To Thomas Jefferson from Anthony New and Robert Brown, 14 March 1804
From Anthony New and Robert Brown
Washington—March 14th—1804
Sir
We beg leave to recommend to your notice, Mr. Andrew Epple, who solicits an appointment as Clerk to some one of the courts to be established in the Western country; Mr. Epple is a native of Philadelphia, a young Gentleman of unimpeachable charecter, and of respectable family, he has studied, and has for some time been engaged in the practice of the Law—We are
Sir your mo: Obt. Servts.
Anthony New
Robert Brown
RC (DNA: RG 59, LAR); in New’s hand, signed by both; endorsed by TJ as received 22 Mch. and “Epple Andrew to be a clerk of a ct. in Western country” and so recorded in SJL.
Anthony New (1747-1833) represented Caroline County in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1789 and 1790. Elected to the Third Congress, he served as a Virginia congressman from 1793 to 1805. New moved with his family and slaves to Elkton, in Todd County, Kentucky, in 1808. He represented that state in Congress for three nonconsecutive terms beginning in 1811 (; , xxvi, 175, 179; Frances Marion Williams, The Story of Todd County, Kentucky: 1820-1970 [Nashville, Tenn., 1972], 118, 336-7, 433-4; Vol. 29:382n; Vol. 35:182-3).
Robert Brown (1744-1823) was a first lieutenant in the Pennsylvania “Flying Camp” battalion in the Revolutionary War. He began representing Northampton County in the assembly in 1783, became a state senator in 1790, and in 1798 was elected to Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Samuel Sitgreaves. A Republican, Brown served in the House of Representatives from 4 Dec. 1798 to 3 Mch. 1815 (; Francis E. Devine, “The Pennsylvania Flying Camp, July-November 1776,” Pennsylvania History, 46 [1979], 63, 76, 78; Philadelphia Pennsylvania Gazette, 22 Oct. 1783; Philadelphia Pennsylvania Mercury, 19 Oct. 1790; Chambersburg Farmers’ Register, 7 Nov. 1798; Journal of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Commencing on Tuesday the Fifth Day of December, the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-Seven [Philadelphia, 1798], 4; Vol. 30:85n, 615n; Vol. 40:348n).
andrew epple studied law with Joseph Reed and worked in Reed’s law office in Philadelphia. He was admitted to the bar in 1803. Reed recommended Epple, who intended to move to New Orleans, as “a gentleman of information and talents in his profession, who has uniformly distinguished himself by his assiduity & attention to business” (Joseph Reed to unidentified, 17 Nov. 1803, in DNA: RG 59, LAR; John H. Martin, Martin’s Bench and Bar of Philadelphia [Philadelphia, 1883], 266).