From John Jay to Sarah Livingston Jay, 14 November 1783
To Sarah Livingston Jay
London 14 Novr. 1783—
My dear Sally
However my Letters may be short and unentertaining, you will I am sure give me Credit for Punctuality, especially if you recieve as many from the Post office as I send to it— The last I had the Pleasure of recieving from You was dated the 4th. Inst—1 As Mr Johnson lives at the Distance of three miles from me, I think it wd. be best to direct your Letters to me at Mr. Binghams No. 30, Harley Street. I dined with Mr. Johnson Yesterday in Company with many of our Countrymen— Mr. & Mrs. Johnson2 present their Compts. to you and offer to execute any Commissions with which you may at any Time find it convenient to charge them. They are prettily settled here and seem to be both happy & hospitable—
I have Invitations to pass some time in the Country with Mr Baker & Mr Penn,3 but am too anxious to be with you again, to avail myself of the Civilities of those and many other Gentlemen of this Country. I was Yesterday at the Royal Society4 & afterwards spent the Evening with the Club of honest Whigs,5 at the Head of which is the celebrated Doctr. Price—6 Their first Toast was their absent Member Dr. Franklin of whom they spoke with Great Respect and affection—
America has many excellent Friends in England, and I may also say, many implacable Enemies. This People is immersed in Pleasure, and yet very far from being happy a Stranger finds among them much to commend and much to blame— Nothing has as yet exceeded my Expectations, and I shall probably return to America fully persuaded that Europe collectively considered has is far less estimable than America.
My Throat continues exactly the same— I shall probably set out for Bath on Wednesday next— Remember me to all our Friends— I long to be with You— God bless you my Dear Wife— I am your very afft. Husband
John Jay
P.S. Littlepage is here—for what purpose I know not—
ALS, marked “No. 9”, NNC (EJ: 8039).
2. Joshua and Catherine Nuth Johnson.
3. William Baker and Richard Penn.
4. JJ, JA, John Quincy Adams, and Benajmin Vaughan were all “strangers” who attended the Royal Society on 13 Nov. 1783. JJ and John Quincy Adams were presented by Dr. Richard Price, Royal Society Journal Book, 1783, 416, UKLoRS. Founded in London in 1660 and granted a royal charter in 1662, the Royal Society is Great Britain’s oldest scientific organization. The society conducted extensive overseas correspondence, and between 1663 and 1783 elected 53 fellows from the British North American colonies. At the time of JJ’s visit, the society’s meetings were held at Somerset House. Margery Purver, The Royal Society: Concept and Creation (Cambridge, Mass., 1967), 235–38; Raymond P. Stearns, Science in the British Colonies of America (Urbana, Ill., 1970), 106–14.
5. The Club of Honest Whigs, one of the many informal London supper clubs of the time, was noted for its liberal politics, including among its members the Unitarian clergyman and chemist Dr. Joseph Priestley (1733–1804), scientist and inventor John Canton (1718–72), Benjamin Franklin, and Dr. Richard Price. Verner W. Crane, “The Club of Honest Whigs: Friends of Science and Liberty,” 23 (1966): 210–33.
6. Dr. Richard Price (1723–91), the dissenting minister and author of moral and political tracts, including Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty, the Principles of Government, and the Justice and Policy of the War with America (1776).