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William Short (1759–1849) was an American diplomat during the early years of the United States. He served as Thomas Jefferson's private secretary when the latter was a peace commissioner in France, and remained in Europe to take on several other diplomatic posts.
Short first sought Jefferson's advice while still a student at the College of William and Mary, where he studied law under George Wythe and became a founder and president of Phi Beta Kappa (1778-81). He became a freemason in 1781. Connected to Jefferson by marriage (Short was the nephew of Henry and Robert Skipwith, each of whom had married ...
William Short (1759–1849) was an American diplomat during the early years of the United States. He served as Thomas Jefferson 's private secretary when the latter was a peace commissioner in France, and remained in Europe to take on several other diplomatic posts.
Who was William Short? Born in 1759 in Surry County, Virginia, William Short enrolled in the College of William and Mary, where he studied law and was a founder and member of Phi Beta Kapa. After having passed the bar exam in 1782, the young attorney settled in Richmond and became close friends with James Monroe and John Marshall.
May 20, 2011 · Annette Gordon-Reed. May 20, 2011 — Historian Scot French and fellow University of Virginia scholars on Tuesday shared new research on nearly 40 years worth of correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and his "adoptive son," William Short, in which the two men sketched their respective visions of Virginia's post-emancipation future.
Correspondence with American and European diplomatic and political leaders pertains to the French Revolution, American public debt, Virginia politics, foreign relations between the U.S. and France and Spain, and the American Colonization Society.
The Papers of William Short is a born-digital selective documentary edition focusing on Virginian William Short (1759-1849), Thomas Jefferson’s “adoptive son,” diplomat and fiscal agent in Europe, successful businessman and philanthropist in the United States, and an early advocate of emancipation.
