RC (DLC); at foot of text: “Thomas Jefferson President of the United States of America”; endorsed by TJ as received 19 Feb. 1803 and so recorded in SJL. Enclosures not identified.

John Appleton (1758–1829) was the son of Boston merchant Nathaniel Appleton and the brother of Thomas Appleton, the American consul at Leghorn. He went to Europe in 1780 and became acquainted with several influential Americans, including TJ, who remembered Appleton as “young, handsome and devoted to pleasant pursuits.” Establishing himself in business in France, Appleton became the American commercial agent at Calais in 1802. He resigned his post in 1807 and returned to Massachusetts, where he sought unsuccessfully an appointment as navy agent at Boston (Isaac Appleton Jewett, Memorial of Samuel Appleton, of Ipswich, Massachusetts [Boston, 1850], 36; L. H. Butterfield and others, eds., Adams Family Correspondence, 9 vols. to date [Cambridge, Mass., 1963– ], 3:390n; Madison, Papers, Pres. Ser. description begins William T. Hutchinson, Robert A. Rutland, J. C. A. Stagg, and others, eds., The Papers of James Madison, Chicago and Charlottesville, 1962–, 33 vols. Sec. of State Ser., 1986–, 9 vols.; Pres. Ser., 1984–, 6 vols.; Ret. Ser., 2009–, 1 vol. description ends , 6:4; Vol. 33:678; Vol. 36:488; Appleton to TJ, 10 Aug. 1807, recorded in SJL as received 19 Aug. and “to be Navy Agent Boston,” but not found; TJ to Robert Smith, 20 Aug. 1807).