Page:Jefferson's Germantown letters.djvu/21

Rh INTR OD UCTION xv and Jefferson was able to engage beds at the tavern for his friends, Madison and Monroe, whom he momentarily expected. They did not, however, come to Germantown, but later went directly to Philadelphia. By the 14th of November the Secretary of State and Thomas Lapsley, the "office keeper," who had been with him at the King of Prussia, were able to obtain rooms elsewhere for the accommodation of them- selves and of the office. Just where these were is not definitely known. Watson in his Annals states that the house now numbered 5275 and 5277 Main Street was the one occupied by Jefferson and by Edmund Randolph, the Attorney General. In 1793 this property belonged to Matthew Clarkson, then Mayor of Philadelphia, and at that time valiantly fighting the yellow fever in the stricken city. When the annalist recorded the tradition the building was occupied by him- self and the Bank of Germantown, of which he was the cashier. If Edmund Randolph shared the house with the Secretary of State, it was only to maintain an office there as he was quar-