Benjamin Franklin Papers
Documents filtered by: Author="Adams, John" AND Recipient="Franklin, Benjamin"
sorted by: author
Permanent link for this document:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-35-02-0072

To Benjamin Franklin from John Adams, 25 May 1781

From John Adams

Copy: Massachusetts Historical Society

Amsterdam May 25. 1781

Sir

I have the Honour to Advise you, that I have this day drawn four setts of Bills of Exchange, of two in each sett, for Ten thousand Livres Tournois each, payable to the order of Captain Joyner Commodore Gillon not being yet arrived, and this sum being represented to me by Major Jackson absolutely necessary for the present Use of the ship.1 I applied to the House of Fizeaux & Grand, to negotiate this Business, but they declined it on account of the long term of Six months sight for Payment. I have the Honour to be, &c

His Excellency Benjamin Franklin Esqr &c

1On April 28 Gillon had been in Paris signing an agreement to sell the cargo of the frigate South Carolina to John Laurens: XXXIV, 581n. Maj. William Jackson, Laurens’ agent, preceded Gillon to Amsterdam, as the South Carolina commodore first went to Dunkirk to oversee the sending of crewmen to the ship. The South Carolina at present was in the roadstead of the Texel under the temporary command of Capt. John Joyner of the S.C. Navy: Gillon to Jean de Neufville, May 7, 1781 (National Archives); D.E. Huger Smith, “Commodore Alexander Gillon and the Frigate South Carolina,” S.C. Hist. and Gen. Mag., IX (1908), 202.

Index Entries