To Thomas Jefferson from John Trumbull, 18 January 1789
From John Trumbull
London January 18th. 1789.
Dear Sir
The last of your favors with which I have been honor’d is of Novr. 26th. since when I have written you twice, and early in the last Month. I forwarded by the Diligence a Case containing your Harness, some books, paper &c. &c. which I hope have come safe to your hands.
Mr. Parker setts off for Paris tomorrow. The weather and Roads unluckily are extremely dirty, but we can expect little better during the winter months, and if this opportunity be lost I know not when another will offer: we have therefore determin’d that dirty as it is, He had best take on your Carriage. He will take care not to suffer it to be cleand on the Road: and I hope you will receive it in good order, and that it will meet your and the young Ladies approbation.
I take the opportunity by Mr. Parker of sending you Bills and Receipts of the principal Articles of my last Account.—In Mr. Kemp’s you will note a difference of 13/6 from that which I sent you, which I shall carry to a new account.
Mr. Parker will be able to inform you of the politics of this Country, and News of America much more fully than I can do by writing.
Mr. Payne is anxious to know whether you receiv’d a long letter of several sheets which he sent to you some months ago, by a messenger of the French ambassador or one which He wrote about seven weeks since:—to neither of which He has receiv’d any answer or acknowledgement of their having come to your hands. He begs me to make this enquiry. I am Sir most gratefully Your obligd friend & servant,
Jno. Trumbull
RC (DLC); endorsed. Recorded in SJL as received 27 Jan. 1789. In addition to the enclosure printed below, only two of the enclosed bills and receipts have been identified: the first is an invoice of Payne the bookseller (see TJ to Payne, 28 Jan. 1789); the second is a receipt signed by John Kemp, dated 6 Nov. 1789, acknowledging payment of £171 5s. by TJ through Trumbull “for a bill deliver’d for a New Crane Neck Chariot & four harness Compleat” (MS in Kemp’s hand in MHi; endorsed by Trumbull). It is clear both from Trumbull’s letter of 7 Nov. 1788 and from the fact that the invoice printed below is a later amplification of that forwarded in Trumbull’s letter of 18 Nov. 1788 that the date of 6 Nov. 1788 on the receipt and on the later invoice has reference to the making of the original, not to the date on which these were actually executed.
Trumbull evidently erred in thinking that he had written … … … twice after receiving TJ’s letter of 26 Nov.; only the letter of 19 Dec. 1788 has been found and no other is recorded in SJL Index. Trumbull may have mistakenly thought of his letter of 18 Nov. 1788 as being one of the two. The long letter of several sheets from Thomas Paine was that of 9/15 Sep. 1788, and that of about seven weeks since was the one dated 16 Dec. 1788.