Papers of John Adams, volume 20
Permit me to inform your Excellency, that in consequence of
pressing Letters from my Friends in England and France, urging me to go over
immediately with my Grandfathers Papers, in order to derive that Advantage in the
Publication of them, which, they say, delay would diminish;—& having likewise some
other private Business to transact; I have concluded to go in the Pigou, which will
sail for London the latter end of this Month.—1 It will give me great Pleasure, Sir, to be
honor’d with yours & your Ladys Commands for that City, or Paris; whither I
propose going sometime in January: And if during my stay in Europe I can in any way be
useful to your Excellency, I beg you will command me freely, & be assur’d that I
shall at all times 423 be happy to prove to you my Gratitude for past
Favors, and how sincerely I am, / Sir, / Your Excellency’s / most obedient and /
faithful humble Sert:
My best Compliments to your Son.—
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “His Exy / John
Adams Esqr.”
Franklin inherited more than 15,000 documents belonging to his
grandfather Benjamin, and he carried 3,000 of them to England. He sailed via the Pigou, Capt. Collet, from Philadelphia on 5 Nov., before
the Adamses departed New York. In 1818 he published a London edition of his Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin (Jefferson, Papers
, 18:87, 88; Philadelphia Federal
Gazette, 4 Nov. 1790; Philadelphia General
Advertiser, 5 Nov.).