John Roger Fenwick (ca. 1780–1842) was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and educated in Europe. In 1799 he became a second lieutenant in the United States Marines, rising to first lieutenant in 1801 and captain in 1809 before resigning in 1811. Later in 1811 he was commissioned a lieutenant colonel of light artillery in the United States Army. Fenwick was wounded and captured at the Battle of Queenstown Heights, 13 Oct. 1812. He was breveted colonel in 1813, promoted to that rank in 1821, and breveted brigadier general in 1823. Fenwick was nominated but not confirmed as consul at Paris in 1841 and died in Marseille (JEP description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States description ends , 2:191, 193, 5:348, 350 [20 Nov., 2 Dec. 1811, 2, 3 Mar. 1841]; Heitman, U.S. Army description begins Francis B. Heitman, comp., Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, 1903, 2 vols. description ends , 1:417; Baltimore American and Commercial Daily Advertiser, 21, 25 Apr. 1842).

The work forwarded by Fenwick was Carlo Giuseppe Guglielmo Botta, Storia della guerra dell’ Independenza degli Stati Uniti d’America, 4 vols. (Paris, 1809; Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 1952–59, 5 vols. description ends no. 509; Poor, Jefferson’s Library description begins Nathaniel P. Poor, Catalogue. President Jefferson’s Library [1829] description ends , 4 [no. 134]), which reached TJ after its 19 Jan. 1810 covering letter from David Bailie Warden.