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Letters to John Payne Todd, 1815, Accession #10547-dk, Albert H. and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.
These letters were purchased by the University of Virginia Library on November 13, 1996, from Robert F. Batchelder, Ambler, Pennsylvania.
This collection consists of two autograph letters to John Payne Todd, the son of Dolley Madison and step-son of James Madison, while he was at [London], from persons at Plymouth Harbor, England. In the earlier letter, May 31, 1815, E.L. [Lautton ?] on board The Neptune in Plymouth Harbor, asks Todd to write a letter to Julian Touchard at Havre de Grace requesting permission for a French medical student, Armand Lement, to accompany [Lautton ?] to America as a sort of waiting assistant in taking care of Mr. [James Asheton] Bayard (1767-1815), an American diplomat, if Mr. [Albert] Gallatin (1761- 1849) has no objection. Gallatin was in Great Britain negotiating a commercial treaty for President Madison in 1815.
The second letter, June 5, 1815, informs Todd since he and the writer, [G.B.M.] had separated, Mr. Bayard's condition had worsened to the point of death but he now appeared to be on the road to recovery. He also tells Todd that The Neptune will sail on the fourteenth of June and asks him to pay a debt for him to Preston & Burrows if his finances will allow it.