1. Portland, Massachusetts, native Henry Preble (1770–1825) was Edward Preble’s youngest brother and a Federalist merchant who founded several business ventures in Europe. He was a successful commission merchant in Paris and profited greatly from fitting out the True Blooded Yankee privateer during the War of 1812. He lost most of his fortune following the war and on 28 Dec. 1818 President Monroe nominated him as consul at Palermo. He was unable to support himself on the income from this post and by 1822 he had returned to the United States where he lived with his daughter, Frances Anica Barlow, in Pennsylvania until his death (Joseph C. Boyd to Henry Dearborn, 21 Aug. 1802, and Preble to Monroe, 2 Jan. 1804 [DNA: RG 59, LAR, 1801–9, filed under “Preble”]; Senate Exec. Proceedings, description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America (3 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1828). description ends 3:164, 165; George Henry Preble, Genealogical Sketch of the First Three Generations of Prebles in America [1868; reprint, Charlestown, Mass., 2003], 145, 265–69, 287).

2. Several words have been cut out here, but Monroe probably referred to Preble’s desire for a consular appointment.