From John Adams to John Cranch, 31 January 1784
To John Cranch
The Hague January 31. 1784
Sir
Your Favour of the Seventeenth of this Month, was delivered to me, last night.— I left London on the third of this Month1 So that your kind Present of Game, afforded a Regall, to Mr Stockdale in Piccadilly, but I am not less obliged to you for it, than if I had been so fortunate as to receive it myself.— I beg you sir to accept my Sincere Thanks for it.
As the Nephew of my most valuable Brother Cranch I should have been happy to have met you in England. if the Time would have permitted, I should have wished to have made an Excursion to that Part of England where the Relations of my Friend Mr Palmer and those of my Brother reside.2 and if you sir, or any of your Friends should travail in Holland, I should be very glad to see them at the Hague.
I Should esteem it, as a favour if you would Send me a Copy of the Letter you allude to from Casco Bay.3 You may Address your Letter to me, at the Hague, by the Post.
I am, with great Regard for yourself and / your Connections, Sir your most obedient / and obliged humble servant
LbC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mr John Cranch / an Attorney at Axminster / in Devonshire.”; APM Reel 107.
1. According to JQA’s 13 Jan. letter to Peter Jay Munro (NNMus), he and his father left London at seven o’clock on the morning of 2 January.
2. JA, AA, and AA2 would visit the Cranch and Palmer relatives, including John and Joseph Cranch and John Palmer, in 1787. See , 3:203–210; , 8:175–176.
3. For this letter from Thomas Hopkins, which Cranch enclosed with his reply of 11 Feb. (Adams Papers), see Cranch’s letter of 17 Jan., note 3, above.