1. Of 31 Oct., above. Not having yet received JA’s reply and fearing that his earlier letter concerning his possible immigration to New York State had miscarried, Van der Kemp wrote again on 7 Dec. (Adams Papers description begins Manuscripts and other materials, 1639–1889, in the Adams Manuscript Trust collection given to the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1956 and enlarged by a few additions of family papers since then. Citations in the present edition are simply by date of the original document if the original is in the main chronological series of the Papers and therefore readily found in the microfilm edition of the Adams Papers (APM). description ends ). There he summarized his much longer 31 Oct. letter and asked JA to recommend an American atlas superior to Thomas Jefferys’ The American Atlas, Paris, 1776, which had been loaned to him by Jean Luzac.

2. Writing to JA on 29 Dec. 1787, following his release from prison on 19 Dec. and subsequent removal to Antwerp, Van der Kemp indicated that he had finally decided that he must leave the Netherlands for America. In his reply of 6 Jan. 1788, JA as promised sent him letters of introduction, also dated 6 Jan., to New York governor George Clinton (DLC:J.P. Morgan Papers) and to John Jay (MBU). In the letter to Clinton, JA described the “beloved” clergyman as “a gentleman of very brilliant Talents and great Merit: who is at Present Suffering Persecution for his Attachment to Liberty.”