1. Vol. 17:607–609. White replied on 28 June to thank JA for his aid in facilitating the ordination of Protestant Episcopal bishops (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 ). See also the Episcopal convention’s 24 June vote of thanks to JA, enclosed with David Griffith’s 26 June letter, both below.

White’s 26 Nov. 1785 letter was carried by Richard Peters (1744–1828), University of Pennsylvania 1761, a Philadelphia lawyer, judge, and farmer. Peters served on the Continental Board of War from 1776 to 1781 and was elected to Congress in 1782. In 1785, he visited Europe to promote Episcopal ordination (AFC description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Richard Alan Ryerson, Margaret A. Hogan, and others, Cambridge, 1963– . description ends , 7:46; DAB description begins Allen Johnson, Dumas Malone, and others, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, New York, 1928–1936; repr. New York, 1955–1980; 10 vols. plus index and supplements. description ends ). For a memorable evening at Dolly’s chophouse during his visit to London, see the [ca. 21 March 1786] letter from himself, WSS, and Thomas Jefferson, below.

2. As John Moore, archbishop of Canterbury, requested in his 27 Feb. letter (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 ), JA enclosed a 24 Feb. letter from English prelates to the delegates of the American Episcopal Protestant Church’s first general convention. They pledged to make a legal appeal to aid Americans seeking ordination. Alarmed by talk of proposed American alterations to the liturgy, however, they pressed for details “lest we should be the instruments of establishing an ecclesiastical system which will be called a branch of the Church of England, but afterwards may possibly appear to have departed from it essentially, either in doctrine or in discipline” (William White, Memoirs of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, N.Y., 1880, p. 353–354).