Papers of John Adams, volume 15
Your Favour of the Seventeenth of this Month, was delivered to me, last night.— I left London on the third of this Month1 So that your kind Present of Game, afforded a Regall, to Mr Stockdale in Piccadilly, but I am not less obliged to you for it, than if I had been so fortunate as to receive it myself.— I beg you sir to accept my Sincere Thanks for it.
As the Nephew of my most valuable Brother Cranch I should have been happy to have met you in England. if the Time would have permitted, I should have wished to have made an Excursion to that Part of England where the Relations of my Friend Mr Palmer and those of my Brother reside.2 and if you sir, or any of your Friends should travail in Holland, I should be very glad to see them at the Hague.
I Should esteem it, as a favour if you would Send me a Copy of the Letter you allude to from Casco Bay.3 You may Address your Letter to me, at the Hague, by the Post.
I am, with great Regard for yourself and / your Connections, Sir your most obedient / and obliged humble servant
LbC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mr John Cranch / an Attorney at Axminster / in Devonshire.”; APM Reel 107.
According to JQA’s 13 Jan. letter to Peter Jay Munro (NNMus), he and his father left London at seven o’clock on the morning of 2 January.
JA, AA, and AA2 would visit the Cranch and Palmer relatives, including John and Joseph Cranch and John Palmer, in 1787. See JA, D&A
, 3:203–210;
AFC
, 8:175–176.
For this letter from Thomas Hopkins, which Cranch enclosed with his reply of 11 Feb. (Adams Papers), see Cranch’s letter of 17 Jan., note 3, above.
Your Favour of the 20th. was Sent me last night, and put me into a Fit of good Humour which continues to this moment.
The Letter containing the Medals, I beg you to open and deliver one set to Mr West and another to Mr Whiteford, in my Name.—1 You will please to make a Minute of the Postage you pay for me, which I will remit you.
The Hares were well disposed of, and I hope gave Pleasure to the little Family.— You could not have offerd one of them more properly than to Dr Jebb, for whom I have the highest Esteem, as one of the best Citizens of the little Commonwealth of the just upon Earth.
If I did not know that the Burthen of the State lies So heavily upon your shoulders I would invite you, to take a Trip to the Hague. and drink a Glass of finer old Madeira than that you had from your Friend I would not advise you to come in this Season to travel in Iceboats and Boors Waggons as I did.
It gives me Pleasure to hear that Mr Pitt rises in the Esteem of the People, because he has a fair Character and promisses great Things: nevertheless a Friend to Old England would wish for a Coalition, But Mr Fox is of So peremptery a Cast, and not always in the right, that I fancy it will be difficult, to form any Coalition in which he is not the Essence.
it will ever give me Pleasure to hear of your Welfare and to receive a Spice of the Politicks of the day, / with much Esteem, Sir your very humble / srt.
LbC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mr. John Stockdale Piccadilly.”; APM Reel 107.
The medals were to go to Benjamin West, the artist, and Caleb Whitefoord, secretary to Richard Oswald during the 1782 Anglo-American peace negotiations.