To John Adams from John Bowring, 27 February 1788

From John Bowring

Exeter 27 Feby. 1788

Sir,

Seeing in the Gazette of Saturday last that you had taken leave of his Majesty, & presuming you are soon about to return to America, I should feel myself wanting in gratitude was I not to avail myself of an opportunity before your departure of expressing the obligations I was lain under by the distinguished respect I received when you visited this part of the Country,1 very heartily Sir do I now return Thanks to you Mrs. Adams, & Mrs. Smith for your condescending Visit. I heartily wish you a safe pleasant & prosporous Voyage, & happy meeting of the other dear parts of your Family & Friends in America; that you may find your Country in perfect tranquility & its Liberty’s both Civil & Religious settled on an immovable Basis is my more than most hearty Wish.

It gives me much concern to inform you that Mr. Andrew Cranch died 16 Decr last., & that I am this moment informed of the death of Mr. William Cranch at Brook near Kingsbridge.—2 If the great concerns you are engaged in before you leave this Country will give you a few moments leisure to favor me with a line in reply I cannot express how much honor & pleasure it will afford to / Sir / Your most respectful & obliged humble Servant—

John Bowring

PS. Please to present all my Family’s most tender & affectionate Regards to all our dear American Relatives & Friends, & inform Mr. R. Cranch I have been long in expectation of hearing from him, to whom I wish every consolation he may want when he is acquainted with the awful bereavements of his poor antient Brothers.

RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “To the Honorable John Adams / Ambassador from the United States / of America. / London”; internal address: “To the Honorable John Adams”; endorsed: “J Bowríng / 88—”; notation by AA: “Clothier.”

1. Clothier John Bowring was a business partner of Christopher Cranch’s and had met the Adamses during their tour of southwestern England the previous summer (AFC description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Richard Alan Ryerson, Margaret A. Hogan, Sara Martin, and others, Cambridge, 1963– . description ends , 8:161).

2. For Andrew and William Cranch, Richard’s brothers, see JA, D&A description begins Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols. description ends , 3:207–210. With JA away in Amsterdam, AA replied to this letter on [ante 30 March], acknowledging the family’s losses and complimenting Bowring on “Integrity of Character, your industry merit & virtue” (AFC description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Richard Alan Ryerson, Margaret A. Hogan, Sara Martin, and others, Cambridge, 1963– . description ends , 8:249).

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Source Project: Adams Papers
Title: To John Adams from John Bowring, 27 February 1788
Author: Bowring, John
Recipient: Adams, John
Date: 27 February 1788

Reference

Cite as: “To John Adams from John Bowring, 27 February 1788,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-19-02-0202. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 19, February 1787–May 1789, ed. Sara Georgini, Sara Martin, R. M. Barlow, Amanda M. Norton, Neal E. Millikan, and Hobson Woodward. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016, pp. 278–279.]