis Hopkinson, 23 Dec. 1786).
35 . Benjamin January was a bookbinder, stationer, and publisher on Front Street, between Market and Chestnut streets ( Brown, Philadelphia Book Trade , p. 66 description begins H. Glenn Brown and Maude O. Brown, A Directory of the Book-Arts and Book Trade in Philadelphia to 1820 , New York, 1950 description ends ).
36 . This may be the portable writing desk which TJ , on the eve of his departure for France, presented as a token of friendship to Elbridge Gerry (TJ to Gerry, 2 July 1784; Gerry to TJ, 24 Aug. 1784).
37 . Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belle Lettres (Philadelphia, 1784). TJ bought this title for himself in Paris ( Sowerby, No. 4658 description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson , Washington, D.C., 1952-1959, 6 vols. description ends ).
38 . Bole armeniac is an astringent earth from Armenia formerly used as an antidote, styptic, and toothpowder ( OED description begins A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles , ed. Sir James Murray and others, Oxford, 1888-1933 description ends ).
39 . These payments by Robert Morris and the money received in Boston on 3 July were part of an advance to TJ of one quarter’s salary authorized by Congress on 11 May. TJ ’s annual salary as minister plenipotentiary was $11,119 1 ⁄ 9 ; on 31 July it was reduced to $9,000, at which figure it remained throughout his service in France ( Papers , vii , 290 description begins Julian P. Boyd and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson , Princeton, N.J., 1950- description ends ; Account with U.S. 1792 description begins “Account with U.S. of America as their Minister Plenipotentiary in Europe. Exact copy as given in to the Auditor July. 1792” DLC: TJ Papers, 13286-94. See Papers , XXIV, 175-89. description ends ).
40 . TJ bought from Joseph Wright an unfinished replica of a 1784 life study of George Washington, took it to Paris, and had John Trumbull finish it ( Papers , vii , xxvii description begins Julian P. Boyd and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson , Princeton, N.J., 1950- description ends ; Francis Hopkinson to TJ, 30 May 1784). He thought this half-length portrait “a wretched peice of painting” but a fair likeness of the general “in his most gloomy moments.” It later hung in the parlour at Monticello and is now in the Massachusetts Historical Society (TJ to Thevenard, 5 May 1786; Catalogue of Paintings, No. 33 description begins Thomas Jefferson’s “Catalogue of Paintings &c. at Monticello,” c. 1815. ViU description ends ).
41 . Hore Browse Trist (c. 1778-1804), son of Eliza House Trist and father of Nicholas Philip Trist, was appointed by TJ in 1803 as collector for the Mississippi district ( Monticello Association Papers , p. 100-1 description begins Collected Papers to Commemorate Fifty Years of the Monticello Association of Descendants of Thomas Jefferson , ed. George Green Shackelford, Princeton, N.J., 1965 description ends ; Madison, Papers , iv , 251 description begins The Papers of James Madison , ed. William T. Hutchinson and others, vols. 1-10, Chicago, 1962-1977, vols. 11-, Charlottesville, Va., 1977- description ends ; Jackson, Letters of Lewis and Clark , i , 132 description begins Donald Jackson, ed., Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents 1783-1854 , 2d ed., Urbana, Ill., 1978, 2 vols. description ends ).
43 . At Paulus Hook, now covered by Exchange Place, Jersey City, TJ took a ferry across the Hudson River to New York City ( Traveller’s Directory , “Road from Philadelphia to New York,” map 15 description begins S. S. Moore and T. W. Jones, The Traveller’s Directory, or a Pocket Companion: Shewing the Course of the Main Roads from Philadelphia to Washington , Philadelphia, 1802 description ends ).
44 . James Rivington (1724-1802), the well-known English printer, bookseller, and merchant, had a store at this time at 1 Queen Street, New York City ( Gottesman, Arts and Crafts , p. 5 description begins Rita Susswein Gottesman, The Arts and Crafts of New York 1777-1799 , New York, 1954 description ends ).
45 . It is not known which Spanish dictionary TJ purchased here, but he was evidently already planning to learn the language on his transatlantic crossing. This he did, according to John Quincy Adams, with the help of a borrowed copy of Don Quixote and a grammar (TJ to Cabot, 24 July 1784, note). At this time TJ considered that “our future connection with Spain renders that the most necessary of the modern languages, after the French” (TJ to Peter Carr, 19 Aug. 1785).
46 . This is probably Dorothy (Mrs. Vandine) Elsworth, who kept a boardinghouse at 19 Maiden Lane ( Madison, Papers , xiii , 297 description begins The Papers of James Madison , ed. William T. Hutchinson and others, vols. 1-10, Chicago, 1962-1977, vols. 11-, Charlottesville, Va., 1977- description ends ).
47 . The Fort Washington community was then eleven miles from the center of New York City. The site of the fort, which had fallen to the British in Nov. 1776, was at present West 183d Street ( Colles, Roads , p. 121 description begins Christopher Colles, A Survey of the Roads of the United States of America, 1789 , ed. Walter W. Ristow, Cambridge, Mass., 1961 description ends ; Diaries of George Washington , vi , 93 description begins The Diaries of George Washington , ed. Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, Charlottesville, Va., 1976-1979, 6 vols. description ends ). Accompanied by his daughter Martha and slaves James and Robert Hemings, TJ left New York and pursued an indirect course to Boston, in order to acquaint himself with the commercial needs of the New England states (TJ to Edmund Pendleton, 25 May 1784; “Notes on Commerce of the Northern States,” Papers , vii , 323-55).
48 . Mrs. Tamar Haviland kept a tavern on the post road to Boston just beyond Rye, Westchester County, N.Y. ( Colles, Roads , p. 123 description begins Christopher Colles, A Survey of the Roads of the United States of America, 1789 , ed. Walter W. Ristow, Cambridge, Mass., 1961 description ends ; R. W. Fromm, New York State Historical Association, to Editors, 9 July 1973).
49 . Joseph Bulkley kept a tavern at the head of Beach Lane facing the Fairfield Green (Marian Dickinson Terry, ed., Old Inns of Connecticut [Hartford, 1937], p. 185-6).
50 . While in New Haven TJ paid a visit to the president of Yale College, Ezra Stiles (see “Extracts from the Diary of Ezra Stiles,” Papers , vii , 302-4).
51 . David Bull kept the most noted tavern in Hartford, at the sign of the Bunch of Grapes, on Main Street opposite the courthouse (John Warner Barber, Connecticut Historical Collections [New Haven, 1836], p. 48).
52 . The tradition that TJ lodged at the house of Jonathan Trumbull (1710-1785) in Lebanon is certainly untrue (same, p. 319-20; Dumbauld, Jefferson Tourist , p. 58 description begins Edward Dumbauld, Thomas Jefferson, American Tourist , Norman, Okla., 1946 description ends ). It is possible that he did stop to pay his respects to the retired governor, but no evidence can be found to substantiate this, and the almost fifty-mile journey from Hartford to Norwich would have left little time for social visits.
53 . Present Westerly, on the Rhode Island side of the Pawcatuck River.
54 . Now part of Chelsea. Finding at Boston no vessel bound for France, TJ determined either to return to New York to take the French packet on 15 July or, if he learned that he could disembark in France, to sail on 3 July in Nathaniel Tracy’s ship the Ceres bound for London. Seizing the opportunity provided by the additional days at his disposal, TJ left Patsy with the family of the jurist John Lowell (1743-1802) and set off for Massachusetts and New Hampshire port cities to continue his investigation of New England commerce (TJ to David Humphreys, 21 and 27 June 1784; TJ to Elbridge Gerry, 2 July 1784; MJR “Reminiscences,” ViU ).
55 . TJ ’s travelling companion, Mr. Campbell, has not been identified.
56 . Neil Jamieson, former prominent merchant of Norfolk, Va., and a Loyalist in the Revolution, was now a merchant in New York City (James H. Soltow, The Economic Role of Williamsburg [Williamsburg, Va., 1965]; Diaries of George Washington , iv , 317-18 description begins The Diaries of George Washington , ed. Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, Charlottesville, Va., 1976-1979, 6 vols. description ends ).
57 . Probably mail pillion, a pad mounted behind a saddle for carrying baggage (TJ to TMR, 18 Aug. 1795).
58 . TJ probably stayed at the house of Joseph Ingersoll at the corner of Tremont and Court streets, Boston ( Dumbauld, Jefferson Tourist , p. 58 description begins Edward Dumbauld, Thomas Jefferson, American Tourist , Norman, Okla., 1946 description ends ).
59 . The express had carried to New Haven TJ ’sletter of 27 June 1784 to David Humphreys, urging him to come to Boston to take passage with TJ in the Ceres . Humphreys (1752-1818), former aide-de-camp to George Washington, had been appointed secretary to the commissioners for negotiating treaties. He had left New Haven before the arrival of the express, evidently took the French packet from New York and reached Paris some time in August (TJ to Humphreys, 4 July 1784; Journal of Miss Adams , i , 16 description begins Journal and Correspondence of Miss Adams , ed. [Caroline Amelia de Windt], New York, 1841-1849, 3 vols. description ends ).
60 . Charles Williamos (d. 1785), a Swiss by birth, arrived in Paris late in 1784 and became “a very great intimate” in TJ ’s household ( Letters of Mrs. Adams , p. 238 description begins Letters of Mrs. Adams , ed. Charles Francis Adams, 4th ed., Boston, 1848 description ends ). For a full biographical sketch, including an account of TJ ’s break with Williamos on the grounds that he was possibly a British spy, see Papers , viii , 269-73 description begins Julian P. Boyd and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson , Princeton, N.J., 1950- description ends .
61 . The Ceres was a new vessel owned by Nathaniel Tracy of Newburyport. Of the six other passengers, only Tracy himself and Alexander Moore, a British merchant, can be identified with certainty. TJ ’s passage was paid by the government (Martha Jefferson to Mrs. Trist, [after 24 Aug. 1785]; TJ to James Monroe, 25 May 1784; TJ to Robert Morris, 3 July 1784).
63 . Dr. Thomas Meik (d. 1811) was physician to the garrison at Portsmouth (W. Johnston, Roll of Commissioned Officers in the Medical Service of the British Army [Aberdeen, 1917], p. 45). TJ had intended at Cowes to transfer immediately to a vessel bound for France, but Martha’s fever detained them several days on English soil (TJ to James Monroe, 11 Nov. 1784).
64 . TJ no doubt meant Fareham. He tried unsuccessfully to visit his old friend Elizabeth Blair Thompson at Titchfield (TJ to Mrs. Thompson, 19 Jan. 1787).
65 . The livre tournois was the official money of account in France until 1795, when it was replaced by the franc. Twelve deniers made a sou and twenty sous made a livre tournois, which was at this time the approximate equivalent of ten pence sterling. TJ used the symbols f and ₶ interchangeably.
66 . TJ and Martha travelled in TJ ’s phaeton, drawn by three horses at a rate of twenty-five sous per horse per post; he seems to have paid the postilion twenty-five sous per post—more than the fifteen to twenty sous recommended by a contemporary guidebook. The French postilion in his blue and red uniform and huge iron-bound jackboots impressed all visitors to the continent, and TJ was no exception (Dutens, Itinéraire ; TJ to Madame de Tott, 5 Apr. 1787; Journal of Miss Adams , i , 8-11 description begins Journal and Correspondence of Miss Adams , ed. [Caroline Amelia de Windt], New York, 1841-1849, 3 vols. description ends ; Letters of Mrs. Adams , p. 198 description begins Letters of Mrs. Adams , ed. Charles Francis Adams, 4th ed., Boston, 1848 description ends ).
67 . Martha, in the only surviving account of the Jeffersons’ first days in France, reported that they saw the twelfth-century church of Notre-Dame at Mantes (Martha Jefferson to Elizabeth Trist, [after 24 Aug. 1785]).
68 . The Machine de Marly, one of the engineering feats of the reign of Louis XIV, supplied water to the fountains of royal pleasure gardens. One of TJ ’s contemporaries described it: “The fourteen huge wheels, which with the most awful uproar, noise of ironwork, and creaking, to be compared only to a concert in the infernal regions, worked 225 pumps at three different elevations, threw every day more than 27,000 hogsheads of water up a height of 600 feet into the aqueduct, which carried them to the Marly reservoirs and afterwards to those of Trianon and of Versailles” ( The Memoirs of Baron Thiébault , trans. Arthur John Butler [New York, 1896], i , 44).
69 . Jean Claude Molini on the Rue Mignon sold primarily Italian books ( Lottin, Catalogue , p. 126 description begins [Augustin Martin Lottin], Catalogue chronologique des libraires et des libraires-imprimeurs de Paris , 1789, repr. Amsterdam, 1969 description ends ).
70 . This may have been TJ ’s first visit to pay his respects to Benjamin Franklin at his residence in the Hôtel de Valentinois in Passy. The first official meeting of the American commissioners took place at Passy on 30 Aug. 1784 and they continued to meet there through the spring of 1785 ( Rice, Jefferson’s Paris , p. 91 description begins Howard C. Rice, Jr., Thomas Jefferson’s Paris , Princeton, N.J., 1976 description ends ).
71 . This Hôtel d’Orleans was adjacent to the Palais Royal at the site of present No. 30 Rue de Richelieu ( Rice, Jefferson’s Paris , p. 13-14, 127 description begins Howard C. Rice, Jr., Thomas Jefferson’s Paris , Princeton, N.J., 1976 description ends ).
72 . This hotel, one of the most elegant and expensive in Paris, was on the eastern side of present Rue Bonaparte at the corner of present Rue Visconti; it adjoined the garden of the Hôtel de la Rochefoucauld ( Rice, Jefferson’s Paris , p. 133 description begins Howard C. Rice, Jr., Thomas Jefferson’s Paris , Princeton, N.J., 1976 description ends ; for a description of the Hôtel d’Orléans and its proprietress, see Journal of My Journey to Paris in the Year 1765 By the Rev. William Cole , ed. Francis Griffin Stokes [New York, 1931], p. 33-8).
73 . TJ had his meals provided by the traiteur Combeaux until he hired a cook at the end of 1785.
74 . In 1783 TJ had ordered one of the letter copying machines patented by James Watt in 1780, but it had arrived after his departure. This machine, purchased for him in London by Benjamin Franklin’s grandson and secretary, William Temple Franklin, cost £17–3–6, including paper and ink, and did not arrive in Paris until May 1785. TJ charged its cost, as an article of stationery, to the United States and left it in Paris for the American mission when he returned to America. He was delighted to acquire a means of preserving his correspondence and continued to use presses of this type until he adopted the polygraph during his presidency. The method of copying with a Watt press required writing the letter with a special ink and pressing it, together with dampened copying paper, between two rollers operated by a crank. The positive copy could be read through the very thin copying paper (TJ to Robert Morris, 15 Aug. 1783; TJ to James Madison, 1 Sep. 1785; TJ to William Short, 6 Apr. 1790; Account with U.S. 1792; H. W. Dickinson, Matthew Boulton [Cambridge, 1937], p. 107-9; Silvio Bedini, Thomas Jefferson and His Copying Machines [Charlottesville, Va., 1984], p. 10-19). The books Franklin bought for TJ in London are listed in a John Stockdale invoice, 7 Sep. 1784, MHi .
75 . Especially after TJ ’s move to his own house in October, Marc actually served as TJ ’s maître d’hôtel until his dismissal in June 1786.
76 . The Philadelphia merchant Thomas Barclay (1728-1793) was at this time American consul general in France and commissioner for settling public accounts of American officials in Europe. TJ paid 123 livres for the wine (TJ to Barclay, 3 Aug. 1787, enclosure).
77 . Ferdinand Grand (1726-1794), banker to the United States on the Rue des Capucines, was in TJ ’s opinion “a very sure banker, but a very timid one” (TJ to John Adams, 23 July 1787). Grand’s reluctance to advance money on the account of the penurious American republic caused TJ some distress while he was in Paris; nevertheless, their relationship was a pleasant one and TJ made frequent use of Grand’s contacts in the French scientific world.
78 . Thirteen silver forks TJ bought in Paris, in a simple fiddle pattern, are now at Monticello. They bear marks of Pierre Nicolas Sommé and Louis Julien Anthiaume.
79 . Abigail Adams recorded TJ ’s attitude toward one of the daily rituals demanded by Parisian etiquette: “His Hair too is an other affliction which he is tempted to cut off. He expects not to live above a Dozen years & he shall lose one of those in hair dressing. Their is not a porter nor a washer woman but what has their hair powderd and drest every day” (Mrs. Adams to [Cotton Tufts], 8 Sep. 1784, MHi : Adams Family Papers).
80 . TJ described these matches, dozens of which he sent to American friends, in a letter to James Madison, 11 Nov. 1784.
81 . The Journal de Paris , founded in 1777, was the first French daily newspaper ( Hatin, Bibliographie , p. 76-8 description begins Eugene Hatin, Bibliographie historique et critique de la presse periodique française , 1866, repr. Turin, 1960 description ends ; Histoire de la Presse , i , 241-6 description begins Histoire Générale de la presse française , ed. Claude Bellanger and others, Paris, 1969-1976, 5 vols. description ends ).
82 . Beesly Edgar Joel was an adventurer of indeterminate nationality (see TJ to Thomas Nelson, 16 Jan. 1781).
83 . TJ subscribed to the Encyclopédie methodique , Charles Joseph Panckoucke’s expansion and rearrangement by subject of the great encyclopedia of Diderot and d’Alembert. At this time advertised at a cost of 751 livres for about sixty volumes, it comprised 166½ volumes of text when publication stopped in 1832. Despite the mounting costs, TJ remained a faithful subscriber until he sold his library in 1815 (TJ to James Monroe, 11 Nov. 1784; Sowerby, No. 4889 description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson , Washington, D.C., 1952-1959, 6 vols. description ends ).
84 . The Abbaye Royale de Panthemont, parts of which still stand at the corner of the rues de Grenelle and Bellechasse, was an establishment of Bernardine nuns who operated a fashionable boarding school for fifty or sixty French and English girls. The cost for a pensionnaire was 700 to 1,000 livres per year ( Thiéry, Guide , ii , 568-69 description begins Luc Vincent Thiéry, Guide des amateurs et des étrangers voyageurs à Paris , Paris, 1787, 2 vols. description ends ). TJ paid about 3,000 livres per year for Martha and 5,400 livres when Mary joined her in 1787; the additional expense was probably for Patsy’s special instructors in Italian, drawing, dancing, and harpsichord. In her four and a half years at the convent, Martha visited her father at least once a week, usually on Sundays, took occasional dinners and teas with close family friends, and attended concerts and plays. For accounts of her convent life, see her letter to Elizabeth Trist, [after 24 Aug. 1785]; Rice, Jefferson’s Paris , p. 64-8; and Worthy Women of Our First Century , ed. Mrs. O. J. Wister and Miss Agnes Irwin (Philadelphia, 1877), p. 12-20.
85 . Jacques François Froullé, on the Quai des Augustins, became TJ ’s favorite bookseller ( Lottin, Catalogue , p. 67 description begins [Augustin Martin Lottin], Catalogue chronologique des libraires et des libraires-imprimeurs de Paris , 1789, repr. Amsterdam, 1969 description ends ; TJ to James Monroe, 26 May 1795). Many of Froullé’s invoices, with titles, are preserved in MHi .
86 . The Courrier de l’Europe , a semiweekly Boulogne reprint of a London newspaper consisting mainly of extracts from a number of British newspapers, was the best source of British news available on the continent. Nouvelles extraordinaires de divers endroits , published in Leyden by Jean Luzac and commonly known as the Gazette de Leyde , was one of the most respected European newspapers and in TJ ’s opinion “the only one in Europe worth reading.” TJ forwarded the Gazette de Leyde to John Jay at the office for foreign affairs and so charged its annual cost of thirty-six livres to the United States (TJ to C. W. F. Dumas, 31 July 1788; TJ to Jay, 17 June 1785; Account with U.S. 1792 description begins “Account with U.S. of America as their Minister Plenipotentiary in Europe. Exact copy as given in to the Auditor July. 1792” DLC: TJ Papers, 13286-94. See Papers , XXIV, 175-89. description ends ; Histoire de la Presse , i , 309-11 description begins Histoire Générale de la presse française , ed. Claude Bellanger and others, Paris, 1969-1976, 5 vols. description ends ; Eugène Hatin, Les Gazettes de Hollande [Paris, 1865], p. 146-55).
87 . The Comédie-Italienne occupied the site of the present Opéra-Comique on the Boulevard des Italiens. TJ saw two comic operas by André Grétry: Aucassin et Nicolette , with libretto by Michel Jean Sedaine; and Silvain , with libretto by Jean François Marmontel ( Journal de Paris , 2 Sep. 1784).
88 . TJ saw two more operas by Grétry and Marmontel: Zemire et Azor and La Fausse Magie ( Journal de Paris , 4 Sep. 1784; Sowerby, Nos. 4566, 4569 description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson , Washington, D.C., 1952-1959, 6 vols. description ends ).
89 . Gaspar Théodore Le Gras was a bookseller on the Quai de Conti ( Lottin, Catalogue , p. 107 description begins [Augustin Martin Lottin], Catalogue chronologique des libraires et des libraires-imprimeurs de Paris , 1789, repr. Amsterdam, 1969 description ends ).
90 . The present Odéon is a reconstruction, on the same site, of the home of the Comédie-Française, which on this date presented two comedies, La Métromanie by Alexis Piron, and Crispin rival de son maître by Alain René Lesage ( Journal de Paris , 7 Sep. 1784).
91 . The Duc de Chartres, later Duc d’Orléans and Philippe-Égalité, had recently turned the Palais Royal into a kind of permanent fair by closing in the garden with arcades full of restaurants, cafés, clubs, amusements, and luxury shops. From 1785 the Café Mécanique at No. 121 Galerie de Valois was a particular attraction for foreigners. It had no waiters; a system of dumb-waiters carried the orders from a lower floor up through the bases of the tables. The Palais Royal also housed the finest art collection in Paris at this time; it was dispersed in 1792 ( Thiéry, Guide , i , 236-87 description begins Luc Vincent Thiéry, Guide des amateurs et des étrangers voyageurs à Paris , Paris, 1787, 2 vols. description ends ; Rice, Jefferson’s Paris , p. 14-18 description begins Howard C. Rice, Jr., Thomas Jefferson’s Paris , Princeton, N.J., 1976 description ends ; Shelby T. McCloy, French Inventions of the Eighteenth Century [Lexington, Ky., 1952], p. 109-10; for a particularly vivid description of the Palais Royal at its height, see Karamzin, Letters , p. 181-2, 215 description begins N. M. Karamzin, Letters of a Russian Traveler, 1789-1790 , New York, 1957 description ends ).
92 . At a point halfway between this line and the one above, over the space between “for” and “ruffles,” TJ placed an asterisk, evidently keyed to the notation of 18 Oct. 1784. Its meaning remains obscure.
93 . About thirty times a year, on religious holidays, a concert spirituel was given in the Salle des Machines of the Château des Tuileries. Works of recent composition were performed by noted soloists and a permanent orchestra and chorus drawn from the Paris opera company. The program of TJ ’s first concert included works by Handel, Pasquale Anfossi, Giacomo Rust, J.P.A.J. Janson, L. B. Desormery, J. L. Duport, and J. B. Davaux. There was also a demonstration of a new sostenente piano, on which TJ reported in his missing letter to Francis Hopkinson of 11 Nov. 1784 ( Journal de Paris , 8 Sep. 1784).
94 . On this date, a Wednesday, TJ and John Adams went to Versailles to present to the Comte de Vergennes their commission for negotiating a commercial treaty with France. Tuesday was Ambassadors’ Day at the French court. For five years TJ made the weekly trip to Versailles, where he had audiences with members of the royal family, dined with the entire diplomatic corps at Vergennes’ table, and tried to discuss American business with this elusive foreign minister ( Papers , vii , 420 description begins Julian P. Boyd and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson , Princeton, N.J., 1950- description ends ; Adams, Diary , iv , 93 description begins Diary and Autobiography of John Adams , ed. L. H. Butterfield, Cambridge, Mass., 1961, 4 vols. description ends ).
95 . Claude Lafontaine’s secret locks, which had recently been approved by the Académie des Sciences, are described in Journal de Paris , 25 July 1784 (see also Sowerby, No. 1237 description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson , Washington, D.C., 1952-1959, 6 vols. description ends , and Packing List 1790, Crate No. 40 description begins Itemized invoice of Grevin, maitre layetier, 17 July 1790. DLC: William Short Papers description ends ).
96 . Jean François Royez was a bookseller on the Quai des Augustins (Lottin, Catalogue , p. 152).
97 . The balloon ascension of the Robert brothers and Colin Hullin actually took place on 19 Sep. Before an immense crowd in the Tuileries gardens the three aviators began a voyage that ended almost seven hours later near Bethune, about 150 miles north of Paris ( Journal de Paris , 20, 21, 23, 24 Sep. 1784; Journal of Miss Adams , ii , 18-19 description begins Journal and Correspondence of Miss Adams , ed. [Caroline Amelia de Windt], New York, 1841-1849, 3 vols. description ends ; Rice, Jefferson’s Paris , p. 27-8 description begins Howard C. Rice, Jr., Thomas Jefferson’s Paris , Princeton, N.J., 1976 description ends ). TJ sent a printed account of the voyage to many American friends ( Sowerby, No. 1212 description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson , Washington, D.C., 1952-1959, 6 vols. description ends ).
98 . Part of this payment may have been for the silk mourning suit TJ had to buy when a period of court mourning was declared, from 2 to 12 Sep., for an eight-year-old prince of Deux-Ponts. On Tuesday, 7 Sep., TJ and David Humphreys, “full trimmed in awfull Sable,” went to Auteuil to accompany John Adams to court. There they learned that there was no levee that day and had to return to Paris, to “lay by their mourning untill the next death” (Abigail Adams to [Cotton Tufts], 8 Sep. 1784, MHi : Adams Family Papers; Letters of Mrs. Adams , p. 193 description begins Letters of Mrs. Adams , ed. Charles Francis Adams, 4th ed., Boston, 1848 description ends ; Journal de Paris , 3 Sep. 1784).
99 . Probably the Gazette de France and the Mercure de France (see MB 5 and 22 Oct. 1785).
1 . This payment, labeled for “house linen” in another TJ account, indicates the costliness of good quality fabric in Paris in this period. In his first year in France TJ spent only about 2,700 livres on standing furniture for his house; for house linen, hangings, and upholstery, however, he spent a quarter’s salary, or almost 13,000 livres ( TJ account with U.S. “For Outfit,” DLC : TJ Papers, 8997-8998).
2 . The Paris banker handling this bill was Laurent Le Couteulx of the prominent Norman family of financiers (TJ to Ralph Izard, 18 Nov. 1786). Because the American account was exhausted, Ferdinand Grand would not give TJ the rest of the advance on salary authorized by Robert Morris. For cash necessary for his move to the Cul-de-sac Taitbout, TJ turned to John Adams, who drew on the Dutch bankers to the United States for 6,000 florins, or 12,940 ₶ –7–6. This advance put TJ , as he felt it, “in debt” to Congress and sparked in him the first agonized outcry in a steadily intensifying campaign to be allowed a year’s salary (48,600 livres) as an “outfit,” that is, for the costs of clothes, carriage and horses, and household furniture. When TJ submitted his European accounts in 1792, he included a year’s allowance for an outfit (TJ to James Monroe, 11 Nov. 1784; TJ to Samuel Osgood, 5 Oct. 1785; TJ to Commissioners of Treasury, 5 Aug. 1787; TJ to John Jay, 15 May 1788; TJ to James Madison, 25 May 1788; Account with U.S. 1792; TJ account with U.S. “For Outfit,” DLC : TJ Papers, 8997-8998). In addition to his salary, TJ was allowed to charge Congress for his house rent and the expenses of stationery, postage and couriers, as well as extra articles such as printing and translating, travel expenses, and charities to American citizens.
3 . According to this lease, printed in Papers , vii , 442-3 description begins Julian P. Boyd and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson , Princeton, N.J., 1950- description ends , TJ rented for 6,000 livres per annum a hôtel belonging to François Guireaud de Talairac on the Cul-de-sac Taitbout, near the corner of present Boulevard Haussmann and Rue du Helder ( Rice, Jefferson’s Paris , p. 37-9 description begins Howard C. Rice, Jr., Thomas Jefferson’s Paris , Princeton, N.J., 1976 description ends ). Including six-month notice payments and taxes, TJ actually paid 9,238 ₶ –8 for one year’s residence, charging to the United States only 3,025 livres for the five-and-a-half-month period he was resident minister plenipotentiary ( Account with U.S. 1792, 15 Oct. 1785, 17 Jan. 1786 description begins “Account with U.S. of America as their Minister Plenipotentiary in Europe. Exact copy as given in to the Auditor July. 1792” DLC: TJ Papers, 13286-94. See Papers , XXIV, 175-89. description ends ).
4 . According to another TJ account these payments were for “standing furniture,” which certainly included chairs, as Leclerc, Prudot, and Law were tapissiers-garnisseurs ( TJ account with U.S. “For Outfit,” DLC : TJ Papers, 8997-8998; Guillaume Janneau, Les ateliers parisiens d’ébénistes et de menuisiers aux xvii e et xviii e siècles [n.p., 1975]). The Packing List 1790 description begins Itemized invoice of Grevin, maitre layetier, 17 July 1790. DLC: William Short Papers description ends , the best record of TJ ’s Paris furniture, includes five sofas, forty-eight chairs, and a variety of tables and chests of drawers. An architect’s table made by D. L. Ancellet and now at Monticello is one of a very few surviving pieces of TJ ’s French furniture.
5 . Interlined and evidently related to the asterisk of 8 Sep. 1784.
6 . This is probably the Ecce Homo after Guido Reni, No. 1 in TJ ’s Catalogue of Paintings description begins Thomas Jefferson’s “Catalogue of Paintings &c. at Monticello,” c. 1815. ViU description ends . Two further lists of paintings, undoubtedly compiled while TJ was in Paris, have survived: a descriptive list in ViU and printed in Kimball, Jefferson , iii , 323-7, and a title list in MHi . These catalogues reveal that two-thirds of the over sixty paintings TJ acquired while in Paris portrayed religious subjects and thirteen were portraits. More than half were copies of works of masters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with Guido Reni a particular favorite.
7 . This entry interlined. There was no concert spirituel on this date, the only concerts in this period being those of 4 Oct. and 1 Nov. TJ did attend the former, with young Abigail and John Quincy Adams, and heard François André Philidor’s oratorio, Carmen Saeculare ( Journal de Paris , 4 Oct. 1784; Journal of Miss Adams , i , 20 description begins Journal and Correspondence of Miss Adams , ed. [Caroline Amelia de Windt], New York, 1841-1849, 3 vols. description ends ).
8 . The voie de bois was the approximate equivalent of half a cord. TJ used beech in his fireplaces and the cheaper raftwood in his stoves.
9 . Dominique Daguerre was a prominent marchand-mercier in the Rue Saint-Honoré (F.J.B. Watson, Louis XVI Furniture [London and New York, 1973], p. 79-80).
10 . Perhaps this was a copy of the Farnese Hercules, now in the Museo Nazionale, Naples; it appears on an early TJ list of desiderata, “Statues, Paintings &c.” in a building notebook in MHi ( Nichols, No. 108 description begins Thomas Jefferson’s Architectural Drawings , ed. Frederick D. Nichols, 4th ed., Charlottesville, Va., 1978 description ends ).
11 . I. MacMahon, physician and instructor at the École Militaire, was the Jefferson family doctor until TJ ’s discovery of Richard Gem (I. Minis Hays, Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin [Philadelphia, 1908], i , 321 and passim). James Hemings’ illness is not known, but TJ at this time “relapsed into the state of ill health” which he had suffered while in Annapolis earlier in the year. He was severely indisposed for most of the winter, hardly leaving his house and not resuming his normal activities until the late spring of 1785. Not until May 1786 did he declare his health to be firmly reestablished (TJ to Van Hogendorp, 20 Nov. 1784; TJ to James Monroe, 18 Mch. 1785; TJ to Henry Skipwith, 6 May 1786; Letters of Mrs. Adams , p. 216 description begins Letters of Mrs. Adams , ed. Charles Francis Adams, 4th ed., Boston, 1848 description ends ).
12 . This payment was for discharging from prison the black servant of Mary (Mrs. Thomas) Barclay (TJ to Thomas Barclay, 3 Aug. 1787, enclosure).
13 . TJ ’s frotteur was Saget. The sole duty of this indispensable functionary of a French household was to wax the floors on foot-brushes ( Letters of Mrs. Adams , p. 189, 195 description begins Letters of Mrs. Adams , ed. Charles Francis Adams, 4th ed., Boston, 1848 description ends ). In MHi is an apothecary’s bill, 17 Oct. 1784, listing the glues and pigments used to color TJ ’s floors.
14 . Jonathan Williams (1750-1815) was at this time pursuing various private mercantile ventures; he returned to America with his great-uncle Benjamin Franklin in 1785.
15 . Spirit of wine, or alcohol, for the chafing dish.
16 . Colonel Jacques Le Maire (c. 1741-1791), who had served in the Virginia dragoons during the Revolution, was going to America to prosecute his claims for back pay and land bounty (TJ to James Madison, 11 Nov. 1784; Madison to TJ, 22 Jan. 1786; Madison, Papers , i , 233-4, viii , 130, 271 description begins The Papers of James Madison , ed. William T. Hutchinson and others, vols. 1-10, Chicago, 1962-1977, vols. 11-, Charlottesville, Va., 1977- description ends ). There is no record of Le Maire’s repayment of these loans.
17 . Thomas Barclay sent TJ from Lorient three cases of china with a blue border costing 725 livres. The tea, ten pounds of Hyson and two pounds each of Pekoe and Souchong, cost 81 livres. Two casks of brandy were shipped to Francis Eppes and Henry Skipwith in Virginia (TJ to Eppes, 11 Nov. 1784; Barclay to TJ, 17 Nov. 1784; Barclay to Benjamin Franklin, 10 Dec. 1784, PPAP : Franklin Papers; William Macarty to TJ, 25 Jan. 1788).
18 . Jonathan Jackson (1743-1810), merchant of Newburyport and brother-in-law of Nathaniel Tracy, had recently arrived from London. He was a great favorite of the family of John Adams, who spoke of him as “the Sir Charles Grandison of this age” ( Journal of Miss Adams , i , 33-4 description begins Journal and Correspondence of Miss Adams , ed. [Caroline Amelia de Windt], New York, 1841-1849, 3 vols. description ends ; Charles Coleman Sellers, “Charles Willson Peale with Patron and Populace,” Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc. , n.s., lix , pt. 3 [1969], 67).
19 . See MB 21 Apr. 1785 for final payment.
20 . The ébéniste was probably Jacques Upton, who made furniture to TJ ’s specifications for the next five years. None of this furniture is known to have survived, but two TJ table designs of this period are preserved in ViU and MHi . That at MHi , possibly this night table, specifies a very small mahogany table with marble top, pull-out slides, and a shelf of unusual shape for holding large books (Comte de Salverte, Les Ébénistes du xviii e siècle [Paris, 1962], p. 322).
21 . Correctly 540 ₶ –7–6.
22 . After his apprenticeship to the traiteur Combeaux, James Hemings was given lessons in pâtisserie . One of his teachers was in the household of the Prince de Condé. In the fall of 1787 James became TJ ’s chef de cuisine and began to receive a monthly wage of twenty-four livres (Philip Mazzei to TJ, 17 Apr. 1787; TJ to Mazzei, 6 May 1787; Perrault to TJ, 9 Jan. 1789).
23 . The Hôtel de Jabach was at the site of present No. 110 Rue Saint-Martin; a contemporary guidebook recommended it for buying “expensive toys, such as gold snuff-boxes, watches, and trinkets for ladies” ( The Gentleman’s Guide in his Tour through France [London, 1788], p. 83).
24 . Guillaume Luc Bailly was a bookseller on the Rue Saint-Honoré ( Lottin, Catalogue , p. 5 description begins [Augustin Martin Lottin], Catalogue chronologique des libraires et des libraires-imprimeurs de Paris , 1789, repr. Amsterdam, 1969 description ends ).
25 . TJ owned L’Art de soigner les pieds by “M. Laforest, Chirurgien-Pédicure de sa Majesté & de la Famille Royale” ( Sowerby, No. 855 description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson , Washington, D.C., 1952-1959, 6 vols. description ends ).
26 . William Short had arrived in Paris on 29 Nov. and had taken up residence with TJ at the Hôtel de Landron. From Sep. 1785 Short acted as TJ ’s private secretary at an annual salary of 7,245 livres, paid by the American government (TJ to Benjamin Harrison, 12 Jan. 1785; TJ to Short, 24 Sep. 1785; Short account with U.S., DLC : Short Papers, 1: 76).
Note: The annotations to this document, and any other modern editorial content, are copyright © Princeton University Press. All rights reserved.
Cite as “Memorandum Books, 1784,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/02-01-02-0018. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series, Jefferson’s Memorandum Books, vol. 1, ed. James A Bear, Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997, pp. 541–572.]
The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) is part of the National Archives. Through its grants program, the NHPRC supports a wide range of activities to preserve, publish, and encourage the use of documentary sources, relating to the history of the United States, and research and development projects to bring historical records to the public.
Founders Online is an official website
of the U.S. government, administered by the
National Archives and Records Administration
through the NHPRC, in partnership with the
University of Virginia Press, which is hosting
this website.