John Bracken to Thomas Jefferson, 6 August 1805
From John Bracken
Wmsburg 6. Aug. 1805
J. Bracken most respectfully presents his Compliments to Mr. Jefferson, and requests his attention to the enclosed letter, when an occasion occurs of sending Dispatches up the Mediterranean. It relates to the late Mr. Belini’s affairs, & this liberty wou’d certainly not have been taken but on a presumption that the Friendship, which was known to be entertained for the deceased, will be readily extended, as far as the present occasion requires, to the Interests of his surviving Relatives.
RC (DLC); endorsed by TJ as received 16 Aug. and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure not found.
Born in England, John Bracken (1747-1818) emigrated to Virginia in the 1760s. He became an ordained minister in the Church of England in 1772, and the next year was appointed to Bruton Parish in Williamsburg. Bracken joined the faculty of the College of William and Mary in 1775 and married into a prominent local family. From 1812 to 1814, he served as the college’s ninth president. As one of Carlo Bellini’s colleagues, Bracken served as the administrator for the late professor’s estate (; Rutherfoord Goodwin, “The Reverend John Bracken [1745-1818], Rector of Bruton Parish and President of William and Mary College in Virginia,” Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 10 [1941], 354-89; Richmond Enquirer, 24 July 1818; , 4:69n, 10:249; Bishop James Madison to TJ, 18 Mch. 1805).