To Thomas Jefferson from John Hunter, 29 April 1805
From John Hunter
Fairfax County Virginia 29th. April 1805
Honored Sir/
If your Excellency will please to recolect on the 9th. of November 1803. I waited on you for your Councel respecting a balance of a years rent due me from the Estate of John Fitzgerald, late Navel Officer Alexandria So. Potomac. When I shew’d you my claim, you advised me to apply to the Member of our District, which I did, & enjoyn’d Mr. John Randolph with him in my application, and have lost my claim. Now Honored Sir as I have heard lately, that it is your intention to withdraw that Office from the person who now is in posession of it, Mr. Charles Simms; should you wish to displace him; can I, tho’ a stranger to your Excellency, with any degree of confidence solicite your interest for that appointment, To the faithful fulfilment and due performance of which, I will render your Excellency very sufficient security. I have a lott, the same which Colo. Fitzgerrald occupyed on Fairfax Street while Navil Officer, quite centrical for the business.—
Of this request, I hope you will consider, and when convenient you will please drop me a line which the present bearer will bring at your pleasure. I could wish myself better acquainted with you, but if this request should merit your answer which I hope for; will wait on you soon after, should you require a recommendation, I hope to furnish you with one to your sattisfaction; this Sollicitation is in behalf of my Son who is a sober Man and can afford a good recommedation, well acquainted in business, about 27 years old, the bearer is very well acquainted with us both.—I am with the greatest esteem your Excellencys obt. and very hble servant
John Hunter
RC (DNA: RG 59, LAR); endorsed by TJ as received 29 Apr. and “to be Collector Alexa” and so recorded in SJL.
John Hunter (1746-1815) was born in Ayr, Scotland. He immigrated to Fairfax County and resided at Ayr Hill in a town of the same name (now Vienna, Virginia). Hunter later traveled back to Scotland, where in 1811 he chaired a George Washington birthday dinner in Edinburgh for “a select party of American Gentlemen and their friends.” It was at that celebration that the Earl of Buchan read his 10 July 1803 letter from TJ, which made public the former president’s disillusionment in the outcome of the French Revolution (Bernard Burke, Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland, 2 vols. [London, 1879], 1:837; Charles A. Mills, Hidden History of Northern Virginia [Charleston, S.C., 2010], 93; Relfs Philadelphia Gazette, 16 Apr. 1811; Columbian Phenix: or, Providence Patriot, 29 June 1811; National Intelligencer, 10 Aug. 1811; , 4:153).
Member of our District: Joseph Lewis presented Hunter’s petition to the House of Representatives on 9 Nov. 1803. John Fitzgerald, who was the customs collector at Alexandria from 1793 to 1799, died insolvent and his property was subsequently seized by the U.S. government. Hunter claimed £40 owed him by Fitzgerald. The House denied the claim (Alexandria Daily Advertiser, 11 Nov. 1803; , 4:440, 443; Vol. 35:683n).
my Son: Perhaps George Washington Hunter, born in 1776, and one of four sons (Burke, Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 1:837; Alexandria Gazette, 29 Mch. 1856).