David R. Murray (1790–1871), merchant, farmer, and public official, was born in Washington County, Kentucky, and settled permanently by 1820 in Breckinridge County. Having enlisted as a sergeant in the militia in 1812, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel three years later and to colonel in 1818. Murray also served in the Kentucky House of Representatives, 1820–22, and as a justice of the peace. The owner of four slaves in 1830, twenty-two in 1850, and nine in 1860, he possessed real estate worth $25,000 in 1850 and property valued at just over $61,000 in 1870 (Henry H. Crittenden, comp., The Crittenden Memoirs [1936], 525; Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kentucky. Soldiers of the War of 1812 [1891], 8; Journal of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Kentucky [1816–17 sess.]: 141 [18 Jan. 1817]; [1817–18 sess.]: 208–9 [30 Jan. 1818]; Journal of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky [1820 sess.]: 3 [16 Oct. 1820]; [1821 sess.]: 3 [15 Oct. 1821]; [1822 sess.]: 3 [21 Oct. 1822]; Taliaferro P. Shaffner, ed., The Kentucky State Register, for the Year 1847 [1847], 54–5; DNA: RG 29, CS, Ky., Breckinridge Co., 1820–70, 1850, 1860 slave schedules; Breckinridge Co. Will Book, 1:350–1; Urbana [Ohio] Union, 7 June 1871; gravestone inscription in Murray Cemetery, Cloverport, Ky.).

David White (ca. 1785–1835), attorney and public official, practiced law in Kentucky from at least 1809, represented Henry County in the state House of Representatives, 1816–18, sat in the state Senate in 1820, and held a seat in the United States House of Representatives, 1823–25. He supported John Quincy Adams in the 1824 presidential election and Andrew Jackson in 1828. After his congressional term ended, White served briefly as president of the Bank of the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1825. He then returned to the legislature’s lower house, representing Franklin County, 1826–27, and Anderson County, 1828–29 and 1830–31. The owner of three slaves in 1830, White was a circuit court judge, 1833–35, and a resident of Franklin County at the time of his death (Frankfort Argus of Western America, 18 Feb. 1809; Journal of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky [1816–17 sess.]: 4 [2 Dec. 1816]; [1817–18 sess.]: 4 [1 Dec. 1817]; [1826–27 sess.]: 3 [4 Dec. 1826]; [1828–29 sess.]: 3 [1 Dec. 1828]; [1830–31 sess.]: 3 [6 Dec. 1830]; Journal of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Kentucky [1820 sess.]: 3 [16 Oct. 1820]; Clay, Papers description begins James F. Hopkins and others, eds., The Papers of Henry Clay, 1959–92, 11 vols. description ends ; Philadelphia National Gazette and Literary Register, 8 Oct. 1825; DNA: RG 29, CS, Ky., Anderson Co., 1830; Washington Globe, 22 July 1833; Lexington Observer and Reporter, 25 Feb. 1835; American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge 7 [1836]: 311).

John Ramsey Witherspoon (1774–1852), physician and public official, was born in Prince Frederick Parish, South Carolina. He attended the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University), 1792–94, during which time he served as an amanuensis for his distant cousin John Witherspoon, the school’s president. After he graduated, the younger Witherspoon returned to South Carolina and established a medical practice in Christ Church Parish, which he represented in the South Carolina House of Representatives, 1803–09. He relocated to Kentucky the following year and by 1820 owned fifty-one slaves in Fayette County. Witherspoon became a trustee of Transylvania University in 1815 and held a seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives, 1821–22. By 1830 he was living, along with ninety slaves, in Greene County, Alabama. Having settled permanently on a plantation in that county near Greensboro, Witherspoon possessed sixty-two slaves and real estate worth $6,790 in 1850 (Princetonians description begins James McLachlan and others, eds., Princetonians: A Biographical Dictionary, 1976–90, 5 vols. description ends , 1791–94, pp. 464–7; BDSCHR description begins Walter B. Edgar and others, eds., Biographical Directory of the South Carolina House of Representatives, 1974– , 5 vols. description ends , 4:611–2; Joseph Bailey Witherspoon, The History and Genealogy of the Witherspoon Family (1400–1972) [1973], 137–42; Journal of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky [1815–16 sess.]: 219 [26 Jan. 1816]; [1821 sess.]: 3 [15 Oct. 1821]; [1822 sess.]: 3 [21 Oct. 1822]; DNA: RG 29, CS, Ky., Fayette Co., 1820, Ala., Greene Co., 1830–50, 1850 slave schedules; gravestone inscription in Stokes Cemetery, Greensboro).

William P. Roper (d. 1833), attorney and public official, represented Fleming County in the Kentucky House of Representatives, 1805 and 1811–12, and in the state Senate, 1820–24. He numbered Henry Clay among his legal clients. Having been appointed a commonwealth’s attorney in 1817, Roper served as a circuit court judge, 1824–33. He owned seven slaves in 1820 and nineteen a decade later (Lexington Kentucky Gazette and General Advertiser, 13 Aug. 1805; Frankfort, Ky., Palladium, 17 Aug. 1811; Journal of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Kentucky [1816–17 sess.]: 241–2 [5 Feb. 1817]; [1820 sess.]: 3 [16 Oct. 1820]; [1821 sess.]: 3 [15 Oct. 1821]; [1822 sess.]: 28 [24 Oct. 1822]; [1823–24 sess.]: 3 [3 Nov. 1823]; [1824–25 sess.]: 94 [23 Nov. 1824]; [1833–34 sess.]: 34 [4 Jan. 1834]; Clay, Papers description begins James F. Hopkins and others, eds., The Papers of Henry Clay, 1959–92, 11 vols. description ends , 2:340, 575, 884, 3:142; DNA: RG 29, CS, Ky., Fleming Co., 1820, 1830; Lexington Observer and Reporter, 21 Aug. 1833).

William T. Barry also sent copies of this circular to John Adams and James Madison late in June 1822 (MHi: Adams Papers; Madison, Papers, Retirement Ser., 2:493–5, 539–40).