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David Shepherd arithmetic book(ca. 1772–1780)

  • MS 1971.3
  • Microfilm: M-1317.2
  • 1 vol. ([168] pp.)

Arithmetic exercise book teaching addition, multiplication, the rule of three, double position, etc., and containing practice pages. Many pages have added drawings, writings of names, or jottings of historical facts, many with ties to Williamsburg, including Benjamin Waller, Edmund Pendleton, Peyton Randolph, Gov. Thomas Jefferson, James Anderson, etc. Many pages are inscribed “David Shepherd, his cyphering book” and have varying dates. This David Shepherd is not listed in the Index to the Virginia Gazette or Earl Gregg Swem’s Virginia Historical Index. Descendants maintain he lived 1760–1823 in Albemarle County, VA, and was kept from fighting during the American Revolution by a lame hip.

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