To Thomas Jefferson from Christiana de Hanstein, 22 June 1804
From Christiana de Hanstein
Unterstein in Eichsfeld near Gottingue Jun 22th 1804.
Sir!
My repeated letter, I have the honour to offer You, is occasionned by the request, if there is still a member of the family of John Anderson to New-York. I am obliged to You, if Ye let know me, as soon as possible, the fate of that family, what seems to be dead, because I have had many a year since no answer to my letters. If Mr. Anderson, his wife, who is my sister, or their childern are dead, then I am the only heiress of their fortune, and therefore I wish to know it; if they live, I pray You, to give them these few lines. And then I intreat You too, You may have the bounty, of sending my an attest, that my father Wilkinson in that pernicious American war has lost all his fortune, consisting of 8000 pounds, a circumstance, which will be known You as good, as hundred others. For these services I would be thankful all my life, and hoping soon an answer I am respectful
Sir’s obedient servant
RC (MHi); unsigned; in same hand as Charles Philip, Baron de Hanstein, to TJ, 6 Feb. 1804; endorsed by TJ as received from Christiana von Hanstein on 23 Oct. 1804 and so recorded in SJL.
Scottish native and New York merchant john anderson married Christiana de Hanstein’s sister, Mary Wilkinson, in New York in 1780. He died in September 1798 (New-York Gazette, 13 Sep. 1798; New York Commercial Advertiser, 18 Sep. 1798; Edmund B. O’Callaghan, Names of Persons for Whom Marriage Licenses Were Issued by the Secretary of the Province of New York Previous to 1784 [Albany, N.Y., 1860], 7).