To Thomas Jefferson from William Bache, 26 December 1802
From William Bache
George Town Decr. 26th. 1802.
Dear Sir,
I was desirous of speaking with you yesterday to request you to releive me from an embarrassment arrising from a bad calculation I made respecting the expences of my journey to Philaa. I left Albemarle with 130 dollars and the enormous expences of coach hire, with the stoppages occasioned by the necessities of the little children have nearly exhausted my fund. I will esteem it a great obligation if you will lend me one hundred dollars, which I will remit to you immediately upon my arrival at Philadelphia where I have funds. This will be an act of friendship added to many others which will be gratefully remembered by your sincere friend.
William Bache
RC (MHi); with note by TJ at foot of text: “Dec. 26. 1802. gave him order on J. Barnes for 100. D.”; endorsed by TJ as received 26 Dec. and so recorded in SJL.
i left albemarle: prior to traveling to New Orleans to become director of the marine hospital, Bache leased his Franklin farm and property in Virginia and moved his family back to Philadelphia where his in-laws resided (Jane Flaherty Wells, “Thomas Jefferson’s Neighbors: Hore Browse Trist of ‘Birdwood’ and Dr. William Bache of ‘Franklin,’ ” Magazine of Albemarle County History, 47 [1989], 9–10; , 2:1089; Vol. 37:620n).