To John Adams from Thomas Digges, 28 July 1780
From Thomas Digges
Camberwell 28th July 1780
Dr. Sir
A Vessel from N York to Liverpoole which saild the 24th. June, brings advice that Clinton had got back to that quarter and gone up the No. River with 10,000 Men and several small boats.1 About a month ago an intimate friend shewd letters from that General mentioning that his intention was to try if Washingtons lines were forcible; I make no doubt this is the scheme he is upon—He will most likely look, and come back, which was the case with Him before.
The same Vessel brings an account of a smart action between the Trumbull frigate Cap. Nicholson and a Liverpoole Letter of Marque which got off.
A Passenger in a Ship from St. Eusa. to Holland who landed at the Downes and whom I saw this day at Loyds,2 told me He saild the 8th of June; on the 24th He was brought too by Adm. Graves’s fleet of 7 sail of the Line in Latitude 34= Longitude 52= about 70 Leagues NE of Bermudas. This fleet saild the 18th June in search of Terneys Squadron after which Graves enquird very eagerly.
It appears there were no accounts of that squadron on the American Coasts at least near N York, on the 24th of June.
I am your Most Ob Ser
Alexr. Williamson
RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “Monsieur Monsr. Ferdinando Raymond San negote. chez Monsr. Hocherau, Libraire Pont Neuf a Paris”; endorsed by Francis Dana: “W. S. C.’s Letter Recd. 17th. Augt: 1780.”
1. At this time Clinton moved against Connecticut Farms and Springfield, N.J., and it is probably that expedition to which the report refers. See William Churchill Houston’s letter of 11 July, and note 2 (above).
2. As a meeting place for marine underwriters, Lloyd’s dates back to 1692 and Lloyd’s Coffee House. While Lloyd’s still was referred to as a coffee house in 1780, the loose gathering of underwriters had formed itself into a society in 1770, and had been located on the northwest side of the Royal Exchange since 1774 (Henry B. Wheatley, London Past and Present: Its History, Associations, and Traditions, 3 vols., London, 1891, 2:407–408).