Papers of John Adams, volume 19
o.36, Wigmore St
t.Cavendish Square.
y.5. [
1788]
Mr. Croft takes the liberty to present his compliments to Mr. Adams.1 His friend Mr. Shippen was to have done him the honour of introducing him to Mr. Adams, but, upon asking after Mr. S., it seems that he has left this country for France.2 Mr. C. hears also that Mr. Adams returns soon to America.
If Mr. Adams would condescend so far as to afford Mr. C. an opportunity of explaining the new dictionary, on which he is employed, of the language spoken in Great Britain & America, which Mr. S. has probably mentioned; Mr. Adams will confer no common favour on Mr C. & may possibly hear something to gratify his friends in America. Mr. C. would be happy in the honour of waiting upon Mr. Adams, or of meeting him any day at Mr. Stockdale’s.
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “recd & ansd. 11. Feb.”
Sir Herbert Croft (1751–1816), a lawyer and lexicographer, of Dunster Park, Berk shire, England, toiled over a proposed English dictionary that would amend portions of Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, London, 1755. By 1787, Croft’s labors tallied 200 quarto volumes, but he abandoned the project to pursue more lucrative literary objectives (
DNB
).
Bearing a 9 Jan. 1788 letter of introduction from WSS, Thomas Lee Shippen arrived in Paris in early February. He stayed at the Hotel de Langeac and was presented at the Versailles court by “that best of men Mr. Jefferson” (Jefferson, Papers
, 12:501, 502; 13:7).