To John Adams from Thomas Brand Hollis, 6 September 1787
From Thomas Brand Hollis
The Hide Thursday 6 Septem. 1787.
Dear Sir
I had the pleasure to receive your favor this morning shall be very happy to receive you & mrs Adams your own day tuesday 11th:
pray tell Col Smith I will not say one word about the conditions of his visit but shall be glad to see him & his Lady on his own terms. these Americans will have their own way and so let them.
if it was possible I should be glad to see Jennings with you. however we will meet in town.
I am perfectly satisfied without reading more.
I know not how the date escaped me but beleive it was last friday the post mark will show it if necessary.
The preface to Bellendenus, a scarce book almost forgot, will entertain you it is the subject of conversation & cried up by opposition. The Author I know, is a clergyman very sensible & one of the first greek scholars but between ourselves an Apostate in civil & religious matters.1
The American Spirit is up in France Holland & Brabant & I hope in Peru may it live.2
Adieu, till I see you & Mrs Adams here in perfect health & good spirit. / I am Dear Sir / with great regard / your sincere Friend
T. Brand Hollis.
RC (Adams Papers).
1. English schoolmaster Samuel Parr (1747–1825), of Harrow on the Hill, was curate of Hatton, England. Parr wrote a Latin preface, Praefatio ad Bellendenum, to the Scottish professor William Bellenden’s (ca. 1550–1633) treatises, which included the unfinished piece De tribus luminibus romanorum. The entire work was published as Gulielmi bellendeni magistri supplicum libellorum augusti regis magnæ britanniæ, &c. de statu libri tres, London, 1787 ().
2. Hollis referred to the 1780–1783 Andean rebellion against Spanish administrative and fiscal reforms. The revolt was led by Juan Gabriel Condorcanqui, who proclaimed himself Inca Túpac Amaru II in 1780 (J. H. Elliot, Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America, 1492–1830, New Haven, 2006, p. 355, 356, 358).