Adams Family Correspondence, volume 9
d.and dear Brother
st.1792.
I have lately received a Letter from my worthy Friend and Nephew Mr. William Bond of Portland, informing me that he wishes, thro’ my intervention, to offer his Service to Congress as an assistant in the Mint of the United States which he supposes will be soon established. I have reason to think that very few Persons can 257be found at present in the United States who are so well acquainted with the Art of cutting and engraving the Dyes, or of working in Gold and Silver as he is. He was a chief Workman, while he resided in London, in making a most magnificent Service of Plate for the Empress of Russia, and has had all the advantages which that City affords for making himself a compleat Master in that Branch of Business. He particularly excells in the Art of Engraving. His moral Character is unimpeached, and his Circumstances in life are very respectable. I have enclosed a Copy of that part of his Letter to me which respects the subject of the Mint, together with some specimens of his Engraving of Dyes. If you should think him deserving the Notice of Congress in the Line in which he offers himself, you would oblige me much in using your Influence in making him known to that Department where the Business of establishing the Mint is to be conducted. A Line from you on the subject, after you have made such Enquiery as your Goodness will prompt you to make, will be very obliging to me.1 The affair of incorporating the North Precinct of Braintree together with the Farms and Squantum, into a seperate Town, is now before the Genl Court. I have been very closely engaged in the Matter for three Weeks past, as Agent for the Petitioners. We have had all the force of Mr. Hitchborn against us, but he has not yet succeeded. The Report of the joint Committee who came to view the Premisses, was in our favour, that we should be set off as a distinct Town together with the Farms and Squantum, but not to include Knights Neck. This Report was accepted in Senate, and leave given to bring in a Bill for that purpose, and was concurred by the House. A Bill was brought in accordingly (drawn by your Son) which passed the Senate, and was sent down to the House last Friday. I came home the next Day (being very unwell) and have not yet heard of its fate in the House, but I think it will pass. The Senate have named the Town Quincy.
Please to give my most affectionate Regards to Sister Adams, and let her know that my Gratitude to her is more than I can express, for her assistance to me in my late dangerous situation, when on the verge of Death; and for all the concern of a Sister and Friend that she has since had for my Recovery.— “Blessed are the Mercifull for they shall obtain Mercy”.
Your aged and dear Mother, and your Brother and Family are well. Uncle Quincy is as well as usual. Mrs. Norton is so well as to get down stairs again, and her little Boys are finely. The other Branches of our Friends are in usual Health as far as I have heard.
I hope this will meet you and your Family under agreeable Circumstances; and that every Blessing may attend you is the Wish of your obliged and affectionate Brother
My dear Mrs. Cranch and Lucy send their Love to you all.
RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “To / the Vice President / of the / United States. / Philadelphia.”; endorsed: “ansd. 28. March 1792”; docketed: “A Letter from / Richard Cranch / Feb 1792.”
For William Bond of Falmouth (now Portland), Maine, Cranch's nephew by marriage, see vol. 7:176. He was probably one of the 400 craftsmen employed by silversmiths George Heming and William Chawner in 1775 to produce two complete dinner services and dessert sets for Catherine the Great— likely the largest single commission received in England from a foreign client in the eighteenth century (Hugh Honour, Goldsmiths & Silversmiths, N.Y., 1971, p. 206).
Bond's engravings are apparently no longer extant, but a copy of his letter of 3 Dec. 1791 to Richard Cranch in Cranch's hand is in the Adams Papers. In that letter, Bond notes that he has heard of the possible establishment of a U.S. mint and believes that his twenty years of metal-working experience, “some of the time in large Manufactorys in London,” would be of use in the new office. “I have thoughts,” he continues, “of offering my Services to the United States in the Line I have mentioned above, either to work at, or conduct the working part of the Gold and Silver; or to repair, or, if tho’t able to do it sufficiently well, to cut such Dies as may be wanted, or as many of them as I can, or in any Line of the Department in which I could be usefull.”
JA's reply to Cranch's request has not been found, but on 12 April 1792, Cranch again wrote to JA thanking him for a letter of 28 March and noting Bond's willingness to “accept of a subordinate Employment in the Mint Department, as his Business in Navigation is not so profitable now as it has been for some years past. . . . If when the Officers of the Mint are nominated you could introduce Mr. Bond as a Candidate, I think you would thereby promote the publick Good in that Department, and at the same time oblige a capeable, honest and worthy Man” (Adams Papers).
The establishment of a U.S. mint had been under discussion ever since the Constitution granted Congress exclusive authority to coin money. Congress formally established the mint in Philadelphia in April; David Rittenhouse was appointed its first director (Jesse P. Watson, The Bureau of the Mint: Its History, Activities and Organization, Baltimore, 1926, p. 3–7, 17).
bry5 1792—
Tis a very long time since I wrote to you, or heard from you I have been more engaged in company than is my choice but living in Town has necessarily devolved more of it upon us than heretofore, and tho we have not seen more than in reality we ought to considering our publick Character, yet it is much of an Egyptian task, and fall some times much heavier upon me than my state of health will bear. we have regularly dined from 16 to 18 and sometimes 20 person every wednesday in the week Since I removed into Town, and on Mondays I see company. the rest of the week is or might be 259altogether taken up in Par[ties] abroad, many of which I have been obliged to decline on account of my Health. Your sister has been with me these 5 weeks and william, the col & Charles part of the time. they will leave me in a week or 10 days, and when we are to meet again, is in the Bosom of futurity The col & Family embark for England in the March Packet, not in a Publick capacity, but under such advantageous private contracts that tho it is with the utmost regreet I can consent to the seperation yet I think I ought not to say any thing to discourage them.1 tis probable two years will be the least time they will be absent. the matter has been only a few days in agitation, and the determiniation of going in the March packet will hasten them from hence Sooner than I am willing to part with them. I am glad to see one of the Family in a prosperous situation, as from the col account I have reason to believe he is. I wish your Father would propose Thomass going with him. I think it would be advantageous to his Health and would give him a good opportunity of seeing Something more of the world he could be in the col's Family and of service to him in his transactions but I dare not venture upon the proposition, and as the cols going was communicated to him but yesterday I believe the thought has not yet occurd to him. Congress proceed so slowly in Buisness that I fear I shall be detaind here till May to my great regreet Post office Bill Representation & Indian War are great subjects of debate, the latter a melancholy one indeed— the secretary at War and of the Treasury are attackd and handled pretty Roughly in the News papers. your transactions for me in the Buisness way met my approbation. Cheeseman however did not act the Man of Honour and shall not be employd by me again. if I found Cealia, as I did, he was to have only 8 dollors which he was to call upon me for here. I never gave him any Authority to apply to you. When you receive the Rent of the House, Buy a Peice of Linnen and cambrick for them & get cousin Lucy Cranch to make your shirts and pay her for doing it out of the Rent. I know you must want a peice.
we are all in pretty good Health, the old intermitting still torments us at times tho it does not amount to the Ague yet—
inclosed is a Ticket:2 see if it is worth any thing and let me know the cider you bought should be drawd of this month or the begining of March.
Let me hear from you soon and be assured that I am / Your affectionate Mother
we send you Espinasse printed here judge Lowel is so good as to take it3
RC (Adams Papers); addressed by TBA: “John Quincy Adams Esqr: / Boston”; endorsed: “My Mother. / Feby: 5 1792. Philadelphia” and “My Mother. 5. Feby: 1792.” Some loss of text due to a torn manuscript.
The exact nature of WSS's contracts is unknown, but they were probably an extension of the speculative ventures that he commenced during his 1790–1791 trip to England, for which see
AA to Mary Smith Cranch, 12 Dec. 1790, note 2, above. WSS was apparently displeased with having to make this second voyage; he wrote bitterly to Henry Knox that the trip was “a money making pursuit, which was never suited to my genius nor my ambition, but you may tell the President that he & his minister of State have forced me to it.” WSS blamed George Washington and especially Thomas Jefferson for their failure to provide him with what he considered an adequate governmental appointment. WSS, AA2, and their two children sailed for England on 29 March 1792 aboard the Bristol, Capt. Pierre de Pyster, arriving in England in early May (WSS to Knox, 27 March, MHi:Knox Papers; New York Diary, 30 March).
Not found.
Isaac Espinasse, A Digest of the Law of Actions at Nisi Prius, 2 vols., London, 1789, was reprinted and sold in Philadelphia by Joseph Crukshank and William Young (Philadelphia Federal Gazette, 18 Jan. 1792).