University of Virginia Library

Proposals and Contracts

As winter set in the construction slowed and little building was accomplished. In
mid-February Ambrose Flanagan of Louisa County offered a proposal to haul plank during
the coming spring from Union Mills on Friendship Mills Creek:

             

My charge
for weatherboarding plank price	hundred	$1.00
Three quarter plank	hundred feet—	$1.35 Cts
Inch plank	hundred feet—	$1.70
Floreing plank	hundred feet—	$2.00
Scantling 3 inches by 4	hundred feet—	2.50
Sash plank for 4 Dollars	hundred[163]

Barksdale informed Flanagan in late March that Jefferson was satisfied with his prices, and
that the university would buy all the plank that his mill could produce, a proposal which
Flanagan accepted eagerly on the first of April.[164] Unknown to Jefferson, during the same
week that Flanagan made his proposal, Leghorn Consul Thomas Appleton was signing a
contract with the Raggi "brothers" for stonecarving. The Italian sculptors contracted to carve
marble at the university for three years and, receiving $200 each against their future
earnings, agreed to take the first opportunity that Appleton could arrange for them to sail to
America. In addition to paying their passage to America, the university agreed to pay the
artists' 526 Spanish dollars a year plus provide a diet acceptable to their station (see
appendix L). A further stipulation entitled the university to retain one-fourth of the two
men's salary until the end of their three-year term.[165] On 25 February Appleton wrot e
Jefferson that the Raggis had "embark'd on board the Brig Strong Captain Concklin for
Baltimore," at a cost of $140 each.[166] As usual, however, months passed before the
delivery of letters from abroad; in fact, it was the end of June before Jefferson learned of
Appleton's actions.[167]