2008-09
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/31/2008
JEFFERSON, Thomas (1743-1826) 3rd United States President (1800-1808) Drafted the Declaration with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. Governor of Virginia (1779-1781) Member of the Continental Congress (1783-84) Secretary of State (179-93) and Vice President (1797-1801) As a Republican he defeated John Adams for President in 1800 and Charles Pinkcney in 1804. Autograph Note Signed, “Th:J,” to James Leitch, February 12, 1818, 1pg, 3” x 3-1/2,” tight repair of center crease. The ANS is list of carpenter’s supplies, in full, “some plain irons, sand paper, isinglass, glue brush to be chosen by the bearer John Hemings.” John Hemings (1776-1830+) was one of Thomas Jefferson's slaves. He was the son of the slave Betty Hemings and Joseph Neilson, therfore the half brother of Sally Hemings. John Hemings started his working life as an "out-carpenter," chopping trees, hewing logs, building fences and barns, and helping to build the log slave dwellings on Mulberry Row. At the age of seventeen, he was put to work under a succession of skilled white woodworkers hired by Jefferson to enlarge the main house. Hemmings learned to make wheels, fine mahogany furniture, and to use an elaborate set of planes to create decorative interior moldings. He was principal assistant to James Dinsmore, the Irish joiner responsible for most of the elegant woodwork in the Monticello house. Hemmings crafted much of the interior woodwork of Jefferson's house at Poplar Forest in Bedford County, Virginia. He also made all the wooden parts of a large landau carriage Jefferson designed in 1814. He thus became far more than a carpenter -- he was a highly skilled joiner and cabinetmaker. According to Jefferson biographer Dumas Malone, it was almost certainly John Hemings who made the coffin in which Thomas Jefferson was buried. The relationship between Jefferson and Sally Hemings has been controversial since first emerging in an 1802 published story by James Callender who claimed it to be a sexual relationship. In 1873, Sally’s som Madison claimed that his mother identified Jefferson as his father. A century later DNA entered the argument. In three separate studies, 1998 - 2001, scholars and geneticists concluded that Sally Hemeings six children were fathered by a Jefferson male, possoibly Thomas or his younger brother. Easier to establish is the great rarity of Thomas Jefferson autograph material mentioning the Hemings family. Earlier this year, a three sentence, 1pg., Jefferson ALS (“Th: Jefferson”) mentioning “Johnny Hemings” sold for $40,000. Prior to that sale, it has been 75 years since a Hemings/Jefferson item has sold at auction.
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