Papers of John Adams, volume 17
I beg leave to acquaint your Excellency that I Yesterday received advice that the Pilot Cutter, Commanded by Lieut. Seymor Lynn in the Service of the King of Great Britain, had Seized & detain’d the Brigantine Nancy Capt. John Limeburner, under American Colours, & expedited by me, from this Port, bound to Amsterdam— The property on board belongs to French Merchants of this Town— The Vessel having all her Papers in due form & proper Clearance from the Admiralty here, the Only Reason alledged for Seizing Same is because She was found within 4 Leagues of the Land, which even is a false Assertion: I herewith transmit to Your Excellency, the Accounts I have received of the Whole Affair & beg leave to Solicit Your protection in demanding from the Court of Great Britain that the Ship & Cargo be given up, with damages for the Detention of Same after having been Unjustly plundered from a Subject of the United States of America.1
119I transmit the Papers with the present thro’ the Hands of Mr. Barclay, least Your Excellency should have left Paris. The Packet with your Son on board Saild from hence Saturday Evening last.
I have the honor to be / Your Excellence’s / Most obedient & / very humble Servant
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “His Excellency, John Adams Esqr.”; endorsed: “Mr James Grubb of / Virginia. / L’orient. 23. May. ansd. / 7 June 1785.”
Thomas Barclay enclosed this letter with his of 26 May (Adams Papers). There he indicated that Grubb, of Virginia, was “an American Subject, and extremely worthy of any good Office You can do him.” Barclay also sent three other enclosures: James Day’s letter to Grubb dated 11 May at Cowes, Isle of Wight, England; an extract from Philippe Ludger’s letter, dated 11 May at London; and Grubb’s 23 May letter to Barclay. Day’s letter reported the capture of the brig Nancy, although, according to testimony from its captain and passengers, the vessel had been 5 1/2 leagues off the Isle of Wight and thus outside British territorial waters. Day indicated that he had begun proceedings for the Nancy’s recovery. Ludger, a passenger, confirmed the report by Day and described the Nancy’s voyage from its departure from Lorient on 29 April until its detention on 3 May. Writing to Barclay, the U.S. consul to France, Grubb requested that he send the Day and Ludger letters to JA with the expectation that JA would support his efforts to obtain the return of the Nancy and its cargo. For JA’s response to Grubb’s appeal, see his 7 June letters to Barclay and Grubb, both below.
JQA described Grubb, whom he met at Lorient while he awaited passage to America, as “very much a gentleman.” Thirty years later JQA would employ Grubb as his private secretary during his tenure as minister to Great Britain (JQA, Diary
, 1:270, 271;
AFC
, 6:147, 148, 149).
Your letter of the 22d from Montreuil sur mer is put into my hands this moment, and having received information of your son and two American gentlemen being to set out for London tomorrow morning1 I seize a moment to inform you that he had arrived well at l’Orient & was well on the 20th. when the packet was still detained by contrary winds. mr̃ Barclay, who is arrived, had also seen him.2 be so good as to inform the ladies that mr̃s Hayes is arrived. I have not yet seen her, but am this moment going to perform that duty. I fear the ladies have had a more triste journey than we had calculated on. the poverty of the country & distress of the drought would of course produce this effect. I am the more convinced of this as you say they have found amusement in my notes. they presented themselves to their notice under fortunate circumstances. I am happy if you find any thing in them worthy your approbation. but my country will probably estimate them differently. a foreknowlege of this has retarded my communicating them to my friends two years.— but enough of them.— the departure of your family has left 120me in the dumps. my afternoons hang heavily on me. I go sometimes to Passy & Mont Parnasse.3 when they are gone too I shall be ready for the dark & narrow house of Ossian.4 we attended the Queen’s entrance yesterday, but lost the sight of her. you can calculate, and without many figures, the extent of this mortification to me. to render it more complete I had placed myself & my daughter in my carriage very finely before the Palais Bourbon to see the illuminations of the Garde meubles which are to cost the king of Spain two or three thousand guineas. but they sent a parcel of souldiers to drive us all away. we submitted without making battle; I carried my daughter to the Abbaye5 & came home to bed myself. I have now given you all the news of Paris as far as I know it & after recommending myself to the friendly recollection of the ladies I conclude with assurances of the esteem with which I have the honour to be dear Sir / your affectionate friend / & servt.
P.S. send me your address au plutot.
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Mr Jefferson May 25. / ansd June 7. 1785”; notation by CFA: “not published.” CFA presumably means that the letter was not published in Jefferson, Correspondence, ed. Randolph. See, for example, the descriptive note to Jefferson’s 22 June letter, below.
In Jefferson’s “Summary journal of letters” he indicates that this letter was carried by “Chew and Chamberlayne” (Jefferson, Papers
, 8:164). The two men also carried Thomas Barclay’s letters of 24 May, not found, and 26 May with its enclosures, for which see James Grubb’s 23 May letter, and note 1, above; and
JA’s 7 June letter to Barclay, below. JA indicates in his Diary that after arriving in London he received and returned visits from “Mr. Chamberlain Palsgrave Place Strand. No. 5” and “Mr. Chew. Charles Street St. James’s Square No. 23.” (JA, D&A
, 3:179).
For JQA’s relations with Barclay while he awaited passage for America at Lorient, see
AFC
, 6:152; JQA, Diary
, 1:270, 271–272, 274.
That is, he visited Benjamin Franklin at Passy and Barclay’s family at its residence on the Rue de Montparnasse (vol. 16:278).
That is, the grave. Jefferson refers to a passage from Book IV of the epic poem Fingal, London, 1761. Published by Scottish writer James Macpherson (1736–1796) as a translation of a work of the legendary Gaelic poet Ossian, it was later proved to be largely Macpherson’s own composition (
DNB
).
Jefferson’s daughter Martha was a student at the Abbaye royale de Pentemont, an exclusive Paris convent school (
AFC
, 6:76).