William Beach Lawrence (1800–81), attorney, public official, and author, was born in New York City. He graduated from Columbia College (later Columbia University) in 1818 and studied law the following year under Tapping Reeve and James Gould in Litchfield, Connecticut. Lawrence visited Monticello in 1821 before spending two years in Europe, after which he practiced law in New York City. President John Quincy Adams appointed him secretary of the American legation to Great Britain in 1826, and the following year he was made chargé d’affaires at London. Lawrence returned in 1829 to New York, where he continued to practice law and served as a trustee of the College of Physicians and Surgeons (later merged with Columbia University), 1837–51, and first vice president of the New-York Historical Society, 1840–44. In 1850 he moved to Newport, Rhode Island. Lawrence was elected lieutenant governor of Rhode Island in 1851, and the next year he became acting governor until the incumbent’s term expired later in 1852. He lectured and wrote widely on legal matters, with one of his best-known works being an annotated edition of Henry Wheaton’s Elements of International Law (1855; 2d ed., 1863). Lawrence died during a visit to New York City for medical treatment (DAB description begins Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, 1928–36, 20 vols. description ends ; The Biographical Cyclopedia of Representative Men of Rhode Island [1881], 287–9; Milton Halsey Thomas, Columbia University Officers and Alumni, 1754–1857 [1936], 69, 133; Litchfield Law School description begins The Litchfield Law School, 1784–1833, 1900 description ends , 19; JEP description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States description ends , 3:543, 545, 4:52 [14, 19 Dec. 1826, 3 Feb. 1830]; Robert W. G. Vail, Knickerbocker Birthday: A Sesqui-Centennial History of the New-York Historical Society, 1804–1954 [1954], 76, 382, 476; New-York Times, 26 Mar. 1881).

John Quentin Jones (1803–78), merchant and banker, was born in New York City and graduated from Columbia College (later Columbia University) in 1815. Two years later he studied law under Reeve and Gould in Litchfield, and he was listed as an attorney in New York City in 1820. The following year Jones visited Monticello before traveling to Europe. He eventually returned to New York and worked as a merchant, 1833–38. He was appointed factory agent of New York’s Chemical Bank in 1834 and cashier in 1839. When the bank was rechartered in 1844, Jones became its president, holding the position until his death. He also served as chairman of the Clearing House of New York City, 1865–71. In his will Jones left specific bequests amounting to $145,000, in addition to other real and personal estate and stock shares (Thomas, Columbia University Officers and Alumni, 130; Litchfield Law School description begins The Litchfield Law School, 1784–1833, 1900 description ends , 18; Mercein’s City Directory, New-York Register and Almanac [New York, 1820], 265; New-York Evening Post, 11 Apr. 1821; Longworth’s New York Directory description begins Longworth’s American Almanac, New-York Register, and City Directory, New York, 1796–1842 (title varies; cited by year of publication) description ends [1833]: 355; [1838]: 358; History of the Chemical Bank, 1823–1913 [1913], esp. 87–92; William J. Gilpin and Henry E. Wallace, Clearing House of New York City: New York Clearing House Association, 1854–1905 [1904], 47, 50; New-York Times, 3 Jan. 1878; New York Co. Surrogate’s Court Will Book, 257:95–8).

Monroe wrote a similar letter of introduction to James Madison on this day (Madison, Papers, Retirement Ser., 2:232).