John Payne Todd (1792–1852) was the only child to survive infancy of Dolley Payne Todd Madison and her first husband, John Todd. He attended Saint Mary’s College in Baltimore from 1805 until 1812. Todd served briefly as his stepfather James Madison’s secretary early in 1813, and in the spring of that year he joined Albert Gallatin’s diplomatic mission to Russia. During his European travels Todd began a lifelong pattern of dissipation. He drank and gambled heavily and amassed huge debts after returning to the United States in 1815. Madison paid Todd’s creditors some $40,000 between 1813 and his own death in 1836, but Todd was still imprisoned for debt on several occasions. In his will the unmarried Todd directed that his slaves be freed and given $200 each, and he left the residue of his estate to the American Colonization Society. Given the extent of his debts, the bequests were probably not honored (Dolley Madison, Selected Letters description begins David B. Mattern and Holly C. Shulman, eds., The Selected Letters of Dolley Payne Madison, 2003 description ends , esp. 219–20, 325–6, 414; Ralph Ketcham, James Madison: A Biography [1971; repr. 1990], 552, 601, 615–6; Madison, Papers description begins William T. Hutchinson, Robert A. Rutland, John C. A. Stagg, and others, eds., The Papers of James Madison, 1962– , 29 vols.: Congress. Ser., 17 vols.; Pres. Ser., 5 vols.; Sec. of State Ser., 7 vols description ends , Pres. Ser., 2:370–2, 4:444; Orange Co. Will Book, 11:476–8, 12:18–20).

During an annular eclipse the moon passes directly in front of the sun, leaving a ring of light, the annulus (OED description begins James A. H. Murray, J. A. Simpson, E. S. C. Weiner, and others, eds., The Oxford English Dictionary, 2d ed., 1989, 20 vols. description ends ).