Voting Station

Philip Mazzei

Please vote to return to collections.

Doctor

The Resume

    (December 25, 1730-March 19, 1816)
    Born in Poggio a Caiano, Tuscany, Italy
    Surgeon/wine merchant/horticulturist/diplomat
    Neighbor and friend of Thomas Jefferson
    Secret agent for the state of Virginia, purchasing arms for the American Revolution in Europe (1779-83)
    Appointed Polish consul to Paris by King Stanislaus II (1789-95)
    Wrote 'Historical and Political Studies on the Northern United States of America' (1788)

Why he might be annoying:

    His attempts to found a vineyard in Virginia failed.
    After the Revolution, he tried unsuccessfully to obtain a diplomatic post from the new American government.
    A letter Jefferson wrote to him criticizing George Washington leaked, creating a storm of controversy.
    Jefferson wrote to James Madison, 'An alarming paragraph in your letter says Mazzei is coming to Annapolis. I tremble at the idea. I know he will be worse to me than a return of my double quotidian headache.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was imprisoned by the British for three months during the American Revolution.
    Jefferson borrowed the phrase 'all men are created equal' from one of his letters.
    Jefferson also borrowed $7,000 from him after selling off Mazzei's Virginia estate and discovering that he could not send the money to Europe due to the ongoing Revolution.
    The debt was finally paid back in 1836 after Mazzei's heirs sued the Jefferson estate.
    Jefferson wrote, 'He had some peculiarities (and who of us has not?), but he was of solid worth; honest, able, zealous in sound principles, moral and political, constant in friendship, and punctual in all his undertakings. He was greatly esteemed in this country.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 70.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 20 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 13 Votes: 30.77% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 13 Votes: 53.85% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 69 Votes: 37.68% Annoying