Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13
I am much mortified and dissapointed that I cannot have the pleasure which I anticipated of visiting you with the Chilrdren on their Return to Atkinson. I was threatned last week with a return of the 469 complaint under which I labourd last summer; but I was in hopes it would go of, and that a Ride would serve me but I have not found it so. my things were all put up yesterday to sit out, but I am discouraged from the attempt
your son will therefore accompany the children, tho I hardly have thought him fit to go out for a fort night. he has had the prevailing cold attended with something of a fever—and has had a bad cough which is yet very troublesome, and to which it is necessary to pay attention. I hope a Ride will serve his Health.
I have fixd the Children for summer. I did not think it would do to make them Cloaths for winter as yet; I hope I shall be able to Make you a visit in the course of the spring, or summer if my Health will permit— sister Cranch is very unwell with a hoars cold & cough that has hung upon her for near a Month. last week we lost our Aunt Thaxter—at a good old age She is gatherd to her Ancestors.1 She did not outlive her usefullness, but was active and in possession of her faculties to the last week of her Life— I send you a couple of old shirts / and am your affectionate / Sister
My Best Regards to Mr Peabody and compliments to Miss Palmer
RC (DLC:Shaw Family Papers); addressed: “Mrs Elizabeth Peabody / Atkinson”;
endorsed: “May 14th. 1799.”
Anna Quincy Thaxter, for whom see vol. 7:234, died on 7 May (Massachusetts Mercury, 17 May).
I left Philadelphia the 9th: instt: and after passing a few days very pleasantly at Baltimore
in the society of Mr: Johnsons family & that of Mrs:
John Smith, came to this place where I had the satisfaction to meet Mr: Cranch in tolerable health & spirits.1 I have been received & treated with uncommon
hospitality and politeness in both these places, from the first characters, and as no
distinction of politics has been shewn towards me, it was not in my arrangement to make
any myself. I have seen here all the first families, such as Govr: Ogle’s Mr: Carroll’s Judge Chase’s &ca: and find them very pleasant.2 The Supreme Court is now in session & of
course all the lawyers from the neighborhood are collected here. Mr: Cranch will return to George town on Saturday or Sunday, where I shall
accompany him. Mr: & Mrs:
Johnson went home on Monday—the girls remain at 470 Baltimore with their
Sister Hellen who has lately removed there for the accommodation of her husbands
business.3 I am beset here, as I
usually have been in other places, by all the old ladies, who tell me it is high time
for me to take a wife, and each of them has a favorite to
recommend— One is remarkable for beauty of person, another for mental accomplishments; a
third for insinuating manners & a fourth for fortune,
family, &ca: in addition to personal
accomplishments— This last it is generally supposed will prevail with a young man who
has still his fortune to make in the world, if he wishes to be placed in affluence
without the trouble of acquiring it by his own labor & industry. Now few people
think but that the youngest son of the P U.S. is this sort of animal; few will think him
the wiser for not being such.
People have been very assiduous & kind in their enquiries after
your health wherever I have passed and all desire to be recalled to your recollection;
particularly Mrs: Smith & Mrs: Johnson. Mrs: Ogle here has been very civil
towards me from her remembrance of your attentions at the time she was in Philadelphia,
the winter of 1791–2. Her daughter, Mrs: Taylo, who was then
unmarried, has now five sturdy children; she is upon a visit at present to her mother
and is as much admired for the chastity & simplicity of her manners as she was for
her beauty the winter we Saw her.4 The
ladies are very fascinating this way, I assure you, altho’ Mrs: Ogle did tell me yesterday that she was a considerable physiognomist &
had been looking at me expressly to discover whether I was partial to the ladies, but
she had made up her mind that I care not a button for them.
There’s a reputation for you. How it would gratify my father if he thought I deserved
it!
I dont mean to tell you how I like the Country until I return to Philada: meaning to give it a good chance— How I came to make the journey at this time, you may learn hereafter.5
I beg you to present me kindly to my Father & the family— I have ordered my letters on to Georgetown if any should come during my absence— I shall find some I hope on Saturday—
Before I left Philada I engaged an
Office & board in the same house, to enter on the 1st:
June— The house is situated in Walnut, between 4th: &
5th: Streets. An old maiden lady by the name of Roberts is
to keep the house—she has a retreat for her permanent boarders at Germantown, should the
fever return to the City—6
I am in much haste / Your affecte
Son
RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “Mrs: A Adams /
Quincy”; internal address: “Mrs: Adams—”; endorsed: “T B A
May 17th / 1799.”
Elizabeth Smith, WSS’s younger sister, resided with
her husband, John Smith Jr., at 52 Gay Street in Baltimore (vol. 8:323; John Mullin, The
Baltimore Directory for 1799, Baltimore, 1799, p. 62, Evans, No. 35850).
Benjamin Ogle (1749–1809) succeeded John Henry as governor of
Maryland on 14 Nov. 1798 and served until 10 Nov. 1801 (White, Governors of
Maryland
, p. 43–44).
Walter and Ann (Nancy) Johnson Hellen relocated to Baltimore from
Georgetown, D.C., by 6 May 1799 when Walter Hellen opened a store at No. 74 Cumberland
Row, Dugan’s Wharf (Georgetown Centinel of Liberty, 16
April; Baltimore Federal Gazette, 6 May).
For Ann Ogle Tayloe and John Tayloe III, see LCA, D&A
, 1:219. The Tayloes’ children at the time were John IV
(1793–1822), Henrietta Hill (b. 1794), Benjamin Ogle (1796–1868), Rebecca Plater
(1797–1815), and William Henry (b. 1799) (“Family Bible Records,” Austin Genealogical Society Quarterly, 3:129 [Sept. 1962];
“Marriages and Deaths,”
NEHGR
, 22:359 [July 1868]).
Between 9 May and 6 June, TBA traveled from Philadelphia to Baltimore, Annapolis, Md., Washington, D.C., and back, including a brief visit to Mount Vernon (TBA, Diary, 1798–1799).
On 6 May TBA secured an office and lodgings on
Walnut Street, where Martha Roberts served as housekeeper. Roberts also kept a
boardinghouse at 25 Pine Street, where TBA stayed on at least one
occasion (TBA, Diary, 1798–1799, 6
May, 7 June; TBA to William Smith Shaw, 8 June, MWA:Abigail Adams Letters;
Philadelphia
Directory
, 1797, p. 154, Evans, No. 32868). For TBA’s residence in Germantown, Penn., see
his letter to AA, 21 June,
and note 2, below.