This being a day of rest2 I thaught there was nothing I could engage in that would give me so much pleasure as in wrighting to so good a Father, which I conceived is the most we can add to your happiness now, with close attention to our studies, and hope you may never have to say that you wish you had never had a Son, as I dare say many have, but to the contrary I hope we shall live to be a pleasure to you in time. We have been as well as common except the splean which is as bad as ever, untill within this few days I think it is some better, I swing by my hands every morning and knight; also have been taking Steel Dust steept in Brandy for better than a week but cannot perceive whither it has done me any good or not yet; last week I was troubled very much with a griping but I am quite clear of it now and am in hopes I shall be able to give a better account of it the next time I wright.

I shall inform you of something that may perhaps seem strange at first, that is Mr Kimbel is going to move to Caintucky and that we shall have to board at commons though he is not to sett off untill the first of September, but he says that he and Mrs Kimbel are going from home and will not return in less than a Month: and that his other business is so that he cannot attend to boarders, and he intends if he can to get Mr Taylor to board us if he will trust you untill you come up as he generally has a quarter or half at enrance, he is not at home at present if he had been I should have known whither he would have taken us or not; he went away a day or two before I knew any thing of this, and I don't expect him back in less than two eight or three ten days but Idont doubt he will comply with the offer. I expect you will be up about the end of August, or the first of September however it will be necessary you should come by that time, on sundry occasions, first that Mr Kimbel will be going away and will want to settle with you for the bed and bedclothes which he says he will let us have untill that time, and also for our washing which Mrs Kimbel says she will have done at the rates of thee pounds a year, and I supose we shall have to take a room in the Colledge which will amount to 5 dollars a year each I for my part am very sorry we did not board at commons first; I thaught there was no certainty nor regularity in them such Cabbins; there is not one Student except Mr Daniels Son and ourselve but what board at Commons. Mr Yergans3 family was taken sickly and his two boarders that he had board now at the Colledge. I believe there is 21 studying Latin, and 5 or six English. Mrs Kimbel has been very sick this few days and I have been obliged to stay at Mr Puckits ther being but one room in the house. He has not done anything attall to the house that he told you he was going to finish and has advertised his lot for sale.

General Dave [William Davie] and some others of the Trustees were here about a fortnit ago, and he told me that he intended to wright to you to come up and exammine the Students and get a place for us in the Colledge, as there is to be an examinationand vacation of one week, and that is to set in on the first monday after the tenth day of July,4 but I expect that the wither will be so excessively warm that you cannot come up then, I should be very glad to know if you intended going to Philidelphia this sumer if you do I supose perhaps that would intefere with the concern. We are now in the Cordeiry 5and I think we both understand more of it than we ever did, the masters are very capable of their business, I hope we shall get perty far advanced in Corneliusnepos 6 by the examination, we have four boys in the class with us. We are very much in want of some English Books, we read every saturday fournoon. We have only saturday evening and sunday to refresh ourselves; before sunrse in the morning we have to attend prayers and study untill eight, & then eat brakefast and go in again at eight nine, study untill twelve, we dine and go in at two, we study untill five, then we have nothing appointed for us to do untill next morning: On sunday we have prayrs in the morning as usual at twelve we have a Sermon red, and at four we are questioned uppon religius questions. The books I reckon we most want is the Pantheon 7 and some Roman Histories. As soon as I consult Mr Taylor , I will let you how it is, I shall ould be glad you would notbe uneasy about it, for I shall do the best I can. I wrote you the sixth of last month and have been waiting wih great impatence for an answer, as I supose mine has home reached home long ago, the next time I wright I shall acquaint you of some particulars we shall want. then

Please to give our duty to our Mother and Grandmother, to our Aunt and Cousins, Mrs Barns, Miss Betsy, and every one that [respectfully] asks after us.

NB You will reciev a letter from Mr Kimbal inclos'd in mine.

NB I received you letter last knigh by the Post and had not time to wright another, the Post going back to day.

1. Pettigrew Family Papers, SHC. Written by John Pettigrew , the letter is addressed to "The Rev'd Mr Pettigrew /Near Edenton,/ Bertie County." The words "By Post" appear in the lower left corner. The letter previously has been published in Connor 1:392-94 and in Lemmon 1:146-48.

2. If Pettigrew wrote his letter on Sunday, it is misdated. Sunday was May 3, not May 4.

3. Probably Benjamin Yeargin .

4. "The first public examination was held on the 13th of July, 1795" (Battle 1:69).

5. Mathurin Cordier, Corderii colloquiorum centuria selecta; or, A Select Century of the Colloguies of Corderius , trans. John Clarke, 3d ed. (Boston: B. Eliot, 1724). In June 1795, Hugh Williamson submitted to the trustees a bill for $198.21 2/3 for books to be sold to students; Williamson purchased thirty-six copies of Corderii for twenty-eight cents each (Connor 1:401).

6. Cornelius Nepos, Cornelii nepotis vitae excellentium imperatorum; or, Lives of the Excellent Commanders , by John Clarke, 2nd ed. (London: A. Bettesworth, 1726). Williamson purchased two copies of "Clark's Nepos" for $1.33 each (Connor 1:401).

7. Possibly François Antoine Pomey, The Pantheon, representing the fabulous histories of the heathen gods, and most illustrious heroes (1659; translated 1694).