sentences:  George Flower had emigrated first, leaving his wife and two young sons in England in 1816, and had spent most of the previous winter with former President Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, as well as with Coles' family in Virginia.Birkbeck and his family rejoined Flower and some fellow English idealists, and together they headed west in search of land on which to settle and try to establish a utopian community free of the repression and restraints of their homeland.During 1817–18 Birkbeck began preparing for their scheme by buying about of public land in the far south of Edwards County, in the Illinois Territory.