From Thomas Jefferson to Mr. Grillette, 9 January 1805
To Mr. Grillette
Washington Jan. 9. 05
Th: Jefferson presents his salutations to mr Grillette and incloses him the statement of the Secretary at war as to the case of Made. Conway, which will let him see that it is not in the power of the executive government to give any relief. if he shall be so kind as to convey this information to Made. Conway he prays him to convey also the expressions of the regrets of Th:J. that the case does not admit of his being useful to her.
PoC (DLC); endorsed by TJ. Enclosure: probably a copy of Dearborn to TJ, 8 Jan.
It is possible that, with some mistaking of the name, the recipient of this letter was one of three brothers: Stephen Grellet (1773-1855) of New York City; Joseph Grellet (d. 1845); or Peter Grellet (d. 1841) of Philadelphia. Originally from a wealthy French family, all of them fought for the Royalist forces during the French Revolution, emigrated to the United States, and became merchants. Joseph Grellet returned to Europe in 1802, and the next year wrote at least one letter from Antwerp, where Françoise Langlois du Bouchet Conway was when she penned her letter to TJ sometime in 1804 (Benjamin Seebohm, Memoirs of the Life and Gospel Labours of Stephen Grellet, 2 vols. [Philadelphia, 1860], 1:v-viii, 1-17; William Wistar Comfort, Stephen Grellet, 1773-1855 [New York, 1942], 19-21, 29; New York Weekly Museum, 21 Jan. 1804; Relfs Philadelphia Gazette, 3 May 1804; James Robinson, The Philadelphia Directory for 1804 [Philadelphia, 1804], 136).