William Stewart

Blacksmith William Stewart [1] came from Philadelphia in 1801 seeking work at Monticello with a letter of introduction from James Traquair, who said of Stewart, "I hope he will answer your expectations,--few can work better than him." [2] The first entry in Thomas Jefferson's Memorandum Book indicating payment to Stewart is September 26, 1801, "Paid Steward the smith on account 30.25." [3]

Stewart continued to work at Monticello through 1807, despite personality difficulties which began to appear within his first year of employment. A letter from George Jefferson, Jefferson's business agent in Richmond, dated 16 November 1801 begins, "The madman Stewart is again here. He has called on me for $105 which I was obliged to let him have, or I supposed suffer him to go to jail." Jefferson replied, "I note and approve what you did as to Stewart. He is the best workman in America but the most eccentric one. Quite manageable were I at home but doubtful as I am not." [4]

In his memoirs Edmund Bacon, Jefferson's overseer of sixteen years, gives more insight into the problems with Stewart: "He was a fine workman, but he would have his sprees--would get drunk. Mr. Jefferson kept him a good many years longer than he would have done because he wanted him to teach some of his own hands." [5] It was in November 1807 that Jefferson instructed Bacon, "Stewart must be immediately dismissed. If he will do those jobs I mentioned before he goes, he may stay to do them, & have provisions while about them. Joe may work in the way you proposed, so that the whole concern may be together." [6] The "Joe" mentioned by Jefferson is most probably Joe Fossett, a slave owned by Jefferson who became Monticello's blacksmith and according to Bacon trained under Stewart, "Joe Fossett made the ironwork. He was a very fine workman; could do anything it was necessary to do with steel or iron. He learned his trade of Stewart." [7] Jefferson's patience with his "eccentric" blacksmith was repaid in the skills passed on to his slave, Joe Fossett.

During William Stewart's years at Monticello, the blacksmith's house was located on the Third Roundabout below the south orchard [8]. His wife, Mary Stewart, died 5 November 1805 and is buried in the Monticello Graveyard. The epithet on her gravestone reads: Angelic spirit and thou to heaven art fled; Thy body only sleeps among the dead. [9]

Footnotes

1. This article is based on Gaye Wilson, Monticello Research Report, April 1998.

2. James Traquair to Jefferson, 30 May 1801, MHi.

3. Bear, James A. Jr., and Lucia C. Stanton, eds. Jefferson's Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767-1826. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997, 2:1052.

4. George Jefferson to Jefferson, 16 November 1801 and Jefferson to George Jefferson 3 December 1801, MHi.

5. James Bear, Jr. Jefferson at Monticello (University Press of Virginia, 1967). 69, 70.

6. Jefferson to Edmund Bacon, 24 November 1807, CSmH.

7. Bear, 102.

8. Bear, James A. Jr., and Lucia C. Stanton, eds. Jefferson's Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767-1826. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997, 2:1094.

9. Shackelford, George Green, ed. Collected Papers to Commemorate Fifty Years of the Monticello Association of the Descendants of Thomas Jefferson. Charlottesville: Monticello Association, 1965. 2 vols., 1:260.