From John Adams to Wilhem & Jan Willink and Nicolaas & Jacob van Staphorst, 10 January 1786

To Wilhem & Jan Willink and Nicolaas & Jacob van Staphorst

Grosvenor square Jany 10 1786

Gentlemen

I am honoured with your Letter of the 23d of Decr. and remember very well my giving the Credit for a 1000£— It was to pay for swords medals &c for officers, which Coll. Humphries had orders from Congress & their Financier to have made— I informed you of it at the same time— I only gave the power to Mr. Jefferson to draw for the money as Humphry might want it, in order to multiply the checks— This Credit stands very well—

You will please to advertise for the payment of the Interest as you propose.

On the 9th. of this month I accepted a Bill of John Ledyard1 on me at 60 Day’s sight for twelve Guineas in favour of Mr. Grand dated Paris Decr. 29. 1785—indorsed by Mr. Grand to Louis Tessier. certified by Mr. Jefferson to be drawn by order of John Lamb expressed in a Letter in Mr. Jeffersons possession— on the 18th of this month I drew a Bill on Messrs. C. & R. Puller in favour of Coll. Smith for 150£ sterling to pay for a sword for the Baron De Steuben according to the order of Congress & the Board of War—

I think I have informed you before that I have accepted Bills of Mr. Barclay as far as No. 12.— Late as it is I wish you Gentlemen the Compliments of the season & have the honor to be with much esteem / Your &c

J. A

LbC in WSS’s hand (Adams Papers description begins Manuscripts and other materials, 1639–1889, in the Adams Manuscript Trust collection given to the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1956 and enlarged by a few additions of family papers since then. Citations in the present edition are simply by date of the original document if the original is in the main chronological series of the Papers and therefore readily found in the microfilm edition of the Adams Papers (APM). description ends ); internal address: “Messieurs Wilhem & Jan Willink / Nicholas & Jacob Van Staphorst”; APM Reel 113.

1. American explorer John Ledyard (1751–1789) arrived in Paris in the summer of 1785 with the objective of raising funds for a variety of schemes, most notably a plan to walk across Russia and establish a fur trade venture in the Pacific Northwest. In Sept. 1786, in JA’s absence, WSS provided Ledyard with a letter of introduction to Catherine II, to conduct a mission for “the Extension of Science and the Benefit of Mankind.” Ledyard, however, was refused admission to Russia and returned to London by May 1788 (ANB description begins John A. Garraty, Mark C. Carnes, and Paul Betz, eds., American National Biography, New York, 1999–2002; 24 vols. plus supplement; rev. edn., www.anb.org. description ends ; Jefferson’s Memorandum Books description begins Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, ed. James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton (The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series), Princeton, N.J., 1997; 2 vols. description ends , 1:611; James Zug, American Traveler: The Life and Adventures of John Ledyard, the Man Who Dreamed of Walking the World, N.Y., 2005, p. 171, 263).

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Source Project: Adams Papers
Title: From John Adams to Wilhem & Jan Willink and Nicolaas & Jacob van Staphorst, 10 January 1786
Author: Adams, John
Recipients: Willink, Wilhem & Jan (business)
Staphorst, Nicolaas & Jacob van (business)
Date: 10 January 1786

Reference

Cite as: “From John Adams to Wilhem & Jan Willink and Nicolaas & Jacob van Staphorst, 10 January 1786,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-18-02-0046. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 18, December 1785–January 1787, ed. Gregg L. Lint, Sara Martin, C. James Taylor, Sara Georgini, Hobson Woodward, Sara B. Sikes, Amanda M. Norton. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016, pp. 95–96.]