João Francisco Oliveira Fernandes (1761-1829) was a native of Madeira and trained as a doctor at the University of Coimbra. Establishing a medical practice in Lisbon, Oliveira became a friend of the prince regent (later, João VI). In 1803, the prince regent issued Oliveira a grant of land in Madeira that had formerly been connected to the Fernandes family, the apparent source of the second patronym he subsequently appended to his name. That same year, he became embroiled in a scandal involving Eugenia de Meneses, a maid of honor to Prince João’s wife, Carlota Joaquina. Oliveira Fernandes absconded with Meneses and left her in a convent in Cadiz, where she gave birth to a daughter. Circumstantial evidence strongly suggests that Prince João was the girl’s father and that Oliveira Fernandes was providing cover for the prince regent. Condemned to death for kidnapping, Oliveira Fernandes fled to the United States and settled in Norfolk. There he practiced medicine and engaged in business with family partners based in Madeira and Rio de Janeiro. TJ occasionally purchased wine from the firm, which operated under the names Oliveira Fernandes & Company and Oliveira & Sons. Active in civic affairs, Oliveira Fernandes was part of efforts to start a public library in Norfolk and was one of three doctors who advertised a new medical school in the town. He also campaigned for greater lay control of Norfolk’s Catholic church, leading efforts to resist the archbishop’s authority to choose the church’s pastor. Oliveira Fernandes’s conviction was overturned in 1820 when João VI returned to Portugal from Brazil, and the following year the king named him to represent the crown in London. He subsequently served as a diplomat in Paris before returning to Lisbon, where he died (Fernando Augusto da Silva, ed., Elucidário Madeirense, 2d ed., 3 vols. [Funchal, 1946], 3:11-13; Grande Enciclopédia Portuguesa e Brasileira, 40 vols. [Lisbon and Rio de Janeiro, 1935-60], 19:374-5; Alberto Pimentel, A ultima côrte do absolutismo em Portugal [Lisbon, 1893], 56-66; Patrick W. Carey, “John F. O. Fernandez: Enlightened Lay Catholic Reformer, 1815-1820,” Review of Politics, 43 [1981], 112-13; Norfolk Gazette and Publick Ledger, 19 Apr. 1809, 25 Nov. 1811, 3 Jan. and 19 June 1812; London Morning Chronicle, 12 Dec. 1821; Oliveira Fernandes, Letter, Addressed to the Most Reverend Leonard Neale, Arch Bishop of Baltimore [Norfolk?, 1816]; MB description begins James A. Bear, Jr., and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767-1826, Princeton, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 2:1116, 1147, 1198, 1325; RS description begins J. Jefferson Looney and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series, Princeton, 2004- , 15 vols. description ends , 9:263-4).

Mr. Newton: probably Thomas Newton, Jr., who also recommended Oliveira Fernandes’s wine to Madison (Madison, Papers description begins William T. Hutchinson, Robert A. Rutland, J. C. A. Stagg, and others, eds., The Papers of James Madison, Chicago and Charlottesville, 1962- , 41 vols.; Sec. of State Ser., 1986- , 11 vols.; Pres. Ser., 1984- , 10 vols.; Ret. Ser., 2009- , 3 vols. description ends , Sec. of State Ser., 8:88).