MS (PPAmP: Franklin Papers); LbC (Adams Papers). The accounts printed here cover the first four and one-half months of JA’s residence at Passy and are taken from the account book kept by William Temple Franklin from 16 Jan. 1777 to 24 Aug. 1778. Because of JA’s concern about the Commissioners’ expenses at Passy, which was first expressed in a letter to Benjamin Franklin of [6] Sept. (LbC, Adams Papers, not sent) and probably then taken up in private conversations, Temple Franklin delivered the account book to JA on the morning of 13 Sept. with the understanding that JA would keep the accounts in the future. JA copied Temple Franklin’s figures into a Letterbook and then, with an entry for 1 Oct., began keeping the household accounts. No entries for the period from 24 Aug. to 1 Oct. have been found, apparently because during that period JA and Franklin were discussing the future form and content of the accounts (JA to Franklin, 22 Sept., LbC; Franklin to JA, 26 Sept., Adams Papers). For a complete picture of JA’s and the Commissioners’ expenses, the household accounts should be compared with the Commissioners’ public accounts printed elsewhere in this volume under the dates of 30 March, 30 June, and 9 Aug., as well as with JA’s personal accounts in Diary and Autobiography description begins Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols. description ends , 2:325–342.