Adams Papers Digital Edition

Adams Family Correspondence, volume 1

Richard Cranch and John Adams to Mary Smith

John Adams to Abigail Smith
John Adams to Abigail Smith, 4 October 1762 JA AA

1762-10-04

 John Adams to Abigail Smith, 4 October 1762 Adams, John Adams, Abigail
John Adams to Abigail Smith
Miss Adorable Octr. 4th. 1762

By the same Token that the Bearer hereof1 satt up with you last night I hereby order you to give him, as many Kisses, and as many Hours of your Company after 9 O'Clock as he shall please to Demand and charge them to my Account: This Order, or Requisition call it which you will is in Consideration of a similar order Upon Aurelia2 for the like favour, and I presume I have good Right to draw upon you for the Kisses as I have given two or three Millions at least, when one has been received, and of Consequence the Account between us is immensely in favour of yours,

John Adams

RC (Adams Papers); addressed doubtless by JA but in a deliberately disguised hand: “to Mistris nabagil smith Of Waymoah this weth Ceare & Spead.”

1.

This can hardly have been anyone other than JA himself.

 2.

Mary Smith, later Mrs. Richard Cranch. This fanciful name is unmistakably attributed to AA's elder sister in a letter from Hannah (Storer) Green to AA, 23 Nov. 1763 (Adams Papers).