Monday 14th of August 1780.

This morning Pappa went out and at about 10 o clock [came back?]. At about 1 o clock Commodore Gillon came and we went with him to dine at a Gentleman’s house whose name is Staphouse.1 Captn. Joyner, Pappa, Commodore Gillon Brother Charles, and myself dined there. After dinner we all went on board Commodore Gillon’s ship. Pappa, Mr. Staphouse and Captn. Joyner went on foot but Commodore Gillon Brother Charles and myself went in a Carriage. We went on board the ship which is to be call’d the South Carolina. She is a ship of forty guns thirty-two 36 pounders on the main deck and 8 12 pounders on the Quarter deck. I saw Mr. Amiel on board who is first Lieutenant, I saw also Mr. Fitzgerald and Mr. Mastin, who are midshipmen on board. We stay’d there some time and after that we came back. Captn. Joyner did not return. She is a new ship and this will be her first cruize. She is a very fine Ship indeed. When we had got about as far as the statehouse we took leave of Mr. StapHouse and when we got home Commodore Gillon took leave of us. After we got home Commodore Gillon sent Pappa a Letter which came from some Gentlemen on board the Alliance.2 She was in Latt 46. D 13.M. Long 36. D 16 M.

1. Either Jacob or Nicolaas van Staphorst, brothers and partners in a banking firm. After Dutch recognition of American independence, the firm as part of a syndicate of Amsterdam bankers floated a succession of loans negotiated by JA (JA, Diary and Autobiography description begins Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols. description ends , 2:445).

2. Letter not found, but presumably from Arthur Lee, who, with his two nephews and other Americans, sailed for Boston from Lorient on the Alliance ([Boston] Continental Journal, 17 Aug.; Warren-Adams Letters description begins Warren-Adams Letters: Being Chiefly a Correspondence among John Adams, Samuel Adams, and James Warren (Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, vols. 72-73), Boston, 1917-1925; 2 vols. description ends , 2:143–144).

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Source Project: Adams Papers
Title: Monday 14th of August 1780.
Author: Adams, John Quincy
Date: 14 August 1780

Reference

Cite as: “Monday 14th of August 1780.,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/03-01-02-0002-0004-0014. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Diary of John Quincy Adams, vol. 1, November 1779 – March 1786, ed. Robert J. Taylor and Marc Friedlaender. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981, pp. 54–55.]