Sowerby Catalogue Volume IV : page 221

The Directors of this Company were the Rev. Manasseh Cutler (see the preceding entry), Rufus Putnam, Samuel H. Parsons and James M. Varnum. A second edition, enlarged, was printed in 1787 in New York; it is not known which edition was in Jefferson’s library.

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Tracts Geographical. Ellicot. Tatham. Sharp. Constable 8 ^vo.

1815 Catalogue, page 126, no. 195, as above, but reading Elliot.

1839 Catalogue, page 549, no. J. 260, Pamphlets.--Observations on the River Potomack, and the Country adjacent, by A. Ellicott, 12mo; New-York, 1793.--Address to the Shareholders and others interested in the Canals of Virginia, by Wm. Tatham, 8vo; Richmond, 1794.--General Plan for Laying Out Towns and Townships, on the new-acquired Lands in the East Indies, America, &c., by Granville Sharp; London, 1794.--Description Topographique de Six Cents Mille Acres de Terrest dans l’Amérique Septentrionale, mises en vente par Actions suivant le Plan d’Association ci-joint; Paris, 1792.

Jefferson’s manuscript catalogue, and the 1815 Library of Congress Catalogue include in this bound volume of pamphlets (now missing) a tract by one Constable, without further information. In the later catalogues the name Constable is omitted, and the Description topographique , not specifically mentioned by Jefferson, is inserted.

1. [LEAR, Tobias.]

Observations on the River Potomack, the Country Adjacent, and the City of Washington. New-York: Printed by Samuel Loudon and Son, 1793.

F187 .P8 L3

First Edition. Sm. 8vo. 32 leaves including the last blank; the two copies in the Library of Congress are without the frontispiece “Plan of the City of Washington.”

Not in Halkett and Laing.

This edition not in Sabin (who has 2 entries for the edition of 1794, under Ellicott and under Lear).

Evans 25711.

There are two quotations from the Notes on the State of Virginia , one on the first page of text, the other on page 24.

Tobias Lear, 1762-1816, was private secretary to George Washington at the time of the publication of this pamphlet. The publication was anonymous, but the correspondence between Lear and Washington (November 3 and 8, 1793, both letters in the Library of Congress), afford conclusive proof of the authorship.

The pamphlet has been frequently ascribed to Andrew Ellicott [q.v.], and was so ascribed by Jefferson.

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2. TATHAM, William.

Address to the Shareholders and others interested in the Canals of Virginia, by Wm. Tatham. Richmond, 1794.

First Edition. 8vo. No copy was seen for collation.

Sabin 94406 “title from a clipping from an unidentified catalogue.”

Not in Evans.

Not in Swem.

No copy listed in the National Union Catalog.

Not in the list of Tatham’s works in the Annual Biography and Obituary, 1820.

William Tatham, 1752-1819, was born in England and sent to Virginia in 1796 to seek his fortune. He was interested in canalization and wrote several pamphlets on the subject. Tatham was a friend and correspondent, of Jefferson. Other works by him appear in this catalogue.

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3. SHARP, Granville.

A General Plan for laying our Towns and Townships, on the new-acquired Lands in the East Indies, America, or elsewhere; in order to promote Cultivation, and raise the Value of all the adjoining Land, at the Price of giving gratis the Town-Lots, and, in some Cases (as in new Colonies), also the small Out-Lots, to the first Settlers and their Heirs, so long as they possess no other Land;