Adams Papers
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To John Adams from Sir Herbert Croft, 5 February 1788

From Herbert Croft

No. 36, Wigmore Stt. Cavendish Square. Feby. 5. [1788]

Mr. Croft takes the liberty to present his compliments to Mr. Adams.1 His friend Mr. Shippen was to have done him the honour of introducing him to Mr. Adams, but, upon asking after Mr. S., it seems that he has left this country for France.2 Mr. C. hears also that Mr. Adams returns soon to America.

If Mr. Adams would condescend so far as to afford Mr. C. an opportunity of explaining the new dictionary, on which he is employed, of the language spoken in Great Britain & America, which Mr. S. has probably mentioned; Mr. Adams will confer no common favour on Mr C. & may possibly hear something to gratify his friends in America. Mr. C. would be happy in the honour of waiting upon Mr. Adams, or of meeting him any day at Mr. Stockdale’s.

RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “recd & ansd. 11. Feb.”

1. Sir Herbert Croft (1751–1816), a lawyer and lexicographer, of Dunster Park, Berk shire, England, toiled over a proposed English dictionary that would amend portions of Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, London, 1755. By 1787, Croft’s labors tallied 200 quarto volumes, but he abandoned the project to pursue more lucrative literary objectives (DNB description begins Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, eds., The Dictionary of National Biography, New York and London, 1885–1901; repr. Oxford, 1959–1960; 21 vols. plus supplements; rev. edn., www.oxforddnb.com. description ends ).

2. Bearing a 9 Jan. 1788 letter of introduction from WSS, Thomas Lee Shippen arrived in Paris in early February. He stayed at the Hotel de Langeac and was presented at the Versailles court by “that best of men Mr. Jefferson” (Jefferson, Papers description begins The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, James P. McClure, and others, Princeton, N.J., 1950– . description ends , 12:501, 502; 13:7).

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    Adams Papers
    Title
    To John Adams from Sir Herbert Croft, 5 February 1788
    Author
    Croft, Sir Herbert
    Recipient
    Adams, John
    Date
    5 February 1788

    Reference

    Cite as
    “To John Adams from Sir Herbert Croft, 5 February 1788,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-19-02-0191. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 19, February 1787–May 1789, ed. Sara Georgini, Sara Martin, R. M. Barlow, Amanda M. Norton, Neal E. Millikan, and Hobson Woodward. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016, p. 266.]