Adams Family Correspondence, volume 12
I have not been So shock’d for a long time as by the account of mr & mrs Halls death. Cousen Louisia mention’d it in her Letter to her sister which accompany’d yours to mrs Black.1 I sat down & wrote a Letter to her my Self to prepare her for what she was to find in yours & sent our Boy with it. the weather was So cold & I almost Sick with a cold that I could not go to carry the melancholy tydings in person both mr & mrs Black are greatly affected they had been a long time uneasy at not hearing from them. mr Black concluded mr Hall had when he left the city met with a Farm which he had purchas’d. but why he did not hear from him was strange. they are greatly oblig’d to you for the trouble you have taken in informing yourself of So many circumstances relative to them I have just left them. their anxiety now seems Wholy about the child. it would be difficult bringing So young a baby so far in the winter. they wish to know if the nurse is a married or a Single woman if the later if She would be willing to come with the child. but above all if you can find out whether tis taken good care of & is with a person who will
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not be likely to give it any bad dissorder they Shall feel themselves under the greatest obligation they hope that these Solemn Scenes their Brother has had to go thru will have a good affect upon him mr Black will go to Philadelphia in the spring & bring the child here—if it lives mr Black wishes to know a thousand things about them which she says she never shall know mr willm. Black has not a happy talent of communicating his Ideas mrs B Says if she could get the child here she would bring it up by hand She should not value any trouble She should be at if She could but know it was well treated that its mother was always the most attentive nurse to her & that she can now only reward her by being a mother to orphan Babe She would be greatly oblig’d to cousin Louisia if She would call & see the child if it would not be improper for her so to do. Some time, When the nurse did not expect it Or get mrs Brisler or some of your Girls to go She thinks you could form a better judgment than only to see them at your house. She would not ask Such a favor but in behalf of helpless innocence. She knows the profligacy of the city & is always affraid of a mercinary nurse. If you Should find that all is not right she begs that you would perswaid mr Black to let another be procur’d She would wish it might be one who would be willing to come here with it. She should feel miserable if you was not in the city She told me—
There is no one without trouble our neighbour mr Prat has lost a Son cotton Prat went to sea you know with Capn. Brown returning home in a very windy night he was upon the ropes doing Something & fell & was drown’d.2
Pheby will Soon be deliver’d from her trouble I believe Abdy is just gone. he is hardly alive now. they thought him dying last night mr Porter carried her some wood & I sent her Such things as I thought She wanted. I certainly Shall not let her Suffer if She will let me know her wants. She has had watchers for these three weeks. the Town are never enough you know in providing for Such things. I sent her cheese Sugar rice raisins meat &c. I beleive She needs bread corn as much as any thing— the weather continues extreamly cold we have not Snow enough for Slieghing— we & all our Friends are well mrs Black will write to you Soon herself She does not use her pen So often as we & must take more time She has deputized me for the present
I hope you are well & will let me hear from you often I feel disappointed when the mail comes & nothing for me—
yours affectionately
mr Whitman Supplys the pulpit till march. preach’d two excellent Sermons to day
Love to the President & cousin L
RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “Mrs / Abigail Adams / Phladelphia”; endorsed: “mrs / Cranch / Decbr 24 / 1797.”
For AA’s letter to Esther Duncan Black of 7 Dec., see her letter to Cranch, 12 Dec., and note 1, above.
Probably Cotton Pratt (b. ca. 1772), the eldest son of Mary Green and Thomas Pratt, for whom see vol. 10:279 (Sprague, Braintree Families; History of Weymouth, 3:517).
I received Your Letter by this days mail of 17th I am mortified at the loss of mr Whitman, tho from what you wrote me I apprehended it would be so. every one has a right to their own opinion, and my conscience suffers as much when I hear mr. & mr & mr deliver sentiments which I cannot assent to & preach doctrines Which I cannot believe, as my Neighbours because a Man does not wear Calvinism in his face, and substitute round Os for Ideas—but we must be doomed to a—a droomadery— I am out of patience—and yet I am brought down, for last week I was obliged to lose Blood, and, confine myself for a week in concequence of one of my old attacks. I had some Rhumatism with it, but am getting better, and should have ventured to ride out to day if the weather would have permitted.—
I could not see company on fryday Evening, nor the gentlemen to day who attend the Levee. Mrs Cushing came last Evening and took tea with me. I promise myself some society with her. most of the rest is parade & ceremony. Next Monday is Newyears Day and we shall have a tedious time of it I thank you for the care of my Bacon & carpets. I had much rather they should be down on your floor than not. as to the Chair, I pray you take it. I had Letters from Mrs smith this week.1 she thought it best to part with mr & Mrs King as her family were small, so that she now has only one Man to look after the stock, and a Boy & Girl. in that manner she lives without a Human being to call upon her from one week to an other, buoyd up with an expectation of the col’s return which however I have very little faith in. the old Lady is going out to stay with her now, which will render her situation more tolerable.2 I know she relucts at the thought of comeing here. if I was in private Life she would feel differently.
335I was fully sensible that the Boys must be taken from all their connections to break them of habits which they had imbibed. there were a train of uncles and Aunts and servants to spoil them and very few examples such as I wisht to have them innured to, and I dread their Fathers return least he should take it into his Head to take them away.
I rejoice to hear that mrs Norten and Family are well. I hope mrs Greenleaf will recover her Health. Slip the inclosed into her Hand when you see her, and say nothing about it.3
where is mr Wibird & is he this winter? multiplying and increasing as he was? 5 dollors are inclosed that you may apply them to the use of Pheby as her necessities may be. I have not heard from Washington Since I wrote you last.
I have been the communicator of very Melancholy News to mr & mrs Black. I was much Shockd when John returnd from mr Halls House and brought me word that they were both dead, and when the Baby at my request, was sent to me to see, I felt for the poor little orphan an inexpressible tenderness. it is a fine Baby and the Image of its poor Broken Hearted Mother, who the Physicians agree, dyed with fatigue and dejection of spirits without any symptoms of the fever. I hope mr & Mrs Black will take the child as soon as it is weaned.
The President has agreed that he will not open any more Letters to me, and will be satisfied with such parts as I am willing to communicate. accordingly he has not opend any since I scolded So hard about it. pray if you have got the song of Darby and Joan do send it me. I do not recollect but one line in it, and that is, [“]when Derbys pipes out Joan wont smoke a whiff more”4 and I know they were represented as a fond loving conjugal pair. Baches object was to bring such a Character into Ridicule. true French manners in Religion and politicks is what he aims to introduce but corrupt as our manners are, there is yet too much virtue to have such doctrines universally prevail
Remember me to all our Friends whom I hope to see again in the spring / and be assured I am my dear / Sister your ever affectionate
RC (MWA:Abigail Adams Letters).
Not found.
Likely Margaret Stephens Smith, AA2’s mother-in-law.
Enclosure not found, but in her reply of 14 Jan. 1798 Cranch forwarded Lucy Cranch Greenleaf’s “duty to you & thanks you for every expression of your affection towards her” (Adams Papers).
“And at night when old Darby’s pot’s out, / His Joan will not smoak a whiff more” (“The Joys of Love Never Forgot,” Gentleman’s Magazine, 5:153 [March 1735]).