Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13

Thomas Boylston Adams to John Adams

LIST OF OMITTED DOCUMENTS

569 Valuation of the Real Estate of John Adams
Appendix
VALUATION OF THE REAL ESTATE OF JOHN ADAMS

On 23 Dec. 1798 Abigail Adams informed John Adams that the appraisal of their properties had been completed as required by the national direct tax, or “House tax,” signed into law by John five months earlier. Abigail enclosed the “valluation” printed below, complaining that when Congress passed the tax it was “not aware of the trouble attendant upon the execution of it. to measure every House Barn out House count every square of Glass, collect every peice of Land, and its bounds—and then apprize the whole, is a Labour indeed” (above).

The editors have decided that the wealth of information in this property appraisal warrants its inclusion in the volume. The valuation offers a detailed account of the Adamses’ holdings in both lands and buildings. Along with acreage, it provides the location and square footage of each structure, the number of stories and windows in each, and the number of glass panes within those windows. It records the occupants of each dwelling, including the small wooden house with eight windows occupied by Phoebe Abdee, the elderly Adams family servant and former slave of Abigail’s father, Rev. William Smith. The appraisal also includes among the properties legally belonging to John the “1/2 a House & half of 80 acres of Land in Medford” that Abigail inherited from her father in 1783 (vol. 5:247). In all, the Adamses’ properties at the end of 1798 consisted of 15 structures on more than 650 acres with a total valuation of $15,930. The valuation of the Adamses’ home at Peacefield at $2,000, however, prompted discussion, as Abigail informed John, because one of the assessors had been “loth that it should appear that the President had not the best House in Town.”

Further information on the Adams family’s property holdings may be found in documents and annotation in the Adams Papers volumes and is accessible through the edition’s indexes. Notable examples are 570 John Adams’ description of the family’s Braintree properties in his Autobiography, for which see JA, D&A , 3:254–257, and documentation of the 1787 purchase of the Vassall-Borland estate—later Peacefield—in volume 7 of the present series.

Any study of Adams family real estate should make use of deeds recorded in Suffolk and Norfolk Counties, as well as the many deeds held within the Adams Papers, which may be located through the Online Adams Catalog. Most are contained in the Wills and Deeds topical supplement and imaged on Adams Papers Microfilms, Reel 607. Others are contained in the related Massachusetts Historical Society collection, Adams Papers, Adams Office Manuscripts, which is not microfilmed but is included in the Online Adams Catalog. Finally, several National Park Service studies shed light on the land use and furnishings of the properties that now comprise Adams National Historical Park in Quincy: Wilhelmina S. Harris, Furnishings Report of the Old House, The Adams National Historic Site, Quincy, Massachusetts, 10 vols., Quincy, 1966–1974; Katharine Lacy, Cultural Landscape Report: Adams National Historic Site, Quincy, Massachusetts, Boston, 1997; Laurel A. Racine, Historic Furnishings Report: The Birthplaces of Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams, Charlestown, 2001; and Kirsten Holder, Cultural Landscape Report for Adams Birthplaces, Adams National Historical Park, Quincy, Massachusetts, Boston, 2014.

[December 1798]

A Valluation of Houses & Lands belonging to the Honble John Adams Esqr, as given in by his Lady and Peter B Adams Esqr viz

1 Dwelling House 47 by 29 feet area 1333 Feet
2 Storys High built of wood
24 windows 288 Squares 8 by 10 inches 160 feet
1 wood House &c . . . . . . . . 15 by 54 feet
2 Storys of wood
23 windows 552 Squares 6 by 8
1/2 acre Land bounding on Plymouth Road Southerly Vallued at 2000 $
1 Barn 66 by 28
1 Corn Barn 30 by 18
8 acres Land S on Plymouth Road w on B Beale Esqr E on M Black ........ 320 $
571
1 Barn 30 by 25
1 Ditto— 25 by 20
99 acres Land N & E on Plymouth Road S on M Vesey w on Dea Bass & others . . . . . 3960 $
46 acres Land formerly Common N on Plymouth Road w on Jos N Arnold & others E on Ezekiel Price Esqr S on Josiah Bass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368 $
10 acres upland & Salt marsh S on Jesse Fenno w on Saml Bass N on Saml Bass Esqr . . . . . 400 $
2 1/2 acres Land at Penny Ferry in Milton S on Dorchester Church Land . . . . . . . . 87 $
46 acres wood Land South on Capt Peter Brackett . . . . . . . 920 $
16 Ditto W on Milton Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 $
9 Do w on Do N on Peter B Adams Esq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 $
16 Do N on P B Adams Esqr S on Dea Webb . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 $
15 Do N on Nightingales S on James Brackett . . . . . . . . . . . 150 $
30 Do on Pine Hill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360 $
15 Do on Do bought of Elkana Thayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 $
5 Do Cedar Swamp in Gardners Swamp Bt of Wm Thayer 50 $
4 Do in Braintree bought of Capt Benja Beale . . . . . . . . . . .
9 Do in Do at Purgatory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1/2 a House & half of 80 acres of Land in Medford in the occupation of Mr —— Teal
In the Occupation of Moses French Junr
1 House 37 by 18 . . . . . . . . . area . . . . . . . . . . 666 Feet
2 Storys of wood
1 Lintell 37 by 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144—
14 windows 216 Squares 7 by 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . F92 I72
1/4 acre Land E on Plymouth Road . . . . . . . . . 400 $
1 Barn 45 by 30
1 Do— 50 by 30
1 Do— 36 by 24
Lintell 36 by 10
1 Farm 97 acres E on Plymouth Road N on James Brackett, w on Ebenr & Josiah Adams, S on Josh Field 2522 $
45 Acres Pasture & fresh meadow N on John Bright & the two mr Adamss . . . . . . . . . . 675 $
572
20 acres formerly Common E on Town way into the woods S on Joseph Cleverly . . . . . . . . 160 $
6 acres mowing N on Josh Cleverly w on Plymouth Road 240 $
20 acres Formerly Dea Belchers w on Plymouth Road N on Thos Phipps . . . . . 750 $
20 acres pasture formerly Dea Belchers & Thos Haydens. . . 300 $
9 acres Called Goose pasture w on Plymouth Road N on the Heirs of Samll Penniman in Braintree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 $
16 acres Salt marsh N & w on Moses Black . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480  
9 Do bounding on David Basss upland & on Savils Hommock . . . . . . . . . . 300  
5 Do w on Jona Baxter N on Town River . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150  
In the occupation of Peter Burrell
1 Dwelling House
1 Barn
  Land adjoining the House
  a pasture called Faxons pasture
28 acres Land between Samll Curtis’s & wm Hobarts
8 acres Salt marsh in the broad meadows bought of Elkana Thayer
in the occupatition of the Revd wm Clark
1 House 34 by 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612 feet
2 Storys of wood
Lintell 34 by 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476
14 windows 336 Squares 7 by 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 feet
1/4 acre Land E on Plymouth Road
400 $
in the occupation of Elij Belcher & J Turner
1 House 40 by 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 640 Feet
2 Storys of wood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Lintell 40 by 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440—
10 windows 240 Squares 7 by 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 feet
1/4 acre Land w on Plymouth Road
200 $
573
in the occupation of Phebee
1 House 29 by 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522
2 Storys of wood
8 windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 feet glass
1/8 acre Land E on Plymouth Road . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 $

MS (Adams Papers); notation: “The Presedents / Valluation.”