Charles Le Brun (ca. 1765–1844), translator and educator, was in Philadelphia late in 1801. Early the following year he wrote to TJ from New York City about his imminent plans to go to Curaçao, where he had established a commercial house based on his fifteen years of mercantile experience in Europe, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean. In Philadelphia in 1811 Le Brun published a French textbook for children and there called himself the translator of several Spanish and English works. He later described himself as the former “interpreter to the French government in the island of St. Domingo.” Le Brun prepared a new edition of a century-old work by François de Salignac de La Mothe Fénelon, Les Aventures de Télémaque, fils d’Ulysse (Philadelphia, 1812), which went through several printings, and a translation into French of Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man (Philadelphia, 1823). He advertised his “English, French and Spanish Evening School” in Philadelphia in 1813 and continued teaching languages until 1843. Le Brun’s wife also operated a ladies’ seminary beginning in around 1816. In 1818 the governor of Pennsylvania appointed him the state’s interpreter of foreign languages, a position he held until about 1837. Le Brun authored two works in Spanish in 1826 on the recent political history of Spain. He died in Philadelphia (PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, James P. McClure, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 45 vols. description ends , 36:235, 37:47–50; Le Brun, Le Directeur des Enfans [Philadelphia, 1811]; Philadelphia Voice of the Nation, 28 Oct. 1813; Washington Daily National Intelligencer, 31 July 1815; James Robinson, Philadelphia Directory, for 1816 [(Philadelphia, 1816)]; Franklin Gazette, 8 June 1818; John Adems Paxton, Paxton’s Annual Philadelphia Directory and Register—1819 [Philadelphia, 1819]; Desilver’s Philadelphia Directory and Stranger’s Guide, for 1837 [1837], 142; McElroy’s Philadelphia Directory for 1843 [1843], 157; Le Brun, Retratos Politicos de la Revolucion de España [Philadelphia, 1826]; Le Brun, Vida de Fernando Septimo, rey de España [Philadelphia, 1826]; Philadelphia North American and Daily Advertiser, 9 Sept. 1844).

The missing lettre de recommandation from Tadeusz Kosciuszko is accounted for in PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, James P. McClure, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 45 vols. description ends , 37:47–9.