Rare manuscript document in Jefferson’s hand, signed three times in the text as “T. Jefferson” and once as “Jefferson”, one 8.5 x 7.25 page affixed at the edges to a slightly larger sheet, no date [circa 1800–1810]. Jefferson Country By the time of his second presidential term, Jefferson increasingly looked forward to a place where he could enjoy “the solitude of a hermit” after decades of public life. Already one of Virginia’s most prominent and prosperous land owners, his considerable holdings then included the ancestral family estate at Shadwell, his own Monticello, and Poplar Forest, inherited from his wife and the future site of his “retirement” home. Jefferson’s “private” endeavors in the first decade of the nineteenth century were largely directed toward further augmenting his real estate interests in the verdant, gently rolling hills of Goochland (now Abermarle) County. Shrewd in business as in politics, and well aware that his celebrity would almost certainly induce a spike in prices, Jefferson employed Peyton Craven, his tenant at Shadwell Farm, as a go-between in a number of land transactions. Among the properties that Jefferson snapped up over a period of years were several that had passed from John Henderson, Sr. (died 1786) to his heirs. Jefferson’s dealings with his Henderson “neighbors” were protracted, complex, and often contentious. Still, by 1811, Jefferson gained control over a large portion of former Henderson property, and he continued to buy more throughout the decade. “Beginning at a poplar on the bank....” The present document delineates a 1,043-acre tract of land “on the southwardly side of the Rivanna River,” evidently in the vicinity of Milton, Virginia, formerly held by “John Henderson, dec[ease]d.” Jefferson includes a note tracing the subsequent ownership of the parcel, from Henderson, Sr. to John Henderson, Jr., Robert Rives, and James Watson. A number of other names labeled as “pointers”—Bennet[t] Henderson (another son of John Sr.), C. L. Lewis, “Priddy,” “Reynolds,” and Jefferson himself, document the owners of adjacent properties. In a note at upper right, Jefferson explains that he has penned “This copy … from a survey of J. Slaughter in 1796” that has been “so defaced as to be illegible in several places.” Though the drawing itself is undated, the documentation of the “original” lands of Henderson, Sr. and multiple references to his heirs support a probable date of 1804–1811, when Jefferson was most actively engaged in the transactions noted above. The precision and clarity of the drawing bear ample testament to Jefferson’s fluency as a draftsman, a skill further evidenced by his surviving architectural designs, schematic drawings for inventions, and surveys of his own undertaking. The text of the survey includes the expected precise measurements and such markers as poplar trees, a scrub oak, and “pointers on side of a large branch.” The document is in fine, clean condition, with mounting as noted and the subtlest hint of scattered soiling and faint spotting. While these points are mentioned in the interest of strict accuracy, the overall appearance is fresh and bright, the visual impact undeniable. To place the significance and rarity of the present document in perspective, one need only note the complete, decades-long absence of comparable examples on the market. References to manuscript specimens of Jefferson’s draftsmanship invariably lead to a handful of institutional collections—the Library of Congress, the historical societies of Massachusetts and Maryland, the University of Virginia—with a very select few remaining in private hands. While material from the pen of this most multifaceted of America’s founding fathers consistently tops the want lists of collectors everywhere, the chance to obtain such an important, splendidly graphic example is an opportunity—perhaps even a privilege—that might best be described as singular. LOA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
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