Robert Brent to Thomas Jefferson, 10 October 1805
From Robert Brent
Washington Octr. 10th 1805
Dear Sir
I take the liberty of enclosing you a letter from the president of a college in Baltimore
I am aware of the delicacy of your situation in giving letters of Introduction, and anticipate your declining it in this case, unless from personal knowledge of the applicant you feel he merits the honor of one and it is your custom to give recommendations on such occasions—
Mr. DuBourg, the writer, is a Gentleman of Erudition and of most estimable Character
I have the honor to be with much respect & Esteem Dear Sir Your Obt Sert
Robert Brent
RC (DLC); endorsed by TJ as received 10 Oct. and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure not found.
Louis Guillaume Valentin DuBourg was the president of St. Mary’s College. Robert Brent’s son attended the school. John Payne Todd, the son of Dolley Madison, became a student in December (Annabelle M. Melville, Louis William DuBourg: Bishop of Louisiana and the Floridas, Bishop of Montauban, and Archbishop of Besançon, 1766-1833, 2 vols. [Chicago, 1986], 1:98-9, 123; Memorial Volume of the Centenary of St. Mary’s Seminary of St. Sulpice, Baltimore, MD, 1791-1891 [Baltimore, 1891], 81; , 10:564).