I have been requested by some very intimate friends who are now in france, to make application to you to assist them in procuring a pass port to quit France. I will explain the case to you, but I must previously explain the ground of the application personally to you. The parties are Mr & Mrs Miniconi. Mrs Miniconi is the Daughter of the late Mr Wm Neate a merchant of London, & jointly with her Sisters proprietress of land & of debts due to her late father in America. The husband of one of her Sisters (Mr Chapman) is now in America for the purpose of settling all the concerns of property, derived from the late Mr Neate to his daughters. But all such views & propositions must be suspended from final conclusion, as long as Mrs Miniconi & her husband are detained in france. Upon these grounds the case falls in to the American department. The favor for wh I apply to you, is that you will be so good as to recommend the case to the American Minister at Paris. My friends did apply some time ago to Mr Morris the late American Minister at Paris, from whom they received a very polite & friendly answer regretting that his departure from Paris, wh was precisely at the period of the application, deprived him of the power of giving them the assistance wch he expressed himself very desirous to have given.1

The case is this. Mr Miniconi is the grandson of an Italian gentleman who married an English lady. My friend the present Mr Miniconi, has married one of the daughters of Mr Neate, Miss Phillis Neate. All her properties & claims are therefore become his property & claims. Mr Miniconi, who has very considerable property, hired a country seat at Caudebec in Normandy, before the Revolution. During a considerable period of the Revolution, his friends in England heard nothing of him But we have lately received letters, that he is still resident at his house in France, and at liberty. I understand that they have no request to make on the score of personal liberty, but the permission of a passport for themselves & their Servants, to go into Switzerland. It is certainly to be understood that Mr & Mrs Miniconi are influenced by a strong desire to rejoin their friends after an anxious absence of many years, on account of various family concerns, wch have been suspended during the years of their absence. The special application thro the American channel arises from their landed property & claims in America. I am very much connected in friendship with them, & with all their friends and connections. I shall be very much obliged to you if you can procure a passport for them, & their Servants, in any manner that you may think the most adviseable. I go into Berkshire tomorrow. Be so good as to favour me with a line to Bucklebury near Newbury Berks. Pray remember me kindly to Mr Trumbull, & Mr P Jay & all friends. I am Dear Sir Your sincere friend & humble Sevt.2