From John Jay to Sarah Livingston Jay, 26 October 1783
To Sarah Livingston Jay
London Harley Street No. 30—
26 October 1783—
My dear Sally
I have had the Pleasure of recieving your Letters of the 15 & 17th. Instant,1 & thank You for them. Since my arrival here I have written twice to You—one of those Letters informed You of my having been taken ill of a Dysentery, & of my being then far recovered.—2 All Remains of that Disorder are now removed; and I find myself as well as when I left You. I have consulted Doctr. Warren3 (the Physician who attended me during my late Sickness, & who is at the Head of his Profession here) about the Pain in my Breast, and the Propriety of taking the Bath Waters for it— He tells me that Pain does not arise from the Lungs—that the Waters of Bath may be safely used, but that altho I may expect some Good from them, yet that Exercise & Relaxation from all Business which requires much Thought and application, can alone compleat the Cure—
The Duration of my absence will be entirely regulated by the object which occasioned it—vizt. the Recovery of my Health—if that was out of Question, I should immediately return; for I assure ^you^ the Charms, ^neither^ of this Country, nor indeed of any other, are not sufficiently powerful to detain me from You.
On my arrival here I took private Lodgings— Mr Bingham & Mr Vaughan insisted on my going with them— The former reminded me of his Invitation when at Paris, and of my not having refused to accept it. The latter pressed me in the most friendly Manner to take a Room with him— Mr Bingham’s Invitation being prior and Mrs. Vaughan being ready to lay in,4 I removed to Mr Bingham’s— I fear our friend Vaughan is not quite pleased
Lord Shelbourne has sent me an Invitation to pass some Days with him at his Country House— I think it is situated between this and Bath; so that the acceptance of this Invitation will be convenient as well as agreable.
Mr and Mrs. Ricketts5 are here—they dine with us Tomorrow so that my next will probably tell you more about them—
Mr. H. White purposes to send his eldest Son6 (whom he has educated at Hamburgh, but who is now here) to France, in order to perfect him in the Language— He expects to go to St. Quintins thro’ paris, and will probably set out from here with me. His Stay at Paris He is about twenty Years old, & a well looking young man. His Stay at Paris will be only for a few Days, and all things considered, I think it best that he should pass them with us.
Don’t be in too great a Hurry to remove to your House—unless it should be in order to recieve You, your Residence in it will not be comfortable, at least for some Time—the first or second Week in Novr. would be early enough—
Does Maria begin to talk yet? Mrs. Bingham has a little Girl of twenty months that prattles cleverly.7 I hope Nancy is not too much for You. Unless your appetite continues you should cease to nurse her— My Compts. to our Friends— I am my dear Sally Your very afft. Husband—
John Jay
P.S. It turns out that Mr Carter8 was driven by Bankrupcy to America, his true name was Church, which (the better to conceal himself) he changed for Carter. The Fortune he has made enables him to settle with his Creditors, and assume his former name. I hear he has done both. He has a rich Uncle to whom he has also reconciled himself—perhaps you had better appear ignorant of this affair till you hear more abt. it—read this postscript to Doctr. Franklin—
ALS, NNC (EJ: 8036).
2. JJ to SLJ, 15 Oct. 1783, ALS, NNC (EJ: 8034; 641) contains news of his arrival; his 18 Oct. 1783 letter, DftS, NNC (EJ: 8035), reports his bouts with dysentery.
3. Cambridge-educated Dr. Richard Warren (1731–97) became physician in ordinary to King George III in 1763. William Munk, The Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London (3 vols.; London, 1878), 2: 242–47.
4. The Vaughans were expecting their second child, Sarah, who was born on 28 Feb. 1784.
5. SLJ’s first cousin Sarah Livingston Ricketts (1755–1825), daughter of Peter Van Brugh Livingston, and her husband Captain James Ricketts (1753–1824) of the 60th Regiment of Royal Americans. , 549–50.
6. Henry White, the Loyalist husband of JJ’s first cousin Eva Van Cortlandt White, sailed for England in 1783, leaving his wife behind in New York City. Their eldest son, Henry White Jr. (1763–1822), returned to New York with the Jays in 1784, and over time recovered portions of the family’s confiscated estates. See JJ to the President of Congress, 25 July 1784, note 2; and JJ to Henry Oothoudt, Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, Christopher Yates’ Commissioners of Forfeitures for the Western District, 5 Sept. 1784, note 2, below. On the family members, see , 3: 1409–10.
7. Ann Louisa Bingham, born on 6 Jan. 1782.
8. See Philip Schuyler to JJ, 1 July 1783, above.