[Personal Expenditures, February–July 1780.]
[from the Diary of John Adams]

[Personal Expenditures, February–July 1780.1]

The Dates of Receipts, by whom given and for what Sums.
1780			£	s	d
Feby.	13th.	Joseph Stevens for three Month Wages. 30 Dolls.2	150:	0:	0
	15th.	John Thaxter for thirty Louis D’Ors on Account	720:	0:	0
	15th.	Joseph Stevens for Sundries bo’t	31:	4:	0
	14th.	C. Hochereau for Books	19:	10:	0
	16.	Mr. Morbut for Bread & Butter	10:	16:	0
	19.	Auris for Hats	63:	0:	0
	21st.	De Montigny for Courier de L’Europe, & Hague Gazette	84:	0:	0
	21st.	Arnoux for Gazette de France	12:	0:	0
	21st.	Panckoucks, for Mercure de France	30:	0:	0
	26th.	Montagne for Cheese, Prunes &c.	39:	2:	0
March	2	Dinner at Versailles	12:	4:	0
	6	De Montigny for the Gazettes of Leide and Amsterdam	78:	0:	0
		Books	82:	10:	0
	8.	Hill for Cloaths	681:	15:	0
		Hochereau for Books	17:	6:	0
	9.	Mad[am]e Ruel the Traiteur for Provisions	400:	0:	0
		Mademoiselle Carnu for Handkerfs. Ruffles & Stocks	154:	10:	0
		Joseph Stevens for one Month’s Wages ending 13th. of March	50:	0:	0
		Miston (Peruquier) for Wigs and dressing	67:	4:	0
		St. Clair (Caffee) for Tea, Milk, Bread and Butter	78:	1:	0
		Joseph Stevens for Sundries bo’t	55:	10:	0
		Coquelle for Washing, Postage of Letters &c.	27:	10:	0

		Parmentiers for Rent of his House, Wood & Wine	542:	14:	0
		John Thaxter for ten Louis D’Ors on Acct.	240:	0:	0
		Washerwoman	2:	10:	0
		Pacquenot for Wine	26:	0:	0
		John Thaxter for Tea and Sugar	21:	15:	0
		Griffon For Books and Paper	61:	2:	0
		Omitted, paid Mr. Dana for one Dozen of Tea Spoons	95:	6:	8
	13th.	Gouyot for Carriage and Horses one month	360:	0:	0
	13th.	Gerante for two Pieces of Wine	250:	0:	0
	10.	Paid for half a Dozen Stocks, @ 3:10:0	21:	0:	0
		De la vals Rect for Tea, Sugar, Raisins Candles and Flambeau	28:	14:	0
		Backelier Epicier for Dutch Cheese	4:	1:	0
	11	Paid Subscription for the Philosophicand politic History of the two Indies3	24:	0:	0
	12	Paid for M. Moreaus Discourses on the History of France 9. Vol.4	41:	0:	0
	17.	Paid Mazars for Shoes and Boots	54:	0:	0
		Paid for Sewing Silk 6 Ozs.	18:	0:	0
		Paid for the hire of a Carriage three Days & Coachman	39:	12:	0
	19	Hochereau for Books—Theatre D’Education 4 Vol. bound	24:	0:	0
		Dto. for Postage of a Letter	1:	0:	0
		Paid for the American Atlas, Pilot &c. in one Volume5 4 1/2 Louis	108:	0:	0
		Paid the Abbè Chalut[’s] Servt. for Corks, Shot & bottleing Wine	7:	10:	0
	20	Paid for four Quires of Cartridge Paper	10:	0:	0
		Paid Piebot Epicier, for Tea, Sugar &c.	21:	10:	6
		Paid Hochereau Bookseller, 30 Louis D’ors, towards the Payment for La Description des Arts et Metiers, in 18 Volumes in Folio, for which I was to give him 750 Liv. and for the Encyclopedia in 39 Volumes in Quarto for which I was to give him 360 Livres6	720:	0:	0
	21	Paid Pissot for a Grammar of french Verbs, and for Nugents Dictionary7	7:	10:	0
		Paid for two Pair of black Silk Stockings one Louis D’or.	24:	0:	0
		Paid for a Purse	3:	0:	0
	22d.	Paid Pissot for another Grammar of French Verbs	3:	0:	0
		Paid Dto. for The Abbè de Mablys Droits public L’Europe8	6:	0:	0
		Paid the Coachman for three day’s driving	3:	12:	0
	23	Paid Daniel, Engraver for two Seals	42:	0:	0
		Paid Mr. Langlois for Carriage three Days	36:	0:	0
	24	Paid for 6 yds. Silk 6 Liv. each and 2 oz black sewing Silk, —Fleury	42:	0:	0
	29	Paid for the Works of Tacitus with a French Transn.9	21:	0:	0
		Paid for the Latin Dicty. of Robert Stephens10	48:	0:	0
		Paid for the Eulogium of M: Colbert by Mr. Neckar	1:	16:	0
		Paid for the Journal of Paris	24:	0:	0
		Paid for Domats civil Law 26. Liv. and the Voyage Pitoresque de Paris et des Environs 811	34:	0:	0
April	1.	Paid for two Trunks £ 40 for a large one and 12 for the Small	52:	0:	0
	2	Paid for Duties and Waggonage of a Cask of old red wine of Tonnere. Feuillette de vieux vin rouge de Tonnere.	39:	16:
	4	Paid for Chocolat Wine &c.	20:	9:	0
	5.	Paid for Tea, Almonds &c.	23:	3:	9
	6.	Paid Hochereau for Books. D’Aguesseau, Cochin and Dictionaire D’Histoire naturell.12	647:	0:	0
		Paid Hill the Tayler one Bill	144:	10:	0
		another	223:	0:	0
	7.	Paid Chevr. O’Gormon for a Piece of Wine	150:	0:	0
		Paid for Raynals Works and a Voyage thro France13	24:	0:	0
	7.	Paid for 2 Pieces d’Indien and for Ruffles Necks &c.	153:	0:	0
	9	Paid for Dictionaire de l’orthographie14	7:	0:	0
	10	Paid for Caffees Account for the last Month	18:	13:	0
		Paid Hochereaus Account for Books	188:	0:	0
	12.	Paid for the House Rent and furniture, Bottles, Wine &c.	576:	17:	0
		Paid Pacquenot for Wine	10:	0:	0
		Paid Dalley the Baker	15:	0:	0
		Paid Coquelle the Washerwoman	9:	0:	0
		Paid Do. for Postage of Letters	23:	18:	0
		Paid J. Thaxter on Account	240:	0:	0
		Paid Do. for Money lent	26:	8:	0
		Paid Joseph Stevens one Months Wages ending the 13th. of April	52:	10:	0
		Paid Do. for Sundries bo’t by him	60:	1:	6
		Paid Ruelle Traiteur	428:	0:	0
	13	Paid Hochereau for the Corps diplomatique &c.15	940:	0:	0
	15	Paid Piebot for Cheese & Tea	56:	13:	6
	20	Paid for two Pair of Black Silk Stockings	24:	0:	0
	26	Paid for 30 days hire of the Coach, Horses, Coachman &. 15 Louis	360:	0:	0
		Sent by Captn. C. to Mr. D.16 in London to pay for Pamphlets &c. 4 Louis	096:	0:	0
		Gave my Son to pay for La Fontaines Fables17 and for his Brother & S. Cooper at the Comedy	6:	0:	0
		Paid for La Fontaines Fables for Charles	2:	10:	0

	28	Paid for Singing Birds and Cages	35:	10:	0
May	1	Gave at Biçetre, the bedlam of Paris18	9:	0:	0
	2	Paid for a Pound of black sealing Wax, a Pound of red, and a blank Letter Book	22:	0:	0
		Paid Subscription for the Journal des Scavans19	16:	0:	0
	5	Paid Dt. for Annales Politiques, Civiles, et literaires20	48:	0:	0
		Paid the Garçon	1:	4:	0
		Paid for 6 Bottles of white Wine	4:	10:	0
	15	Paid Ruel Traiteur to 10 May	423:	15:	0
		House	432:	0:	0
		Joseph Stevens	171:	12:	0
		Denis Wages and Dinners	68:	8:	0
		Bread	15:	0:	0
		Postage &c.	44:	9:	0
		Mr. Thaxter	240:	0:	0
		Stephens’s Wages ending 13 May	52:	10:	0
		Marchande de Vin, Garante	180:	0:	0
		To Caffees Account	2:	9:	0
		Settled with Mr. Dana so far.
	17	Paid Mr. Pechini’s Account for my Sons John and Charles,21	980:	10:	0
	19	Paid Mr. Court de Gebelin,22 for Subscription for his Greek Dictionary and the Seventh Volume of his Monde primitif and a Thermometer of Raumur	31:	10:	0
	20	Paid the Coach Hire for a Month ending the 17th. 15 Louis and for a pair of additional Horses to go to Versailles on the Day of Pentecote 18 liv.	378:	0:	0
	27	Paid for the Carriage of a Box of Newspapers and pamphlets from London	9:	6:	0
		Paid for the Cariage of an hoghead and Case of Bordeaux Wine, and the Duties on the Road	99:	10:	0

	30	Paid the Duties for the Entry into Paris	57:	13:	0
June	1	Paid Cabaret for three Reams of Paper and two Ivory Knives	52:	0:	0
	9	Paid for Spoons &c—Mr. Taillepied	823:	0:	0
	19	Paid for the Waggonage of three Trunks from Brest	72:	0:	0
	21	Paid for the Coach to the 16 June 15 Louis	360:	0:	0
	26	Paid for Washing	8:	12:	0
	28	Paid Paule Tailors Account	644:	0:	0
		Paid Mr. Tyler a Bill of Exchange drawn upon me by Mrs. Adams in favour of Thomas Bumstead & by him inclosed to Mr. John Tyler—100 dollars	535:	0:	0
July	1	Paid for 12 Ells of Cambrick @ 10 Liv.	120:	0:	0
	7	Paid Mr. Borzachini for 2 Italian Grammars and 11 Lessons	60:	0:	0
		Paid for a Piece of Cambrick 12 Ells & 1/2	120:	0:	0
	8	Paid Molini for Baretti’s Italien Dictionary	48:	0:	0
		Dellitti e Pene	3:
		Grammatica Del Buomattei23	9:	0:	0
	17	Paid for Linen	67:	10:	0
		Paid for 6 Bottles of Liqueur	27:	0:	0
		[In margin:] Settled with Mr. Dana
	19	Paid Porters Bill for Postage of Letters &c.	112:	7:	0
	26	Paid for a months Coach hire	360:	0:	0
	27	Paid Mr. Pechini one Quarter for my two Sons	650:	18:	0
	28	Paid Taylors Account	170:	18:	6
	6	Paid Joseph Stevens’s Account	100:	19:	0

1. From Lb/JA/34 (Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 122), a folio ledger with a trade card inside the front cover reading: “A la Tête Noire, Furgault, Marchand de Papiers, A l’entrée de la rue de Richelieu, près des QuinzeVingts,... à Paris.” Following eight pages of accounts, which are at first in Thaxter’s hand, including the caption, and afterward in both JA’s and Thaxter’s hands, the volume contains copies of JA’s letters of a much later period, May 1814 — Nov. 1816.

2. This entry indicates that the exchange rate between the Spanish dollar and the French livre tournois was one to five, at least for purposes of common reckoning.

3. By Abbé Raynal; see Diary entry of 2 Feb. 1779 and note there.

4. Jacob Nicolas Moreau, Principes de morale, de politique et de droit public ... ou discours sur I’histoire de France, Paris, 1777–1779; 9 vols. (Catalogue of JA’s Library description begins Catalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917. description ends ).

5. Atlas amériquain septentrional contenant les détails des différentes provinces, de ce vaste continent ..., Paris, 1778. Pilote américain ..., Paris, 1779; 2 vols. in 1. Both of these collections were French reissues of English works and were published by Lerouge, under whose name they are entered in Catalogue of JA’s Library description begins Catalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917. description ends .

6. This entry records JA’s acquisition of two of the major works of French scholarship of the era. The first was Descriptions des arts et métiers, faites ou approuvées par Messieurs de l’Academic royale des sciences, Paris, 1761–1788; 113 cahiers, folio. JA’s set, bound in 18 vols., was nearly but not quite complete, only a few parts being published after 1779. He presented it to Harvard College on 5 June 1789, and it is now in the Houghton Library. See Arthur H. Cole and George B. Watts, The Handicrafts of France as Recorded in the Descriptions des Arts et Metiers 1761–1788, Boston, 1952, for a history and appraisal of this work and a record of sets in American libraries. The second work was the Diderot-d’Alembert Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des metiers, par une société de gens de lettres, 3d edn., Geneva, &c., 1778–1779, of which JA’s nearly complete set in 38 vols. survives among his books in the Boston Public Library (Catalogue of JA’s Library description begins Catalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917. description ends , p. 74); see also Harvard Library Bull., 9:235 (Spring 1955).

7. The Catalogue of JA’s Library description begins Catalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917. description ends lists Les verbes francois ... en forme de dictionnaire, by Demarville, London, 1773, but only a later edition of Thomas Nugent, The New Pocket Dictionary of the French and English Languages ..., London, 1781.

8. The Catalogue of JA’s Library description begins Catalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917. description ends lists two sets of Mably, Le droit public de l’Europe ..., the first published at Amsterdam in 2 vols., 1748, the second at Geneva in 3 vols., 1776. On Mably see Diary entry of 29 May 1778, above, and note there.

9. Traduction complette de Tacite, Paris, 1777–1779; 7 vols.; Latin and French texts (Catalogue of JA’s Library description begins Catalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917. description ends ).

10. Robert Estienne, Thesaurus linguae latinae in IV tomos divisus ..., Basel, 1740–1743; 4 vols., folio (Catalogue of JA’s Library description begins Catalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917. description ends ).

11. For Domat see Diary entry of 24 June 1779, above, and note 3 there. For the Voyage pittoresque de Paris and Voyage pittoresque des environs de Paris, frequently cited in notes above, see Catalogue of JA’s Library description begins Catalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917. description ends , p. 73.

12. Aguesseau and Cochin were legal writers; see Catalogue of JA’s Library description begins Catalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917. description ends , p. 8–9, 54. The Dictionnaire raisonné universel d’histoire naturelle, Paris, 1775, in 6 vols., was by Valmont de Bomare (same, p. 253).

13. Probably J. A. Piganiol de La Force, Nouveau voyage de France; avec un itinéraire, et des cartes ..., nouv. édn., Paris, 1780 (Catalogue of JA’s Library description begins Catalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917. description ends ).

14. [Charles Le Roy,] Traité de Vorthographe françoise, en forme de dietionaire, nouv. edn., Poitiers, 1775 (Catalogue of JA’s Library description begins Catalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917. description ends ).

15. Jean Dumont, comp., Corps universel diplomatique du droit des gens; contenant un recueil des traitez d’alliance, de paix, de trève, de neutralité, decommerce, d’éhange ..., Amsterdam, 1726–1739; 14 vols. in 15, folio (Catalogue of JA’s Library description begins Catalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917. description ends ).

16. Doubtless Thomas Digges, on whom see Diary entry of 20 April 1778 and note 2, above; also 4 Dec. 1782, note 1, below.

17. There are copies of La Fontaine’s Fables choisies, mises en vers, listed in both the Catalogue of JA’s Library description begins Catalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917. description ends and in Boston Athenaeum, Catalogue of JQA’s Books. description begins Worthington C. Ford, ed., A Catalogue of the Books of John Quincy Adams Deposited in the Boston Athenaeum. With Notes on Books, Adams Seals and Book-Plates, by Henry Adams, Boston, 1938. description ends Probably one of these belonged to CA, who, as the next entry in these accounts suggests, wanted a copy of his own.

18. Described at length in JA to AA, 5 May 1780 (Adams Papers).

19. JA acquired five volumes of the Journal des sçavans (Catalogue of JA’s Library description begins Catalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917. description ends , p. 132). On this day also, according to a separate and fragmentary record of book purchases elsewhere in the present letterbook, he bought “14 Exemplaires Loix de l’Amerique,” paying 35 livres for them. This was a work entitled Recueil des loix constitutives des colonies angloises, confédéréés sous la dénomination d’Etats-Unis de l’Amérique-Septentrionale ..., Paris, 1778, compiled by one Regnier from the texts of the state constitutions and other American state papers that had appeared in the Affaires de l’Angleterre et de l’Amérique. Its curious bibliographical history has been related by Gilbert Chinard in Amer. Philos. Soc, Year Book 1943, p. 89–96. Five copies remain among JA’s books in the Boston Public Library, one of them bearing MS notes in his hand.

20. “Dt.” probably means “ditto,” but JA’s copy of the Annales has not been found.

21. Spelled by JQA, probably more correctly, Pechigny. He and his wife conducted the boarding school in Passy in which the Adams boys were placed. JQA wrote engagingly about his school work in a letter to his father without date [ante 17 March 1780] and in another to his cousin, William Cranch, 17 March 1780 (both in Adams Papers).

22. See entry of 30 Oct. 1778, above, and note.

23. Copies of Baretti’s Dictionary of the English and Italian Languages ..., new edn., London, 1771, in 2 vols., and Beccaria’s Dei delitti e delle pene, Haarlem and Paris, 1780, remain among JA’s books in the Boston Public Library (Catalogue of JA’s Library description begins Catalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917. description ends ). The Grammatica here mentioned may or may not be Buommattei’s Delia lingua toscana ... libre due, 5th edn., Florence, 1760, which is listed in the Catalogue.

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Source Project: Adams Papers
Title: [Personal Expenditures, February–July 1780.]
Author: Adams, John
Date: 13 February 1780 – 28 July 1780

Reference

Cite as: “[Personal Expenditures, February–July 1780.] ,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/01-02-02-0010-0003-0001. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, vol. 2, 1771–1781, ed. L. H. Butterfield. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1961, pp. 435–442.]