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Browsing: Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 3
Docno: ADMS-04-03-02-0024
Recipient: Cranch, William
Date: 1778-05-31
John Quincy Adams to William Cranch
[dateline] Paris May the 31 1778
I now Sit down with an intent to give you an account of the Place I dind at yesterday
doctor Franklin his son a young Gentleman & I went to Place Calld montmartre at the
Castle of the Count Brancard & dind there with him and some other Gentleman & Ladies,
from which Place there is a most Beautiful Prospect of the City. On this hill the
famous king henry the 4th incamped his army when he laid Seige to Paris. it is the
highest hill in the neghborhood of Paris & excepting Mount Calvare & Minemontan it
Commands the most extensive & most Beautiful Prospect.1
these excursions afford me some pleasure & give me some Consolation for my not being
with my Freinds at Braintree among whom I think you one of the first & therefore I
subscribe myself your affectionate Cousin.
[signed] John Quincy Adams
LbC (Adams Papers); at foot of text: “to my Cousin william.” Text is given here in literal style.
1. JQA's imperfect knowledge and spelling make it difficult to identify with certainty some
of the persons and places he mentions. Franklin's “son” must be William Temple Franklin,
his grandson and secretary. Their host, “Count Brancard,” is more or less recognizable
as one of the members of the numerous and powerful Brancas family, with several of
whom Franklin was on friendly terms; see Cal. Franklin Papers, A.P.S.,passim; JA, Diary and Autobiography, 4:77. “Minemontan” is no doubt Ménilmontant, the neighborhood of Père Lachaise Cemetery
in the eastern part of the city.
Cite web page as: Founding Families: Digital Editions of the Papers of the Winthrops and the Adamses, ed.C. James Taylor. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 2017.
http://www.masshist.org/apde2/
http://www.masshist.org/apde2/