RC (DNA: RG 59, LAR); at head of text: “The President of the United States”; endorsed by TJ as received 25 Jan. and “to be librarian” and so recorded in SJL.

Born into a prominent Catholic family of Cornwall, England, Edward Church Nicholls immigrated to Maryland after being renounced by his family for his refusal to enter the priesthood. He settled in Prince George’s County, where he briefly taught school before being admitted to the Maryland bar. In July 1801, Nicholls was hired as a Treasury Department clerk, but he resigned in May 1802 in order to return to his legal practice. Later that same year, he unsuccessfully applied to TJ for an appointment as a bankruptcy commissioner. After traveling to England in 1803 to secure an inheritance, Nicholls returned to America and settled in Louisiana, where he resumed his legal career and obtained appointments as clerk of the governor’s court and as a judge of Attakapas County (Louisiana Historical Quarterly, 6 [1923], 5–7; Terr. Papers description begins Clarence E. Carter and John Porter Bloom, eds., The Territorial Papers of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1934–75, 28 vols. description ends , 9:286, 547, 598; Madison, Papers, Sec. of State Ser., 6:338–9; Gallatin, Papers description begins Carl E. Prince and Helene E. Fineman, eds., The Papers of Albert Gallatin, microfilm edition in 46 reels, Philadelphia, 1969, and Supplement, Barbara B. Oberg, ed., reels 47–51, Wilmington, Del., 1985 description ends , 5:330; 6:943; William Kilty to TJ, 4 June 1802; Nicholls to TJ, 7 June 1802).