Greenock cousins

Our Robert Donald married his first cousin, Catherine Donald. Her father was called Robert Donald and she had a brother called Robert Donald - so I suppose Robert Donald then was Robert Donald's first cousin and brother in law. Anyway, that Robert Donald jr didn't come home during the Revolution, he stayed on and went to the other side.

His ship the Henrico was captured in 1778. Her voyage had started in Petersburg, Virginia. She had taken a cargo of tobacco and staves to St Eustatia and it was on her return that she was captured. Her captain, Robert Tucker had to show the British all the correct paper work to prove that the Henrico had been built on the James River in 1778 - and also the permit issued by the ships owners to take on provisions for the trip for the 15 crew and five passengers - 6 barrels of pork, 6 of bread, 1 of flour and "1 of pease".

Unfortunately I didn't have time to find out what happened to the Henrico - I had to leave to get back for a fellow's forum. Later on this week I am going to go and find Fancy Farm - either Friday or Sunday - which was built by Andrew Donald, nephew of the Greenock Robert Donald . Andrew was Alexander's 3rd cousin I suppose and he mentions him in his letters and he also wrote to Jefferson - part of the "endless Donald connection", an expression used by historian Robert Polk Thomson.

I noticed when I was in Greenock, that there is a Fancy Farm - so the question is - which came first? Was the one in Virginia named after the one in Greenock, or the other way round? Here's a picture of Fancy Farm from last century - and it is rather Fancy. Only contender we have for a Donald house still standing in Virginia - even if they had gone over to the other side!

Arrived back just in time for the fellow's forum:

Naomi Wulf
Professor, American history and civilization, University of Sorbonne-Nouvelle, Paris, France
Fellow's Forum on October 6 at 4:00 p.m. in the Berkeley Room of the Jefferson Library

"The Jefferson Reference in the Critique of Jacksonian Democracy: Orestes Brownson as Case Study"

My interest is in the nature of the multifaceted critique of Jacksonianism offered by Orestes Brownson, which I hope to highlight by a better understanding of Jefferson's own contradicting views on the role of the individual in society and in relationship to government. As Brownson strove toward an ideal conception of democracy, he shifted from one form of liberalism - generally associated to Jefferson's time, in the Lockean tradition - to another liberal model generally confused with "conservatism" in the American context of the 1830s-1840s, which was notably characterized by a distrust of the people as sovereign. Understanding Brownson as an actual embodiment of the contradictory uses that were made of the Jefferson reference itself can provide a new insight into the essence of liberal democracy as it developed as of the 1830s in the United States.

Panicked me slightly that my talk is in only two weeks - so I need to start to put together all my research into something coherent. To the untrained eye, it might look like I have a scatter gun approach, flitting from one subject to another - but there is method. 

Spoke to Grant Gilmore after the talk - without any prompting, he confirmed that the bottle bottom I have was from 1760/1770 and was English (you can tell by the pontil) - so whilst it may not have been the bottle that Washington and Robert Donald shared together in the 1750s at Hanover Town - it was definitely the bottle that Alexander Donald and Thomas Jefferson shared together, on one of their many "jovial days". 

As a resident of St Eustatia, Grant was able to tell me more about what the Henrico was doing there and also what the staves were - I had noticed that on the Murdoch there were also lots of staves. As everything was in barrels, it was basically very important to have lots - and America had a very good supply - hence they were exporting them. 

Also met Peter Onuf at the talk. The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Professor of History at UVA. Frank Cogliano from Edinburgh University had told me to look out for him. Peter I have seen splashed all over newspapers here as he is Mr 18th Century on a radio show called The American History Guys. I had just sent him an email, so a happy meeting and we are going to met up soon for lunch. Most impressed by Peter's email address - dude.