Adams Family Correspondence, volume 15
Wednesday.
We have been detained here since Sunday the 9th: instt: by the severe illness of my wife— We
think however to go on this day, as far as Elizabeth-town, and to proceed by easy Stages
to-morrow as far as Princeton, and the next day, (God willing) to Frankfort, where we
hope to find you—1 If you can procure for
us in that place, or on the other side of the City, towards Baltimore, convenient
lodgings in a private house, my wife will be more quiet and have a better prospect of
rest than at an open Inn— And I should be glad of an opportunity to stop and give her a
good day’s rest— But I presume this will not easily be obtained, as the neighbourhood of
Philadelphia, must doubtless be as much crowded as that of New-York— To meet you
therefore at Frankfort is all I can flatter myself with— And if you cannot do better,
engage us two chambers with two beds in each, at the best public House in Frankfort, for
Friday Night.
Your’s ever.
RC (MHi:Grenville H. Norcross Autograph Coll.); addressed: “Thomas B. Adams
Esqr / Philadelphia.”; internal address: “T. B. Adams
Esqr.”; endorsed: “J. Q. Adams Esqr: / 12th: Oct: 1803 / 13th: Recd:”; notation by JQA:
“Post-paid—.”
JQA wrapped up his affairs in Boston on 28 Sept. in
preparation for his departure for Washington, D.C., to begin his term in the U.S.
Senate. JQA, LCA, GWA, and JA2
left Quincy for Providence, R.I., on 1 Oct., and on 4 Oct. sailed for Paulus Hook,
N.J., aboard the sloop Cordelia, Capt. Crepon. After two
port stops due to a gale that made all in the family seasick, they landed on 9 Oct.
and took a carriage to Newark, N.J. The Adamses traveled to Elizabethtown on 12 Oct.,
to Princeton on the 14th, and to the outskirts of Philadelphia on the 15th. After
visiting with TBA for two days they arrived at the Washington, D.C., home
of Walter and Ann Johnson Hellen on 20 Oct. (JQA to TBA, 3
Oct., private owner, 1987; D/JQA/27, APM Reel 30).