Adams Family Correspondence, volume 12
we arrived here on twesday Evening on the 11th, after a pleasent journey in which we met with but few obstructions the Weather on one Day prevented our travelling, and we tarried on sunday at Hartford, and on Monday morning were escorted out of Town by a Troop of light Horse, and the citizens in carriages and on Horse back as far as Weathersfield. we proceed then for New Haven about 40 miles from Hartford. Six Miles from the Town a Horsemen met us, to inform us a Troop cometh. it consisted of near a Hundred Light Horse in a Red uniform very well mounted, Gentlemen in carriages and on Horse back. they escorted us to our Lodgings, fired three rounds made their compliments and left us. we Met with no more parade, but as we past the Inn near col smith we Saw a Horseman in uniform. when we reachd here mrs smith informd us that he had been waiting two days there, and had orders to stay untill we arrived. Soon after we got in, he came with Letters from col Morten & from mr Malcomb to know when the President would go into Town
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as the citizens & Military proposed meeting and escorting him in. Monday is the Day assignd.1
I found mrs smith and her little Girl well. she has not received any account from the col as yet which makes her not a little anxious. I want to hear from you, and to learn how cousin Betsy is. We have not any prospect of getting in to Philadelphia. there has been a Rumour that the same fever prevaild in N york. that Some Instances of it have occurred is true, taken from Some Irish families who arrived there about a Month since, and were crowded together in small apartments. the city is full. it is said more than two thousand of the inhabitants of Philadelphia are now in N york— Lodgings are very difficult to be procured there. I have made arrangements to remain here untill the siting of congress, and untill we can go to Philadelphia. mrs smith has House Room enough, and the weather is so cold that there is no danger of Ague—
Mrs smith desires to be rememberd to all her Friends. so does your / affectionate Sister
RC (MWA:Abigail Adams Letters); endorsed by Richard Cranch: “Letter from Mrs / A: Adams (East / Chester) Octr 13. 1797.”
Jacob Morton, for whom see CFA, Diary
, 2:63, wrote two letters to JA on 9 Oct., inquiring when JA planned to arrive in New York City and the route he would take so that a military escort could be prepared. On 11 Oct. JA reported to Samuel Bayard Malcom that he would travel by way of Harlem on the 16th, and he asked if Malcom and CA would accompany him (all Adams Papers). The New York Commercial Advertiser, 18 Oct., noted that “a large concourse of citizens on horseback and in carriages, received the President at Harlaem, and were met in their way to town by the legion commanded by col. Morton.” JA’s arrival in the city “was announced by salutes of cannon from the battery and fortifications on Governor’s Island,” and the ringing of the bells “at Trinity Church likewise proclaimed this event, till some time in the evening.”
I thank you for your Letter from worcester since that I have heard by the papers you have arriv’d in new-york.1 I hope Safe. you must have had bad weather some part of the way if Such as we had reach’d you. last Sunday evening we had a terrible Tempest of thunder Lightning & wind & rain the Lightning struck the house of capn. Jo. Baxter & every person in it reciev’d a Shock there were many young People collected there Boilstone Adams & I believe Sukey mr Adams was very much affected for several hours & many were obliged to be rub’d with vinagar for a long time it came down
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by the side of the chimney & went thro the house into the cellar.2 that no one should be kill’d was a great preservation. it Struck a house in milton also. I never Say Such Lightning. it was like columns of Fire & fell to the Ground. the wind was violent mr & mrs Norton were on the top of Pens hill when it took them. they were oblig’d to run into a house for shelter they look out their house & the chaise was blown half way down the hill. they were on their way to Atkinson. they return’d yesterday found & left all well. the little Boys were finely & contented. cousen Betsy Stay’d with mrs Nortons children in her absence3
I Saw mrs Porter to day they are both well I spoke to her about the clothes lines. She will take care of them. mr Foster & Eliza Bond were here last Sunday— She has got her health & looks finely but neither She nor I can make Cousen Betsy own that there is any connection design’d to be form’d between mr F & her notwithstanding all the appearences She does fib. I know She does. they were Several hours alone together in our east Parlour4 she has recover’d her spirits much better than I fear’d She would. had She been with her Brother She would have felt very differently from what She now does I believe it would have kill’d her in her feeble State. Sister Peabody did not forget that the day he was buried was the 29th of September it render’d the Scene doublely Solemn
your Neice mrs Hubbart & Salomy came the last week to make you a visit they did not know you were gone. they spent an affternoon with me5 Doctor Tufts came to do business with you about half an hour after you left us. he wishes for many directions which he expected to receive—
mr Cranchs coat I supposed you must have taken by mistake. we have not receiv’d it yet nor heard of it only by your Letter. but think it will come along Tis one he wants much this time of the year his Devonshire is too thick & heavey
I am impatient to hear from you again & to know how you found mrs Smith & your other children my Love to them all— I want to know also where congress will be call’d. do not go to an unhealthy Spot— Stay with your children untill you can go into your own house I Shall be distress’d about you if you do— I have been from home but once since you left me your house looks So gloomy I cant bear it— I wish it was occupy’d in your absence by some Sensible neighbour— George Apthorp is come with his wife & her mother mrs Perkins, a Sister of mrs Aptho[rp] mrs A is a pretty innocent Sensible coun[try] Girl just 19 years old— they are come to Settle 263 here.— our neighbour mrs Apthorp has been very ill for above three weeks in violent pain in her back & one side it has at last Show’d itself to be the Shingles to a dreadfull degree. She continues very ill6
mrs Norton Sends a thousand thanks for your kind present. had it made. & it looks very handsome—
pray give my Love to the President & Louissa / & believe me at all times your truly / affectionate Sister
mrs Porter Says she has found […] Buckets
Doctor Tufts wishes to know what is to be done with the cheese butter &C7
RC (Adams Papers); addressed by Richard Cranch: “To Mrs. Abigail Adams / the President’s Lady. / New York.”; endorsed: “Mrs Cranch / october 15 1797”; notation by Richard Cranch: “Quincy, Octr. 16th. 97. Free.” Some loss of text where the seal was removed.
AA wrote to Mary Smith Cranch on 5 Oct. to give a progress report of her journey thus far. She also noted that they had accidentally packed Richard Cranch’s coat and she was sending it back (MWA:Abigail Adams Letters). A notice of the Adamses’ arrival in New York was published in the Boston Columbian Centinel, 14 October.
Vinegar was thought to be a restorative for victims of lightning strikes (James Thacher, The American Modern Practice; or, A Simple Method of Prevention and Cure of Diseases, Boston, 1817, p. 665).
Jacob and Elizabeth Cranch Norton had four sons at this time: Richard Cranch, William Smith, Jacob Porter, and Edward, who had been born 24 Oct. 1795 (vol. 9:3, 243, 479;
History of Weymouth
, 4:445).
James Hiller Foster, for whom see CFA, Diary
, 3:13, married Elizabeth (Betsy) Smith on 15 Nov. 1798. Thomazine Elizabeth (Eliza) Fielder Bond was the daughter of William and Hannah Cranch Bond and the great-niece of Richard Cranch (Edward S. Holden, Memorials of William Cranch Bond … and of His Son George Phillips Bond, San Francisco, 1897, p. 3).
That is, Susanna Adams Hobart, for whom see vol. 1:331, and her half-sister, Salome Hobart. Salome (b. 1784) was the daughter of Col. Aaron and Thankful White Adams Hobart and thus also a half-sister to Susanna’s husband Aaron Hobart Jr., the son of Col. Aaron and his first wife, Elizabeth Pilsbury Hobart (Representative Men and Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts, 3 vols., Chicago, 1912, 1:6).
George Henry Apthorp (1770–1825) married his cousin Anna Perkins (1778–1825) on 22 July 1797 in London. Anna’s mother was Elizabeth Wentworth Gould Rogers Perkins (1737–1802), whose sister, Sarah Wentworth Apthorp (1735–1820), was George Henry’s mother and Mary Smith Cranch’s neighbor in Quincy (vols. 6:376, 7:174; John Wentworth, The Wentworth Genealogy: English and American, 3 vols., Boston, 1878, 1:317, 525, 526, 527).
The second postscript was written vertically in the margin.