Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 2
1828-08-16
Arose later than usual and had no opportunity to finish a letter to my Mother which I had commenced,1 until I reached Boston. This occupied me until quite late and I did nothing during the morning except visiting Mr. Stuart’s Gallery of Portraits which gratified me much for an hour.2 His likeness of my father is most remarkably fine, besides many others too numerous to mention. At one o’clock I rode to Medford, found Abby and the family much as usual. In the afternoon she went with me to see Mrs. Edward Brooks at Watertown. Found them as they usually may be seen, pretty much alone. Mr. and Mrs. Wells came in shortly after, her sister.3 She has engrossed the whole of her house for her own relations which is hardly a good plan. It makes her husband separate from all his old connections. We returned after tea in a cool evening.
Missing.
The distinguished painter, Gilbert Stuart, had died in Boston on 9 July 1828, leaving very little but unfinished canvases to support his widow and his four surviving daughters. For their benefit the Boston Athenaeum held an exhibit of his work, which brought together 211 of his portraits (
DAB
).
Frances Boott, like Mrs. Edward Brooks a daughter of Kirk Boott, had married William Wells Jr. in 1808 (Columbian Centinel, 7 May 1808).