Papers of John Adams, volume 19
ca. 20 April 1787
As the intelligence I am to communicate is in my opinion of the highest consequence to the mercantile interest of America I presume any apology for the freedom I take in writing to your Excellency is unnecessary.2
The discovery I am to make an intended forgery of the paper currency of America, so ingeniously executed as to elude discovery. One of the persons concerned in this nefarious business has applied to me to print off a considerable number of notes of different Provinces. I gave him such an answer as inclined him to believe I would comply with his request, that I might have it in my power to destroy in embryo a scheme artfully calculated to invade private property, and materially injure the credit of a commercial nation. He went away satisfied, and returned in a few hours with a wood cut of one of the notes an exact copy of the original, and metal borders precisely the same as those on the reverse side.3 He had sundry other notes, with metal ornaments which he also wanted impressions of. He is meanly dressed as a Sailor and apparently ignorant. But his habit and conversation have the appearance of disguise. There is no doubt but that he has accomplices in London; for on discovering a deficiency of two articles in the border of a note of which he wanted a thousand copies, he informed he would send to town for them. The wood cut and metal borders are so nicely imitated as to render a discovery of the forgery extremely difficult.
I am with the most profound / respect your Excellency’s / very humble Servant
RC (Adams Papers).
Thomas Wren enclosed Mowbray’s letter with his more comprehensive account of the counterfeiting scheme in his letter of 20 April, below. JA sent Mowbray’s letter, along with Wren’s of 22 April, to John Jay with his letter of 30 April, both below.
Portsmouth, England, printer Walter Mowbray produced the Hampshire Chronicle until 1785, when a fire destroyed his shop. Mowbray filed for bankruptcy shortly thereafter but continued operations for another decade (F. A. Edwards, Early Hampshire Printers, Southampton, Eng., 1891, p. 116; London Chronicle, 24 Dec. 1785; London Star, 11 March 1795).
North and South Carolina currency consisted of typeset notes with decorative borders, images, and text. The borders and images were first engraved on wooden blocks or copper plates and then assembled with the set type in a type-form, or box block, used in a printing press. Some counterfeiters imitated this process, while others made an engraving of the genuine note and used a small screw-press to transfer the image to paper (Philip L. Mossman, From Crime to Punishment: Counterfeit and Debased Currencies in Colonial and Pre-Federal North America, ed. Louis E. Jordan, N.Y., 2013, p. 201–204). Robert Muir tried to enlist an engraver and printer, providing the latter with box blocks. When arrested, Muir possessed genuine notes, woodcuts of the borders, cast metal flowers, types, and stamps (from Wren, 22 April 1787, below). See also Descriptive List of Illustrations, No. 1, above.
I think it requisite to inform you that we have in our town Mr. Waller Mowbray, a printer, in rather a confined way of business, but of fair & honest character, to the utmost of my knowledge. An unknown person applied to him abt. two days ago for his assistance to work off some counterfit notes of several of the American States, and put into his hands extreme well-executed box blocks, & other materials for that purpose. Mowbray apparently, but reluctantly & in part only, consented, & gave information of this to Mr. Goldstone an eminent surgeon, and to Willm. Carter Esq a justice of the Peace here,2 with whom I have the honour of an intimacy, and who advised the sending off an express to your Excellency on this occasion. I proposed writing by this evenings post, but as the unknown person is to come for some notes on Sunday noon, Mr. Carter earnestly recommended the express. Mr. Mowbray incloses a letter giving a better account of this matter than I could on so short notice. Mr. Carter says he shall detain the man if he comes for his notes, before your answer arrives, but wishes for it as speedily as is convenient. Mr. Carter apprehends that it will rest with your Excellency to procure for him power to act, any farther than mere detention.—
Your Excellencys reply may be directed either to William Carter Esq or to me, in Portsmouth—
You will, sir, be a better judge how far this matter deserves your attention than we can possibly be.3 If there are any particulars of information, which I can obtain for you, You may, sir, most freely command your most obliged / and humble Servant
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “To His Excellency John Adams Esqr &c. &c. &c.”
Rev. Thomas Wren (1725–1787), a dissenting minister in Portsmouth, England, had assisted American sailors held in Forton Prison and received an honorary degree from Princeton College in 1783 (
AFC
, 4:201).
William Carter (d. 1798) was the brother of Sir John Carter (1745–1808), former mayor of Portsmouth (Richard J. Murrell and Robert East, Extracts from Records in the Possession of the Municipal Corporation of the Borough of Portsmouth; and from Other Documents Relating thereto, Portsmouth, Eng., 1884, p. 374; Sheldon S. Cohen, British Supporters of the American Revolution 1775–1783: The Role of the ‘Middling-Level’ Activists, Rochester, N.Y., 2004, p. 67).
For JA’s representations to the British government regarding the counterfeiting scheme, see his 21 April 1787 reply to Wren and his 30 April letter to John Jay, both below.