| General Note | Prefatory note signed: "T. M.," 13 July 1705.
The author was undoubtedly Thomas Mathew of Cherry Point, Northumberland, and there is apparently no ground for the conjecture of the historians Campbell and Fiske that it was Thomas, son of Gov. Samuel Matthews. cf. Va. mag. of hist. and biog., Oct. 1893.
The original ms. was purchased from a London bookseller in 1803 by Rufus King, minister to Great Britain. He sent it to Thomas Jefferson who returned it after making a copy (cf. Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 1853-54, v. 4, p. 528) The tract was first printed in the Richmomd (Va.) enquirer of the 1st, 5th and 8th of Sept. 1804, from a transcript sent to Jefferson's friend, Mr. Wyeth. Force reprinted this.
Another copy of the original, made by Jefferson himself, and with a somewhat different introduction, was printed in the Virginia evangelical and literary magazine, Richmond, 1820, v. 3, p. 128-149; reprinted in Virginia historical register and literary note book, 1850, v. 3, p. 61-75, 121-136.
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