For the chapter about Rebecca Burwell in the book I am writing about
Jefferson and women, I’ve identified Jefferson’s circle of friends in
Williamsburg from his correspondence. Of the 32 young men and women
mentioned in these Jefferson-John Page-William Fleming letters (all in
volume 1 of Boyd’s Papers) I’ve identified 28 with reasonable certainty –
most of them were born between 1739 and 1748. Other remaining four are
difficult to pin down not because they were obscure but because their
extended families offer too many candidates for confidence – e.g. “Bob
Carter” for a large family, many-branched family in which Robert was a
favorite given name. And of course Jefferson, Page and

    Two matters of curiosity arise from the information I’ve been examining:


First, in regard to the brief mentions of “Ned Carter” “Bob Carter”
“William Bland” and “P. Stith” in this correspondence, I’d be grateful for
informed conjecture about the specific identities of these 20-somethings
in Jefferson, Page and Fleming’s circle of friends around W&M in the early
1760s. Unless a response has more general interest to others, off-list to
[log in to unmask] is fine.

Second, a third of the young men and women in this circle are from
Gloucester County, and John Page of Rosewell obviously was a very close
friend at this time. As the crow flies, Rosewell is 8 miles from the Wren
Building – 6 miles to the south bank of the York and then 2 miles across
the river.
      I’m curious transportation options in the 1760s: If Page and
Jefferson “went home” for a weekend, holiday, party, or whatever,
presumably they crossed the York by private boat or public ferry.
Aside from tracking down statutory provisions for ferries in
Hening’s statutes (which I have not done), I wonder what scholarship
might be out there about the ownership and use of small boats, or
the operation of ferries, and such in Virginia ca 1760s. (I've seen
carriages [and of course horses] listed in inventories but never
noticed boats - though of course I was never looking for them.)
Again, unless a response has more general interest to others,
off-list to [log in to unmask] is fine.


Thank you.



Dr. Jon Kukla, Executive Vice-President
Red Hill - The Patrick Henry National Memorial
1250 Red Hill Road
Brookneal, Virginia 24528
www.redhill.org

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