Papers of John Adams, volume 16

John Adams to Wilhem & Jan Willink, Nicolaas & Jacob van Staphorst, and De la Lande & Fynje, 3 August 1784 Adams, John Willink, Van Staphorst, and De la Lande & Fynje

To Wilhem & Jan Willink, Nicolaas & Jacob van Staphorst, and De la Lande & Fynje

Copy, Gentlemen The Hague Aug. 3. 1784

I have accepted two Bills drawn by my Wife to be paid at the House of Messrs Willinks and Shall accept two more to be paid by Messrs Fullers in London.1 Please to charge these and all the Monies I Shall draw in London at the Same House to the United States as part of my Salary

Tomorrow I go to London, and thence directly to Paris with my Family, to meet Mr Jefferson who is joined with Mr Franklin and me in some publick Business.2 Mr Brush [. . . .]3 your Houses, a large [. . . .]4 one. The large one, has nothing in it but Papers, but it is full, and they are of So much Importance to the United States that I thought it Safest to send them to your Custody. I beg you to keep them as a Sacred Deposit, untill further Advice from me. The small one contains a Small quantity of Plate, which I pray you to keep likewise. I should be glad you would write me that you have received them.5

Mr Dumas will draw upon you for about 450 Guilders, a little more, or a little less, to pay a Couple of Debts I owe here. please to charge it to the United States, as part of my Salary.

I wish you and your Families all sorts of Prosperity, untill my Return, and after being, Gentlemen your [. . . .]6

FC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Messrs Wilhem & Jan Willink / Nicholas & Jacob Van Staphorst / and De La Lande & Fynj̈e.” Some loss of text where the signature was cut away.

For the bills obtained by AA in the United States to finance her trip to England, which she mentions in her letter of 23 July, see AFC , 5:398, 399. For monies paid to AA upon her arrival in London by the firm of Richard & Charles Puller, which were charged to JA’s account in Amsterdam, see the 5 Aug. letter from Wilhem & Jan Willink (Adams Papers), and the consortium’s letter of 10 Aug., below.

JA wrote to AA and JQA on 1 Aug., announcing his decision to meet them in London. To AA he indicated that his decision was owing to Thomas Jefferson’s arrival in Europe, which made it imperative that he 289 join his colleagues at Paris. He instructed JQA to purchase a coach and make all preparations to leave London in a week. JA set off on the 4th and after a “tedious” two-day voyage from Hellevoetsluis was forced to land at Lowestoft, England, and from there go to London, where he arrived on 7 August. The next day he and his family left London, reaching the Hôtel de York at Paris on 13 Aug., and moving into their new home at Auteuil on the 17th ( AFC , 5:416; JA, D&A , 3:170–171). See also JA’s 25 Aug. letter to C. W. F. Dumas, below. For the trip from London to Paris and the move to Auteuil, see also JQA, Diary , 1:207–209.

Four or five words missing.

See the consortium’s reply of 10 Aug., and for the “Plate,” see Christian Lotter’s inventory of [3 Aug.], both below.

Four or five words and JA’s signature missing.

Christian Lotter’s Inventory of Silverware, 3 August 1784 Lotter, Christian

Christian Lotter’s Inventory of Silverware

[3 August 1784]

A List of Silver belonging to His Excelce:. Mr: Adams and Send to Mr: Willink at Amsterdam the 3d:. of August 1784.1

5 large Silver Soop Spoons.
2 Silver Sugar boxes.
2 Dozen and a half of Silver Tea Spoons.
6 Dozen of large Silver table Spoons.
5 Dozen of large Silver Forks.	}
2 Dozen of Silver dessert-Forks.		French work.2
2 Dozen of Silver dessert-Spoons
2 Dozen of large Silver handled Knives.
2 Dozen of large Silver handled Forks.

roll’d up in a paper together.	{	A Silver Spoon for powder of Sugar.
		4 Small Silver Spits.
		a Silver machine for marrow bones

Those above mentioned Articles of Silver are carefully rolled and ty’d up in papers, covered with a Sheet of Linnen, and confin’d and Sealed in a Small trunk, by his Excelce:. Mr: Adams and directed to Mr: Willink, Merchand at Amsterdam, under the Care and protection of Mr: Brush.3

T: C: Lotter. Maitré d’hotel de Son Exclce:

MS (Adams Papers).

This inventory by Lotter may have been intended as a supplement to the inventories done by Marie Dumas on 22 and 24 June of the household goods and furnishings at the American legation at The Hague (vol. 13:32–48). Neither of those inventories contains any mention of the silverware that was certainly on hand. The delay may have been owing to a desire to include the silver that JA was having sent from Paris but which was delayed when the shipment was stopped at Brussels.

This may refer to all or part of the silverware sent from Paris, although JA in his 290 30 June letter to the Austrian minister, the Baron von Reischach, above, mentioned only “Ninety Six Silver Spoons and Forks, made at Paris for the Use of my Family” in his discussion of the stoppage at Brussels.

See the loan consortium’s letter of 10 Aug., below.