Date: March 14, 1772
“Boston
For Value received I promise to pay to John Adams Esq on Order the Sum of one Hundred and thirty three Pounds six shillings and Eight Pence lawful Money upon [illegible]
133; 6; 8
Jos Warren”
Source: The Adams Papers, Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, Microform Reel 344
Commentary: By 1772, the relationship between John Adams and Joseph Warren encompassed medical care, legal services, Patriotic political activism, personal friendship, and perhaps business dealings. This appears to be a promissory note in the amount of £133/6 shillings/8 pence, presumably in Massachusetts Pounds, due on an illegibly future date. This receipt is probably related in some way to services and cash advances to John Adams recorded in other documents of the same March date.
It is unclear whether Warren’s Boston Massacre Oration, delivered only nine days prior, had any connection with this monetary exchange involving Adams. The earliest surviving ephemera documenting dealings between Joseph Warren and John Adams is an April 1768 legal document. Warren’s clinical services and personal introduction to Adams was at the latter’s inoculation for smallpox in 1764. John and Abigail Adams show up in Warren’s account books starting February 15, 1768 (Joseph Warren Account Books 1763-1788, Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society. Ms. N-2074 XT, Vol. I, page 75).
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