the liberty of informing you: Smith’s information helped TJ compile the guest list for a dinner at the President’s House on 11 Jan. (see Appendix II). Mr. Williams was most likely Elie Williams, whom TJ appointed in 1806 as a commissioner for the road from Cumberland, Maryland, to Ohio. Williams had five children. Among them were daughters Prudence and Catharine (later Prudence Williams Stull and Catharine Williams Gaither). Their aunt was Margaret Smith, wife of Robert Smith, through the marriage of her sister to Elie Williams’s brother, Otho Williams. James Wilkinson had a longtime acquaintanceship with Elie Williams and had considered the deceased Otho Williams a “fellow statesman and friend” (J. Thomas Scharf, History of Western Maryland: Being a History of Frederick, Montgomery, Carroll, Washington, Allegany, and Garrett Counties from the Earliest Period to the Present Day; Including Biographical Sketches of Their Representative Men, 2 vols. [Philadelphia, 1882], 2:1233; James Wilkinson, Memoirs of My Own Times, 3 vols. [Philadelphia, 1816], 1:376; 2:345; Washington, Papers description begins W. W. Abbot, Dorothy Twohig, Philander D. Chase, Theodore J. Crackel, Edward C. Lengel, and others, eds., The Papers of George Washington, Charlottesville, 1983- , 67 vols. Confed. Ser., 1992-97, 6 vols.; Pres. Ser., 1987- , 20 vols.; Ret. Ser., 1998-99, 4 vols.; Rev. War Ser., 1985- , 27 vols. description ends , Pres. Ser., 16:274; Gallatin to TJ, 6 Sep. 1806; TJ to the Senate, 13 Dec. 1806).

Also at the dinner were John Quincy Adams and Louisa Catherine Adams; her mother, Catherine Nuth Johnson; three of Louisa Adams’s sisters; Aaron Burr; and Samuel Smith. John Quincy Adams wrote in his diary that TJ “appeared to have his mind absorbed by some other object, for he was less attentive to his company than usual—His itch for telling prodigies, however is unabated” (Adams, diary 27 [1 Jan. 1803 to 4 Aug. 1809], 124, in MHi: Adams Family Papers).