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]

 
[163]

163. Ambrose Flanagan, Proposal for Plank, 15 February 1819, ViU:PP. Ambrose Flanagan
and his brothers James and Whittle owned a 400-acre tract of land near Hudson's and
Bunch's Creeks in Lousia County and located west of Route 15 and south of Route 22. Red
Hill, a "well-preserved, story-and-a-half frame dwelling constructed over a partially raised
brick basement," still stands on the property (Chisholm and Lillie, Old Home Places of
Louisa County
, 214).

[164]

164. Flanagan to Barksdale, 1 April 1819, ViU:PP. Flanagan added the stipulation "payable
on the Delivery of the plank" when writing to Barksdale. Barksdale's letter to Flanagan of
26 March, mentioned in Flanagan's reply, has not been identified.

[165]

165. Thomas Appleton and Michele and Giacomo Raggi, Agreement for Stonecarving, 17
February 1819, ViU:TJ. See also TJ's Memorandum on the Raggi Brothers, 17 February
1819 to 17 February 1820, in ViU:TJ. The memorandum shows the sculptors' advances and
wages for the year 1819.

[166]

166. Appleton to TJ, 25 February 1819, DLC:TJ. The Strong did not actually leave port until
18 March. See Appleton to TJ, 30 April 1819, in DLC:TJ.

[167]

167. TJ's docket on Appleton's letter of 25 February reads in part "recd June 30."