Adams Family Correspondence, volume 9
th1791
we have reachd this place this day, but whether I shall be able to travel tomorrow is uncertain, for I am so unfortunate as to be attackd with the intermitting fever last night was so very ill that I had not the least expectation of being able to proceed on my journey, but to day I am better. I was taken last fryday in N york with it, and prevented sitting out as we intended on monday I am now in use of the Bark and hope to prevent a return of it tomorrow, but should it attack me again I shall be obliged to lye by my sick day, and so infeebles me that I cannot travell far the day which is termd well. I left your sister and Family well. I wrote to you from N york, but as I thought your Brother had given you information of some trunks on Board Hopkins I mentiond only those by Cheeseman.1 I inclose you Hopkins rect2 if they have arrived send word to Braintree that they 214may be got up before I get there. I wish myself at Braintree, for travelling sick is a very dissagreeable buisness. I think if I can hold out we shall be at Braintree on wednesday next. I am too feeble to write much, so must leave it to you to give this information to your Aunt. we met mr & mrs Breck & company at kings Bridge3
adieu your affectionate Mother
RC (Adams Papers); addressed by TBA: “John Quincy Adams Esqr / Boston”; endorsed: “My Mother. 12. May 1791.”; notation by JA: “Free / John Adams.”
Letter not found. Writing to Mary Smith Cranch from New York on 6 May (MWA: Abigail Adams Letters), AA indicated that at her departure from Bush Hill “I left to be put on Board captain Cheeseman in the Brigg Ceares one Trunk of mine and one of Pollys one Band Box and a small portmantua Trunk.” The brig Ceres, Capt. Samuel Chesman, was scheduled to sail from Philadelphia on 5 May; she entered Boston eight days later. The brig Maria, Capt. Caleb Hopkins, had cleared Philadelphia on 27 April and arrived at Boston on 5 May (Pennsylvania Mercury, 5 May; Boston Columbian Centinel, 14 May; Survey of Federal Archives, Division of Professional and Service Projects, Works Progress Administration, comps., Ship Registers and Enrollments of Boston and Charlestown, 1789–1795, Boston, 1942, p. 30; Philadelphia Federal Gazette, 27 April; Boston Herald of Freedom, 6 May).
Not found.
Boston merchant Samuel Breck Sr. (1747–1809) and his wife Hannah Andrews Breck (1747–1831) were headed to Philadelphia on a short pleasure trip. The Brecks would move there in 1792, soon after Boston introduced a system of taxation that they and other wealthy inhabitants deemed arbitrary and unjust (vol. 6:325; H. E. Scudder, ed., Recollections of Samuel Breck with Passages from His Note-Books (1771–1862), Phila., 1877, p. 176–177, 186–187; Samuel Breck, Genealogy of the Breck Family Descended from Edward of Dorchester and His Brothers in America, Omaha, 1889, p. 40).
th.1791
I had the pleasure to hear of you several times while you was on your journey by persons who met you—particulary by Mr & Mrs Breck and Mr & Mrs Codman of Boston who are now in this city—1 I was truly sorry to learn from them that you were much indisposed— I sincerely hope you will obtain a re establishment of your health by breathing the air of your country which is esteemed so salubrious— you will I conceive at any rate escape the very warm weather which we are now beginning to feel hear— It is not in my power to amuse you with a detail of what is going forward in our fashonable world hear— you know I am not much in it at any time—and at this season there is less cause for moving about than in the winter— the heat has been very oppressive for several days past—more so than common at this time of the year— those familys which usually spend the summer in the country have retired there already— I do not expect to go to Virginia till the latter part of July— I can not think of going 215without my dear little folks, and their vacation do not commence till that time
I had the pleasure to hear from the President the day before yesterday—from savanah and was happy to find that he has enjoyed good health— he is now on his return and will probably be at mount vernon by the middle of June and in this City by the last of the month—2 you see my dear madam that the promise which I made of writing to you is not one of those un meaning promises which are sometimes made without ever having an intention to perform them— you will be so good as present my complements to the Vice President, and the young Gentlemen—and accept of my best wishes for the health and happy ness of your self and family in which Mr & Mrs Lear begs leve to join
I am madam with very great / regard and esteem your / affectionat Friend & / Hble servant
the Children join me in beging to be remember to miss smith—
RC (Adams Papers).
Boston merchant John Codman Jr. married Catherine Amory (1769–1832) on 14 Feb., almost two years after the death of his first wife, Margaret Russell Codman (1757–1789) (vol. 7:111; Cora C. Wolcott, The Codmans of Charlestown and Boston, Brookline, Mass., 1930, p. 13, 14; Boston, 30th Report
, p. 239, 303; “Memoir of the Family of Amory,”
NEHGR
, 10:65 [Jan. 1856]; Roger D. Joslyn, ed., Vital Records of Charlestown Massachusetts to the Year 1850, 2 vols., Boston, 1984–1995, 1:394; Massachusetts Centinel, 14 March 1789).
George Washington left Savannah, the most distant stop on his southern tour, on 15 May 1791 and arrived at Mount Vernon on 12 June. He set off again fifteen days later, reaching Philadelphia on 6 July. Washington did not expect to be back in the capital much earlier because he was scheduled to meet with the commissioners for the federal district in Georgetown, Md., on 27 June, and he foresaw that his business with them might take several days (Washington, Diaries
, 6:96–98, 139–140, 163–164, 169; Washington, Papers, Presidential Series
, 8:160, 264–265).