Papers of John Adams, volume 15
1 November 1783]1
Mrs Wrights Most Respectfull Complents to Mr Adams and Lements and is Extreem Sorry she was Stept out at the moment Mr Adams did her the honour to Call on her—Cock Spur Street Mrs Wright begs he will Call again and would wait home from any other pleasure Engagement or Bussiness to have a Visit from him as her Esteem for Mr Adams is founded on the high and good principle as to Call for Atention from him— the pleasure of Seeing the Man who has undr God Saved his Coutry with those other Worthyes Calls on Mrs W to Shew all Possable Respect to him
Mrs was gone to Mr Jennings lodging at 10. oclock this mornig
Mrs Wright is now made hapy by Seeing Mr Adams Son—and has forgive her People in not detaining him— the Son of her friend has added new pleasure to the Pleasing prospect of Seeing them togethr at her house in London and also in America with the most sincer Regard this token wrote from the heart of a old friend / and most sincr humbl Servt Patience Wright2
RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “John Adams Esqr”; endorsed: “Mrs Wrights Note.” Filmed at [April 1786].
This date is derived from JQA’s Diary entry for Saturday, 1 Nov., where he indicates that he visited “Mrs. Wright’s waxwork” (JQA, Diary
, 1:198).
Patience Lovell Wright, a wax modeler living in London since 1772, had acted as an American spy during the Revolutionary War. In 1783 she had her exhibition rooms and her residence in Cockspur Street, Charing Cross. Wright had written to JA and John Jay on 8 March to solicit their cooperation in her plan to create a series of wax busts of prominent Americans for display at the State House (now Independence Hall) in Philadelphia (Charles Coleman Sellers, Patience Wright: American Artist and Spy in George III’s London, Middletown, Conn., 1976, p. 46–47, 138; Jay, Unpublished Papers
, 2:602–603). For more on Wright, see Descriptive List of Illustrations, No. 5, above.