From John Jay to Peter Jay Munro, 26 October 1783
To Peter Jay Munro
London 26 October 1783.. Harley Street No. 30
Dear Peter
I have recd., and am pleased with, your Letter of the 16 Instant—it is well written as to Matter and Stile, and tolerably as to hand writing and spelling—in both of which however—there is still Room for Improvement.
You will learn from my Letters to your Aunt, that I have been sick, and that I am recovered. As you say nothing of your own Health, I presume it is good, and you have my best wishes that it may continue so. Inform me from Time to Time how Your Aunt and the Children do.
Your Remarks on Mongolfier’s supplying his Globe with Smoke while in the air, are just—1 have you heard whether the men who ascended with it made any Experiments on the State of the air &ca.?
Sr. James I am told is here, but I have not seen him—nor have I seen or heard from your Father, to whom my arrival must be known thro’ the Channel of the News Papers. Mr. H. White tells me, he has written Letters to Mr. VHorne2 &ca. & to your Mother, in which he refuses to let the Bristol Legacy be applied to her use— When we meet, I will tell you more of this Matter—
Present my Compts. to Mr. W. Franklin— Mr. Le Motte and your Friend Benjamin—3 I am Dear Peter Your affectionate Uncle
John Jay
P.S. I recd. the enclosed Letter for You, from Mr. White who brought it from N York.4
ALS, NNMus: Jay (EJ: 378). Addressed: “Mr. Peter Jay Munro / Passy—”
1. See above, Peter Jay Munro to JJ, 16 Oct. 1783.
2. JJ’s cousin Augustus Van Horne. No letters from Harry Munro to Van Horne or to Eve Jay Munro have been found. In his letter to SLJ of 10 Nov., JJ reported that Munro had “laid his Hands on his Wife’s Legacy.” ALS, NNC (EJ: 8038).
3. Benjamin was Benjamin Franklin Bache. Jean L’Air de Lamotte (d. 1786) was a medical student enlisted as confidential secretary by his great-uncle, the American sympathizer and agent Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg, in 1776. After Dubourg’s death in December 1779 left the young man penniless, BF brought him into his household at Passy where, like William Temple Franklin, Lamotte acted as BF’s secretary. He served from 1780 until BF’s return to America in 1785. , 31: 237 and n., 242–43, 250–51, 330–31.
4. Enclosure not found. On Henry White, see “An American in England” (editorial note), note 7; and JJ to SLJ, 26 Oct., above.