Archibald Wade Hamilton (ca. 1792–1842), soldier and public official, was a native of New York. He entered the British army around 1810 and was stationed in Jamaica. Hamilton was a lieutenant when his regiment was ordered to engage the American forces during the War of 1812. When he refused, he was held as a prisoner of war until the end of hostilities. In 1818 Hamilton received a commission in the United States Army and served as an assistant deputy quartermaster general with the rank of captain until his discharge in 1821. President James Monroe appointed him surveyor and revenue inspector at Pensacola in 1823 and elevated him the following year to collector for that port, but President John Quincy Adams removed him from office in 1826. Hamilton died in New York City (DNA: RG 59, LAR, 1809–17; Heitman, U.S. Army description begins Francis B. Heitman, comp., Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, 1903, repr. 1994, 2 vols. description ends , 1:493; JEP description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States description ends , 3:120, 123, 340, 354, 361, 364, 503 [5, 13 Feb. 1818, 3 Mar. 1823, 8 Jan., 9, 26 Feb. 1824, 17 Feb. 1826]; Madison, Papers, Retirement Ser., 2:504–5; New York Evening Post, 7 Feb. 1842).

A missing letter from Hamilton to TJ of 23 Mar. 1822, which likely covered this letter, is recorded in SJL as received 31 Mar. 1822 from Washington, D.C.