“Tuesday Oct. 29h: Called to see Mr. Adams. Dined with him. He is much pleased with Mr. Jay. Went in the Morning to see D: Franklin—did not know of Mr. Adams Arrival. Spoke to Mr. A. about making his visit to Dr. F. He told me it was time enough—represented to him the necessity of meeting. He replied there was no necessity —that after the usage he had received from him he could not bear to go near him. I told him whatever their differences were he would do wrong to discover any to the World and that it might have a bad effect on our Affairs at this time. He said the D: might come to him. I told him it was not his place—the last comer always paid the first visit. He replied the Dr. was to come to him [since] he was first in the Commission. I ask[ed] him how the D: was to know he was here unless he went to him. He replied that was true, he did not think of that and would go. Afterwards when pulling on his Coat he said he would not, he could not bear to go where the D: was. With much persuasion I got him at length to go. He said he would do it, since I would have it so; but I was always making mischeif and so I should find” (Matthew Ridley, Diary, MHi).

“Wednesday Oct. 30h: Dined at Mr. Jays, Dr. Franklin, Mr. Adams, Mr. Oswald, Mr. Strachey there—also two Mr. Vaughans. All Things do not seem to go clever. Strachey insisting on changing the boundaries, a Mr. Roberts is with him” (Matthew Ridley, Diary, MHi).

Henry Strachey (whose name JA always had difficulty in spelling) was a British under-secretary of state who had been sent to Paris to stiffen what was thought to be a too pliant attitude on the part of Oswald; his instructions concerning the British right to Sagadahock (eastern Maine), western lands (“as a means of providing for the Refugees”), restraints on American fishing rights, and a provision for the payment of American debts to British merchants, are embodied in a Cabinet Minute of 17 Oct. ( Correspondence of King George the Third . . ., ed. Sir John Fortescue, London, 1927–1928, 6:143–144). There is a sketch of Strachey in DNB .

W. Roberts, according to JA's recollections, was “the oldest clerk in the board of trade and plantations, and a very respectable character. He was sent over by the British cabinet with huge volumes of ... original records ... in order to support their incontestible claim to the Province of Maine” (letter published in the Boston Patriot, 23 Oct. 1811). It was Roberts whom JA astonished by producing still more impressive records of Massachusetts' claim to Maine; see entry of 10 Nov., below, and note 1 there.

Caleb Whitefoord, Oswald's secretary; he signed the Preliminary Articles of 30 Nov. as a witness ( DNB ). Some scanty correspondence and papers of Whitefoord relating to the peace negotiations are in W. A. S. Hewins, ed., The Whitefoord Papers . . ., Oxford, 1898.