Adams Family Correspondence, volume 2
1778-01-06
Inclosed you have a letter from Saml. Moody Esqr. dated the 5th. Inst. came to my hands by his Brother, unsealed. You will therein read his propossals respecting your son. If you should send him, I shall be ready to offer him my Service so far as lays in my power, in any respect, to make his life happy in his Absence from his Friends.1
378The Owners and Agents of the Civel Usage have followed your Advice to me respecting the Unloading the Prize Brigantine Lafortune. As Capt. Bertrand declined giving his Consent to Takeing out the goods, had the goods been taken out upon her Arrival, I Imagine it would have been a means of saving many Thousands of Dollars to the Concerned. The Next Superior Court, Which you with Messrs. Lowell and Parsons will Attend in our behalf, Will (I suppose) decide the Dispute, between the Captain and those Concerned in the Prize.2—With my complements to Mrs. Adams and all friends, I am Sr. your Honor's Obedt. Hume. sert.,
Mrs. Tufts desires her Compliments to be deliverd to Mrs. Adams &c.
Harvard Graduates
, 12:48–54; James Duncan Phillips, “Harvard College and Governor Dummer's School,” MHS, Procs.
, 69 (1947–1950): 194–206.
Doubtless JA discussed with Tufts (whose wife was a Moody) arrangements for placing JQA at Dummer Academy when JA stopped at Tufts' home in December. But the family's decision to let JQA accompany his father to Europe made any such plans obsolete.
Tufts had no doubt consulted JA on this case in December. He was acting as agent for the officers of the Civil Usage, Capt. Andrew Giddings, a Newburyport privateer, which in September had captured a French vessel, La Fortune, Capt. Yves Bertrand K'Enguen, carrying a cargo of British goods. The maritime court in Boston had condemned the cargo (though not the vessel) in Nov. 1777, but the French captain appealed to the Superior Court, which in its Suffolk session of Feb. 1778 upheld the previous decree. John Lowell and Theophilus Parsons represented Capt. Giddings when the appeal came on. See Superior Court of Judicature, Minute Book 103, Records, 1775–1778, fol. 203–205; MHS, Colls.
, 77 (1927):99.
1778-01-05
With a very particular Satisfaction shall I take into our School and Family the Son of your respectable Friend Mr. Adams but as we are now so full and incumbered I believe it must be postponed till the 22 April after our Spring Vacation when he may be Chumm or Chambermate to the Son of the Hon. William Ellery of the State of Rhode Island. Our Pupils find their Bed and Bedding. Board a 379Dollar per Week when Silver was our Currency and not more now allowing for the Difference of the Money. My Perquisite a Guinea in hard Money a Year which in Compassion to the present Times I reduced to less than that Sum in Paper Money. My Agreement with Mr. Shimmin is equivalent in Paper Money to a Guinea in Silver a Year. That your worthy Friend may have the full Completion of his Wishes in the present Accomplishment and Future Usefulness and Prosperity of his Son is the sincere Wish of My dear Sir Your assured Friend & hum. sert.,
The present fluctuating State of Things renders it impossible to be more explicit on the Subject. My Brother can be particular.