To James Madison from Thomas Newton Jr. (Abstract), 23 May 1805
§ From Thomas Newton Jr
23 May 1805, Norfolk. “At the request of Mr. Magagnos1 a particular acquaintance of mine, I take the liberty of transmitting to you a certificate of Citizenship for the purpose of obtaining a protection or certificate from you. Mr. Magagnos sails shortly for France.”
RC (DNA: RG 59, ML). 1 p.
1. Newton probably referred to Joseph Barthelmy Magagnos, a Cap Français merchant who fled the turmoil in Saint-Domingue. By 1797 he was living in Norfolk, where he conducted a leather-goods shop. Magagnos’s son-in-law was also named Joseph Magagnos (Winston Chandler Babb, “French Refugees from Saint Domingue to the Southern United States: 1791–1810” [PhD diss., University of Virginia, 1954], 22, 342–43).