John Francisco Oliveira Fernandes (1761–1829), physician, wine merchant, and diplomat, was a native of the Madeira Islands. He earned a medical degree from the University of Coimbra in 1785 and practiced medicine in Lisbon. After an 1803 gift of lands from the prince regent of Portugal (later King John VI), he added Fernandes to his name. Soon thereafter, to help his friend the prince regent avoid a scandal, Oliveira Fernandes ostensibly kidnapped the prince’s supposed mistress and was duly sentenced to death. Oliveira Fernandes fled to the United States in 1803, settled in Norfolk, and established himself as a physician and a wine importer, operating first under the name Oliveira Fernandes & Company and by 1810 as Oliveira & Sons. He was active in the Catholic church in Norfolk, where he lobbied for greater lay authority. TJ met Oliveira Fernandes in November 1803 and began buying wine from him two years later. The two corresponded on the subject of wine, and Oliveira Fernandes sent TJ a walking stick in 1805. His death sentence was overturned in 1820, and he served successively as Portuguese minister plenipotentiary to England, as ambassador to France, and as a representative of the Madeira Islands in the Portuguese parliament. Oliveira Fernandes died in Lisbon (Grande Enciclopédia Portuguesa e Brasileira [1935–60], 19:374–5; Patrick W. Carey, “John F. O. Fernandez: Enlightened Lay Catholic Reformer, 1815–1820,” Review of Politics 43 [1981]: 112–29; 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 ; TJ to Oliveira Fernandes, 4 Jan. 1805 [DLC]; Stein, Worlds description begins Susan R. Stein, The Worlds of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, 1993 description ends , 428; The Norfolk Directory [Norfolk, 1806], 15, 25; Madison, Papers, Pres. Ser., 2:594, 3:1; Oliveira Fernandes, Letter, Addressed to the Most Reverend Leonard Neale, Arch Bishop of Baltimore [Norfolk?, 1816]; DNA: RG 29, CS, Norfolk Borough, 1820).