Adams Family Correspondence, volume 14

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8 Abigail Adams to John Adams, 13 October 1799 Adams, Abigail Adams, John

Abigail Adams to John Adams

my dearest Friend Sunday Brookfield october 13 1799

Here I am at this favorite spot, I sat out on Wednesday, but was detaind at west Town on Thursday by Rain. We reachd here last Evening; and put up at capt Drapers—1 we have attended at Meeting twice this day—and conclude to remain here untill tomorrow morning. I have heard of you, upon the Road, & but once from you, which was from Worster.2 mr Hall I saw at westown, and he informd me that you reachd East Chester on Monday last and that you had a voilent cold.3 this has made me uneasy and I request you to write to me, at East Chester where I hope to get, by fryday, and let me know how you are, & how you are accommodated:

Brisler bought me a pretty Horse for a leader, 4 years old. thin in flesh, but quiet, yet active & spirits enough, he will be a match for Traveller, but James would soon founder him, as he has most effectually Young Farmer. the first time after you left me, that he was put in the carriage I perceived he went lame. I desired John to examine him, & take him to the Blacksmith. his feet were perfectly sound and good, but one and all, pronounced him founderd from grain and So cripled is the poor animal that I know not how I Shall get on with him, as he goes like a Man with the goute. John gives him but little Grain, and says he will Blead him in his feet, as soon as we get to East Chester if we should be able to get so far with him. I hope you will put all the young Horses out to Winter in the country, or we Shall have them all ruind. the colt which James rides travels like an old Horse, and does not mind it at all. we go only 30 mils, and less pr day— I Support my journey very well and have slept tolerably, but miss my Luxurious Bed— You had a week of such fine weather, that I hoped you would have escaped a cold; yet it was a week which gave more colds to people than any this fall. The cook & Family with Peter were to go on Board a vessel this day for Philadelphia4 Brisler means to sit out this week if his Children get well enough through the Mumps. they were just comeing on upon them, when I came from Home—

I congratulate you upon the late News, as it May have a tendency to restore peace to the world—5

Regards to William, and to all / others who deserve them from Your

A Adams

Mr and mrs otis desire to be rememberd—

RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “The President of the United / States / Trenton”; endorsed: “Ansd Oct. 18 / 1799.”

Capt. Simeon Draper (1765–1848) operated the Brookfield Tavern in Brookfield, Mass. (Thomas Waln-Morgan Draper, Bemis History and Genealogy, San Francisco, 1900, p. 126).

No letter from JA written from Worcester, Mass., has been found. AA was likely referring to a 1 Oct. letter she received from William Smith Shaw from that location, not found, which was mentioned in AA’s 5 Oct. letter to Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody, above.

Benjamin Hall Sr. (1731–1817), a merchant of Medford, was a delegate to the convention that formed the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 and a 1796 presidential elector who supported JA. Hall’s second wife, Mary Green Hall (ca. 1736–1829), sent letters to AA dated 14 Oct. 1799 and 28 Jan. 1800 (both Adams Papers), seeking a patronage appointment for her stepson, Fitch Hall, for whom see vol. 12:243, and inquiring after AA2 (David B. Hall, Halls of New England, Albany, N.Y., 1883, p. 321; Helen T. Wild, “A Business Man of Long Ago,” Medford Historical Register, 3:84, 90 [April 1900]; Vital Records of Medford, Massachusetts, Boston, 1907, p. 389).

The Adams servants possibly traveled aboard the schooner Nancy, Capt. Seth Doggett, which advertised a mid-Oct. 1799 departure from Boston to Philadelphia (Boston Columbian Centinel, 9 Oct.).

AA may have been alluding to reports of the safe landing of an Anglo-Russian invasion force in the Netherlands, a campaign in the War of the Second Coalition that lasted from 27 Aug. to 18 October. Initially, the Anglo-Russian forces were successful in pursuing their goals of neutralizing the Batavian fleet and promoting efforts to restore the stad-holder, William V. The invasion faltered, however, with French and Batavian victories at Bergen on 19 Sept., and it terminated with an 18 Oct. capitulation agreement (Boston Columbian Centinel, 12 Oct.; Schama, Patriots and Liberators , p. 390–396).