Please provide a link to a copy of that 1781 letter you mention from John Jay to Bernardo del Campo.
https://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/default.xqy?keys=JNJY-print-01-02-02&mode=TOC
This is a link to The Selected Papers of John Jay. It requires a subscription, but they offer a free trial. It is in the list on that page.
I had it booked marked elsewhere, but my husband did something with that PC, and it wiped all of my bookmarks - all of my NBC bookmarks. I was PISSED
I’ll try to pop an image of the letter that I saved in here
Crud. I can’t figure out how to get that image on here. I’ll work on that some more
I posted an image of the letter - it is not great, blurry, but it’s the best I could do at the moment.
Transcribed:
(skipping the salutation)
As Mr. Vaughan was favored last Spring at Aranjues with a passport from his Excellency the Count De Florida Blanca to go and reside at Toledo, I omitted to enumerate in my last, the circumstances requested in your letter.
This gentleman’s father is an Englishman-his mother is an american. He himself was born, I think, in England. He means to become a Citizen of, & to settle in, one of the United States-he is by Profession a merchant. (skipping the resume of Vaughan)
He is now desirous of going to Cadiz, that he may during the Winter form proper commercial Connections there, and in the Spring embark for North America.
He has offered to take an oath of Allegiance to the United States, before me. I advised him to postpone it”till his arrival there, as well because I thought it most proper in itself, as because I did not conceive myself authorized to administer it.
This Sir is a short but very candid account of what I know of this Gentleman ,
*etc - the rest is commenting on Vaughan’s character being good.