Diary of John Adams, volume 3

1784. August. 3.

Aug. 7.

Aug. 4. JA

1784-08-04

Aug. 4. Adams, John
Aug. 4.

Sett off, for London, had a tedious Passage from Helvoet, of near two days. Obliged to put in at Leostoff Lowestoft, and ride from thence 24 miles in a Cart.1

1.

JA's sudden decision to go to London himself and take his family directly to Paris without a pause of some weeks at The Hague, was prompted by the news of Jefferson's arrival in Europe a month or so before JA expected him; see JA to AA, 1 Aug. (Adams Papers), and Jefferson to JA, “On board the Ceres off Scilly,” 24 July (Adams Papers; Jefferson, Papers, ed. Boyd, 7:382–383, with note quoting JA's expressions of pleasure in the appointment of Jefferson as a fellow commissioner).

In JA's accounts as settled by Congress there appears the following entry:

“Expences of his Removal with his Family from the Hague & London to Auteuil in August 1784 including extra Expences of Carriages, Post Horses, Passages by Sea from Helvoet to Harwich & from Dover to Calais &c. £100.... Purchase of a Carriage in London. £120” (DNA: RG 39, Foreign Ledgers, Public Agents in Europe, 1776–1787, p. 267).