Papers of John Adams, volume 19
ry28 1788
It was my earnest desire to have obtaind an Audience of Leave of the Queen that I might have had an opportunity of presenting to Her Majesty before my departure for America my most Humble thanks 280 for the Civilities, that myself and my family have Received at her Majestys Court, and my best wishes for every Blessing and Felicity to her Majesty, and to every Branch of her Majestys Royal Family, But the indispensable Necessity I am under of making a Journey to Holland before my Embarkation for America So presses me in point of Time, that it is now become impossible to repeat my Request of an Audience
I am extreamly Sorry for the dissarrangment of Her Majestys Health which has deprived me of the Honour I Solicited for three drawing Rooms and must now beg the Favour of Your Lordship to make my most respectfull Excuses where ever they may be Necessary.
With very great Respect I have the Honour to be / My Lord your Lordships most obedient Humble / Servant
LbC in AA’s hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “The Right Honorable / The Earl of Ailesbury / Chamberlain to her Britannic / Majesty.”; APM Reel 112.
This is the last letter in JA’s Letterbook 24, for which see vol. 18:xxxiv.
The Letter that accompanies this, is from a Character so respectable, that I beg leave to recommend it to your particular Attention.2The Correspondent will be found worthy of you.— I have taken Leave, and shall embark, as soon as the Equinoxial and its roughest Blusters are past.
The Emperors Declaration of War announces louder Storms in Europe: but I hope to escape them all in a peaceful Harbour at Braintree.
yours affectionately
RC (private owner, 2011); addressed: “The Honourable / Benjamin Rush Esqr / Philadelphia”; internal address: “Dr Rush.”; endorsed: “J. Adams, enclosing a letter / from Revd Mr. Mithoff, german / chaplain to George the third / on the subject of a family that / had migrated from Germany / to America.—” Some loss of text where the seal was removed.
JA, who last wrote to Rush on 14 Sept. 1783, resumed here a lengthy and wide-ranging correspondence with the Adams family’s doctor and key political supporter (vol. 15:295–296).
The enclosure, not found, was from Johann Georg Friedrich Mithoff, who served as a Lutheran chaplain at the Chapel Royal, St. James’ Palace, from 1777 to 1788 (John Southerden Burn, The History of the French, Walloon, Dutch, and Other Foreign Protestant Refugees Settled in England, London, 1846, p. 236, 237). Rush replied to this request in his 2 July letter, below.