To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Crockett, 20 March 1804
From Joseph Crockett
State of Kentucky Lexington March 20th 1804
Sir,
Mr. John Clay informs me that he is an applicant for the office of Register or Prothonotory in new Orleans I beg leave to recommend him to you as a person well qualified for the discharge of the duties of either of those offices; and as a person of real merit. He is a native of Virginia and about twelve years ago removed to this Country, where he resided untill eighteen hundred, since that time he has been living in New Orleans, and while there has acquired a knowledge of the French Language. This circumstance together with his acquaintance with the inhabitants of that City and their manners afford additional reasons in favour of his fitness for the appointment solicited.
I have the honour to be Sir your H,ble. Servt.
Joseph Crockett
RC (DNA: RG 59, LAR); endorsed by TJ as received 16 Apr. and “Clay John to be Register or Prothony. N.O.” and so recorded in SJL.
john clay, the eldest brother of Kentucky legislator Henry Clay and a brother-in-law of William C. C. Claiborne, returned from Louisiana to Lexington for a visit in the winter of 1803-4. He later married a daughter of Martin Duralde. In 1804 Clay served as a merchant’s clerk and inspector for flour, salt, provisions, and hemp in New Orleans, all the while hoping his brother and friends would procure for him “an appointment of more importance & which will be more congenial with my feelings” (Robert V. Remini, Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union [New York, 1991], 17; James F. Hopkins and others, eds., Papers of Henry Clay, 11 vols. [Lexington, 1952-99], 1:134n, 139-40, 144, 159-60, 546, 575; 11:16-17).