3 Dec. 1785
Original paper slip text:3 Dec. 1785.
London, England
Original paper slip text:Grosvenor Square.
4 p. ("There is a Gentleman at Lisbon...")
- Formerly accessioned from private owner; now at NHi, Gilder Lehrman Collection, on deposit. --SEG, 11/11
- ALS at NNPM:Gilder Lehrman Collection, Mar. '96
- Offered for sale Sotheby Parke Bernet 21–25 April '78 Sang Sale, Part I, item # 2.
- Offered for sale by Robert F. Batchelder, Catalog # 25. $2800.
- Offered for sale by Robert F. Batchelder, Catalog #35. $3500.
- 3. Adams, John. A.L.S., 3 pages, 4to, Grosvenor Square [London], Dec. 3, 1785, to John Jay, signed John Adams. $400.00
- ALS offered for sale, Goodspeed's, #500, [1961], item 3.Sold, Parke-Bernet Gall., N.Y., Sale No. 1840, 7–8 Oct. 1958 (F. L. Pleadwell Sale), lot 3.
- A fine, boldly penned letter, marked "Private," written when the future President was United States envoy to the Court of St. James (1785–88). Jay, the recipient, was at this time United States secretary for foreign affairs or Secretary of State (1784–89). Adams's letter begins:"There is a Gentleman at Lisbon, who went and established himself...partly with a view to the Consulate....He is a nephew of the famous [James] Otis and a Son of Major General [James] Warren. The gentleman himself, whose name is Winslow Warren, is ingenious and active, and I believe would serve his Country very well...."Winslow Warren's father was President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, Paymaster-General of the Continental Army, and prominent in later state and national politics, particularly as a rival of John Hancock. Winslow Warren's mother was Mercy Otis Warren, a sister of James Otis, and a famous Boston bluestocking. Her long friendship with John Adams was interrupted by a quarrel, occasioned largely by her History of the American Revolution, but the two eventually kissed and made up—or, more factually, exchanged locks of hair.Winslow Warren, the subject of this letter, later was commissioned a lieutenant in the army and was killed on the Miami River during St. Clair's campaign against the Ohio Indians in 1791. He was the subject of one of Copley's finest portraits.Adams's letter concludes with recommendations to Jay regarding fees and powers that should be given consuls and for regulation of the amount of ransom money they should have for "the Redemption of Captives," Adams ends:"I just mention these Hints, in hopes that the Lawyers in America may be set to thinking upon this important Subject, unless you have time to digest it yourself," etc.
- Information transferred from blue slips for this document now deleted. ER 9/1/2015
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Original held by:The New York Historical Society
From the collection: Gilder Lehrman Collection, on deposit
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PJA, 18:12–13
PJA, 18:12–13
Papers of John Adams, volume 18, page 12
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