Anthony Merry

Anthony Merry served as a consul in Spain before moving to France in 1801 as a commissioner for prisoner exchanges. He assisted Cornwallis in the negotiations at Amiens and then headed the Paris mission until late 1802. American minister Rufus King supported his selection for Washington, where Merry arrived in November 1803. ^{1, 2}

His mission became entangled in a dispute over diplomatic ceremony. Merry regarded Jefferson's informal clothing at his reception and the absence of precedence at presidential dinners as slights to Britain's representative. Jefferson defended his social arrangements as expressions of equality. The disagreement strained access and personal relations while substantive disputes over trade and maritime rights were growing. ^{3, 4}

In December 1803 James Madison put proposals to Merry for protecting people aboard American ships, limiting searches and blockades, and widening American commercial access. Merry warned that Britain was unlikely to accept them. He also warned that American legislation against impressment would remove the matter from negotiation. ²

Merry also received Aaron Burr's approaches for British support of a western separatist enterprise. His confidential reports described requests for money and naval assistance and urged London to consider them. The British government supplied no such support. Merry's American mission ended in 1806. ⁵

He later served in Copenhagen and Sweden before retiring from diplomacy. He spent his final years at Dedham in Essex and died on 14 June 1835. ^{7, 6}