1. Thomas Ewell (1785–1826), a native of Prince William County, Virginia, received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1805, served as a surgeon in the U.S. Navy from 1805 to 1813, and practiced medicine in Washington, D.C. A multifaceted individual, he was surgeon at the New York and Washington navy yards, opened an apothecary shop on Capitol Hill in 1810, and owned a bridge over the Anacostia River. In 1812 he opened a gunpowder factory, an enterprise that involved him in a long quarrel with Navy Department clerk Charles W. Goldsborough when Ewell lost a contract to supply the government with gunpowder (PJM-PS, description begins Robert A. Rutland et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series (6 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1984–). description ends 4:322, 323 n. 2, 440 n. 2, 5:523 n. 1, 562 n. 1, 565–66 and n. 2, 598–99 and nn.; Hayden, Virginia Genealogies, 348; Knox, Register of Officer Personnel, 18; Charles O. Paullin, “History of the Site of the Congressional and Folger Libraries,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society 37–38 [1937]: 180; B. G. du Pont, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company: A History, 1802–1902 [Boston, 1920], 38; Petersburg Daily Courier, 9 Nov. 1814). His thesis, Notes on the Stomach and Secretion, was printed in Philadelphia in 1805 (Shaw and Shoemaker description begins R. R. Shaw and R. H. Shoemaker, comps., American Bibliography: A Preliminary Checklist for 1801–1819 (22 vols.; New York, 1958–66). description ends 8412); Ewell later wrote several other medical works, including The Ladies Medical Companion (Philadelphia, 1818; Shaw and Shoemaker description begins R. R. Shaw and R. H. Shoemaker, comps., American Bibliography: A Preliminary Checklist for 1801–1819 (22 vols.; New York, 1958–66). description ends 43981).

2. On 26 Oct. 1805 Ewell told Jefferson that he had not yet delivered this letter to JM (Ewell to Jefferson, 26 Oct. 1805 [DLC: Jefferson Papers]).