Noah Lester (d. 1820), an attorney and militia officer from Killingworth, Connecticut, received a captain’s appointment in the U.S. army in 1808. Resigning his commission in 1812, Lester later migrated to the west and died at Little Rock, Arkansas Territory (Hartford American Mercury, 22 July 1802; JEP description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States … to the Termination of the Nineteenth Congress, Washington, D.C., 1828, 3 vols. description ends , 2:97, 103; Heitman, Dictionary description begins Francis B. Heitman, comp., Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, Washington, D.C., 1903, 2 vols. description ends , 1:629; Arkansas Gazette, 24 June 1820; Norwich Courier, 27 Sep. 1820).

My Friends here: see Nicoll Fosdick to TJ, 5 Feb., and Joseph Willcox to TJ, 11 Feb. Pierpont Edwards, Alexander Wolcott, and Abraham Bishop sent a recommendation that TJ received on 9 Feb. that has not been found (Appendix IV). Bishop wrote to Gideon Granger on 4 Feb. recommending Lester and New Haven postmaster Jesse Atwater for appointments in Michigan Territory, describing both as attorneys and “deserving republicans” (RC in DNA: RG 59, LAR, endorsed by TJ: “Atwater. Lester Noah law appmts in Michigan”; Stets, Postmasters description begins Robert J. Stets, Postmasters & Postoffices of the United States 1782-1811, Lake Oswego, Ore., 1994 description ends , 100). Hezekiah Huntington wrote to Madison on 19 Feb. recommending Lester as a man of integrity and possessing a “Uniform Attachment to the Constitution, and the System of measures pursued by the present Administration” (RC in DNA: RG 59, LAR; endorsed by TJ: “Lester Noah—emploimt. Michigan”).