Robert Douthat (ca. 1757–1818), innkeeper, merchant, and farmer, emigrated from his native Ireland to the United States in 1784 and eventually acquired land near Staunton. In 1787 he was granted a merchant’s license in Augusta County, and by 1790 he was a county justice of the peace. Douthat was postmaster of Staunton, 1792–94. He also served as a major in the militia. By 1810 Douthat was living in Rockbridge County, where he operated a tavern near Natural Bridge. As of 1812 he was still a British citizen. At the time of his death Douthat owned a personal estate valued at $2,780.63 (Lyman Chalkley, Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia [1912–13], 1:248, 252, 253, 481, 523; CVSP description begins William P. Palmer and others, eds., Calendar of Virginia State Papers … Preserved in the Capitol at Richmond, 1875–93, 11 vols. description ends , 5:414, 6:51; Axelson, Virginia Postmasters description begins Edith F. Axelson, Virginia Postmasters and Post Offices, 1789–1832, 1991 description ends , 16; Alexandria Advertiser, 27 Nov. 1798; DNA: RG 29, CS, Rockbridge Co., 1810; U.S. Marshal’s Returns of Enemy Aliens, DNA: RG 59, PW1812; Rockbridge Co. Will Book, 4:383–6).

On 20 Sept. 1815 TJ recorded payment to Douthat of $3.37½ for “lodgg. &c.” (MB description begins James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 2:1314).