John Gardner Ladd (1771–1819)
John Gardner Ladd was born on 16 May 1771 in Little Compton, Rhode Island. His older brother Joseph, a prominent poet, was killed in a duel when John was a teenager. John married Sarah Easton in 1798, around the same time he relocated from Rhode Island to Alexandria, Virginia. A merchant, he corresponded and/or did business with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and other prominent Virginians of the time.
"To George Washington from John Gardner Ladd, 8 June 1798," Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-02-02-0243. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Retirement Series, vol. 2, 2 January 1798 – 15 September 1798, ed. W. W. Abbot. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1998, pp. 318–319.]
"From Thomas Jefferson to John G. Ladd, 28 November 1801," Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-35-02-0568. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 35, 1 August–30 November 1801, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008, p. 740.]
Alexandria Gazette and Daily Advertiser (VA), 23 February 1819, page 2, column 5 (Newspapers.com).
John Gardner Ladd at Find a Grave.
John Gardner Ladd at FamilySearch.