To Thomas Jefferson from Archibald McDonald, 8 April 1805
From Archibald McDonald
Winchester April, 8th. 1805
Your Excellency
By your direction I have ascribed these lines to inform you or to put in remembrance of my Petition I presented to you at mount assyllia near Charllottesville in Albemarle County concerning my Son John McDonald who is enlisted in the first Battalion of Royal Artillery in Captain McClennings Company now lying in Baltimore or else where your Excellency will please to accept of my most Sincere thanks for the kindness I receiv’d of your Excellency when I presented my Petition and shall still bear in mind your great kindness if I should be so happy as to get my Sons discharge, your most Humble Petitioner will for Ever remember your great Benevolence and Wishing your Excellency all the enjoyments of this World and happiness of the next when time shall be no more
Archibald McDonald
RC (MHi); addressed: “His Most Excellency Thomas Jefferson Chief Magistrate and President of the United States of America”; franked; endorsed by TJ as received 19 Apr. but recorded in SJL as received 18 Apr.
my Petition: McDonald to TJ, 1 Apr. A letter to TJ from one Mary McDonald, dated 11 May at Winchester, is recorded in SJL but has not been found (Appendix IV).
A John McDonald (b. ca. 1787) of Winchester, Virginia, served as a private in the First Infantry Regiment from 1810 to 1815, during which time he was disciplined repeatedly for drunkenness and other derelictions of duty (DNA: RG 94, Registers of Enlistments in the United States Army, 1798-1914).