Jonathan Thompson (1773–1846), merchant and public official, was born at Sagtikos Manor in Suffolk County, New York. Having relocated permanently to New York City, he was a partner in the firm of Gardiner & Thompson from 1795 until it dissolved in 1800. Thompson continued business thereafter under his own name and became prominent in local Republican politics. In 1813 President James Madison appointed him collector of taxes and internal duties for New York, and in 1820 President James Monroe named him collector for the port of New York. Thompson remained in the latter position until President Andrew Jackson removed him in 1829. He returned to his mercantile activities and served as president of the Manhattan Company from 1840 until his death (Frederick Diodati-Thompson, “The Family of Thompson, of the County of Suffolk, New York,” New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 22 [1891]: 41–3; New York Daily Advertiser, 9 Sept. 1795; New York Commercial Advertiser, 22 July 1800; A Circular Letter, from the General Republican Committee, of the City and County of New York, to their Republican Fellow Citizens throughout the state [New York, 1809], xii; DNA: RG 59, LAR, 1809–25; JEP description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States description ends , 2:455, 465, 3:218, 220 [18, 31 Jan. 1814, 27, 29 Nov. 1820]; Jackson, Papers description begins Sam B. Smith, Harold D. Moser, Daniel Feller, and others, eds., The Papers of Andrew Jackson, 1980– , 10 vols. description ends , 7:176–9, 207; Bankers’ Magazine, and State Financial Register 3 [1848]: 142; Washington Daily National Intelligencer, 2 Jan. 1847).

Thompson wrote a similar letter to James Madison on this date (Madison, Papers, Retirement Ser., 2:338–9).