Adams Family Correspondence, volume 12

Mary Smith Cranch to Abigail Adams, 15 October 1797 Cranch, Mary Smith Adams, Abigail
Mary Smith Cranch to Abigail Adams
Dear Sister Quincy october 15th 1797

I thank you for your Letter from worcester since that I have heard by the papers you have arriv’d in new-york.1 I hope Safe. you must have had bad weather some part of the way if Such as we had reach’d you. last Sunday evening we had a terrible Tempest of thunder Lightning & wind & rain the Lightning struck the house of capn. Jo. Baxter & every person in it reciev’d a Shock there were many young People collected there Boilstone Adams & I believe Sukey mr Adams was very much affected for several hours & many were obliged to be rub’d with vinagar for a long time it came down 262 by the side of the chimney & went thro the house into the cellar.2 that no one should be kill’d was a great preservation. it Struck a house in milton also. I never Say Such Lightning. it was like columns of Fire & fell to the Ground. the wind was violent mr & mrs Norton were on the top of Pens hill when it took them. they were oblig’d to run into a house for shelter they look out their house & the chaise was blown half way down the hill. they were on their way to Atkinson. they return’d yesterday found & left all well. the little Boys were finely & contented. cousen Betsy Stay’d with mrs Nortons children in her absence3

I Saw mrs Porter to day they are both well I spoke to her about the clothes lines. She will take care of them. mr Foster & Eliza Bond were here last Sunday— She has got her health & looks finely but neither She nor I can make Cousen Betsy own that there is any connection design’d to be form’d between mr F & her notwithstanding all the appearences She does fib. I know She does. they were Several hours alone together in our east Parlour4 she has recover’d her spirits much better than I fear’d She would. had She been with her Brother She would have felt very differently from what She now does I believe it would have kill’d her in her feeble State. Sister Peabody did not forget that the day he was buried was the 29th of September it render’d the Scene doublely Solemn

your Neice mrs Hubbart & Salomy came the last week to make you a visit they did not know you were gone. they spent an affternoon with me5 Doctor Tufts came to do business with you about half an hour after you left us. he wishes for many directions which he expected to receive—

mr Cranchs coat I supposed you must have taken by mistake. we have not receiv’d it yet nor heard of it only by your Letter. but think it will come along Tis one he wants much this time of the year his Devonshire is too thick & heavey

I am impatient to hear from you again & to know how you found mrs Smith & your other children my Love to them all— I want to know also where congress will be call’d. do not go to an unhealthy Spot— Stay with your children untill you can go into your own house I Shall be distress’d about you if you do— I have been from home but once since you left me your house looks So gloomy I cant bear it— I wish it was occupy’d in your absence by some Sensible neighbour— George Apthorp is come with his wife & her mother mrs Perkins, a Sister of mrs Aptho[rp] mrs A is a pretty innocent Sensible coun[try] Girl just 19 years old— they are come to Settle 263 here.— our neighbour mrs Apthorp has been very ill for above three weeks in violent pain in her back & one side it has at last Show’d itself to be the Shingles to a dreadfull degree. She continues very ill6

mrs Norton Sends a thousand thanks for your kind present. had it made. & it looks very handsome—

pray give my Love to the President & Louissa / & believe me at all times your truly / affectionate Sister

M Cranch

mrs Porter Says she has found […] Buckets

Doctor Tufts wishes to know what is to be done with the cheese butter &C7

RC (Adams Papers); addressed by Richard Cranch: “To Mrs. Abigail Adams / the President’s Lady. / New York.”; endorsed: “Mrs Cranch / october 15 1797”; notation by Richard Cranch: “Quincy, Octr. 16th. 97. Free.” Some loss of text where the seal was removed.

1.

AA wrote to Mary Smith Cranch on 5 Oct. to give a progress report of her journey thus far. She also noted that they had accidentally packed Richard Cranch’s coat and she was sending it back (MWA:Abigail Adams Letters). A notice of the Adamses’ arrival in New York was published in the Boston Columbian Centinel, 14 October.

2.

Vinegar was thought to be a restorative for victims of lightning strikes (James Thacher, The American Modern Practice; or, A Simple Method of Prevention and Cure of Diseases, Boston, 1817, p. 665).

3.

Jacob and Elizabeth Cranch Norton had four sons at this time: Richard Cranch, William Smith, Jacob Porter, and Edward, who had been born 24 Oct. 1795 (vol. 9:3, 243, 479; History of Weymouth , 4:445).

4.

James Hiller Foster, for whom see CFA, Diary , 3:13, married Elizabeth (Betsy) Smith on 15 Nov. 1798. Thomazine Elizabeth (Eliza) Fielder Bond was the daughter of William and Hannah Cranch Bond and the great-niece of Richard Cranch (Edward S. Holden, Memorials of William Cranch Bond … and of His Son George Phillips Bond, San Francisco, 1897, p. 3).

5.

That is, Susanna Adams Hobart, for whom see vol. 1:331, and her half-sister, Salome Hobart. Salome (b. 1784) was the daughter of Col. Aaron and Thankful White Adams Hobart and thus also a half-sister to Susanna’s husband Aaron Hobart Jr., the son of Col. Aaron and his first wife, Elizabeth Pilsbury Hobart (Representative Men and Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts, 3 vols., Chicago, 1912, 1:6).

6.

George Henry Apthorp (1770–1825) married his cousin Anna Perkins (1778–1825) on 22 July 1797 in London. Anna’s mother was Elizabeth Wentworth Gould Rogers Perkins (1737–1802), whose sister, Sarah Wentworth Apthorp (1735–1820), was George Henry’s mother and Mary Smith Cranch’s neighbor in Quincy (vols. 6:376, 7:174; John Wentworth, The Wentworth Genealogy: English and American, 3 vols., Boston, 1878, 1:317, 525, 526, 527).

7.

The second postscript was written vertically in the margin.

Abigail Adams to Cotton Tufts, 17 October 1797 Adams, Abigail Tufts, Cotton
Abigail Adams to Cotton Tufts
Dear sir East Chester october 17th 1797

I was in hopes to have seen you, and had some more conversation with you upon the subject of finishing the Room in the out House. I experienced so many inconveniencies from a mixture of Families Whilst I was at Home, that I should not wish to try it again, for if 264 265 266 mr & mrs Porter had not been of a very accommodating disposition we should have met with more trouble than I did. I told mr Porter that I would have him digg a cellar under it, and I should be glad to have a small building behind for a dairy room suppose it only 12 foot Square so as to communicate with the Room. the Chimny I would build without the House so as to make as much Room as possible. I would have an oven built in it. from the wash House a communication can be made through the closet under the stairs, so that two windows in front may be made, if (as I hope we shall), some alteration should be made in the House, so as to take the Books into the House there will then be a good Bed room for a Family, and my own people when at home may occupy the Chambers and the wash House without much interference I wish you would consult deacon Perce of Dochester, whether an addition might not be made to the House in front of 8 or 10 feet, and by that means enable us to raise the Roof on that part so as to make us some good upper Chambers, or in what way a comfortable addition might be made. as to taking down chimnies, I could not think of it to such a House as that is. I know by adding to the front it will bring the Chimnies wrong, but that I should not regard since it would tend to accommodate us, and I believe in the least expensive mode.1

we are yet here, that is I am here, for you will learn by the publick papers, that the President went yesterday into N york, and that on Wedensday a splendid dinner is to be given to which there are 300 subscribers—2 N york is determined to vie with Boston on this occasion— the people will have it so, it must be submitted to— a light Horseman had been sent out to this place 20 miles from the city 5 days before we came with orders to stay untill we arrived, that the military might not be again dissapointed.

I know not when we shall be able to go into the city of Philadelphia it is however said that it will be safe by Nov’br the fever is chiefly confined to Southark. it will be deplorable to that city to convene Congress any where else. so many are dependant upon them for their Daily Bread, and I doubt very much whether any congress will be made untill December. the Members must be very reluctant to trust themselves in Boarding Houses—and I do not yet learn that the inhabitants have returnd. the weekly Bills of Mortality are near the same for these 3 or four weeks past.

before I came from Home I had taken from mrs French & Burrel part of my Cheese. some I had left with mrs Porter, some I sent to 267 my Children I should like to have a Barrel of mrs Burrels sent me to Philadelphia, as soon as I can give you notice that any person is there to receive it. when we past through Conneticut we found in most parts great quantities of cider—no doubt much of it, will be sent to Boston. I could wish sir that as much as half a dozen Barrels of the best of cider under your particuliar care might be Secured for us against an other summer. if we should live, I presume we shall wish to return as early in the spring as publick Buisness will permitt, and Congress I fancy will not risk sitting in that city late.

My best regards to all Friends— / Your affectionate / Neice

A Adams—

Mrs smith desires to be kindly rememberd

RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Mrs. Adams Octob. 17— / 1797—”; notation: “6.”

1.

Deacon Edward Pierce (1735–1818) of Dorchester had built a home for Col. Josiah Quincy in 1770 and had recently completed alterations to the Dorchester meeting house. Although Tufts did consult Pierce regarding an addition to Peacefield, no changes were made until 1800 (T. M. Harris, “Chronological and Topographical Account of Dorchester,” MHS, Colls. , 1st ser., 9:167 [1804]; Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston, ed. Keith N. Morgan, Charlottesville, Va., 2009, p. 557; Katharine Lacy, Cultural Landscape Report: Adams National Historic Site, Quincy, Massachusetts, Boston, 1997, p. 15–17). See also Tufts’ reply to AA, 24 Nov. 1797, below.

2.

On 18 Oct. JA was feted at a public dinner at the New City Assembly Room on Broadway. The decorations included “a magnificent display in Sugar” on which “was fixed the figure of Wisdom, having in one hand the bust of President Adams, and in the other a garland of roses entwining sixteen columns, representing the States of America.” After the dinner, “which for elegance and taste has never been equalled in this city,” several toasts were offered (New York Commercial Advertiser, 18, 19 Oct.).